Two days off....and...

So this past weekend, I went up to Cary on Saturday to spend the night with Tiff and Shel. When I got to town I met up with Kri and we went to Vivace to meet up with Tiff, her mom (Clay), her aunt (Nona), and Tiffany Ward. Tiff and her mom and aunt had been out looking at wedding dresses all day so of course... she needed a cocktail. Being the smart person she is, she planned ahead and had three of her local bridesmaids meet her and her family for the event. No dresses were decided on yet but progress was made! We had a few drinks and some appetizers and then went back to Tiff and Shel's abode for a quick minute before heading off to Sol Azteca for dinner. Sol is probably one of Tiff and Shel's most favorite places to eat and we ALWAYS have a good time. The picture is of a margarita (duh!) which there was plenty of. I had a wonderful weekend and of course it was awesome to see everyone.

Today is my first day off of two in a row! I hardly know what to do with myself. I thought that I had a lot of errands to run but I've already got them all out of the way and I still have tomorrow off. So in effort to waste time until the boy gets home I went outside and read my book with a few (meaning two) cocktails. It was such a beautiful day and I truly can not wait until summer! If only I still lived in an apartment complex with a pool. Ho-hum... Anyhow. The boy and I are going to Nakato's for dinner which is the Japanese steakhouse that I used to work at before Mimosa. YUM! I'm so excited for date night!

Spring is sprung!

Yesterday, I worked in the morning but for the first time in two months our General Manager made the schedule for this week and I don't have to work doubles every day of the week! I'm actually only scheduled one! Yesterday brought a beautiful afternoon so the boyfriend and I went out and bought some Prosecco and put up my curtains on the porch and laid out to enjoy the nice breeze and each others company.

I currently live in an older house that has this amazing front porch where someone has previously put up rods and clips to hang curtains on. So my grandmother made me some curtains and I hung one of them yesterday to get a feel for what it would look like once summer was really here. And it's awesome! I can't wait! It'll create a much needed shade this summer so we can sit out there and drink and relax.

After the sun went down a little, we got ready and had dinner with his grandparents. I have never in my life loved one of my boyfriend's families as much as I am so totally in love with his. His grandparents are by far two of the most amazing people I have ever met and there's never a dull second when we dine with them. We drank a Pinot Noir that was excellent and had twice baked potatoes and tenderloin for dinner. I'm sure it wasn't on my summer diet but you can't always eat boring. Or at least, I can't. Speaking of which, it's time for me to go find something to eat before I have work this evening.

Just a side note: We did try a Carménère yesterday as well. It's a Chilean wine and I did NOT like it. It is the only wine that I've had so far that I can say actually tasted of green bell peppers. Like they had been soaking in it. Blech! I definitely won't be trying it again!

So I'm thinking of making this blog into more of an ode to drinking blog. Haha. I've noticed a trend lately on my twitter account (Follow me: aprillhill) that I've been posting more and more pictures of whatever I happen to be drinking at the time. So I figure this would be a cool way to look back and remember what I thought about certain wines and what not. Anyway... I'm sure they'll be other stuff about who I'm with at the time, etc. So Yeah... here goes...

Currently I'm drinking: Night Harvest by R. H. Phillips Shiraz. It's actually really good and not expensive at all. It definitely has a lot of vanilla notes in it which is probably why I like it so much. Yum!

too long.

So for some reason, google hasn't been working at all on my main computer but is on my laptop. Weird. But because of this, I haven't been able to log in and update lately. Since my last post, I've been down to Florida again and I've also moved into a new house.

Florida was fun! We went to all the Disney parks. The first day I landed around 12:30 and we went straight to Magic Kingdom... It was honestly kind of lame. And we didn't even get a picture in front of the castle because they were doing construction on it so there was a HUGE crane in front of it. After that we went to Hollywood Studios for the Fantasmic light show... It was... disappointing... I heard it was a lot of lasers and lights and fireworks but 75% of the time was just watching TV on a wide spray of water. Still cool. But not what I thought it would be. We had dinner in the park cause there were seriously like 5000 people gathered for the show so we had to get there slightly early. After that we went to the hotel and I passed out by 10. I had been up since 5:30 that morning so I was exhausted!

