My Favorite Travel Item

Last year I purchased some eBags packing cubes, and I have been in love with them ever since.  I bought a 3-pc set with one large, one medium, and one small bag. 

 

I figured they'd be helpful while traveling, but I had no idea I would end up liking them this much.  I usually have a few different categories of clothing that I take on trips.  There's my everyday clothes, my dressy clothes, my workout clothes, my undergarments, etc.  I can easily separate them in my suitcase by using a packing cube for each type, or combining two similar types into one.  You can fit a lot more items in one cube than you initially think.  Even though the material is lightweight and the top is mesh, I haven't had any problems with ripping, and the zippers are very durable, so no problems with jamming. I don't like unpacking all my clothes when I arrive at my destination, so I pretty much just dress out of the packing cubes each day.  I don't have to search around in my entire suitcase to do an inventory of what items are available to me for the needs of the particular day, I just pull out the relevant packing cube and look through it.  It makes it easy for me to see what my options are, and how many options I have left when thinking about the days left on a trip. 

I have a weird thing with not liking my clothes to touch the shoes that I have packed for a trip.  Keeping all my clothes in packing cubes eliminates this problem.  The cubes are also a great size, so they fit perfectly in my suitcase and stack well.  If you're an organization freak like I am, you get a big smile on your face when everything is in its place and looks good in the suitcase!

Lastly, the cubes can serve as a laundry bag and separator on your return trip.  I don't like my dirty clothes cavorting around with the clean ones on the trip home, because then I feel like I need to wash everything, even if I didn't wear it all.  Now, I separate the dirty and clean clothes into different packing cubes and that makes sorting super easy when I get home.  

I'm sure you think I'm crazy for raving about this simple product so much, but I promise if you get a set, you will love them too!  With all the traveling I'm doing this year, I see an additional purchase in my near future! 

Delightful Dinner Party

This is a little overdue, but I need to give mad props to my friend, Rachel, for hosting an amazing dinner party a couple of weeks ago.  A few of us ladies got together to watch the Royal Wedding at her house that Friday night.  She had taped all the festivities for us and prepared a jaw-dropping feast to enjoy while we watched.  Each of the attendees had a place card with our royal name on it.  Here's mine, with some personal details excluded!

Viscountess Janet ....... of Clintonshire

Check out the table in the background!  The place settings and the decorations were amazeballs.  And don't get me started on the menu!  Any dinner party that serves Cornish game hens is going to be a winner.  I can't believe how much work Rachel put into this.  I was incredibly impressed. She even made the cake that Prince William requested - a chocolate biscuit cake.

Here's the best part - a few of us wore our wedding dresses!  It was reminiscent of a Friends scene, but with better fare.  Rachel thought it would be a fun idea, because when do you ever get to wear your wedding dress again after the big day?  I was definitely game, but a little worried that it wouldn't fit after five years.  Much to my relief, it still did!  She provided us with some adorable fancy hats to complete each outfit.

Rachel, me, Becca

If you look closely, you can see that Rachel's had some random food stains on it, and Becca's is completely yellowed at the bottom from her beach ceremony.  Mine had a little yellowing too, but it wasn't very noticeable. Hilarious. You put so much effort into picking a dress that you can only wear once, and then it ends up getting ruined during the ceremony/reception!

There was a lot of hating going on around the day of the ceremony.  I saw many "who cares about the royal wedding?" or "when is this going to be over with?" bla-di-da comments.  I'm not sure why people were getting upset with the event.  I mean, seriously, there is bad stuff happening all day, every day around the world.  Why can't some of us take a little while to enjoy the celebration of something good?  Call me sappy, but I think the union of two people who love each other is an awesome thing.  And, how many of us wish we had gotten a fairytale wedding?  I don't get mad and resentful when other people get something I want; I try to be happy for them and celebrate it.  In other words, all the ladies in the room cheered the happy couple with our glasses of champagne and enjoyed a little girls' time.  It was a wonderful get-together, and I am so thankful to Rachel for inviting me!        

Happy birthday, BFF!

This past weekend we celebrated my best friend's birthday at Hotel Zaza.  Jenn and I have been friends for more than ten years, and even though it would be easy to hate her because she's so darn gorgeous - I love her to death!

Jenn and I 

Friends for 10+ years - me, Jenn, Rachael, Bryan

My cutie husband

As Jenn put it, we partied like rock stars and had an awesome time.  This definitely qualified as my one time a year to drink alcohol, Lol.  There was a wedding reception going on at the hotel at the same time as our party, and they just so happened to have a photo booth.  Yeah, we crashed it.  Hilarious photos ensued.

As if that night wasn't fun enough, my hubby also gave me my birthday present over the weekend.  You know that little weight loss bet we made, that I lost by the tiniest of margins?  Well, he decided to let me win as my birthday present.  Best. Husband. Ever.  New York, US Open, The Book of Mormon play...here we come!!!    

