The Big Bang Theory

1. Big Bang:

2. Theory:
Hot sun + cold drinks (promise I didn't drive mom!) + good friends + oversized hats + big bangs = GREAT WEEKEND!

Ok, now to the real point of this post...America had a birthday! And we celebrated all weekend long!
This may have been one of the greatest fourth of July weekends ever...it was epic fun!
In order to cram all of the fun I had this weekend into one blog post I'm going to tell you all about it using just one single run-on sentence...ready, go!

I baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and went to circus, and spent 5 hours poolside with some great people (silver, blake, gabe, amy), and got sunburned, and slept in, and met some fantastic friends at Kaboom Town where I spent an hour and a half in traffic to arrive just in time to see 30 minutes worth of fireworks (see above video) and then spend another hour and 45 minutes in traffic getting home (totally worth it!), and slept in, and went to the farmer's market where I bought some sweet strawberries and a refreshing mexican coke, and bet on Big Tony at the horse races with blake and leslie, where we wore giant hats and totally rocked them, and picnicked on the shore of the lake watching sailboats, listening to live music, and breaking our necks trying to watch all 6 fireworks shows at once, and came home and realized how thankful I am to have such wonderful friends in this beautiful city.  The end!

Accompanying pictures, in no particular order:

Party Now, Blog Later (Part 2) aka "Up, Up, and Away!"

Well hello again folks! I've been trying to decide if I should let you all in on more of the fun I've been having...but it's all "up in the air." 

No really...up in the air...in a HOT AIR BALLOON!
A balloon called Coyote Moon to be exact (see picture)

My awesome Uncle Glen (Sorry Uncle Allen, take me on a cruise and then maybe we'll talk :D) took me up in his beautiful balloon one very very very very early morning in June and it was ahhhh-mazing!

It's eerily quiet up there...everything is still and the balloon doesn't make a sound except for the occasional blast of hot air and the small creak of the rope against the basket...and you feel almost weightless as you float across the clouds.  It's such a cool feeling, and I can totally see how people get so hooked on it. 

And the views...oh the views! A gorgeous sunrise, a herd of cattle trying to run from us, people waving from their yards (I felt so famous!), the patchwork of the fields...it's just breathtaking. 

Of course, my company wasn't so bad either...

After a smooth landing (I even grabbed a souvenir tree branch on the way down!) it was back to reality (boohoo!) But boy what a ride!

Thanks Uncle Glen for the ride! I'll be stalking you until you take me again. ;)

I'll leave you with a video from my ride and a quote from the movie UP:

Ellie: [her last message to Carl] "Thanks for the adventure. Now go have one of your own."

Party Now, Blog Later (Part 1)

I think that's going to be my new motto...because it's just what I've been doing for the past few weeks...but after a rather long stint on the road, (3 weekends in a row to be exact...my personal best) it's time to settle back down in my "cozy" (that's the word I'm going to use instead of the more accurate "teeny") apartment and hit the keys.

So what have I been up to you ask?

1. HOT SPRINGS - Mom and I took a trip up to Hot Springs "Arkinsaw" for her birthday over memorial day weekend.
After a short pit stop in Hope, Ark. to see the birth home of William Clinton

we made it to our quaint little, well actually huge, bed and breakfast in historic Hot Springs.

We spent the weekend eating a lot, sleeping a little, and doing all the sightseeing we could handle.

We stood on top of Mountain Tower, 600 something feet in the air...Spent half a day at the Quapaw Bathhouse & Spa...And even took a duck tour on Lake Hamilton...

Our trip was over way too soon it seemed, but we had a blast and are both looking forward to going back...Plus, the Arkansites have great insight....I'll leave you with this one:

Please do not urinate in vapor.

Tales from the Trails

UPDATE: Wendi's blog about our day got picked up by a blog called "Simply Bike"...we're superstars!
Click here to read it


A couple weeks ago a friend and I embarked on Wendi & Courtney's Great Bike Adventure! We met on a Sunday morning, unloaded our bikes (I'm leaving out the part where it took me 45 minutes to figure out how to fit mine into my car!), and took off on a tour of the arts district, downtown, uptown, and deep ellum.

Now, if you're thinking "that's a lot of cycling!" you're right! It was about 6 miles all in all...what were we thinking?!

