I am just now coming down from a long weekend of eating nothing but sugar. The weekend started early with a work party. As you can see, there were some very creative costumes:
Afterwards we went home to hand out candy to our trick-or-treaters. We, of course, ate about half as much candy as we handed out. I have an uncontrollable weakness for Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Rod's costume was a huge hit. The last few Halloweens have been about how shocking I can make his costume. This might be the extent of it. :)
We finished Halloween night off at John and Allyson's Halloween Party. Instead of eating a real dinner, I snacked on Ally's hummus and cheese plate and Carrie and Rory's mini pigs-in-a-blanklet. I finished it off with smarties from the candy basket.
Saturday, Nici, Mellie, and I (and Corey and Rod) got together for our annual Scary Movie Night. We started getting together for scary movie night right after we graduated from law school. We usually get together on Halloween night since it usually in the middle of the week and all the parties are on the weekends. For the occasion, I made sugar cookies. They were SO yummy, but I ate about half the dough before it ever made it to the cookie sheets.
Sunday involved catching up with friends over brunch at the Fiddler's Elbow, which tempted me with its breakfast buffet (especially its belgium waffles and french toast), and over dinner. We ended the weekend with creme brulee at our house. It was such a fun (and yummy) weekend, but I may be in a sugar coma for the rest of the week. 
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Happy Halloween!
Vote!
Thursday evening, Rod and I left work early, planning to vote early and then celebrate by having dinner at new vietnamese restaurant. The line was an hour long! Although we were disappointed that we would not be able to go to dinner after all, we were ECSTATIC that so many people were voting. It is so exciting to hear all the stories about the projected record voter turnout. I have never understood how people can make excuses not to vote (I understand it even less now that registering and voting is SO easy). When you consider everything our ancestors went through to have the right to vote, not voting is inexcusable.
With that I mind, I thought I would share with you an email forward that has been making the rounds: 
Remember, it was not until 1920
that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed
nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking
for the vote. 
(Lucy Burns)
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing
went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of
'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above
her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping
for air. 
(Dora Lewis)
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her
head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate,
Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging,
beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917,
when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his
guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because
they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right
to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. 
(Alice Paul)
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks
until word was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because-
-why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?
Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
Although the above email is specifically targeted to women, its lesson is applicable to all Americans who are eligible to vote. The right to vote is a privilege. It should not be taken for granted.
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Somber Weekend in Death Valley
One of my first posts (more than a year ago), was the story of our crazy trip to Baton Rouge to watch LSU beat Florida. Since I started dating Rod, I have had no choice but to become a diehard Tigers fan. I have slowly began to replace all the black in my closet with purple. We try to go back at least once a year for a game. We have gone to some really incredible ones: the Florida game last year and the Tennessee game the year before. Both were really close games and both were surrounded by some really crazy tailgating. Tigers fans really know how to tailgate.
This year, the trip was just as fun (and crazy) . . . until we lost. This was the first time we have been to a losing game. It was strange to see how somber the whole town becomes after a loss. This one was especially painful because the best person on Georgia's team was Jared Lee (LSU's quarterback). Three pick sixes! We nursed our wounds, though, with lots of rich food. The highlight (foodwise) for me was Elyse's dad's shrimp grits. Mmmm!
Even though it was such a short trip we had a great time catching up with everyone.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
R.I.P Parr Waddoups
Thursday morning I woke up with an overwhelming feeling of loss. The day before was Clark Waddoups's (and Tobi Potestio's) last day at Parr Waddoups (now Parr Brown). He's leaving for a very exciting reason . . . he's been appointed as a federal district court judge. He is perfect for the job. It is a fantastic opportunity for him and he will be a great addition to the federal bench. It is bittersweet, though. 
Clark has been an integral part of the firm almost since its inception. He is not only a great attorney, but a great mentor too. Even though I only got to work with him for a short time, I feel like he taught me a lot.
The whole week before was filled with activities to celebrate Clark's new opportunity and to send him off properly. In large part, it seemed more like a funeral. At one point, I actually told his wife that I wished we had more time. It was just sad to know that it was the end of an era. 
Tobi went with Clark to be his permanent law clerk. She and I have shared a legal assistant almost since we got there. We were the first (and, for almost a year, only) two people on the new eighth floor.
Although I know that for the most part nothing will change. My day-to-day will be largely the same. But it will not be same . . . 
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wedding Wednesday: Posh Posy
I HEART Svetlana, the stylista behind Posh Posy. She was absolutely amazing. I knew I wanted Svetlana to do my flowers before I even knew her name. She did the flowers for my friend Melanie's wedding. They were the most memorable flowers I have seen at any wedding ever.
When I met with Svetlana, I came armed with this: 
and about a million other pictures of flowers I clipped from Bridal magazines.
I had a clear vision of what I wanted, but was not sure if it was doable (or affordable). I knew I wanted a big centerpiece made of branches with hanging tealights and simple flowers in series of eclectic vases. I also really loved little green flowers (Svetlana explained that they are called kermits), hydrangea, and pomanders. One of our main concerns was that the flowers were environmentally friendly--no exotic flowers or huge bouquets of flowers that would die in day anyway. I had been collecting vases from thrift shops and planned on using these instead of purchasing new ones.
Svetlana took my ideas and ran with them. These are the mock-ups she came up with for five centerpieces: (1) Branches, (2) Grass, (3) Pomanders, (4) submerged flowers, and (5) single flowers in eclectic vases. I was more thrilled with some than others. I loved the pomander, grass, and branch centerpiece, but the submerged flower and single bud centerpieces did not do it for me.
After round one, I asked Svetlana to slightly alter some of the arrangements. I nixed the submerged flower idea. It looks good with exotic flowers, but those flowers were not right for our "green" wedding plans or with our style. Rather than put the single flowers in a series of eclectic vases, I found these images 
and decided reused bottles was prettier and greener. She also took the third image to come up with the box centerpiece that replaced the submerged flowers.
Here are the incredible results: 
I would highly recommend Svetlana/Posh Posy to anyone who is looking for creative flowers. She was a joy to work with. Her ideas were great and she was willing to work within out budget. Thanks Posh Posy!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Crazy couple of weeks: Week 1
More often than not, I feel like I'm writing about the past rather than the present. So sorry for the lack of posting and for this:
The last few weekends have been crazy! Two Fridays ago was the UMBA Annual Awards Dinner and silent auction. It is one of my favorite events of the year. There are always so many people that I have not seen for a long time so I spend a lot of the night catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. I didn't win anything at the silent auction (I was outbid by Judge Peuler), but I did get to watch Clayton Simms and Ross Romero get awards. They were both UMBA board members when I was still a law student! The Union Pacific building was beautiful, but the acoustics left something to be desired. 
Immediately afterwards, we got to check out our friends Sam and Patrick's new house. It was GORGEOUS . . . a beautiful mansion with incredible woodwork. When they ran out of plastic cups, Clem was nice enough to fill a cylinder/vase with homebrew for me. I'm sure that this is somehow related to the elevator incident. Mellie and I were checking out all the floors and somehow got stuck between floors . . . well at least until we realized there was a back door.
Saturday night was a surprise party for Phil. Happy 30th! 
Rumba was so excited to be invited. We spent a lot of the party watching LSU beat S. Carolina. Geaux Tigers!
Sunday, Rod and I spent the day doing something we both enjoy . . . cooking! There was one failed attempt at peanut butter brownies, but the creme brulee turned out well. I manned the dessert section (and the table design) 
while Rod worked on the main course: roasted pork loin, roasted brussel sprouts, and roasted potatoes. So yummy! We had Pat, Megan, and Dasch over to enjoy it with us.
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