Tuesday, December 16, 2008

What's For Dinner?

Just being silly...and we were bored (it is Texas afterall) so here is what we ate....Cajun Scallops with Succatash


Rudy cleaned his plate!


It was vest night at the Dunlaps...
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And the next day...for a holiday party....Peppermint Bark!  
Rudy's favorite!




Snow! Seriously, it snowed in Texas!

So we got snow...unbelieveable.  It's a Christmas miracle for Texas!  I spoke to people in their 20's who had never seen snow in their lives (and have always lived in this region).  It was fun while it lasted and made us all think it felt a little more like the holidays.  Of course, the next day was in the 70's but ....hey....it snowed!


Snowball to prove it snowed here.  
Come and visit and see the snowball, in person.




Friday, December 5, 2008

Sleigh Riding, Texas Style

So as most of you know, I traveled several places over the last few months (Canada, Baltimore, DC, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and soon to be in Ohio) and I got it out of my system!  I decided until we have children, I wanted to go back to work.  We both realized I was driving myself nuts at home (there is only so much one can do) and I had an opportunity to go back into special events planning.  I began my career a long time ago with Marriott in DC area and I loved planning events.  Unfortunately, it is not a high salary so when Rudy went to grad school, I went into Human Resources.  

Two weeks ago, I took a position working with Bryan Parks and Recreation and I love it!  I was hired specifically for our large event in June called Texas Reds Wine Festival - but, I also work other events such as the holiday themed events we have in our local parks.  These are pictures from my first night on the job.  Our office hired a snow-maker from Colorado (12 hours away) to come and make snow for the kiddies.  I must say, although I thought it was a little lame when I heard about it, it turned out to be a really cool thing for the Texas kids to experience.  My memories growing up were of sleigh riding with all the kids in the neighborhood - Joe, Nancy, etc. and it was magical.  For one night, Bryan Parks and Rec was able to bring that to the kids here.  How cool.


Wednesday, December 3, 2008

My Nieces @ Thanksgiving

Olivia staring at her Aunt DD wondering why she (I) takes so many pics


Kira



Foot-Fights on Nana's couch

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Travelin' Woman

A week or so ago, I was able to go to St. Augustine to pug-sit for my cousin Amy's 'babies' - Henry and Isabelle.  They were headed to Ireland for a week and a half and I went to their beautiful home to rest, read and relax on my own.  Solitude was nice. Here are a few photos of my trip.





Monday, October 20, 2008

Quebec City Part Two

More pics from our trip to Quebec.   We met some awesome folks from all over the world (hence, the name World Leisure Congress) and we went out for some biere (beer) and poutine (fries with gravy and cheese curd) one night.  We saw some hippies dancing and I am happy to report, hippies do drum and dance the same in Quebec as they do in Boone, NC.




The next day, Rudy was free to sightsee - so here are some of those pics of the old harbor in Quebec City:







Tuesday, October 7, 2008

10 Ans

We finally are celebrating our 10th anniversary!

les portes de Quebec

As I am walking around Quebec, I am wondering when we decided to design things differently.  By different, I mean less detailed, plain, without character in my opinion.  It seems in America as in Quebec, houses and buildings had more detail 100 years ago.  Why are these amazing doors still being created?  Or maybe they are and we just choose the standard door from Home Depot.

I took photos of doors throughout Quebec; it seems that life feels richer here.  There is more beauty in the details.  People seem to live with less - less square footage, less clothing (people often wear the same clothing several times in one week), less cars, even less food at the restaurants.  What I see more of is socialization in common places - bars and cafes are packed on Sunday and Monday nights with families, neighbors, co-workers.  They seem genuinely happy with less things and more community.  




Monday, October 6, 2008

Quebec City

Rudy and I excitedly left Bryan on Sunday morning for Quebec City. Rudy was asked to present a piece he had written at the World Leisure Congress held this year in Quebec City.  For those who are not familiar, Quebec City is the oldest section of Quebec and Montreal.  They actually just celebrated their 400th anniversary. Similar to Montreal, the preferred language is French but the majority of people know a bit of English. 

The city is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been. Here are some photos from my many walks on my first day (click the pic to view more detail): 
 








Friday, October 3, 2008

Ketchup

Ketchup....from not blogging in forever!  Here's our life for the past several weeks! 
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Flowers for my birthday!  Tulips are my favorite!  
Thanks Cincy Dunlaps!


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Unfortunately, Ike came my birthday weekend, so we stayed inside all weekend.  We rented movies and watched them on our new TV (we joined the flat screen HD TV team and we looooove it!)

I took this photo from our parking lot.  A local lawyer's office had a sense of humor about the storm.  The eye of Ike came within 20 miles of Bryan but we were fortunate that there was little to no damage and no power outages in our area.

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Our first bbq in Texas was with some new friends.  We all have moved to Bryan in the last few weeks so we have bonded for sure!  Michel and his wife Shoham just finished up @ Yale in Connecticut, David and Alley just left Penn State in State College, PA.

Michel grillin' away


David and Alley (newlyweds!)

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Rudy's parents came last weekend for a visit and we had a great time in Austin on Friday and then in Bryan the rest of the weekend.

We went to the A&M vs. Army (Rudy's dad graduated from West Point so he is an Army fan).  It was very hot and sunny and as you can tell from the picture we were very high up in the stands.  It was Armed Forces recognition weekend and I could not believe the size of this flag they brought out at half time.  As usual, I had to take my camera out....

Rudy's Dad ran into an fellow West Point grad whom he knew when in school.  We all had a great time.

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The next day we decided to head to Messina Hof - Bryan's local winery which is about 4 miles from our apartment.  Apparently, TX is now in the top five states that produce wine.  Because of its climate (HOT and no rain) it is perfect for grapes. 








dorks in the vines
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Just a cool sign I found downtown....
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peepin out the window
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Got signs this week and now we are Representin on 'Main Street' 
(seriously, we do live on Main Street)
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Our first shindig we threw in our new home - happy hour for friends and some with Rudy's department on 10/3.  It was so much fun!

TX has the most beautiful sunsets


live music right out the window!


Rudy is diggin the music!




Cullin, Jenna and Torinto our neighbors