I have already talked about the Big Peach Sizzler that I ran on Labor Day (best PR for a 10k then), but I failed to mention that some of my best friends came into town too! Emily drove up from Florida and Katie drove down from Nashville to come to the season opener for Auburn versus Clemson. Though the game was a total bust, we had a great time together!
Mimosas on Saturday morning
Nosebleed section
Lovely Allison
Ashley, Katie, Allison, me, and Elizabeth
War Eagle!
Of course, we ate at Tin Lizzy's and then once we got home on Sunday night, none of us could sleep so Emily, Katie, and I all stayed up talking. We even called Kate and made her reminisce about our old apartment in Auburn and lots of our memories since we couldn't convince her to come down from D.C. We even practiced some Pinterest hairdos (the waterfall, shown below). And we completely wore Wrigley out! I miss my girls so much, but the weekend turned out pretty wonderful (well, of course, not including the game)!
This year we were able to go to not only the Ole Miss game, but also the Georgia game. Pat and I were going to drive up to Athens just for the day and hang out watching the game at a bar with our friends, Stephen and Erin, but my parents were able to find us tickets. My parents actually flew into Atlanta on Friday and drove up to Athens to meet one of my dad's friends and his wife for the weekend. My dad has decided that he wants to go to every SEC football stadium, so when one of his friends offered him tickets, he jumped on the chance.
We drove up on Saturday morning and grabbed the tickets from my parents' hotel, Hotel Indigo, which I think I want to stay at the next time I go to Athens. Patrick and I finally found the lot we were supposed to park in and made our way slowly towards the stadium. We saw my parents on the field (their friends got them sideline tickets too) and that was about as exciting as the game was for us unfortunately.
Can you find my parents yet? Look to the immediate right of the kicker's net. There they are!
We got to see Kate who had flown in from Orlando and Allison and Stephen found us in our seats too. After halftime (or maybe the 3rd quarter), we left our seats to go sit with my parents and ran into (literally, almost!) my dad who was coming to find us in our seats. We went back with him and sat with my parents and their friends for the remainder of the game.
Then we met up with Stephen and Erin outside the stadium and went downtown to find a place to eat. The first place we went had a "five hour wait" which very well could have been, but that seemed a bit much for us. We wandered down the road to another favorite place of Stephen's and Erin's, Transmetropolitan. We were standing in the very long line for a while until Stephen decided to go upstairs to get a pitcher while we waited. He came back downstairs and told us he had spoken to a guy who said we should order the pizza as take-out and then bring it upstairs to eat it there. Well done, my friend, well done! We followed his advice and our pizza was ready in 45 minutes, which was much quicker than waiting in line as all of the people directly in front of us were still waiting at the counter to order! We were even able to grab a booth (though we had to clean it ourselves-the bartenders weren't the best waitresses) and enjoy our drinks while we waited. After that, we finally headed across campus to our car and left Athens. It was a late night and long day, but we had so much fun! Patrick also enjoyed his first time in the stadium and my parents enjoyed their virgin visit to Athens too.
Life has been moving at full speed recently and this blog has fallen by the wayside. I'm going to try to do a few posts this week to catch up on everything.
Ice sculpture in the new Foy
Fishbowls
For Halloween weekend, we went to Auburn for our annual football game rivalry. My parents and sister met us in Auburn on Friday night. By the time we finally made it to Auburn, we were all starving. We tried to go to my dad's favorite restaurant, Amsterdam's, but we were told that the wait was going to be 2 hours (mind you, this is 8:30-9 AT NIGHT!). Yeah, no, not happening. So we called Niffer's and they told us the wait was 30 minutes and we put our name on the list immediately. Mom, Margaret, and I all got fishbowls while the boys enjoyed a beer. I don't remember when they changed it, but you used to be able to order a huge fishbowl if you had 6 IDs, I believe, but now everyone has to have their own much, much smaller fishbowl. I guess they are trying to stop spreading mono and other illnesses around campus? Anyways, we enjoyed our dinner and drinks and ended up shutting the restaurant down around 11, I believe.
Tiger Walk
On Saturday, we were able to walk around downtown for several hours before the game since it was an evening game and really enjoy being back in Auburn. We ate at Momma G's (though not nearly soon enough for Patrick) after we visited, oh yes, all of the bookstores in Auburn for Mom. I found a really cute Auburn stocking and an Auburn onesie for sweet Stef's baby to come!! We sipped on some Toomer's lemonade and then started heading to campus to visit some tailgates. We saw Allison and Katie Doc before slowly making our way towards Tiger Walk. Unfortunately, we couldn't really see the players up close and personal there, but Andy and Jenny (one of my nursing school girls) found us and then we were able to meet up with Mindy!! We only got to spend a few moments together, but it was great to see them all!!
Waaaarrrrr Eagle, Hey!
After I snapped a few pictures with Jenny and Mindy, my camera died so I had to rely on my phone for pictures for the rest of the night. We got into the stadium and our seats were on the second row. It was hilarious to be in Jordan-Hare and still watching the game on the jumbotron! We had a great time though and even made friends with the four Ole Miss guys in front of us. Poor Pat, but hey, there's always next year!
Little did Aubie know...
Nova, one of our eagles
Oh, hey, Dad!
On Sunday morning, we got up and went back downtown to try Amsterdam's one more time, but this time, there was nowhere to park, so we turned around and went to Pannie George's for some good home-cookin'. I had no idea they had been in Auburn so long and got to talk to one of the daughters who is a cardiac nurse at the local hospital one day a week (possibly worked with her when I was in school). I really enjoyed it and was glad to be fed by the time we waited there for at least half an hour. You should definitely try if you ever go to Auburn! After lunch, we drove back downtown to go into some of the shops that we had missed and saw how they are now hand-picking the toilet paper out of our beloved trees (before the poisoning, they used to powerwash the paper down on Sundays). We stopped at Toomer's again for another lemonade and were back on the road to Atlanta. It proved to be another great weekend for our in-house rivalry, though I think Patrick has learned not to bet anymore on the game! :) War Eagle!
