Dallas February 2009

Hello from the south! Today is Monday and I've been in Dallas since Wednesday for our 2008 K-1 processing. Here's a recap of the trip so far. I forgot my photo cable so I'll add some pictures when I return home...

Wednesday 2/11/09: Cried when I dropped the boys off at daycare. I love them so much! Very sick - coughing like crazy. Peggy suggested mucinex and that made a substantial difference but still not feeling great. Peggy drove us to the airport, great flight and then met her friend Cynthia at the airport. We then went to Ft. Worth to a mexican restaurant called Joe T. Garcias. They don't have menus, your choices are enchiladas or fajitas. We went with fajitas. Off to the hotel, we are staying at the Fairmont. We have "Gold" rooms and I signed up for their presidents club so that has some perks. One of the perks is that you can leave your shoes outside your door in a basket overnight and they will clean and polish them for you. I was excited to do this but was afraid that someone would steal my shoes.

Thursday 2/12/09: Brandon sent me some picture messages of the boys this morning at 6:45 am. I was still sleeping and couldn't go back to sleep. It's ok tho, I was glad to see pictures of my kids. Plus, I was like a kid at Christmas anxious to see if my shoes were outside the door. Sure enough they were there and packaged up all pretty and clean. Sweet! Sneezing, sneezing, and more sneezing, in addition to the cough. Feeling seriously miserable. Loaded up on mucinex and aleve cold & sinus. It could not have been pleasant for Peggy having to sit next to me in a conference room all day. PWC was taking us to dinner and to the Maverick's game but I wasn't sure I was feeling up to it. Peggy sent me back to the hotel about 3:45 so I could rest. It really did help, a short nap and more medication did wonders and gave me a second wind. We went out to an awesome dinner at Nick & Sam's steakhouse. I had filet mignon which was one of the least expensive things on the menu (at $38!) and that didn't include sides! The surf & turf was $90 something! The maverick game was lots of fun - I'd never been to a NBA game before. They played the Boston Celtics and were ahead most of the game until the very end and choked. Lost by 5. The energy at the game was amazing. Highlights for me were the announcer saying DE-FENSE in a deep monotone voice and the entertainment during half-time. Thriller and 2 gymnastic brothers that could hold each others weight in unusual positions. It was crazy! Went back to the hotel and crashed but kept waking up it the night due to the aleve cold & sinus. Rats.

Friday - 2/13/09: Still not feeling well at all. The sneezing was still in full force. Worked until about 1 pm and then Peggy and Cynthia left for Houston and I got a rental car and picked Brandon up from the airport. He sat on the plane for 2 hours in Omaha before they took off due to snow. Glad he made it safely! It took us an hour and a half to get back to the hotel (should have been a 25 minute drive) due to a major accident on the freeway. A car ran into a semi - it was quite a sight. I took Brandon to Potbelly's for dinner and then we went to the Dallas Stars hockey game. It was so exciting! Brandon was so happy - he was like a little kid! They played the VanCouver Canucks and they won 2-1. We bought some items at the fan store afterwards and headed back to the hotel. We walked to the American Airlines Center and back rather than taking the rental car to avoid the $20 parking charge! It was a beautiful night for a walk.

Saturday - 2/14/09: Woke up feeling 85% better - thank goodness! One of the perks of having a "Gold" room at the Fairmont is a lounge that serves an amazing contintental breakfast every morning. Brandon and I ate a big late breakfast and then went to the Dallas Museum of Art to view their King Tut exhibit. It wasn't really Brandon's thing but I enjoyed it. It was really neat to see the artifacts that were discovered. They are so intricate and beautiful. It was disappointing in that it was so expensive ($40 something a piece) and so crowded that we felt like cattle and it was difficult to see everything up close. Then we went back to the hotel and took naps for about an hour before we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We got there about 4 pm and only had a 30 minute wait so we thought we were pretty smart. The food was awesome as usual - I had chicken and biscuits and Brandon had some chicken tortilla thing-ys. We of course got some cheesecake to go! When we left the restaurant at about 5:30 we could barely get out there were so many people waiting for tables! After a brief stop in the Container store, we drove to the Galleria and did some shopping. Brandon got some new sunglasses. The mall was kind of neat - they had an ice skating rink on the bottom floor! Happy Valentine's Day to my hubby! I miss my babies.

Sunday - 2/15/09: We weren't sure what we wanted to do so we kind of "winged it". First we went to the Texas Schoolbook Depository and the Sixth Floor Museum of JFK. What a great tribute to JFK. Very humbling. We were going to go to the Dallas Aquarium but the line was too long so decided to go to the wax museum. Now known as the worst wax museum ever. Julia Roberts looked like a man! The only reedeming part was they had a "horror" section and they managed to scare the daylights out of us by blowing a car horn when we weren't expecting it. Yes, the only redeeming part had nothing to do with "wax". We then ventured out to GrapeVine Mills outlet mall and did some more shopping. Brandon was such a trooper. By the time we were done at the outlet mall we were exhausted and starving so searched for a place to eat. We stopped at a restaurant called Dick's Last Resort. It seemed like kind of a trashy place so we left. They had a hooters next door but that didn't sound too appealing either. We ended up at the House of Blues. Food was pretty good besides the jalepeno chicken quesadillas! My mouth was on fire - didn't know it was going to have jalepeno in it! I talked on the phone to the boys today for a bit and Luke sent me some pictures. Can't wait to see them on Wednesday!

Monday - 2/16/09: Woke up and finally felt well enough to try out the fitness center at the hotel. It was fun, I used the elliptical, the treadmill, and weight machines. My hubby had to go back to Sioux City today. Boo hoo. I miss him already and am jealous he is going to see the boys. We had an awesome time tho - it was like a second honeymoon! I dropped off the rental car and was going to go to a movie but the movie theater that was on mapquest is no longer there! So back to the hotel to work and post on the blog! Tomorrow should be a busy day as we review selected investor information on the K-1s. I'm looking forward to hitting them hard now that I'm feeling better!