My Funny Valentine

With Valentine's Day falling on a Monday this year, Conor & I decided to make a fun weekend of it.  We aren't that into the holiday, but still use it as an opportunity to go on some fun dates.  That Saturday morning, we went out to breakfast at a new place that Conor discovered.  It's called Morning Glory at The Farm at South Mountain and is literally a farm-to-table restaurant.  When we first pulled up, it was a little more rustic than I was expecting, but once you walk onto the property, you see how beautiful and quaint it really is.  The seating is completely outdoors with the tables covered in white & red checked cloths.  I aabsolutely loved this place and will hopefully make it back many more times.

Conor & I lost our photos from this outing, so I stole this picture from the website to show ya how cute it is.

After breakfast, we ventured down to Maricopa to play a round of golf at Southern Dunes.  This was a tougher course, but I actually played pretty well.  Definitely still had some whiffs in there, but I also had some really good holes, even made par a couple of times.  Pretty big deal for me!  Conor did an awesome job as always!  Maybe one day I'll be able to give him a run for his money...

Here's some pics from the course, and the sunset we saw on our drive home.

Typically, Conor & I go out to dinner the day before Valentine's as to avoid the crowds.  But this year we changed things up and went to a drive-in movie!  I got the idea from my friend Andrea who had just recently been with her husband.  We had never been before, so we were pretty excited to check it out.  Of course we had to add our own touch to the adventure, so we loaded up the car with cheese, crackers, & a bottle of red wine.  No plastic cups for this girl, oh no, we brought along all the necessary glassware.  We saw The Dilemma which was sufficiently funny...I pretty much love anything with Vince Vaughn.  The whole experience was great, and we already can't wait to go again.  Now that the weather is getting warmer we'll be able to bring lawn chairs and sit outside, maybe even bring a small BBQ...probably not allowed, but how great would that be?!

For our Valentine's dinner we had king crab legs, yum yum yum!  Conor did pretty much all the cooking, so I got to sit back, relax, and enjoy the champagne.  I am so lucky to have a husband that is a wonderful cook.  It's nice to have someone to share the duties with.

We had way more crab that we needed, so the next night we made crab ravioli with a vodka sauce.  I saw "we" but really Conor took control of this meal too.  While I was at my Tuesday night wine date with Andrea, Conor was putting it all together.  I got home just in time to snag a picture of the process and final product.  Mmm mmm mmm.

Next up, the crazy adventures from my parents visit!

The Greatest Show On Grass

No, this post is not about a Willie Nelson concert...

But it is about one ridiculous golf tournament in a place where the beer flows like wine, and the women flock like the salmon(/cougars) of Capistrano. Yeah, I'm talking about little place called Scottsdale, AZ, during Waste Management Phoenix Open week. Despite being sponsored by trash, this weekend was far from it!

As you can probably guess, we had another round of awesome company for the weekend! Jen and Holt flew in from Delaware to spend a few days away from the winter's chill and boo Boo Weekley around the short grass with us. We got caught up on what's been happening in each other's neck of the woods over some freshly marinated carne asada and chicken tacos complete with margaritas and beer and formulated our plan of attack for the next day's festivities.

It was an unusually cold weekend in the desert and TPC Scottsdale was plagued with freezing overnight temperatures which resulted in lengthy frost delays pushing back the morning tee times. This threw a bit of a curve ball on our plans as we were expecting to see the 3rd round of the tournament. However, we got to see a good portion of the second round and the very beginnings of the third after the cut was made. We likely got to see more golfers than we would have otherwise. So I guess it all works out.

Of course, we spent some time soaking in the atmosphere of the loudest place in golf, the stadium hole - # 16. We must have slipped in right in time to get good seats, because soon after Holt and I passed the point of no re-entry, heading for more beverages, we spotted a line of people snaking around practically half the hole waiting to get to the grandstands... No problem, we just got an extra one for our wait to get back in to meet the girls. Didn't want to stand there with an empty hand!

After spending some time at the 16th, we headed off to see a little more of the course. Since everyone seemed to be around the stadium hole, we were able to pretty much walk right up to the ropes to get a great view anywhere we went around the course. We watched a few holes of the usual characters: Freddy, Phil, Singh, Lehman, etc. and caught up with some of the younger guys: Alex Prugh (fellow Husky; Go Dawgs!), Dufner, JB Holmes, Fowler, Johnson, etc. I am always in awe of their swing tempo (well, most of them...) so solid, controlled, smooth... There is something to be said about seeing it in person. I would have loved to have spent some time just watching on the range (one of my favorite things to see), but with the tee times all messed up we never had a great opportunity to do so. Still, we had an absolute blast! The sun was out and things warmed up pretty quickly after the chilly start to the morning. We spent a little time checking out the vendors and things that were set up in the main pavilion areas as they prepared to start the 3rd round, then decided to call it a day and head into Scottsdale for dinner.