The next day we went to Epcot. I've never been so it was fun! We went "around the world" and visited each country. We had lunch and a margarita tasting in Mexico and beers in Germany. Pretty cool. From there we went to the hotel and took a nap cause I was way tipsy and we had dinner at The Hollywood Brown Derby later that night. So we went to dinner at the Derby and it was awesome. We got a bottle of wine and appetizers and then I got the Filet for my entree and he got the Grouper. They brought us out dessert. They ended up giving us the whole meal for free which was so awesome. The Chef came out and talked with us as well as some of the other cooks there. It was so neat to be able to see and meet some of the people Goose has been working with. We went to the hotel and watched TV after that because .... well because I didn't pack practical shoes and my feet were killing me. Haha.

Then Saturday we went to buy me some sandals so I wouldn't be hobbling all over the place again and then we went to Hollywood Studios and rode all the rides. The Tower of Terror is by the far the scariest thing I've ever done. I literally came OUT of my seat in it. All the other rides (even in the other parks) were kind of lacking. But just my opinion. After that we went and got a bottle of wine and went to his apartment and he cooked me dinner. Penne with sausage and peppers and onions with vodka sauce. YUM! We went to Downtown Disney and walked around a bit and then crashed back at the hotel.

Sunday, we went and ate lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and watched some of the Vikings/Cowboys game. We left at half-time and went and played mini-golf at Fantasia Mini Golf. I really enjoyed that. But then it was time to go so he took me to the airport to get on a jet plane back home. So sad.

Overall, it was a good trip. We just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. I was so sad to leave him but next time I see him he'll be moving in with me for 3-4 weeks until he finds a place to stay. So... YAY! It's only two weeks until he moves back. So soon.

Other than that, I recently moved into a new house. It's located in a ... more cultured area of Charlotte that has lots of funky shops and fun bars to go to which is good for me. So far, I like it now that I have heat and electricity! It'll be even nicer once Goose is here to share the space with me.

I've also booked my hotel for mine and Goose's birthday trip. Yes, our birthday is on the same day. Weird, I know. But because of that, we're treating our first birthdays together in Vegas with two of my favorite people... that will hopefully become two of his as well. I'm pretty excited about it.

Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully my computer won't screw up again.

I'm so lucky to have found you.

SO! Since my last post I have gone down to Florida for three days to visit my boyfriend. He's there for three months to work at Disney World for an internship with school. It sucks so much to have him be so far away.

But while I was down there we really just hung out like we would if he were back in town. It was nice just to be near him and to wake up beside him in the mornings. We ended up not being able to go to any of the Disney parks since he hasn't gotten his free tickets yet and it'd be a waste to spend that much money when we can go in January when I go for four days so we went to Daytona Beach for the day and went fishing on the pier. It was so much fun! I'd never been fishing in anything besides a lake or pond before so even though we didn't catch anything it was cool to see the people around us catching stuff and to just enjoy each other's company.

We both have this coming Tuesday off work so I think we are going to meet in the middle and spend the day in Savannah. I almost moved there a few months ago so it'll be fun to visit and explore the city! I think we're just planning on visiting the historic downtown area and being tourists that day. Hah! Should be fun though!

The holidays are officially over with really only New Year's to get past. And as I've got to work ALL day on New Year's Eve I don't really consider it much of a holiday at all anymore. Boo. I got to see my father, mother and grandmother all that day which is no easy feat for me so it was nice to be able to see them.

I'm still working on Traveling with Pomegranates... its so hard to find time to read more than a chapter a day with work the way it is. But it is turning out to be a great book. It really reminds me of myself and my mother.

I hope this finds you all well.
-A

Introductions

So, all of my friends have blogs, I figured I should join the ranks. I suppose I'll review some of the books I've been reading lately... or maybe just bore you all and post pictures of recent happenings. We'll see what happens.

I constantly read.

Currently, I'm reading Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd. So far it's been excellent. A real "must-read" for those daughters (like myself) that are close to their mothers. I tried to read Julie & Julia, for some reason I just could not get into it. I don't see how someone liked the book enough to make it a movie. Of course, I still haven't seen the movie so maybe it's actually worth paying attention to. Perhaps, I'll come back to it later.

Anyhow, that's all for now, hopefully, I get more interesting than this.