The most expensive plate….ever

Well Karl was (finally) added to the prestigious Wall O’ Saucers at the Flying Saucer tonight. For those unfamiliar with this fabulous establishment, the Flying Saucer boasts over 200 beers from around the world. Should you become a member of the UFO club, you can keep track of the beers you drink and once you hit 200 (different) beers, you too can be added to “The Wall” as well as a $100 free tab party.

Karl drank his 200th beer last week but I had a horrendous headache and couldn’t attend. So I made sure I was present for this occassion. Here are a few pictures from the nights events.

Here’s the party boy!

Sad, but true.

The Man Clan: Jon, Greg, and Karl

Take a wild guess at why I took this picture…

And finally, the most expensive plate….only cost him 200 beers!

Channeling Willie Nelson

Saturday, I decided to go downtown in an effort to huntdown some free-cover-coupons for Howl at the Moon for a friend’s Bachelorette Party next Saturday. I remembered seeing some at the Drury Hotel so we decided to go there. After driving around the hotel about 3 times we decided just to park at a nearby sign.  We glanced quickly at the sign and saw that for 0-30 mins it was $2.

Ok, two bucks, no big deal.

So we parked, walked over to the Drury and much to our dismay found no Howl coupons. Needless to say I was bummed. So we decided just to call it a night and go home. We walked back to the parking garage and on our way back we took another look at the parking rate sign.

” After 5pm 0-4 hours is a flat $10 fee”. It was now 6:23.

I wasn’t about to pay 10 bucks for parking all of 12 minutes so I convinced Greg to do to Durty Nelly’s. It had been awhile since we had been out to Durty Nelly’s (or anywhere downtown for that matter) so it was fun to be out again. The bar was surprisingly crowded for it being that early…even if it was Saturday. Luckily, a nice (older) couple from Houston let us share a table with them.

We found out that they had two kids, 8 and 10 years old. She was a teacher, I forgot what he does. Their daughter sleepwalks. They found that out when they were staying at a hotel in Fredericksburg and she ended up walking out of the hotel to a campfire site.  All in all good people.

The piano men (yes, there were two that evening) we’re great. Sang the usual favorites and threw in a few of their own….including Enter Sandman which I can attest, I have NEVER heard in a piano bar. I’m also happy to report that Texas Tech did win the fight song battle putting up $35 against UT and A&M. That was great.

The best part had to come when the second piano man was singing a song as different people ranging from Frank Sinatra to Bob Dylan. Our favorite was when he channeled Good Ol’ Willie. I mean this guy was DEAD ON. I’ve never heard another impersonator come so close to sounding just like him!

We ended up leaving around 10 so we could make it back to the garage before our 4 hour time limit ran out and crashed like we had been out til 4am. I think we’re getting old.

Happy Birthday Greg!

Greg turned the big 2-5 today! So, I planned a suprised birthday gathering for him at Dave and Buster’s. Jon (Greg’s Bro) , Manny, Sarah, Faith, John (Faith’s Hubby), Sean, and Carl all showed up  to show some love to the birthday boy!

After dinner and a few rounds of racing cars Carl took Greg out to the Flying Saucer and the rest of us went over to Sarah’s to watch “No Reservations” (we weren’t really feeling the bar scene that night).

The movie was kinda eh. Not really bad, but not good either…just there. The highlight was some french-cooking word that sounded oddly similar to F-off. So naturally, we kept saying it all night. At about 11:30, half-asleep, I drove the 2.45 miles from Sarah’s casa to ours and crashed. The birthday boy was already home and exhausted as I was.

He doesn’t have to be up early tomorrow for a bridal shower.

Tim Russert: 1950-2008

 

I can’t remember a Sunday morning when Meet the Press wasn’t on our television at home. When your father is involved in politics it’s pretty much guaranteed that policital news shows will be a top priority in your household! But I’ll tell you what, I learned more about politics from watching Meet the Press with my dad all those Sunday mornings than I ever did in school.

In December 1991, Tim Russert took over as anchor for Meet the Press….a show that at that time was floundering. But it was something about the passion and willingness to ask those hard questions and the willingness to actually attempt to present politics in a fair and balanced way that the average American could understand.

Russert had been vacationing in Italy with his wife and son earlier in the week and had come back early to prepare for the show on Sunday. While doing voice-overs in the studio, Russert collapsed from a heart attack and died.

This morning, in place of Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw with Mary Matlin, James Carville, Mike Barnicle, a Meet the Press producer, a political historian, and a political commentator from PBS offered a tribute in remembrance of Tim Russert. The shared stories of guests he had on the show, his personality, and his love of the Buffalo Bills and “The Boss” (Bruce Springsteen).

