LIZA!

My 30th birthday WEEK was officially kicked off yesterday! Woo hoo! Aimee and Liz surprised me with a girl's night out to dinner, drinks, and LIZA MINELLI! Ha!

I had to get before and after shots since I don't get fancied up very often.
Here we are, all ready to go on my front porch.
The lighting on Liza was super awful for photos, but you get the picture. She's an interesting bird, this one, and the crowd was equally interesting. This was the first concert I remember going to where we actually sat down the whole time?! And there was no set break! And no encore! Phish has shaped my concert experience ;)
So much fun!
I loved the writing in this bathroom at UAB's art building. And the fact that we were primping in the mirror. Oh, the irony!
We did meet up with a few of our significant others (we did need a DD, after all) at a new fun and funky bar called Parkside. It's pet friendly and we can't wait to go back with our dogs! Here I am trying desperately to have cleavage.
And here's the "after", taken around 6:30 this morning. Hahahahaha!

Cultural Experiences and New Activities

I haven't been posting lately about our adventures, but we have had quite a few over the past few weeks. Oh, and I've got a fun new hobby I've been practicing. It's called poi. You can google it for the exact definition, but it's basically fire spinning (except we're just practicing right now to get the muscle memory so we don't kill ourselves when we switch to fire) that came from the Maori tribes in New Zealand. I've seen it performed both in Hawaii and also at numerous concerts (both with fire and with LED glow balls.) I am having so much fun with it and have been practicing every single day.

This was my first day and I'm trying really hard not to whack myself!
Amber is much more advanced than I am, and has become my teacher as far as adding new moves and tricks to my repetoire.
Some friends from work and I planned a trip to the Ocoee river in Tennessee to go whitewater rafting. Talk about exhilarating! It was a little scary, but I am so glad we challenged ourselves to try something like this! Our guide, Franklin, was hilarious, and very experienced on the river. I felt him grab the back of my lifejacket to keep me from flying out of the boat a couple of times :)
This picture cracks me up. This is Dirk "riding the bull" on the front of the boat. Hahaha. The week leading up to the trip Dirk had been complaining about his chest hurting. He went on the trip anyway, and two days later we found he had a cracked rib. He apparently cracked it during a soccer game, poor guy. So no more whitewater rafting or soccer for the next 6-8 weeks :(
Yesterday we went to my first SEC football game, to see the National Champion Crimson Tide take on San Jose State. Some friends from Birmingham met us there, and we spent the afternoon walking around and taking in the crazy Roll Tide fans.
Here we are in front of Bryant Denny Stadium, where the fans were waiting for the team to arrive. Craziness!
It's been ages since I've been to a college football game, probably since I visited Brooke while she was at U of I. At the time I was so much more interested in getting wasted off two wine coolers, so this experience was really special. The amount of energy in the crowd, from kids age 2 to elderly women wearing elephants on their heads. It was contagious, but also a little overwhelming. I had a great time, for sure!
The game was a blowout, and no wonder. Seriously, can you imagine taking on the National Champions on their home turf with hundreds of thousands of fans?! I expressed the same thought to Dirk during the game and he replied, "That's why they had to pay the team a million dollars to come here." Ha!
Walking through campus to our car after the game made me so nostalgic for college. I just remember walking home from a friend's dorm, or from the library, at nighttime, and that smell of academia just brought back so many wonderful memories. I am so fortunate that I not once took my college experience for granted. Every day I stood on campus and took in the wonder and the beauty and the confusion that was college. I'll be traveling to Sewanee with friends in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to be surrounded by all those memories, yet again.

A Day in the Country

As much as I love the city of Birmingham with all of it's great outdoor areas, it's always nice to spend a day under wide open skies in the country. On Saturday we loaded up the pooches and headed north to Cullman to visit Dirk's family and to meet his niece, Willa, who was born on the same day as my niece, Taylor. It was seventy degrees and beautiful with the deepest blue sky. I was feeling camera happy, and got a lot of great shots of the dogs, the day, and looking back through them, it brings a smile to my face and a warm, happy feeling to my heart. It's just one of those memories I will take with me when I leave this state some day; laying out in an open field with two of the happiest dogs in the world and my handsome man (I love when Dirk gets a haircut!)Willa is a sweetheart with a perma-smile. I seriously never heard her cry. It was fun to compare the differences and similarities between her and Taylor. And while Taylor is in a different weight class altogether and could crush Willa, Willa has FIVE teeth and could bite the crap out of Taylor.
We threw Piper on the trampoline and bounced her around for awhile. She was less than amused.

Buddha Baby & Earthbound on Earth Day

Sipsey says: Happy ARF Day!

What an amazing weekend! First of all, my niece could not be a sweeter child. Sleeping and pooping are pretty much all she does. The only time she fussed is after the eleventy billionth picture taken outside. Brooke posted more on the weekend on her blog:
Famous Amys so you can check that out for more on my trip to Asheville, although I will post a photo that Brooke didn't; Taylor giving Chris the stinkeye. Yes, even with all her zen, there is some sass. Just wait. click here for more pictures of Taylor

When I returned to Birmingham, I met up with Dirk and the dawgs (Aimee and Jorge's pup Emma spent the weekend with us while they were at the beach) at George Ward Park to celebrate Earth Day with all the other tree huggers. Earthbound is a local band who sounds remarkably like the Grateful Dead, and the crowd is very similar to that found at Dead shows (minus the acid trips.) From babies and toddlers to adolescents and teens, 20 and 30-somethings to 50 and 60-somethings, everyone and their dog was there (literally, I think the dog to person ratio was 1:5.) It was a beautiful day and great to get outside and hear some music. So happy Earth Day everyone! Go plant a tree.Isn't Dirk the cutest thing EVER?!

Fun with the Gals

I went out Friday night, intending to have a glass of wine with Amber at her new condo (which is AWESOME), eat some sushi, catch up on gossip, and head home. But after the birth of Taylor, I was just itching to go out and celebrate, so we ended up at Zydeco to hear Porter, Batiste, & Stoltz. Shannon made the trek up from Montevallo with her man, Nick, and a few friends, so we all got to dance, shake, and celebrate together. It was a much-needed expulsion of energy and excitement, and nothing makes my spirit soar like a night of silliness with the ladies. Amber and I abhor the fact that Zydeco does not have wine, so we sneak it in in bottles and slip away to the bathroom for drinks. Bathroom time then turns into giggling, dancing around, taking picture time. I guess that's a perfectly normal chain-of-events in my life, come to think about it.


So this weekend was pretty much perfect. I got to spend time with my gal pals, my Granddaddy, and Dirk. Saturday night Dirk & I went out to eat and then to Barnes & Noble where we each picked out a favorite children's book for Taylor. I also got to spend some time alone (sans Dirk & dawg) which I eagerly ate up practicing yoga and reading a good book ("Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.)

This week should be busy at work, and then I'll be leaving Friday morning to head to Asheville to meet my niece!