I saw this trailer on another blog (A Cup of Jo) and I might need to find this movie when it comes out! I grew up on the muppets and Sesame Street and love a good story about the puppeteers!
Right now, the Roo is laying on his side and barking teeny, little barks in his sleep. Hilarious.
This week I am working a different, later shift and I am trying to get used to it. Next week, I start the shift that I will be on for a while until an earlier 12 hour shift opens up and I'm just hoping I can stay awake that late! I thought I would get up earlier since I don't have to be up until later, but nope, I am loving sleeping in! (My mom will say she is totally not surprised about that one because she knows I like to sleep late and go to bed early.)
Anyways, I made a superb meal for us on Sunday night and I am still reaping the benefits from it tonight! Score, leftovers! You should make this. Easy and delicious!!
I will try to thicken the sauce up some the next time I cook this roast and turn it a little more gravy-like by adding either flour or cornstarch to the broth mixture after I deglaze the pan before I add the meat back into the pot. I also may try to keep the onions more on top of the meat because I didn't like how completely mushy they were. The carrots, however, were so good! I couldn't believe I actually liked them because I normally don't like my carrots cooked at all, but I kept trying to fish out more to eat!
Mashed potatoes baking
Slicing the pot roast (falling apart, not much shredding involved on my part)
I used heavy cream in my mashed potatoes because that is what I had in the fridge, but I also think I could add milk instead of half and half or cream. These potatoes are delicious and very good heated up the next day too!
Over the weekend, I was able to go to Athens to watch UGA play MSU with some of my girls and we had a blast! We drove up on Saturday for our girls' weekend and met up with my bestest's cousin, Amanda, who had driven up to Athens Friday night. Danielle, Kat, and I met up with Amanda right before the game and I stupidly didn't bring any sunscreen since I forgot that it would get hotter than 50 degrees in the stadium. We were in the State section in the corner of the endzone and we all got burned, but I definitely have a great sleeveless shirt burn. Whoops. I guess that's what happens when you haven't gone to the beach in over a year nor been able to get to any sort of pool this summer. Lovely.
Danielle, Kathryn, and me
The score wasn't so great for MSU, but Amanda who went to UGA was happy. We ate at Mellow Mushroom after the game so we could watch the Auburn game and then did a little shopping where I found an awesome gameday dress! War Eagle! We met up with Kathryn's cousin for a bit and then headed to the hotel to rest and watch some more football.
Amanda, Danielle, Kathryn, and me
After having a great time and laughing our heads off (so glad our neighboring hotel guests didn't report us as they could hear us through those thin walls), we got ready to go downtown for the night. We went to a few different bars and we all just laughed how different it is now that none of us are in college anymore. We had a great time and finished off our night at Pita Pit since the gyro restaurant that Kathryn and I had originally wanted to go to was already closed for the night. I miss having a gyro every week from Pita Pit! It was a nice way to end the night and it was a quick, fun trip!
In years past, we have always spent Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family, but this year we were able to spend the holiday with my dad's side. We actually planned surprising my grandparents for a couple of months before Thanksgiving. Mama Mil didn't think twice about us "staying in Atlanta" or "Rob missed his flight to Jackson and had to stay in Atlanta".
Kids' table
Adults' table
On Wednesday night, Rob flew into Atlanta from Cleveland and we picked him up from the Marta station and took him to my Aunt Emily's house. My Uncle David had most of his family there for Thanksgiving and my Aunt Margaret and Craig were there also. It was wonderful to see them even if it was just for a little while!!
Cousins with our grandparents
The whole McG fam!
On Thursday morning, P, Rob, and I drove to Guin to surprise everyone. My parents and sister picked up my brother, Josh, and surprised Mama Mil and Granddaddy Robert at their house. Josh was planning on having Thanksgiving with my grandparents and cousins, so Mama Mil told him to be there at 11:30 to help pack up the car with food to go to my aunt's house. However, instead of just Josh, my parents and sister showed up too! We made good time and pulled up to my Aunt Marcia's house a few minutes after everyone else got there. And, we actually pulled off the surprise on Mama Mil! (She hates surprises and always figures them out, so it's very rare that we actually can surprise her!)
Celebrating "Movember"
Granddaddy Robert and Mama Mil
Patrick and I spent the night with Mama Mil and Granddaddy Robert and then drove back home on Friday before the Iron Bowl. As much as I love my grandparents, there was no way I could watch the Iron Bowl with them as they are die-hard Alabama fans and I am an avid Auburn fan. We had some friendly banter back and forth as we read through the 22-page spread in the Birmingham paper, but I think we all knew it would not last as soon as the Iron Bowl started. P and I made it back to Atlanta about 45 minutes before the game started and we picked up the Wrigster.
Then we drove over to my Aunt Emily's house to watch the game. Well, if you saw the first half of the game, you will know that my grandparents were going crazy and I was really angry. At halftime, I positioned myself at the island (where the food was, duh!) and stayed there during the start of the third quarter. Yeah, and being superstitious about Auburn football, I had to stay sitting on the barstool for the rest of the game and watch the game on the small tv in the kitchen versus the large tv in the den. My cousin had to sit in the same position on the couch for the rest of the game. PHEW, we came back from a 24-point deficit and won!!! I was elated!! SEC championship, here we come! Oh, and you'd better believe that I'm keeping the game recorded for a while! I hope your Thanksgiving was as great as mine and that you enjoyed all the time with family as much as I did!