Naturally, mom and I got choked up. She suggested that they retire the show, and put a new political show (under a different name) in it’s place. I couldn’t agree more.

I offer all my prayers and condolences to his family and friends. This truly is a great loss for the American journalism family but for all Americans as well. In the words of Brian Williams, ” I’ve lost a partner today….all of America has lost a partner.”

 

The Colorado Adventure: Day 2

Well, day two started at 3:30 a.m. when everyone in the condo woke up with headaches. The condo was hot….like sitting inside a furnace hot. So we ended up opening all the windows and the balcony door to try to cool us off. My dad decided that he would take the airmatress and sleep outside on the balcony….in 50 degree weather. We eventually figured out that the heater had been turned on and after 15 minutes of messing with the thermostat we figure out how to turn the stupid thing off.

We decided to sleep in a little bit and drive to the 10:30 mass in Gunnison (rather than go to the 8:30 mass in Crested Butte). The church was pretty small and you could definitely tell it had that small town feel to it. After mass, we had dinner at the Ol’ Miner Steakhouse and it was absolutely delicious! My throat had been hurting due to the cold, dry air in Colorado so I opted for grilled cheese and the salad bar. How old am I, five?

Anywho, we spent some time in Gunnison, shopping and just taking everything in. We stopped at the Wal-Mart (which is pretty small, but still not smaller than the one in Floresville!) to pick up some snacks and what not. We headed back to Crested Butte, but not before stopping at this one bridge to take some pictures overlooking the river. Jordan decided that he would take some video and at one point while he was backing up he fell down the bank into the river! The entire lower half of his body was drenched!

When we finally made it back to Crested Butte, mom and I were in dire need of a nap! So we crashed for a little over an hour and upon waking up we realized that Jordan’s wallet was missing. Our first thought was that it was in his jean pockets but we checked and the wallet wasn’t there. Our next thought was that the wallet was floating down the river….or that it had fallen out of his pocket when he changed out of his pants back by the river. We had already made dinner reservations so we decided to eat dinner and then go back to that spot and see if his wallet was there.

We made reservations for dinner at the Timberline Restaurant. Now, here’s where I totally call myself out.  I have a guilty pleasure of watching really stupid television. One of my favorite stupid TV shows is The Hills.  The Hills is a “scripted” reality show that follows the drama of Lauren, Audrina, Lo, Heidi, and Spencer in LA. It really is mindless but I can’t help but watch it. Anywho, Heidi is originally from Crested Butte and I knew her dad owned a restaurant there so, we decided to have dinner there for that reason alone! Pretty lame, huh?The dinner actually was very good. We had a four-course meal which was delicious and topped off with the richest chocolate cake ever!

After dinner was over we headed back to the bridge where Jordan lost his wallet. On the way over there we go pulled over by a Colorado trooper. Dad was doing 12 over. Luckily, he let us go with a warning. We made it back to the bridge and looked everywhere…..no wallet. I headed over to a building that as nearby to ask if anyone had found a wallet and the lady told us her son had turned it in a few hours earlier! Jordan was so lucky because it had his ID in it and we weren’t sure how he’d be able to board the plane home without it.

On our way home to Crested Butte, we stopped along one of the mountains to play in the snow. I was still dressed for the warmer weather of the afternoon but the temperature had quickly dropped so needless to say I didn’t do much playing in the snow. Eventually we headed back to our condo and we’re now packing up the car to head to Las Vegas tomorrow at 5:30am! Nothing like a ten hour road trip!

 

Dad…sleeping on the balcony..so silly.

Another shot of Dad out on the balcony

 

What my bro looks like first thing in the morning. Nice, huh?

 

I’m so planting a million crab-apple trees whenever we get a house. Soooooo purdy!

Cheeseballs! Man, I’m looking like a chunkster!

In front of Heidi Montag’s father’s restaurant. I know. I’m lame.

And here come the mountain pics…

The houses look so tiny next to the mountain!

The Colorado Adventure: Day 1

I was greeted by my alarm at 5:30 this morning…..this was after going to be around 1. I hopped in the shower and finished packing up the carry-ons and going through the last minute checklist of things (un-plug electronics, feed turtles, take out trash, etc). Sarah arrived right on time at 6:45 to take us to the airport.

We met my parents  and brother at the airport and proceeded to go through the security shenanigans. The flight into Denver was uneventful ….that is until we landed. Right as we were about to land I got this horrible shooting pain and cramps that shot right through my mid-section….Honestly, I thought my uterus was about to explode. My first thought was “Wow, this is God-awful!”, but then I started worrying that something might be seriously wrong. The pain lasted a good 15-20 minutes but after walking around the airport or a few minutes I started to feel better.

We decided to have lunch at the Quizno’s inside Dallas International and then mom and I discovered the mini-spa! We decided since we had a five hour layover we would get massages.

