Hotlanta

For Father's Day weekend, JJ and I put Barney in the car and headed down to visit JJ's aunt and uncle in ATL. JJ is done with OTAs (organized team activities) for the summer, so now his workout schedule is flexible and we are free to travel a little bit. We will for sure take advantage of that.

We went down on Saturday and spent the afternoon at the pool. It has been ridiculously hot in the south so far this summer, combine that with the humidity, and a trip to the pool was necessary.

One of our goals is to visit as many major league ballparks as possible, so we thought we would take advantage of our trip to Atlanta and go to a Braves game. One of JJ's friends plays for the Braves so it was a bonus to get to see him play! It was also an awesome surprise that he was able to hook us up with tickets on such short notice. We had great seats right behind home plate about 25 rows up, in the family section. I won't lie, I had fun checking out what all the baseball wives were wearing and seeing what they were like. They game itself was really good and it ended with a walk off home run, which I had never seen before.

Enjoying Turner Field

Tickets courtesy of this guy. Thanks Eric!

On Sunday, we went downtown to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke. It was a fun way to spend a hot day. The aquarium was impressive, you wouldn't expect something like that in the middle of Atlanta. My favorite was the otters, they were so cute while they were playing. We also had fun tasting all of the different Coke brands from all over the world. We don't drink soda really ever, so we were both on sugar overload after the first few tastes.

After we finished downtown, we drove around (a.k.a. got lost in) Buckhead for a bit before stumbling on the Buckhead Diner. Not your typical diner; they had fabulous gourmet food in a fun atmosphere. I would love to go back for dinner one day.

We finished the weekend off with a Father's Day BBQ back at the house. We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Pawleys Island

Another event that I failed to blog about in a timely matter...our trip to Pawleys Island, SC.

JJ was invited to participate in a charity golf tournament (benefiting AMI Kids-Georgetown) near Myrtle Beach. For us it was a no brainer. Beautiful location, helping out a great cause, golf and an excuse to go away for the weekend! Sold.

We were very excited about our upcoming trip and mentioned it to JJ's parent when we were visiting in Phoenix. I was explaining that JJ was invited to play in a celebrity golf tournament that next weekend and his mom got really excited. We explained that one "celebrity" would join each four-some for the tournament. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:

Carla: "Oooh! How fun! Who will the celebrity be?"

Me: "Well...JJ is one of the celebrities."

Carla: "Oh...I thought it was going to be like...a Jonas brother."

I couldn't help but laugh, but I think the funniest part was that her "go-to" celebrity was a Jonas brother. Not sure which one, but you know, one of the three. We are definitely using the term "celebrity" pretty loosely, but that is the term used for most of the appearances JJ does.

Anyway, back to our weekend at the beach. We stayed in the condos at True Blue golf course and the tournament was at the sister course, Caledonia. Both course are listed as one of the Top 100 Public Courses in America. They were both beautiful courses, and JJ thought Caledonia was one of the best he has ever played on. My favorite part was the clubhouse, it is a beautiful old plantation that screams "Welcome to the South!"

JJ made some connections the night before the tournament and was placed on a team with some phenomenal golfers. Besides being great golfers, they were just really good guys and so fun to get to know! Another bonus, JJ's team finished tied for 1st.

Look at that swing!

Another bonus, getting to meet Hall of Famer, Tony Dorsett

We were lucky enough to get some recommendations from the locals for places to eat and ended up having dinner at Bistro 217 and then headed over to the famous Frank's Outback for dessert. We had great food at both places, but next time we go back I want to eat dinner at Frank's, their atmosphere is just so fun and they have a beautiful patio.

Sunday we headed to the store, bought a paddle ball set, two beach towels and some sunscreen and hit the beach. I loved how un-touristy it was. We would love to go back someday for a longer period of time. It would be a great place to rent a beach house for a week if you want to avoid the crowds of Myrtle Beach. And now we have friends there!

Playing Catch Up!

Oops! I guess its been a while since I last wrote anything. Where to begin...?

