Let the games begin!

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Oh happy day! Abby and Guion are here for the weekend and the Olympics begin tonight. Every couple of years I'm interested in a wide range of sports for about two weeks. This year is no different. I plan on spending the weekend in full red, white and blue outfits cheering for team America. And going to my last wedding of 2012 on Sunday (I even bought a blue dress for that). 

Daytime fun.

What a fun week so far! The top 4 pictures were taken at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. I'd never been before but took the girl I babysit and we had an awesome time. The bottom 4 pictures were taken at my very first Durham Bulls game. I can't believe it took me almost seven years  to see the Bulls play but I'll definitely be going back soon.

A Tale of Two Alleys

The Alley

Jill and her ball.

I hadn't been bowling in years and somehow ended up going twice in the past couple of weeks at two alleys that couldn't have been more different. The Alley (top 2 photos)was a hipster dreamland of vintage patterns and PBR. We even had to keep track of our own scores! It was a learning experience for me. 


The second alley, or "bowling boutique" as its website says, was incredibly swanky. Sparians (bottom 2 photos) had huge leather couches to wait on between turns, a waiter who brought drinks, and huge TVs everywhere. Unfortunately those luxuries didn't help my game and I ended up bowling a 57.  

Happy four day week! Woo!

Over the weekend...Feb. 3-5

Not too much to talk about this weekend- went home, did lots of laundry, attended a baby shower, and watched the Super Bowl long enough to see Madonna perform. I also learned never to go to Walmart on a Saturday night, especially if said Saturday is the day before the most watched sporting event of the year...

Weekend Highlights

In a nutshell, I had an excellent weekend and saw a ton of friends, even a few that I haven't laid eyes on since last fall! Kristin celebrated her 21st birthday with a grown-up pizza party on Friday and then several of us spent Saturday at SparkCon (where local restaurants were giving out free meals of bugs; look closely at the last picture above) before heading to the NCSU game that night. Another weekend highlight included getting the first salted caramel hot chocolate of the year with Mary Hil because it was below 60 degrees pretty much all weekend! Thank goodness.

Roller Derby

Over the weekend, Emma, Kara, and I saw a flyer for a roller derby game nearby in Raleigh and decided to go on a whim. Other than UNC basketball, this is probably the only other sport I've ever genuinely enjoyed watching. 

I have to admit the only thing I knew about it before going to the actual game was what I gathered from Whip It but it's way more exciting than that!  Luckily the programs they handed us as we walked in the door listed all the rules and pictures of what different referee calls looked like so we could follow along. The first game we watched was close, so it kept our attention. The second game was a little less exciting because the Carolina girls ended up winning by more than 170 points. 

My favorite parts of it all were the ridiculous and witty names of all the players and the mascots and announcers. Above on the left was the announcer for the games. He was wearing a sarong, a captain's sailor hat, and a t-shirt that read "919 y'all" (919 is Raleigh's area code). He was not wearing shoes. Then the guy on the right was the mascot for the Tai-Chi-Tahs. He could literally run faster than people could skate and his silk pajamas were drenched in sweat by the time the game was over. 

Emma and I made up names for ourselves should we find ourselves as derby girls. She went with "DilEmma" and I chose "Purple Haze." We also came up with a few Harry Potter-themed names, Harry Slaughter being the best.

What would your derby name be? 

Labor Day Weekend

Sorry for the lateness of this post, seeing as how the weekend's practically already here again. Anyway, the weekend was fun and filled with lots of random little treats. I went to a housewarming party, watched a roller derby, saw Our Idiot Brother, and celebrated my niece's 12th birthday! It's crazy that she's already 12. And if you can believe it, she actually enjoys middle school...blows your mind, doesn't it?