Happy 60th to My FFIL!!!

Yes that's right, my FFIL stands for future father-in-law. Also known as Bob, RT, Mr. T, or Daddy T. Take your pick of names! Wishing you a happy 60th from afar...


...oh and check your yard you old fossil, you just might find a dino-reffic sight!

Alaskan cruise

Celebrating their anniversary & birthdays on the cruise

Happy Birthday to Jenny Lynn...

...also known as Kelly Jean 

Mrs. Virginia Lynn Murphy Bond ;)

Can't believe we are all almost all 28 years old! I can remember our baby faces fresh out of high school at the ripe age of 18. We were barely even legalized adults when we met. My how things have not changed since college.

JL was the first of us to get hitched...and currently the only one married. But she is still the same fiesty, spit-fire southern gal from UK. I can attest to that most recently from our trip to Vegas when she so adamantly did the doogie all weekend, even in the Venetian fountain.

Here is the speech I gave at her rehearsal dinner last October. I tried to keep it light, heart-felt, witty, and fitting for little Ms. Murphy turned Mrs. Bond.

For nearly a decade

JL & I have been friends

We've giggled, cried, & bickered

But we always make amends

She jokes on me

I don't have fashion sense she claims

I give her a hard time

For her country twang & two names

We’ve traveled around the globe

Chicago, Miami, and Memphis in May

Boy were we wild and crazy

Back in our college days

But that all changed

The minute she met Davis Bond, the man

A real southern charmer

Who would eventually ask for her hand

Now here they stand

In front of family and friends

Vowing to love one another

Forever & ever. Amen!

Happy birthday to one of my best friends!!! See you on Friday!

Music Mondays

4 months from today, I will be marrying my best friend, the man of my dreams, my prince charming. Let's add for good measure that I had lost hope, counting him out of ever sweeping me off my feet and making my fairytale real life.

Until that rainy Saturday late afternoon in Solvang on December 18th when he asked...

Busy as a Bee Week

This week has been one whirlwind day after another. Aside from the tournament rapidly approaching and the work days being hectic, comical, and panicked, my after-school activities have been in full motion. I am running on pure adrenaline and anxiously awaiting my vacation in August. Yes another vacation. But this one will be a real vacation where I sit at my parent's pool and do nothing but soak up the sun, play with my niece & nephew, eat chocolate donuts, drink wine daily with my mom, and play tennis with my dad. Oh and sleep until whenever I want every.single.day.

Back to my week...

Monday counted as a travel day which is exhausting in itself. Tuesday we went to successfully had our first dance lesson (please note that we had attempted to go to class 4 times prior). The class was an open forum so you can fly solo if you want. We had an uneven number of males & females so I volunteered to lead. Another bride-to-be and I decided we might be better suited to dance our first dances together. Her fiance was not a happy camper and well, we all know about Ryan's lack of dance moves.

Wednesday I traveled down to Courtside in Los Gatos for the final 2 week push for Bank of the West Classic ticket sales. I enjoy spending time down south. The town is adorned with lots of little shops & restaurants plus its usually a solid 80 degrees & sunny. I worked on my tan for a few hours then hit centre court for some intense doubles fun. Ring leader, Queen (not Lightning), had a full group and supplied his famous cocktail mix.

Speaking of tan...Thursday I tried the spray tan at Cocoon Urban Day Spa. I am becoming quite the regular at this establishment which I have no quams about at all ;) I wanted to test out this magical machine pre-wedding to make sure I don't turn out looking like Snookie in November. Happy to report, the Snookster is nowhere in sight here in NorCal, and my tan looks mighty nice if I do say so myself.

pasty white pre-spray tan

bronzed

Apres le spray tan, Jules & I dined at Fuzio on delicious pasta before seeing Midnight in Paris. Which as you have already learned is a delightful flick that you should check out.