The last thing I wrote about was NASCAR, and I'm sure it was what everyone was dying to read about. What I forgot to mention was the week before the race JJ and a few other teammates got to participate in the Pit Crew Challenge. All the guys had different jobs (JJ was pre-assigned the role of Gas Man...ironic, no?) and they had to compete against other "crews" made up of people from all the local news stations. It was really fun to watch and see what the real pit crews do, and I got to sit in one of the cars. After I spent about 5 minutes wedging myself in through the window (no doors on these cars), working my way around the steering wheel I started to panic wondering how on earth I was going to get myself out, if it was that difficult to get in. That's about the time that Tyler came over and showed me how to remove the steering wheel. that would have been good to know before I started.

Memorial Day weekend we had house guests, the newly engaged Katie and Brian. They were in town for a wedding, and we got to play during their down time. It worked out perfectly! Barney was not happy when they left though. He and Brian developed quite a special bond, and Barney decided that just JJ and I were no longer good enough. Glad we got to celebrate their engagement with a night out in Charlotte. We went to Mama Ricotta's for dinner (a-ma-zing), Strike City for bowling and then Blackfin for drinks. Katie also got me hooked on a new drink, sweet tea vodka with water and lemon. Nothing screams "I live in the South!" like sweet tea vodka. Thank you Firefly for this delicious invention.

One of the wives on the team had an 80's themed birthday party so JJ and I had an excuse to get all dressed up. It brought back great memories of living in the Theta House, scrambling to put together a great outfit the day of the event. I will say this, it was SHOCKINGLY easy to put together an 80s outfit browsing the racks at Target. I really could have made 10 outfits! I guess fashion is cyclical. The party was complete with an 80s ipod playlist, a magician, and TAB soda. We had so much fun. The best part was seeing all the outfits, I was quite impressed with the creativity of our friends.

I think that is all for now. I am going through my camera trying to remember what has been going on for the last month. I will come up with more tomorrow.

NASCAR

We live in Charlotte. Charlotte is the home of NASCAR. We live in the home of NASCAR.

In order to embrace our new city and experience something new, we went to the All-Star Race on Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Well, to be honest, this was not really my first NASCAR experience. I did visit Texas Motor Speedway once during college, courtesy of the Henry Family. But, regardless, this was JJ's first experience and being the avid sports fan that he is, he was pumped.

As usual, our wardrobe was a major concern in the preparation for this event. Having some knowledge of the typical attire for an event like this, I threw on jean shorts (jorts) and a t-shirt. Granted the shorts were j. crew and the shirt was Banana Republic, but whatever. JJ had gone golfing earlier in the day and decided to keep his frat boy/golf attire on. Sooo not NASCAR. Once we arrived, JJ quickly realized he was overdressed. Something that has never happened before.

Let me set the scene for those of your not fortunate enough to have experienced NASCAR for yourself. Tens of thousands of fans started tailgating at 9 am. The beer is still flowing when we got to the parking lot at 6 pm. People are starting to stumble towards the track. It seems no one has ever heard of sunscreen, the rednecks are even redder now. It was a warm day, and apparently no one had ever heard of deodorant either. I tried to keep track of the mullets, but lost count after 5 minutes. There is a smoky haze covering the entire area, as everyone is chain smoking cheap cigarettes. Very few sleeves on shirts and very few teeth in the mouths. The aggregate weight of the die hard fans in attendance is equal to the GDP of Canada (google it).

All in all it is a tapestry of unflattering stereotypes.

My favorite fan of the night was a man sitting two rows in front of us chain smoking his Doral cigarettes. After about 2 hours he started alternating drags on his cigarettes, with puffs from his inhaler. Hey buddy, I bet I can guess what caused your respiratory problems. (America, THIS is what is wrong with our health care system)

The race itself was actually really fun to watch. The All-Star race is only 100 laps as opposed to next week's Coke 600. I don't think there is any way I could stay interested for 600 laps (update- I was just informed that it is actually 600 miles, not laps, still probably not going to stay focused though). I told JJ mid-race that whoever won the race would become my favorite driver and I would follow him faithfully for the rest of his career (or until I forget to care). Lucky for me it was the Miller Lite car that won, my domestic beer of choice. So it's kind of like I am already part of the team, as I have invested in the sponsor for years.

All in all, our NASCAR date night was a success. I would totally go back next year. I will just have to remember to bring my own clean air to breathe.

Afternoon Delight

In the Bliss family, the motto has always been, "Call the police first, ask questions later." I have two stories to share.