 It. Felt. So. Good.

Eventually, they posted our gate for departure so we made our way over  to Gate 73 to board our little crop-duster plane to Gunnison. This was a bumpy flight. I think the combination of the smaller plane and the clouds we flew through resulted in the stomach-in-throat sensation one too many times. Luckily it was a pretty quick flight.

Upon arriving in Gunnison Airport (which is equivalent to the size of a walgreens), we picked up our rental and made the 30 mile trip to Crested Butte. Thank goodness for GPS navigation on my phone! I have to say, Colorado is absolutely beautiful. I can only imagine what it looks like during the winter with snow everywhere.

After unloading our luggage at the condo in Mt. Crested Butte (about a 2 minute drive up the mountain from Crested Butte), we made our way back to downtown CB, which I would equate to the town of Gruene, TX. Small, touristy, artsy, very cute. We had a great dinner at Slogars, meandered through the town for a bit and then decided to call in a night. A great first day, and I’m looking forward to the rest!

 

 

 Here we are at the San Antonio Airport (oh yeah, its 7am)

 

 

Don’t you just want to run and jump on them?

The little crop-duster we flew in to Gunnison on (we actually walked out and climbed  4 stairs into the plane

View of the mountains flying into Gunnison

The shack…er, I mean Guinnson Airport (seriously, it was waaaay tiny)

View of the mountains through the front windshield

Pizzawaffles

Last night we had some friends over for “Breakfast for dinner”. My lovely husband had never heard of the concept but in the Wenk household it’s all too familiar! We were excited because we’d get to see our friends but also because we’d get to try out our new waffle iron!

So while Greg as whipping up some scrambled eggs and bacon, I set to work on the waffles. I made the batter and following the instructions turned the iron on to medium heat….I wasn’t sure what to expect on the trial run and didn’t know how fast the batter would cook.

15 minutes later we had a half cooked waffle.

I let it cook a little bit longer and before pulling it out and giving it to Greg and Sarah as scrambled waffle.  I decided to turn the iron all the way up to cook the remaining waffles and they were done in about five minutes. However when I pulled them out they were pizza-dough-thin! I think I messed up when I made the batter and put too much water which caused them to cook more like pancakes with little squares in them!

During dinner, we broke the news that we were pregnant and both Sarah and Katie we’re very excited….which is great for us because guess who’s babysitting! We started to watch the Spurs game for a little while and stopped when they we’re up by ten in the third quarter to introduce them to ROCK BAND!

We played a couple rounds….and even got Katie to sing Black Hole Sun! I must say that while I’ve been a long time fan of the guitar, I think I’m becoming addicted to the drums! We had to kick them out around 11 so we could work on packing and getting ready for the today. Colorado bound in less than 24hrs! w00t!

Colorado Countdown T-minus 2days!

I can’t believe we only have two days left before we leave for Colorado! Today at work I decided to make a packing list to make sure I don’t forget anything….it ended up being 3 pages! Seeing as we’ll be visiting Colorado during warmer weather (and by warmer I’m mean highs in the 60’s, awesome!) there wont be any winter activities…skiing, snowboarding, etc. We do plan to do some whitewater rafting and possibly hiking. At some point, we’ll be making a road trip from Crested Butte to Las Vegas for 2 days just to take in all the sights and take a break from Colorado. I can’t wait!

Tomorrow, we’ll have to finish packing and Friday we’ll have the Life Teen Core party….then 8:30 Saturday morning we’ll be on United Airlines, making our way to Denver to catch our connecting flight to Gunnison!

Pomp and Crazy-ness!

Well the next in line graduated this weekend. Meghan (the next eldest cousin after me) is headed to Aggieland in June to start classes as an Aggie. Her boyfriend, Jonathan, will be attending the University of Texas in the fall. The graduation went by pretty quick and the class elected speaker gave a great commencement address. The party followed at the house and Meghan was adorned with giftcards, cash, and A&M gear! It’s hard to believe that 5 years ago that was me. How time flies!

My other cousin Jamie is graduating this coming weekend (May 31st) but because we’ll be in Colorado we decided to celebrate with her today. She received a scholarship to attend Cy-Fair in Houston and is looking to start a new job at her little sister Emma’s school.

Trips to Houston are always a good time because 1) we get to visit family and 2) Harwin District, Houston’s equivalent to NY’s chinatown! Great shopping! I got a few new pieces of jewelry for the summer so fun times there. Pretty good time in Houston and tonight I’ll be heading to Floresville for more fun!

Baby on the Brain!

Greg and I just found out we’re pregnant! Check out our other blog, babyonthebrain, for updates during the pregnancy. We’re so excited and can’t wait to be parents!