Dinner tonight with friends

Tonight we're going to dinner to celebrate Mr. Potts' birthday with a group of our friends. We're going to Las Ramblas - our favorite tapas place ever!! One of my favorite things to get is the Fried Goat cheese - it's served with almonds, roasted garlic & quince honey. Oh yum!

I have to admit though that I was a bit irritated after I sent the original email to our group of friends asking who'd like to come. Originally, dinner was supposed to be Saturday night. I received a response back from someone that he and his wife were planning on celebrating his birthday that same day, just earlier in the day. In the form of a bar crawl. Well, he never waited to see if I responded (I was on vacation & was pretty sporadic about checking email) and his wife sent out the email invitation the next day after I had already sent mine.

I was irritated. I wonder why she couldn't push the plan back one week and do it next Saturday. Because they planned to start at Noon and go til about 6pm. I had already the day before said dinner would be at 7pm. Even if I had pushed it back an hour, it still would have been not so fun - most people by that point would be falling down drunk. A few weren't going to be able to celebrate Mr. Potts' because they had already committed (before either emails were sent) to the all day bar crawl.

So I moved the dinner to Friday night. People are still coming, but I'm disappointed that a friend of mine didn't call me after I sent my email to talk to me about it, but just pushed ahead.

Am I wrong to be a little irritated?

I do tend to get upset more easily & dwell on things like this. So I should be over it by Sunday.

Happy Happy Friday!!!

I'm such a planner

Now that Mr. Potts' birthday has passed it's time to plan the next big thing. Not my birthday, not our annual holiday party, not anything to do with the cruise we're taking in November. Nope - not a single one of those. Instead, I'm focused on Mr. Potts' 35th Birthday!

I admit. I love birthdays. I personally celebrated my 30th for 3 months. Yep, 3 months. I'd do it every year if I could, but Mr. Potts will only let me do that for the big ones. Big ones are anything that end in a 5 or a 0.

So....for his 35th birthday next year (I know, I know, I'm awful) we're going to go away.

We have 4 choices. We're blessed to have these choices because Mr. Potts' father is a member of the Registry Collection & has a house in the mountains of NC. He can trade a week out there for a week out somewhere else.

We're trying to decide between these:

The Grand Mayan - Los Cabos
The Grand Regina - Los Cabos

Vallarta Gardens - Nueva Vallarta This was the only one I could save pictures from. This is my favorite so far as they are actual houses. If we were to invite a couple (or 2) there would be plenty of room.
Grand Colony Island Villas - Belize

Has anyone had any experience with Los Cabos, Nueva Vallarta or Belize? Anyone pick one over the other?

What truck just ran over me?

Who went out last night to dinner with friends? Mr. Potts and me

Who proceeded to share 3 bottles of wine with said friends? Mr. Potts and me

Who stayed out way too late last night? Mr. Potts and me

Who wants to still be in bed all snuggled up? Mr. Potts and me

What were we thinking??

Mr. Potts' Birthday

Mr. Potts had a great 34th birthday yesterday. He doesn't like to make a big deal out of birthdays, but I do. So, I had to surprise him.

He had received a Sirius radio a few years ago from his dad & has really enjoyed it. He's mentioned a few different times how he'd like the "boom box" (that's what he calls it) that goes along with them, so we could use it at the house. Unfortunately, since his unit was an older model, it isn't compatible with the newer boom boxes - I feel so silly using the word boom box.

Yesterday after work I headed to our closest Best Buy armed with a printout from the Sirius site showing what I wanted - at a discount. I asked if they'd match it, since I want to buy local and I really wanted it that day. They agreed!

Once I was home, I set the gifts up on our bed & then shut the door back.
Side note: We have to keep our bedroom door shut while we're not there or the dog & cat will lounge all over it. Nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night to a mouthful of pet hair.

Mr. Potts arrived home & went upstairs where he was so very surprised to find the boom box on the bed. A little perplexed, knowing that his unit didn't work with it. I told him that I wanted to make sure that he received one he could use with his car, but helpfully pointed out the Nordstrom bag sitting on the bed. Which had the new unit in it!!