One evening a few months back while I was visiting my parents there was a full moon. It seems that every time there is a full moon a Native American man, who I assume lives in the area, goes over to the neighborhood park and plays his drum until late at night. It is a residential neighborhood and after about 10:00 pm it gets rather annoying hearing the boom, boom, boom. I respect his right to celebrate his beliefs however he chooses, but there are plenty of nature preserves and remote desert spaces far away from people trying to get some sleep for that. So my dad called the police, and the first thing out of his mouth to the dispatcher was, "The last of the Mohicans is banging his drum too loudly over in Butler Park." The dispatcher had to control her laughter before getting the rest of my dad's statement.

Wednesday, while my sister and I were doing a workout in the same park, we noticed a couple over in the opposite corner getting a little too friendly. It started as a make-out session, but after our next set of sprints we noticed that they had moved on to the ground. Keep in mind it was 3:30, on a Wednesday, in broad daylight, less than 100 yards from a playground full of kiddos. Completely horrified, my sister stops our workout to run home to call the cops. She walks in to my parents house, out of breath, and calmly asks for the non-emergency number for the police. Her first words to the dispatcher were, "Hi, I would like to report a couple fornicating in Butler Park." After the laughter from the dispatcher subsided, she asked my sister, "Why are you out of breath?" Carolyn gave her the rest of the information and hung up.

We had a little left in our workout so we started walking back over to the park. By the time we were rounding the corner, a Chevy Tahoe (Ta-HOE, fitting isn't it?) police car was jumping the curb and driving straight through the park directly at the couple. The couple didn't notice until the car was about 15 feet away, and we watched the guy literally dive off the girl and try to crawl away. Once homeboy had pulled his pants back up, the officers separated them and asked for their IDs and I am assume asked them why they thought this location was an appropriate choice for mid-day canoodling.

I think we should find anoher park to hang out in.

Quail Hollow

Sometimes life is all about who you know, and oh boy do we know some really cool people. One of JJ's teammates and his girlfriend know several players/caddies on the PGA tour, so when the tour came to town we got to know some of them too!

On Thursday, we walked the course, saw all of her friends play/caddie and enjoyed perfect weather. I can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon. Usually, I will use any excuse to be outside.

As, great as Thursday was, Sunday was even better. One of their caddie friend's didn't make the cut, so he had Saturday and Sunday off. He graciously spent his day off giving us the pro experience at the tournament. I won't lie, I felt pretty big time when we drove up and used the player and caddie valet right at the clubhouse (it sure as heck beat using the shuttle buses or walking a mile or two in the crazy southern humidity).

Yes, feeling big time was cool, but probably the best part was listening to our new caddie friend (I don't use names to protect the innocent) explain what each player was probably thinking during their shots. I am no golf expert, so being with one made the day far more interesting. There is so much strategy involved! We got to hear funny stories about some of the other guys on tour, and understand what life on tour is like. He even pointed out a few of the players' wives who were walking the course like the rest of the general public. (I am always curious what it is like to be married to professional athletes in other sports. Well to be honest, I am always curious to see what they wear too, haha)

So a good day was had by all. We learned a lot and I will never look at a caddie the same way again. They do so so so much more than just carry the bags.

Neighbors

We have the most adorable neighborhood kids ever. We met them because our 80 pound golden retriever Barney is obsessed with their 12 pound pug/pekingese mix Myrtle. They play together and wrestle. Sometime Myrtle's entire head is in Barney's mouth, but he is so gentle with her. Other times, Myrtle leaps off the couch to get on Barney's back because its the only way she can get that high. It is hard to get a picture of them together because they are usually moving around too much, but I did get a quick pic while they took a break. See don't they look like twins? They're actually only a few weeks apart in age.

Size comparison

As funny as it is to watch them play, that was not the point of this story. Myrtle is cute, but the kids (there are 7 of them) are even cuter. A few weeks back we went over to their house for a puppy play date and the second youngest kiddo's birthday. I brought over some cookies, and as soon as she saw them her eyes got really big. "Are those cookies?" she asked. My response was "Yes! They are birthday cookies and they've got your name all over them!"

It didn't occur to me that this term might not be on 6 year old level until when she was passing out the cookies to her brothers and sisters. "Everyone gets one cookie, but look at it really close to see if it has my name on it before you eat it. Those are mine."

Her mom and I burst out laughing and she looked so confused. Try explaining the term "figure of speech" to a six year old on her birthday. Next time I will buy some frosting and come prepared.