Anywho, we took our ignorant selves on an exploration of the city, stopping often to take lots of fun pictures for evidence for all those who were bound to give us a look of disbelief when we proclaimed we had just biked 6 miles.  So in lieu of a written blog on the day (and because I have to do something with all of these pictures taking up space on my hard drive) here's a little photo blog on the Great Bike Adventure:

We stopped at a playground in downtown and sat in these little mushroom cups that spun you around and around and around...sooo much fun!

Strauss Square...the outdoor amphitheater where I work :)

Sperry love!

If you want to see then entire album of 247 photos from the day (1. you must be really bored 2. you're so kind to spend so much time checking out my photos!) CLICK HERE

What's For Dinner?

An afternoon (or 3) by the pool
A sunburn :(
A trip to the Farmer's Market
A morning spent planting flowers
An afternoon spent sneezing :(
A crawfish boil...
Yep, I'd say it's officially spring! Alert the masses!

Let me just say how much I love the Farmers Market.  On beautiful spring days there are tons of people down there enjoying the amazingly fresh food, the craft vendors, th flowers, the random performances that happen in the square (this weekend's was traditional aztec dancers), and even the little old italian couple who run "Old World Sausage" who's line is always wrapped around the building. It's just a great place to spend time outdoors...and not to mention the free samples! It's like Olive Garden's slogan: Come Hungry, Leave Happy.


Speaking of food...I suppose I owe you all an update on my new year's resolution. 
It's been going surprisingly well...I've successfully cooked hamburgers, kabobs, french bread pizza, and even fried catfish for the first time in my life! (though it's still better when dad does it for me)

But even though I'm enjoying my fresh-cooked meals I still enjoy a good meal out every once in a while, so I thought I'd give you a 10-best list of my favorite restaurants in Big D for your mouth-watering enjoyment :)

In an effort to keep this post under novel-lenth, here are the first 5 of my list:

1. Babe's Chicken - You'll wait for hours to get in but these old-barn-turned-restaurants are worth the wait.  No menus, just pick your chicken and the rest comes family-style for the whole table while you're entertained by the singing waitresses, birthday folk wearing chicken hats, and the general atmosphere of country livin.  Aint nothin better.

2. Scalini's - Little more than a block from my apartment (and about the same size) this whole-in-the-wall italian restaurant is the best place for pizza and pasta (don't forget the "pink" sauce) in Dallas.  They'll make you an offer you can't refuse.

3. Jorge's - Aye Aye Aye that's good mexican food! Salsa, queso, tamales, tacos, they've got it all...and you can't pass up a blood orange margarita from "Nacho" the bartender...He'll do right by ya. Bottom's up!

4. Cafe Brazil - There's a reason this place is packed at every hour of the day with an array of people from teenagers to retirees...They've got great food!  My personal fave place for a Sunday brunch...you can't top the pancrepes (unless of course, you top them with strawberries and whip cream).

5. S & D Oyster Bar - With less than 10 main entree choices on the menu they've narrowed down what they do best and boy do they do it well! This is the place where I first tried fried oyster and I'm not sure I'll ever eat them anywhere else but here.  The choice between fried oysters and their seafood crab dip will stump me everytime I visit...but for sure it'll keep me comin back! Ahoy!

To be continued...

I'm Snow Excited!

And I just can't hide it! :)

By now you've probably heard of the crazy winter storm to hit Dallas...especially because it happened to fall on Super Bowl week...Hey, maybe Jerry Jones should bid on the Winter Olympics! (ok, I must admit I stole that line...but it's good isn't it?!)

Give me a couple days off of work, a half a foot of snow, and you'll be amazed at what I can do...
I made a new friend...my dvr.
I made a cupcake...with my knitting needles.
I made it half way through a book...(my dvr was being a little selfish)
And...
I tested my camera for it's ability to operate in 15 degree weather...success!

So please, enjoy the fruits of my labor:
Click here to see pictures of SNOW!

Is summer here yet?

Look Out Julia Child!

HAPPY BELATED 2011! 

I know I know...I'm shamefully late in posting this...but I've been so busy fighting off evil villains having fun that I'm just now getting the chance to hit the keys.
This month has been chock full of all things exciting...
Cabaret shows with the cast of Young Frankenstein/Riverdance/Game Night/Movies/Xbox Kinect/Hunting down Girl Scout cookies/Late Nights at the Dallas Museum of Art/Cirque du Soleil/Visits from Mom/74 degree weather/18 degree weather/Lazy Sundays spent making finger puppets/Failed pie-baking attempts/Successful trips to the store to buy said pie :/

But what I really want to talk about is my New Year's resolution...
drumroll please...
I, am going to learn how to cook!
Now I'm not talking gourmet chef classes at Le Cordon Bleu...I just want to be able to make an edible dinner for myself that doesn't come out of a frozen in a box.  Even I can only eat so many frozen pizzas a year.
I'd like to take this opportunity to officially apologize to Totinos for the inevitable failure of their business due to the fact that I stopped stocking my freezer with their pizzas.