I'll admit, I was giggling & clapping like a school girl - I was so excited to have surprised him!
Here he is with his birthday surprise - already reading the instructions.
Close up
Mr. Potts is a HUGE Bruce Springsteen fan. The first channel he put it on was the Bruce Springsteen channel. Which happened to be playing one of my favorite Bruce songs.
Bruce will be coming back here in November & we're planning on going to the concert. The last time we went, was as a Valentines Day gift & the tickets I got him were phenominal! Not the area in front of the stage - we're both too short for that, but great tickets on the first row!

In addition to his surprise, I made dinner for him - a chicken pepper stir fry which was yummy! After dinner, we celebrated with a Birthday Cake Bread. We'll be having cake with my family on Sunday afternoon since my niece's 5th birthday is today. The BCB is really yummy so I had to share the recipe. You could also call it Zucchini Apple Bread - I forgot the carrots.

Birthday Cake Bread

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 medium grated peeled Granny Smith apple
• 1/2 cup grated carrot (about 1 medium) – (optional)
• 2 medium shredded zucchini
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 2 large eggs
• Cooking spray

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Combine flour and the next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk.
• Add grated apple, grated carrot, shredded zucchini, and walnuts to flour mixture; toss well.
• Combine canola oil, milk, and eggs in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.
• Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring until combined.
• Spoon batter into an 8 x 4–inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.
• Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove cake from pan. Cool completely on wire rack before slicing.

Vacation Recap

This past week the Potts' were out of town on vacation in the Outer Banks - they are beautiful! It was a nice trip, with a few highlights and a few lessons learned.

The sunsets were beautiful. From the back deck, I could sit with my book and a glass of wine & watch the sun go down. It was also chilly!

Mr. Potts was so excited that not only could we take Hayden down to the beach, but she could swim in the water! She's so funny - she had no fear & couldn't wait to get out there & jump into the waves!

Jumping wavesHappy Dog!

We spent several days on the beach, reading, getting in the water (which was ICE COLD) and reapplying sunscreen. I also took the hat I wore to Derby - since I just had my hair done, I didn't want to ruin it & end up looking like a Vegas Stripper.

On Thursday we went deep sea fishing. I've never been & was ready to do something a little different while we were there. We made sure we had Dramamine & set off at 5:30am on Thursday morning. Yep, 5:30am. Who in their right mind gets up that early on vacation?

We went pretty far out & started catching fish. I was the only female on the boat. When it was my turn, the guys looked at Mr. Potts and asked if I would be ok. He just grinned & told them that I'd be fine - they don't know how stubborn I can be. I was going to get my fish in all by myself!I caught the biggest one of the day! Mr. Potts had his turn & caught a pretty big one too!

They were STRONG & didn't want to get reeled in!
On our drive back, Mr. Potts and I rehashed our trip. We usually do this and talk about the most fun part, what we ate that we liked the most, etc. During that discussion, I told Mr. Potts that there is no way I will ever spend another full week with his mom & step-dad. His mom mooned over him as if he was 6 - not 34 (today's his birthday - Happy Birthday Baby!) and married. I was totally ignored and when I would try to talk to Mr. Potts or his step-dad I was interrupted & totally talked over. I told Mr. Potts that on my vacation, I didn't feel that I should have to withdraw into myself & not talk. That was the only "eh" moment(s) of the vacation. I'd love to spend a week with his Dad & Step-mom or my Dad & Step-mom. Anyone else deal with things like this?

On a whole, our vacation was great! I was able to get away & relax. Hope you all had a fabulous week!!

Leaving to come home

Mr. Potts, Hayden and I will be leaving in about an hour to come home. I'm so excited to sleep in my own bed, but I'll miss the beach.

Does anyone else go on vacation and then look forward to getting home or am I the only one?

I've got a few cute pictures to recap the week - will fill you in soon.

Love from the land of sand

I love the beach.
I truly do.

I'm not so sure about sand in my bikini bottom.

Oh well, I'm sure I can deal!