A mighty party

Tonight was our ANK Holiday Party. I was asked to host since they like to change up the location every year. I had over 40 people at my house! It went wonderfully and I realized I really can have a crap load of people here! Luckily no one got drunk or rowdy and cleanup was fairly easy. Some people left items, so I'll have to get an email together with the list.

It started at 5pm with most people arriving by 5:30 - we're a very punctual bunch. Most people left 10:30-11:30, but Jerrie, Susan (new person I met last night at Game Night) and Sherry all stayed fairly late. Jerrie left at midnight, and then Susan, Sherry and I got into the hot tub for an hour. Michael and I have been the only ones using it, so it was interesting to see how the layout works with three people. I think three is the max. It's a 5-person hot tubs, but there's only so much room for your legs, you know?

I'll post pictures later. My house was so cute. I really had fun decorating. Tomorrow (or rather a few hours from now) I'll be working on my holiday cookies. You've seen in the past posts I ususally make 8-9 different kinds. I'll see how it turns out tomorrow. Yummy!

Company

Yesterday evening Heidi and Bert arrived on their road trip from CA to New Orleans. It's their belated honeymoon. They're driving to New Orleans and then flying back. They're leaving tomorrow morning, so really I just had one evening and one day to show them around Austin. As happens with so many of my visitors, I really planned the meals of the visit and left everything else up in the air. Capital building, Innerpace Caverns, Lake Travis, Mount Bonnell, LBJ Library, etc....there's a lot to choose from!

Tuesday night they got in around 7pm. Michael and I took them to Chuy's - my favorite tex-mex place. I think everyone liked it. Then we went back to my place. We were talking about going to 6th St, but they were tired and we ended up just chatting. This morning we went to Kirby Lane for breakfast (best pancakes ever!) and then stopped by the Ford dealership so Bert could look at a truck that he'd seen the night before. The sales guy was so pushy, he wouldn't leave us alone. Finally I just had to say WE AREN'T BUYING! and then he left us alone.

After the dealership we went back to my place to put the leftovers in the fridge and check the internet for movie times. We decided to go to the Alamo Drafthouse (movie and food) to see Beowulf. I called Nathan about it too since he also went to school with Heidi. Anyways, we stopped by the Domain for some shopping since they have White House/Black Market which Heidi loves but it's hard to get to in CA. Then we went to the capital and did the tour. That's always interesting. Afterwards we went to a late lunch at Rudy's BBQ (yummy!) and then onto Neiman Marcus Last Call. Heidi had asked if we had one, so I called my mom and she googled it for us. It was really close to Rudy's so we stopped by. Bert stayed in the car to sleep. The place wasn't that great. I mean, when a pair of jeans starts out at $200, 50% off is still $100. So, they're 'marked down' but everything was still hella expensive.

But by that time it was 5pm and Nathan got out of school. We met up with him at Barton Creek Mall where we did even more shopping and I got some cute stuff on clearance at Macy's. We wandered around for awhile till it was time to go to the movie. Michael hadn't wanted to go since he's more of a drama fan and I'm more of an action fan. But, I asked him to go so he could meet Nathan. Wow, after that movie, I told him that I 'owed' him a movie. Beowulf was not that good. It had received some good reviews, so I was hopeful. The script wasn't bad, it was just LONG and the weird computer animated people kinda gave me the creeps. You could tell they spent extra time on Angelina Jolie's character cause that one looked the most life-like. They also took more license with the gore since it was CGI. It was REALLY GORY. Even I was uncomfortable with how much gore there was, and I LOVED 300 which is a total bloodfest!

Now they're asleep in my guest room. They said my bed in there is really comfy. I realized I've never tried it out. One of these nights I'll have to sleep in there.