Anywho, I'll be trying out all sorts of new recipes and sharing my successes, and likely more often failures, with you all here.
It's like my own little version of Julie & Julia...only on a more Kraft Easy Mac level ;)

Stay tuned...

December to Remember

(To the tune of My Favorite Things)

Green, furry monsters,
and steaming hot chocolate,
Space-age styled windows,
and 'merican Idols,
Christmas tree-lightings and dancers on skates,
These are a few of my favorite things!

Train tracks that go on for miles through the cities,
Sounds of the season with new friends and faces,
Decking my 'partment with ribbons and bows,
These are a few of my favorite things!

When I go home,
and I'm greeted,
with friends and family,
I simply remember how special they are,
and then I am filled with glee!

I felt it was more appropriate to describe the magic of Christmas in Big D through song...hope you enjoyed it!
Here are the pictures that accompany the lines:

The Grinch and I

Hot Chocolate from Cafe' Brazil!

Space-age window display at Neiman Marcus

That's David Archuleta!

Christmas tree lighting at the Galleria Dallas

Santa on skates!

Northpark Trains exhibit

Christmas concert at the Lakewood Theatre with Wendi and Sehila!

My tree! Sorry I can't figure out how to rotate it!

My tree topper :)

My wonderful present from Christy (Painting with a Twist!)

"Falling" in Love With Circus

Ok, so I owe you all an update, but until I can carve out time for all of those holiday/new year stories, I thought you might like to see an update on my backup profession...

This is called a scorpion...It's not quite as graceful as it needs to be...but hey! I'm working on it!

And this ladies and gentleman, is my FIRST FALL! I've been working towards this forever and I finally made it! Wooo!

Hope you enjoyed the "show" :D

Clowning Around

Just a little insight into what I do every Saturday (and some Mondays)...

You can also check out this cool video of my circus instructor performing (she's the main performer on the bottom).  I'm not quite to that point yet...but just ye wait! :)

The New Adventures of Old Emmy

A couple of weekends ago I finally got the chance to get back down to Boremont for a visit...but I mainly had one mission...to bring Emmy (my sweet little poodle) back with me to Big D!
I had a great visit with folks while I was there, and it was a much needed break (I even got a day off! woop!) but the best part came when I was packing up the car to leave and actually got to let Emmy jump in the car like she always begs to instead of having to sadly tell her goodbye and that she had to stay.  I have no doubt that dogs can show emotions...you should've seen the way she jumped and hollered when she figured out she was going!
The drive was pretty uneventful though Emmy found it fascinating...

before she decided she might as well get comfy because we were going to be in the car quite a while...

She had fun exploring when we got to Dallas, and made herself right at home in my living room...

After a week of settling in, we took a field trip this Saturday to the Farmer's Market Fall Festival, and while she didn't like the curbs so much (schizo?), she did love traipsing around the flower section

Of course she's had to adjust to walking everywhere on a leash, playing nice with other pups at the apartment complex, and attempting to jump onto my much-higher-than-before bed (not to mention I've had to adjust to picking up after her bathroom trips...ick!) but we've had a blast so far together and I can't wait to see what new ventures we might find ourselves on. :)


On other notes, The New Adventures of Getting-Older-By-The-Day Courtney have included a great weekend spent with my Best Beaumont Buds in Big D (talk about alliteration!), the filming of the TV show Chase in our office building (making us all think they were installing metal detectors in our building before we realized it was fake), a thank-my-lucky-stars-I-didn't-start-a-fire incident with a foil-wrapped potato and a microwave, an Afro-Jazz master class taught by an amazing choreographer from NYC (which left me unbelievably sore the next day), a not-so-pleasant week with a broken car starter, and of course lots more Saturday mornings spent in Circus School :D

Bedeeb-bedeeb-bedeeb-a-that's all folks!



(and for those of you that haven't understood the underlying reference in this entire blog post, there's a show called "The New Adventures of Old Christine." Google it.)

The Greatest Show On Earth!

