Busy Week, Charlotte, Etc.!!!

This has been a pretty busy week for me workwise... on Monday, I had depositions all day, then spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Charlotte for a class and exam - my mom went with me and we made an "overnight getaway" out of it... we did manage to hit two of our favorite restaurants in the world, Cheesecake Factory for lunch and PF Chang's for dinner.. YUM! Got a little shopping time at two Charlotte malls in too! My class went well and I passed my exam! Sweet!

Came home Wed. night and then had to get up this morning to head to Sumter for a morning depo at Tuomey Regional Med Center, then back to Columbia for an afternoon depo here in town. Then back home to my office to do more work. Thankfully, I'm off on Friday and heading out with several girlfriends to see Mamma Mia while Dennis heads to the ball game! busy week - but looking forward to the weekend!

Busy Weekend!

Wow, a busy weekend this weekend... the other night, we got together with our friends Christina and Glenn, which I forgot to post the other day... Glenn has a 2-year contract in Saudi, so he's home every other month for a month.. fortunately, we were able to get together with them and do some catching up! Friday night, we went to a wine tasting at Gourmet Shop in Five Points - haven't been there for awhile! Our friend Tammy joined us. We tasted several wines, then headed to Yesterday's for a bite to eat and a couple drinks while catching up with Tammy.

Saturday night we went to my friend Charlene's engagement party. We enjoyed some delicious BBQ and a couple glasses of wine.. a very nice evening... I'm so happy for Charlene and Brian. I think engagement really agrees with her - she looks wonderful! Congrats, Charlene!

Dennis had usher duties at church this morning, and I had lay reading duties.. afterward, we hit the thicket for breakfast, then did some shopping this afternoon at Lowe's and Wal Mart before heading to dinner and then home to relax for a bit. Pretty busy weekend - but it went by wayyyyy too fast. I've got to get ready for my little overnight trip to Charlotte Tuesday/Wednesday. I've got to go there Tuesday to take a work-related class that ends with a test on Wednesday. But hopefully I'll manage to hit two of my favorite restaurants while I'm there, Cheesecake Factory and PF Chang's! Yum!

Enough for tonight - time to turn in!

International Days!

I seem to be making the "ethnic rounds" the last couple of days...last night, I got together with the Girls' Night Out gang -known affectionately as GNO - we gathered at Sumo's for happy hour and dinner and had a blast! I think Sumo's has the best Japanese food in town. That was the first time I've been in there since they burned down about a year ago.. I have eagerly been looking forward to going back now that it's reopened. And I was very happy to see that they built it back just like it was before - same layout and all! We had a rather flirtatious cook - I think he enjoyed cooking for a dozen women!

Tonight I had dinner with Joan at San Jose, so I did the Mexican thing. It was great catching up with her - haven't seen her a whole lot lately. We enjoyed a nice cold beer, some nachos and some catching up time! Afterward I went and met up with Dennis at Richland Mall - he was getting his hair cut so I had to wait for him - but entertained myself trying on clothes for awhile! Of course, one of my favorite pasttimes!

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday - it seems like it's been a long week. It promises to be a busy weekend though - a wine tasting on Friday night, a service and reception at church Sat night for our pastor who is leaving, and then we have to leave that to attend an engagement party. No rest for the weary!

CATCHING UP!

Wow, I can't believe it's been four days since I posted on the blog - that's the longest I've gone since I started it! Just had an incredibly busy weekend and Monday, I guess. After a long work day on Friday, I headed up to Capital City Club for a committee meeting - I'm on the club's events committee, and our meeting was at 4:30 on Friday afternoon. Afterward, I headed back toward home, out to the NE, and met Dennis and some other friends of ours at Vino 100 for a wine tasting. We enjoyed tasting a few wines, then the six of us headed over to Carrabba's for dinner - we took two bottles of wine in with us - and finished both! An incredibly fun evening was had by all!

Saturday, after getting up and spending the day on yard work and various projects around the house all day, we knocked off early and got ready and headed up to the lake to enjoy an evening cruise on the Southern Patriot with the gang from Capital City Club.. we enjoyed some great food and cocktails - and a beautiful evening! The weather was perfect - very nice evening and NO stormy weather for a change! We sat on the upper deck with our friends and enjoyed some great Jimmy Buffett music and a wonderful time! I will post a couple pics from that soon, when I get them from Dennis.

On Sunday, I was bad - and lazy - instead of getting up and going to church, I slept in and let Dennis go without me. He had ushering duties, so he had to go - I felt so wiped out, I just got another hour and a half or so of sleep, then got up and did some work. Vacation bible school started Sunday night @ church but we opted to not go to the first night because we were just too tired! Tonight, though (Monday) we did go - enjoyed dinner and fellowship and an interesting program.. every night this week, they are doing a different program of some interest for the adults while the kids do their own thing in the other building. Tonight's program was presented by a guy who used to work for SLED in the forensic toxicology area - about crime scene investigation. Now when I watch Law & Order, I'll know a thing or two! (maybe!) Anyway, it was a VERY interesting program.