Photobooth Fun

I'm a goofball at heart and so are the people I love.  :)

Driving Experience

The hubby got to mark one item off his bucket list this past weekend in Vegas.  I made him an appointment with Exotics Racing.  We customized a track experience for him that included driving 5 laps in a Lamborghini Murcielago, driving 5 laps in a Nissan GT-R, riding along on 2 "discovery" laps in a Porsche Cayenne GTS, and 2 laps riding along in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.  What an awesome experience this was!  I was able to do the ride-along in the Cayenne as well.  It's supposed to be used as an introduction to the course, to get you familiar with the turns, and a chance to get some instruction from a professional driver.  Let me tell you, if you're ready to drive that course after just the discovery laps, then you're already a pro.  They go by so quickly, and there's so much to take in!!  I had the camera rolling for some of it, so watch the video below and tell me if you got it all!  Haha.



The crazy thing about this course is that there are lots of cars on the track at the same time.  Each car has a professional in the passenger seat, assisting the drivers, but that still made me nervous thinking about so many inexperienced drivers of $200K+ cars on the track together!  Here's a clip of some of the fancy schmancy cars that were being driven that day:



Here's the first car Meezy drove, a Nissan GT-R:

And then the badass Lamborghini Murcielago:

I mean, its doors flip up.  How can that not be considered awesome?  Meezy said he was a fairly crazy driver with the GT-R (Lol), but improved by the time he got to the Lambo.  I have to tell you, it was pretty neat to see him behind the wheel of those cars.  I love seeing him do something he enjoys.  Not sure it's in the cards for us to ever own one of those, mainly just because you have to be short to sit comfortably in it.  ;)

    Crazy driver Rudy

After he finished his driving laps, he went on the ride along in the Porsche 911.  The sole purpose of that experience is to see what it's like to go balls to the wall at full speed with a professional driver.  The track is 1.1 miles long, with 11 turns, and Rudy, the driver, covered 2 full laps in under 2 minutes.  With that many turns, you would think that wasn't possible!  I shot some video of them taking off from the garage:



Too fast for me!  I felt queasy just after the instructional ride along in the Cayenne, and I don't even think we were going very fast!  All in all, it was an awesome experience, and I'm so glad he did it.  I'm a firm believer in living my life to the fullest, and I want the same for my hubby.

Side note: Love this pic.

Warrior Dash 2011

This year's warrior dash was much more successful than last year's, in so much that Meezy and I didn't get injured!  Lol.  We had a blast with a bunch of friends and got really muddy!  It's been 5 months since I broke my kneecap, and I definitely felt the pain through most of the obstacles, but I powered through.  The furthest I had run in the last 5 months was 1 mile, so pushing that up to 3.2 miles was quite an ambitious undertaking!  I stayed with my group of friends, though, so I was proud of myself for that. The next day my knee was super sore, but that was to be expected. 

This year's obstacles included trudging through a swamp, climbing over cars, hurdling ourselves over barricades, scaling a large wooden wall, climbing through nets and over hay bales, rolling over submerged logs, leaping over fire, and crawling through the mud while being almost completely submerged.  In other words, it was awesome.  Enjoy these pics of me and some of my friends!

Warrior Dash Tips

I know a lot of folks will be doing the Warrior Dash for the first time this year, so I thought I'd offer some tips from my experience of running it last year.

1) Either wear tennis shoes that you don't mind donating, or wear an older pair that you don't mind getting seriously messed up.  Either way, bring an extra pair of shoes to change into.  Last year, there weren't facilities available to change clothes afterwards, but you might bring an extra shirt and shorts anyways, in case you can find a place to change.

2) Bring towels and maybe even wet wipes to help you clean off after the race.  The "shower" that was available last year was like a fire hose sprayed at you from a distance, and you only got a couple of seconds in front of it.  No doubt you'll still be dirty afterwards, so bring a towel.

3) Lay down towels or garbage bags in your car for the ride home.  You're still going to be dirty.

4) Bring your ID and some money for food and activities.  I'd recommend bringing a backpack or other small bag to keep all your belongings in during the race.  You'll be able to check it in and pick it up after you finish your wave.

5) Wear sunscreen.  You're going to be spending a lot of time outside.

6) Plan to arrive AT LEAST an hour early.  You never know how bad parking will be, or how long the shuttle will take.  Carpool if you can since parking costs $10 a car, and it might be hard to meet up with your friends otherwise.

7) Make sure your bib is attached well and in the correct place.  They'll be taking tons of pictures along the course and it will be fun to look at them afterwards, but you have to make sure you can be identified in them.

Let me know if you have any questions about topics not covered above and I'll do my best to answer them!