The Greatest Show On Earth...is right here in Dallas. 
Inside of a giant building hidden in the middle of a block of corporate offices for places no one has ever heard of is Lone Star Circus School...the only professional circus school in Texas I might add. 
It may just be the best kept secret in Dallas, but I'm on a mission to share its wonders with the world!

Last Saturday morning I got up early, pulled my hair back, removed all my jewelry, selected an outfit abiding by the many rules, plugged an address into my GPS and headed off for my first day of CIRCUS SCHOOL...a little nervous about what to expect but totally ready to find out. 

I arrived early enough to look around and get a feel for the place, watching the end of the children's class before mine.  A dozen or so little kids scurried up the silk ropes as easily as a monkey would and contorted their little bodies into whatever shape the instructor happened to be requesting at the time and they all had huge smiles on their faces.  Yup...I was in the right place.  Now I was just hoping that it really was as easy as they were making it out to be.  Seriously, they're all scrawny, uncoordinated 7 year olds...how hard could it really be?!

That was my first mistake...thinking it would be easy.  I'll admit I had a fantasy in my head that because of all my years of dance that it would come so naturally to me and the instructor would compliment me in front of the class stating how she'd never seen someone pick it up so easily and that I was sure to be a star.  HA! That bubble popped real quick.

The trampoline warm-up was cool, the stretching was easy, and the ab toning section was challenging but not altogether impossible.  At that point I was feeling pretty good about myself. 

We all chose a set of silks (I purposely chose the light pink to match my carefully selected outfit) and the assistant instructor came over to help me learn the ropes (haha! pun!)
Let me pause here for a second and tell you a bit about these instructors...2 of them are well over 50 yet have the best bodies I've ever seen in my life.  They're in incredible shape and if they weren't so nice and friendly they'd be really intimidating.  The assistant who helped me out a bit was maybe a year older than me, but still had that amazing body.  I found out she got into the silks only a year ago, and came from a dance background like me...so there's some hope for me yet!
Ok, back to the story. 
So the first thing I had to learn was to climb the silks.  Logically, in order to do the pretty tricks, you have to get off the ground first.  The move is simple to learn and looks pretty easy.  NOT! Half of the move requires the person to sustain themselves on the silks using only their hands...I do NOT have that much arm strength! The other half requires a fairly simple leg maneuver that creates a "step" on which you can rest for a second giving your arms a break before they have to lift your entire body weight up a few inches again.  It's ridiculously hard but I managed to get a few feet off the ground a couple of times and the instructors keep insisting I'll get the hang of it soon. 

After I mastered the climb (or rather, my arms gave out and the instructor decided to give me a little mercy) I learned a few tricks on the loop and then learned how to make a stable base on which to balance enabling me to get into some more complicated positions that look really cool but don't require near as much effort as just climbing up the darn thing. 

All in all, it was a blast.  I was surprised how fast you can learn some basic tricks that look really cool with only one hour and a half class.  I was not prepared for how sore I'd be the next few days though! That's one intense workout.  They should be selling THAT on late night infomercials! 
I can't wait to go back, and have already recruited a few friends to come along as well. So if my career in marketing doesn't work out...I can always run away and join the circus ;)

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—Of cabbages—and kings—"...But more importantly...of my new apartment! 


All but a few boxes have been unpacked, the stove has been initiated (with a burnt pot of chili), the couch and TV have already learned to be my friend when I'm home sick, the first load of laundry is finishing up as I type, and I've already had to fork out a month's rent...yep, I'm officially moved in...and ya know what? It's all worth it.  


Everyone said there's nothing like living alone, and they were right.  It's so quiet when you wake up in the morning, there's no one to judge me if I want to leave a dirty dish on the counter for a day (or two), I can sing to the music as loud as I want (well almost as loud as I want...I do have neighbors), and I can burn a pot of chili as many times as it takes to get it right and no one is the wiser.  

In short, it kinda rocks! (Plus, my 10 minute "commute" to work makes life so much easier!)


OK, I know you're all only reading this hoping to see some pictures...so without further adieu...
The Living Room:

The Dining Room:

I still need a few more corks (hint hint)

The Kitchen:

The Boudoir:

The Bathroom:

Thanks for visiting and hope you enjoyed the tour!
Remember, my door is always open...except when it's closed. :)


P.S. Special thanks to mom and dad for helping with the big move! I had a great weekend with you and you're both invited back for a trip that doesn't involve so much manual labor. Love!