Charlie Galvin.

Charlie graced us with his presence this week. He is my pal from our Detroit office. We caught up over an amazing dinner @ Dalesandro's. I orgasmed over the Beef Carpaccio and dirty martini while he filled me in on his new dieting lifestyle. I showed up to Dalesandro's expecting five people, at the most. Just kidding, there were sixteen of our higher-ups joining us. We made a date for our company Christmas party. Maybe we can get Katie to be our "Janet"? Memorable, to say the least.

Move Over, Jerry Lee Lewis.

Dill Pickle and Nanny can often be found singing and playing the piano. My grandpa, my mom, and even I, have a knack. I hope to have Dillan in lessons by the 1st grade.

My New Best Friend, Chumby.

I have this terrible habit of turning off my iPhone alarm in my sleep. From now on, I am waking up to my Internet life. I shall never be late again. Thank you to my fantastic Daddy-O!

Happiness Is A State Of Mind.

Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy.  

Dillan Grace Picasso.

Dillan drew this picture while we were eating at AQ Chicken in Springdale, Arkansas on July 17, 2011.

Seminole Family Driller Night

Bob Rosene, Summer Jenkins, Bob Malackowski,
Andrew Jenkins, and Mike Westbrock

Michelle and Brad Yarbrough

John and Jennifer Points, Jim Crable, Brad Yarbrough

Dillan Grace and Christopher

Stormi Summers, Eric Summers, and Ashley Davidson

Rhonda Mahan, Cindy Ellison, me, and Darcey Mahan

Sallie and Blake Sooter

Sherri and Terry Moreland

Hyperbole and A Half

A friend and I were discussing the use of crappy grammar. People a) have become super lazy in their written communication, or b) they simply cannot grasp proper grammar and spelling. Having a degree in technical writing, I like to think I'm fairly in touch with the world of grammar.

These errors, as small as they seem, can make or break a person's credibility. I once worked at a company where the Director of Sales emailed a company-wide PowerPoint presentation that gave us an overview of what his group had been working on for the past quarter. I noticed so many grammatical errors that I actually printed the slideshow and edited it. I have to admit, to this day, I still think slightly less of his intelligence since having read his presentation. Spell check,  Google, get a book, ask a friend, whatever it may be, you have options. Use them.


These are some examples of grammatical errors that drive me nutty:

*Alot. It's A lot. How hard is that? It's 4 letters.

*U. I disapprove of u typing u instead of you. I get it, we're all busy. But 2 more characters?

*There. Their. They're. This might be a toughie. I admit, I have backspaced, thought about it for a split second, and retyped. But this is totally 3rd grade stuff.

*Your right. No, you're wrong. If you're trying to say "you are" then subtract the A and add the apostrophe. Simple. Otherwise you're (see, that says you are) showing ownership by typing your.

So, being that we both enjoy grammar, my friend sent me a post from a blog that he enjoys. It was titled, The Alot. I've been hooked since. I seriously laugh out loud at every post. This is a great thing.

This Blog Makes Me Laugh, Alot.

You Can Pick Your Friend's Nose?

Just a short video of Dillan before we got on the boat at Table Rock Lake.

Will You Go With Me?

U2 on Letterman Last Night.

Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of

Bono and The Edge, Paul and David respectively, performed live and acapella on Letterman last night. This song is one of my favorites. Little known fact: it was written for Michael Hutchence, late lead singer of INSX.

Keep Austin Weird.

I booked a trip to Austin!

 5 days out of town. 4 girlfriends hanging out. 3 days of glorious music festivalness.

2 nights of Kim and Katie time.

1 Happy me.

I Laughed Hysterically.

