Fourth of July Weekend

July 2-4, 2010

I didn't mean to get a picture of my mother-in-law yawning... ;/

Friday my Mama joined all the Pharr's for Hot Springs' annual Spa Blast at Oaklawn. We enjoyed carnival food--except for cotton candy :( --and watching the fireworks, but the music was TOO loud. I would definitely say the Spa Blast's fireworks display beat Pops on the River and any other I've seen.It was a cool night and a great way to kick off the Fourth of July weekend! And I'm so glad my Mama decided to come down after all.

Jazz hands? YES!!!

Saturday Zach and I FINALLY went to see The Comedy of Errors, part of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. Because we are poor recent graduates, unemployed and living far away, it's the only one we got to see. :( But I am so glad that this is the one we saw! :)

It was sooo good! We cannot stop raving about it! It was such an entertaining production from the slapstick comedy to the Americana musical stylings to the way they played off the twin factor (BRILLIANT!). And I was in love with the set (as evidenced by my photo taken during intermission) and the costumes. I would have never imagined a Shakespeare play like this, but the era lended itself well to this story. I guess I need to read more Billy Shakes (duh!).

Gosh. I wish I could have seen this one more than once. :) Bravo, AST!!

After dinner at Brauhaus Saturday night, I came home to this sweet gift from the one and only Linda Adams! She is Bobby's cousin, and I got to meet her a few weeks ago at Lindsey and Sam's wedding. I gushed to her how she taught me how to cook on Arkansas Today with B.J. Sams and Beth Ward. Mrs. Adams used to do segments with Beth Ward, who is one of her best friends; she is a home economist pretty famous in these parts. :)

She was such a joy and so sweet to send me a copy of her cookbook and the picture we took together. I can't wait to start cooking again!!

(I'm so glad she wrote in my book and added the date, too. Every time I get a book from someone, I inscribe it with the gifter's name and the date. ;)

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day. We had fun celebrating in the pool and with summery food (beer, raspberry mojitos, strawberry daiquiris, grilled chicken, corn-on-the-cob, and my blackberry cobbler)!

the red, white, and blue fireworks fountain at Spa Blast

It's never a good idea to take pictures of people in swimsuits hence why I have no pictures from Sunday!

Margarita Mamas

June 10, 2010After spending the afternoon in Carlisle, we headed to LR to meet up with two of my best friends from high school, Tasha and Yousra while Zach met up with Dan at the Saucer. (That would get him in trouble later.)

When Tasha was pregnant with Briley, she craved margaritas, and, while the rest of us enjoyed free margaritas in Jamaica and Grand Cayman, she was left out because they were premixed. :( So I promised her that I would buy her a margarita when she finally had Briley.

Here we are one Drake and almost three years later, and we finally had that margarita night at On the Border. Since I broke up with Jose Cuervo a long, long, LONG time ago, I settled on a mojito. Of course, I didn't realize that it was a Mexican mojito--that is, it had tequila, instead of rum. No me gusta. :(

So I handed that over to Tashie and enjoyed a Dos Equis Amber instead. :) We enjoyed catching up and girl talk and some Mexican food!

Then we decided to head over to Khalil's because Yousra is the daddy's daughter. *hahaha* Khalil's is FANTASTIC! It is very chill with nice lighting and furniture, lots of beer (over 80 different bottled beers, I believe) and yummy food. After Dan left, I went and picked up Zach so he could see for himself.

I can't wait to go back. (And you should go, too! :)

Thank you, ladies for a lovely night! We should definitely do it more often. :) Twink, we are going to the Saucer for some cheese fries! And Tashie, we love our gifts! Love y'all!

Here are some pictures of our night:

My Twink and My Tashie

Yousra had wanted to do a serious photo the picture before. Lord, I hope this is not the face I gave my professors... And I guess Tasha had a boogie?

This basically summarizes our friendship.

magic hands

hugsies

When we finally decided we were done taking silly photos, Tasha declared that she was glad because she was sitting on the bar and it hurt her bum!

Zach got in trouble with our crazy waitress Diane for having been at the Saucer instead. When he asked for water, she brought him this paper cup!

Sometimes my shutter doesn't open, but the pictures still turn out a-okay.

Tasha decided to try on the costumes from Khalil's float in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Thankfully we got her to stop after one, or we would have been there until four in the morning!

May Day 2010 = 25th Birthday

Zach and I started my birthday off at the Farmer's Market with Anne and her boyfriend Jordan. We had never been and were very excited to see how large it is! We got some lettuce for a salad and some tomatoes, onion, and pepper to put in our spaghetti this week. Zach wanted to buy some strawberries, but another shipment wasn't going to arrive for awhile and we knew we could get the same price at Whole Foods, so we skipped on them.

Then Monica joined us at Rivermarket Books and Gifts. I got a 1947 copy of Little Women! It is beautiful. :) I've been trying to collect copies of it, even though I hate to admit that I don't like the novel nearly as much as the films. But I've been really bad about getting copies, so I could NOT pass on this one.

with my 1947 copy of Little Women

Monica and her book pouch of Divine Secrets

Finally, we meandered down the street to the Saucer where I enjoyed a nice plate of cheese fries and my birthday beer (my new favorite Spaten Optimator Dopplebock). They had part of the front blocked off for the party, so we settled in some couches in the back. It didn't quite make for the best conversation, but I still think we had a nice time.

English girls reunited!!

Anne & Jordan-they're adorable!

Zach and I came home for a nap before dinner at Mike's Place. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture because we were running late and the weather was BAD. As we were walking (or rather, RUNNING) up to the restaurant, the tornado sirens were going off. All of the Toad Suckers were just standing there, gawking at the sky, although some were blocking the entrances to the restaurants along the street. At Mike's Place, a group of very unsophisticated people were smoking IN THE DOOR with their dogs. How nice. We were seated in the back, but they actually moved some of the people dining up front by the windows.

Leisl turned out to be our server, and she was awesome (as always)! We had to have some coconut shrimp, and for dinner we had raspberry chicken with broccoli and okra. I had a mojito, of course! Zach wasn't feeling too great, so he only ate three shrimp. I told him he was going to turn into one. :) And Leisl sent some turtle cheesecake home with us.

A perfect birthday night!

Master Ashley : )

As of April 23, 2010, I am officially a Master of Literature!! I passed comps AND my thesis defense!

I really cannot believe it. It took so much to get here. I am in shock that I passed everything, especially that last essay on comps, and that my thesis turned out so well. It was an emotionally-draining project.

Last night we went out to celebrate! We never really got to celebrate Zach's defense or even taking comps, so we wanted to have a really good time. We had a nice dinner and drinks (had multiple mojitos because of the great week I had and I'm really into mojitos now!), popped into Target for a bit (because we LOVE Target), and went to see Date Night. (We had a buy 1 ticket, get one free coupon. ;)

All in all, a wonderful celebration!