We stopped into the R&R in Old Town to have a cocktail and decide on where to go for dinner. Although we haven't spent a great deal of time in Scottsdale, we have been to this place a few times. A great place to grab a drink in the early evening as they have a nice, big patio with couches, flat screens, and a decent look west into the setting sun. We made the call to head to Humble Pie next, not too far from there, to mow down some 'za before we headed home for the night.

We hit the games pretty hard late into the evening and woke up bright and early (maybe...) the next morning for egg and chorizo tacos; just wanted to make sure that Jen got her Mexican food fix before she left.

After some good Sunday relaxing, we took our friends back to the airport for their flight home. Although we did get a pretty good golf fix, Holt and I were unfortunately not able to fit 18 in before they left. He'll just have to make it back out soon. There are many Top 100 YCP courses to cross off the list so come back soon you two!

I wish I had more pictures to share but during some late night droid-ing I managed to format my internal phone memory instead of the memory card... so my phone is about 250 photos lighter now... including those we snuck when the PGA volunteers weren't looking. Back up your files regularly people... I guess nowadays that includes your smart phone...

Another great weekend in the books!
Laura is up next to see if she can finally get us caught up to present day...

Thanks for stopping by,

-CDK

Payback: Hanson Style

Well, it has been about a month since we last updated the interweb of our doings. In an effort to stay out of the doghouse, I had better get after it...

January 21-23: The weekend of Hanson

Good friends, TJ and Erin Hanson, arrived late Friday evening after having driven over from San Diego after work. The lady and I had just gotten home from a fun dinner date, pint, and a run-in with a one Robby Fox (whom you have already been introduced). After hitting the store on the way home for a RedBull (sugar free...) we were officially... Ready to party!

It was about 4:00AM when TJ and I looked across the couch at each other and realized: A) the girls had gone to bed, B) it really was 4:30AM, and C) We were in roughly the 37th minute of an intense (albeit practice) round of the Carcassonne in which I was trying to teach him how to play while he was intently trying to beat me. Given the fact that during the 6 or so hours before that point we had seen a constant supply of beer, wine, cocktails, and snacks... you can only imagine how finely prepared our minds were to be teaching/learning a board game full of rules and strategy. Perhaps we should have thrown in the towel after catchphrase with the girls.

Saturday morning reared its ugly head much too soon. And we were sternly instructed by Laura NOT to have "any fun!" She stumbled upon a job posting earlier that week and was called in for an interview that Saturday morning. So as to not miss anything, she didn't want us to do anything while she was gone... We agreed, with fingers crossed behind our backs, and saw her off to her interview. Before the garage door stopped rattling closed, the bloody mary bar was in full force, the cats were lunging after hummingbirds, and we were preparing for a serious Blongo-a-thon in the backyard. For the record, we had absolutely NO fun...

Laura called on her way home, giving TJ just enough time to make some last minute preparations.

TJ's redemption.

If you caught the post on our visit to TJ and Erin's place in San Diego, you'll understand why this was a little long-overdue payback on TJ's part. Laura took it in stride and quickly released the Fun-Ban she had previously instated.

Hoping to show the Hansons around the Phoenix area a little, we hopped in the car later that afternoon and headed up to Tempe to see what was happening on Mill Ave, the main drag for ASU in Tempe. This was the first time we had been on Mill Ave during the day, and we were unfortunately pretty disappointed. There really wasn't much going on and most of the fun places we had been to before weren't even open. We tried one more place, Four Peaks Brewery, and found a lively crowd of college basketball fans and lunch-goers. But alas, they made a totally unnecessary fuss about TJ's temporary California ID (as it apparently takes up to 6 weeks to receive in CA once you declare residency...), jabbered on about something random like him needing a "parental guardian" as I pointed out the couple of 6 year olds sitting having lunch with their parents, and we took our business elsewhere. Now, really needing some lunch, we stopped at a taco shop in the way out of Tempe for some delicious and much needed cheap mexican food and headed home where his Temporary would readily be accepted for entrance.

After a quick run to the store, Laura and I threw together some of Shari's world famous raspberry daiquiris and we sat outside with cigars around the fire-pit for another relaxing January evening in AZ.

After a delicious shrimp and fresh pasta dinner, it was back to the couch for The Game of Things and round 2 of Catchphrase. We didn't quite make it to 4:00AM that night but we definitely had an equal fill of great fun and company.

Sunday morning greeted us with omelets on the patio and we saw TJ and Erin off much too early for their trip back home. Thanks for coming friends! We are really looking forward to seeing them again sometime soon either in San Diego or Las Vegas. I'm sure you'll hear about it when we do...

-CDK