I was talking to a friend yesterday who told me that he used to weigh 55 pounds more than what he currently weighs. Looking at him now, he appears to be fantastically fit. He is 6'2" tall, 190 lbs., plays golf on the regular, and is involved in weekly basketball and football leagues. So naturally, I asked him how in the world he got his chubba-wubba on!? ("chubba-wubba" is courtesy of Gretchen on the Real Housewives of the OC.)
He graduated from college and started an office job, where he was sitting for 9 hours a day and eating like there was no tomorrow. He went on to describe an average day. I had no idea what was coming my way. It went something like this:

Breakfast - Breakfast Burrito from the roach coach at the office with a Coca-Cola (not diet)
Mid-morning snack - (i'm laughing just hearing the words mid-morning snack) a donut or maybe a bag of M&Ms and another Coca-Cola.
Lunch - Chicken Fried Steak with double mashed-potatoes and white gravy (probably) with a Coca-Cola or three. Double mashed potatoes means that he had to consciously change the order from vegetables.
Dinner - something in the neighborhood of Hamburger Helper, Tacos, smothered (not just regular) pork chops, meatloaf, or something fattening..

So I'm crying laughing by this point. He ends the story with "I figured out that I was eating about 5,500 calories a day." OH MY GOD! I died.  This is straight comical. Needless to say, I'm still laughing about it.
The fairy tale ending here is that he lost the weight in a matter of 5 months. We'll just call him Superman from now on. His secret, you ask? A SlimFast for breakfast, a Dinty Moore microwave cup for lunch, and some Hamburger Helper for dinner. Now that's impressive.

10 Things That Make Me Smile.

Vinyl Records.

Whistling.

Scrambled Eggs.

Being Tan.

Bubblegum Vodka.

Sunflowers.

Midnight in Paris.

Golf.

Radiohead.

Dillan's Laugh.



A Nice Little Sunday.

Knock, knock, knock, knock. "Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma. I wake up." I popped out of bed faster than one should on a lazy Sunday morning. Our day began bright and early at 7:30 a.m. We played in the living room until we left for our lunch plans. Jill Ann was in town and I was beyond excited to meet her. If she was anything close to how cool her brother Jaimie is, then she's alright by me.
We booked it to El Rio Verde, home of the Wet Burrito, our favorite little authentic mexican restaurant. Though we were running 16 minutes late, we were welcomed with open arms. Jill Ann greeted me with a "Hello cosmic twin." We share a February 10th birthday. She was even more beautiful than I had imagined, and we hit it off famously. Dillan was an angel. She colored pictures of faces and played with her grilled cheese sandwich. She even tried to test us by saying she was going to eat the salsa. Steve and I explained to her the magic of jalapenos and I ate about 15 to demonstrate. We wrapped up the afternoon at Steve and Jane's. Jane, Jill, Jill Ann, and myself looked at old photos and chatted about life and jewelry. Good times had by all.

Dillan Grace entertaining the masses

Kim and Jill Ann

Mommy and Dillan Grace

Dillan Grace and grilled cheese sandwich

sisters, Jane and Jill

Later that evening, Dillan and I tried our hand at making a casserole that mom suggested to me.  I think she stole the evening by wearing my apron. She says she a chef. Who can argue with that?

Dillan took this photo of me

Chef Dillan Grace

Bum

Cuttin' A Rug.

We hung out and did a little dancing last night. Public Enemy provided the perfect soundtrack for Dillan to display her moves. I slyly filmed her until she busted me! What a doll!

Taco Tuesday @ El Guapo.

The coolest chicks in T Town met up to mix and mingle on El Guapo's rooftop.

Katie Keating, Christy Hotaling, Kim Taylor, Dillan Grace Taylor, Amanda Forman, Trisha Grigo, Tiffany Bowles, and Rachel Knell Dean.

Our kickass waiter, Aaron, who reminded me of Auto the bus driver from the Simpsons, took good care of us as we shared the current latest and greatest in our lives. Katie was in from Austin, and Christy was in from Santa Monica. Hot topics of discussion: The Casey Anthony trial, good times at Majestic, swimming lessons, photos, and of course "remember when...." moments.

We totally love photo booth.