It's Always Sunny

Work yet again gave me a good excuse to do some sightseeing. This time I traveled to Philadelphia, where one of my clients just re-located a portion of its business from LA (good riddance). Thankfully my schedule allowed me to get up there a little early and enjoy an afternoon in the city.

Liberty bell & Independence Hall

"The Signor" by Independence Hall

While the entire city seems a little on the dirty side, I really did enjoy walking around the historic section of downtown, complete with cobblestone roads and buildings dating back to the 1700s.

Outside Carpenters Hall

ICE!

Last night Trinity and I met some friends at the Gaylord Texan to see ICE!, a world of ice sculptures that is kept in 9-14 degrees. The Gaylord has it every Christmas season, which is sculpted in 30 days by a group of Chinese sculptors. And the best part...you wear a huge parka and get to slide down one of four ice slides! This year's theme was How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and it was so fun to see Whoville and the Grinch.









































It was pretty amazing to see what they could do with blocks of ice! Take a look at all our pictures on our Picasa site.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow, for not going home for the Thanksgiving holiday, Trinity and I sure did have an awesome weekend! We opted out of the 5 hour drive to Midland due to a jam-packed weekend.

First, there was the Dallas Turkey Trot, which was the second annual trot for us. I enjoy this so much, I really think I may hope to make it a family tradition for us! The 5k walk/run benefits the YMCA and food bank, so it feels really good to walk with thousands of others for such a good charity. This year we walked with my co-worker Dorothy and her husband, TJ. It was great having another couple to chat with along the way.

After the trot, we headed to Cracker Barrel for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. The line was out the door, but thanks to the small size of our party of two, we got seated within 30 minutes! Trinity ended up getting roast beef instead of turkey and all the fixin's, but I had a large plate of turkey, stuffing, ham, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Thankfully there was no chance for seconds, so we left without stuffing ourselves to death. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping, playing Wii, and decorating the inside and outside for Christmas. We ended the day by going to a new local bar to watch the Longhorns beat the Aggies!

Friday morning I woke up with a weird urge to go shopping. I have never been the type to get up for Black Friday, but we are a little behind on our Christmas shopping! So, I figured it couldn't hurt to show up around 9am and knock some out. We went to Toys R Us, Target, and Best Buy, and are now about halfway through with all our gift buying! The rest of the afternoon was another relaxing day for me while Trinity worked at the comic book store. That night we met Eddie and Elizabeth for a few games of bowling and drinks at the Wild Turkey, a bar we'd heard lots about but never experienced. It was a very low-key bar that I think we may end up at again sometime!

Saturday morning brought us to the Tech/Baylor game at Cowboy's Stadium. I was super excited to see another Tech game this season, plus there is the added bonus of seeing the new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium without paying the premium to see the Cowboys play there! My aunt, uncle, and two cousins came up for the game and stayed at the Gaylord Texan. So, Trinity and I drove over to Grapevine to check out the fabulous hotel before we went to the game. It is one beautiful place, especially decorated for Christmas! I'm kind of curious to see what it looks like during the rest of the year!

After walking around for about an hour, we headed to Arlington for the game. We walked around the tailgates to find some friends and then headed into the stadium to check it out. It is a pretty amazing place!!! The retractable roof was open for the game, which kept the place the perfect temperature. The 10 story screen can really get distracting, especially when sitting on the fourth level, but we powered through it and learned to just ignore it (except for watching the necessary replays)!

Fortunately, the Red Raiders showed up to play in the second half and we could leave the game with smiles on our faces and our guns held high!

Fancy

Friday night I went to the Reba concert!!! Dan and Jeremy drove up from Lubbock for the show (much to Jeremy's dismay). Dan and I thought the show was excellent! I tried to get some good pictures of her from our amazing seats, but with all the lights and movement, I didn't really succeed. Here are two worth seeing, but you can see all of my attempts on our Picasa site.

She changed for her encore...Fancy. I loved the red dress!

Happy Halloween from...

Diana:

Trinity:

Hazel:

Duncan:

Carmen (our fur-niece)

Florida

After months of working my butt off, my employment at KPMG has yet again provided the perfect opportunity for a free trip to a vacation destination! As a new manager, KPMG footed the bill for a four day training in Orlando, Florida.

Although I spent 9 hours a day indoors, several of my co-workers and I did find the time to spend four hours at Epcot Center. We managed to ride four of the five rides (we passed on the fifth, as it had a 50 minute wait and we still had to visit each country). Once the rides had closed, we ate fish and chips in London...well, I only ate chips... and sat by the lake to watch the spectacular 30 minute fireworks show, complete with tons of fireworks, a huge fireball, and a globe gliding over the water. It was incredible! Once the show was over, we meandered through the shops and shared a funnel cake with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce. I have to admit, the chocolate sauce was a huge letdown. Who knew funnel cake could be ruined with something as delicious as chocolate?!? Oh well, we still had an incredible time running through the park, pushing stroller-clad parents out of our way to see as much as we could!


Since training ended on Thursday afternoon, my mom and I planned to squeeze in a three day vacation at Clearwater Beach. Since high school, I had been to Clearwater three times, and Mom had been eight or nine times. It's safe to say we LOVE that beach! We stay at the Palm Pavilion Inn, a no-frills hotel about 100-200 yards from the ocean. Rates are extremely afforadable, and they have a restaurant/bar right on the beach. So for lunch or dinner, you can have an adult beverage on the patio and stare out at the waves. Simply put, it's my heaven on earth!

Thursday night I did some grocery shopping...Cheezits, Diet Coke, and water...check, and then sat on the beach and watched the sunset. Friday morning I was sitting on the beach by 9am. I took an hour break to pick Mom up at the airport, and we headed straight to the beach as soon as we got back to Clearwater, complete with squeals from Mom and I as we walked in the white sand! The next two days were pretty much filled with two things...beach and beverages.


It. Was. Awesome.

Addiction

They say the first step to recovering from an addiction is to identify that you have a problem. Well, I have a confession to make...I've become addicted to Facebook.

I know, I know. It's probably no surprise. But I told myself that I would NOT become obsessed, and yet I find myself checking my wall while I'm stuck at a traffic light (via the Blackberry), eating my lunch at work, or needing a break from auditing.

Now, the easiest fix to this issue is to immediately cancel my page, but then I feel so left out... almost all my family and a lot of friends are on FB. So cancelling a week after I've joined is not going to happen!

I think I'm just going to have to start limiting my use...a good start would probably be to delete the bookmark on my Blackberry. But that's just not going to happen. I don't want to have to type in the link and then type my log-in on that tiny keyboard! Another idea I thought of was to refuse to update my status with everything I'm thinking/doing/wanting/hoping/saying. Now that's one I think I can do. Right now, it says "Diana loves Texas Tech football!" So, as long as football season is here, I can leave it be without feeling lame.

Other than that, I'll just try to find other things to waste my time...like blogger!