Got home tonight and booked my hotel room for Charlotte next week - I have to go up to take a class to get my NC notary.. it's SO easy here in SC - you just fill out paper work and you've got it.. in NC, you have to sit through an all-day class and then take a test at the end of the day. I'm going up next Tuesday and Wednesday - the class is Wednesday, but I'm going up Tuesday. My mom is going with me, and we're going to hit the mall of course, and probably Cheesecake Factory for dinner! She'll relax while I'm in class on Wednesday, then after it's over, around 3:00, we'll hit the mall again for a short while before heading to our OTHER fave restaurant in Charlotte, PF Chang's, for dinner, before coming home - not really looking forward to an all-day boring class - but I am looking forward to the restaurants and the mall - I always love going to Charlotte!

Time to turn in for tonight! Glad I could find a few minutes to catch up this blog!

ANOTHER NEW LUNCH SPOT!

I have another new lunch spot to go to now... today I had lunch with my friend Kelly at Zoe's - the place on Forest Drive that used to be Fran's. I had not been to Fran's in years, and recently drove by and saw that it had reopened as Zoe's. Kelly suggested Zoe's, and I wanted to try it, so we went there! Had an excellent chicken salad wrap and fruit on the side.. it was yummy! We had a great time catching up! Afterward I ran a couple errands and headed home. Need to get some more WORK done - that W word again!

My stepdad had laser eye surgery this morning to correct a detached retina. He discovered the problem on the 4th of July and went to the doctor again on Monday to follow up, and they scheduled the surgery for this morning. When they started doing it, they discovered the retina had detached in TWO places - so it took longer than they expected.. but it went well, and he's now at home recuperating, so fortunately, that went fine! He shouldn't be out of commission too long, a few days or so.

Last night we went up to Capital City Club for happy hour - caught up with several friends up there and enjoyed cocktails and a fun time hanging out.. we ended up deciding to stay for dinner and had a great dinner. Dennis got his b-day dinner free since he just had a birthday. We saw quite a lightning show out the windows of the main dining room. We even got the bartender last night to create a new drink for us with our name on it - it's ALMOST Long Island Iced Tea, but since it lacked the tequila, it wasn't exactly - so we called it the Stanley Special! So now we have our own drink at Capital City Club! Yay!

Tonight, we are making dinner at home, and just hanging out here.. nice for a change! Glad to have a night at home - doesn't seem to happen too often lately!

BUSY DAY

Sometimes, it seems that the days I don't work are my busiest. Today I had lunch with Steph at Ruby Tuesday - I LOVE their Garden Bar! We spent about two hours chatting and catching up - since she moved to Greenville in April, I haven't seen her... so we had a lot to chat about! After lunch, ran a couple errands, then home to do some WORK for awhile... then I had to run down to my Junior Woman's Club committee meeting tonight - we had a terrific time! We had a fabulous dinner, thanks to Lauren - yum! Lasagna, chicken parmigiana, salad, bread - and WINE.. lots and lots of wine! We had a fab time eating, drinking wine and discussing lots of things - and acting a bit silly and cutting up too! I left at 9:00 and came home, got my jammies on and now I'm posting on my blog!

Tomorrow is a travel day for me - although it won't be too bad.. just to Winnsboro! I have depositions at Fairfield Hospital, then back home to do some more work from home.. and then to happy hour @ Capital City Club tomorrow night - another full, busy day!

REDECORATING!!

Ever start one of those "projects" where you put a new piece of furniture in a new spot? Whenever I start this, I fail to remember - until it's too late - that whenever I do that, I'm going to have to move something else - and then when I move that something else, it leads to moving a hundred other things!

My shelves are in the garage - all painted a beautiful, satiny chocolate brown.. they look wonderful! Just one more coat of paint tomorrow night, then probably by Thursday, we'll be moving them into the living room. In order to do that, I had to move the table and lamp that were already in the spot where the shelves are going.. and in order to put THAT where I wanted it, I had to move a plant stand with a fern on it.. and so on and so on. Moving something new into a space is NEVER as easy as just moving one thing! Oh well... I will manage! I think everyone should redecorate every now and then! It keeps things interesting. When I was a teenager, I used to move the furniture around in our house every so often - just for the sake of moving it. My parents would come home from work and find everything rearranged! I always got bored after awhile - no different now!

I was off from work today - so I did a LITTLE work at home, and then ran a couple errands, had lunch with Mom and then back home to start moving things around! Now I'm tired - and I'm debating with myself whether to do any more work tonight! But I may just go watch Law & Order! Tomorrow I have lunch with Steph - she moved to Greenville about four months ago and I haven't seen her lately.. she's cruising into town tomorrow to run some errands and we are meeting for lunch! She's been very busy with getting her new house up in Greenville in order - a job that seems to never end!

Time to get back to Law & Order!