Friday, my after work plans are top secret as of now. Ryan reads this blog so I can't delve into details...think surprise ;)

Saturday we hit the city and checked out a plethora of the greater SF area. First up was the Presidio for a little golf on the driving range. It was so windy and cool that I literally hit the balls as fast as possible so we could get the heck out of there. We even skipped putting for fear of frostbite. It is July people! Next we grabbed coffee in the Marina in order to thaw out, and Ryan finally used his Patagonia gift card (which I gave him about a year ago!). In need of real warmth, we ventured into Woodside to get a glimpse of the country-like neighborhood. Lunching at Alice's with the biker riding group, we enjoyed a juicy burger, fries, and beer. 

hidden gem

harley envy...

delicious

a little market

To cap off Saturday, we headed to Rouge et Blanc, the coffee bar my day/wine bar by night establishment set in the heart of the French consulate. I enjoyed a French Rose while Ryan experimented with an Oregon red. Feeling rather adult-like, we decided to keep the night going at Rickhouse, mainly because Ryan was feeling the need to enjoy a fine glass or three of bourbon. I played along, sipping several mint juleps. We also made friends with a lovely couple who lives in Old Palo Alto. Combined with live music, we felt like college kids for the night.

a casual night of wine

city view for date night

wine taster

Ryan's absolute heaven

staying strong to our Kentucky roots

And today, after a late start, we enjoyed church and house hunting. We saw about six houses in the Palo Alto/Menlo Park/Redwood City/Redwood Shores areas. To be frank, it was exhausting. Hence my need for Chipotle...

3 steak tacos, yes please!

So all in all, a busy but fabulous week...looking forward to what this coming week has in store!!



Midnight in Paris

As you have already discovered, I am a travel junkie. I am also a movie junkie and will see almost any film. I especially will see any thing romantic comedy-esque. A few other tidbits to help you capitalize on this post include the fact that as children  adults, my siblings and I relish in pretending to be someone new while on vacation. Pulling off the illusion of twins gets you points. Doting a French or Australian accent equals double points. And I almost always get lost in the magic of the atmosphere and culture of cities visited. Particularly Paris.

So when Jules suggested we see Midnight in Paris, I was game. I had no real premise of the plot, but the opportunity to see the sites of Paris (even from a screen) appeased me. And just as I suspected, I immersed myself in the film feeling the same sense of nostalgia Gil experiences. As he is taken aback to a time that he considers the "Golden Age", I too recall my on ideals of my "Golden Age". Parallel in some ways, he favors the Parisian 1920's decorated with flapper attire, long cigarettes, swing dancing, and the literature talent of the likes of Hemingway, Twain, & Fitzgerald. I, on the other hand, fancy the 1950's complete with poodle skirts, quirky glasses, jiving dance moves, and the thrill of car races. Seriously how rad would it have been to wear a pink skirt, white t-shirt, and black patent shoes every day as you be-bopped around to School House Rock? (I also consider any moment of European travel to be a modern day Golden Age).  


Gil, played by Owen Wilson, finds himself relishing in the Paris way of life while visiting with his fiance Inez and her stuffy parents. He is currently writing a novel about a nostalgic man who longs for the past, portraying a glimpse of Gil's own life when he gave up Paris & writing novels years ago. Unfulfilled in his Hollywood screenplay writing gig, he falls to his original passion. At midnight while roaming the rues of Paris, he becomes lost in his Golden Age meeting his idols: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Picasso, & Gertrude Stein. Meanwhile, his fiance takes a liking to her former professor Paul. The story becomes complicated when Gil falls for Adriana, a lovely woman from the 1920's, who's own "Golden Age" is that of the Belle Epoque era. With an ending perfectly matched to the lessons learned of longing for the past, Midnight in Paris is an intriguing film.

There is a definite difference in admiring the past and wallowing in the reality of never having it. Once we realize that the present, while not always pleasant, is exactly where we are supposed to be. And it too will become someone else's Golden Age.