Food, Wine, and Flights

A couple of weekends ago we had Food and Wine By the Bay at school--a fund raiser for the Salesian Summer Camp they do on campus each summer. Tickets were $40 each, but teachers got one for free. Now, I am certainly not above free food OR free wine, so, of course, I went. A few other teachers went too, as you can see from this photo:

We were happy. :) The food was pretty good, too--appetizers and hors 'd overs from all sorts of restaurants, most of which were delicious. Win! After, T and my neighbors and I went out to Gordon Biersch, a brewery downtown, and chilled for a while. There was a slight miscommunication (T went to hang with some MBAers but got the date wrong) but it turned out okay anyway.

In other news, last night Alishea, Bree-Anna, some other folks, and I went to see Flight of the Conchords at the Bank United Center on UM's campus. For anyone who doesn't know, FotC are "New Zealand's 4th most popular folk band" and have a show on HBO. They're basically two Kiwis who sing funny songs and are adorable.

Our seats were great (score one for me!) and the show was great--hilarious, quirky, intimate, and awesome. Now, for the documentation...

Here are Bree-Anna, Ali, and I at the show. I wore my Shakespeare shirt because I knew Jemaine would appreciate it. I love him!

The opening act was Kristen Schall, who plays Mel, the band's biggest--and only--true fan. She was pretty funny, and her comedy is different. She uses props, which I haven't seen much of, but she was pretty funny. Her special was just on Comedy Central last weekend, and I watched it, so that was pretty cool. I wasn't expecting that at all! I enjoyed her act, and we didn't even have to wait for the guys to come out after, they just walked right on. That. Was. KEY! I hate waiting around for the headliner to come out whil they switch all the equipment.

The guys came out with Robot heads on, very fitting if you know anything about them. The closest to the foreground is Jemaine, the furher away is Brett. Both are super cute, but Jemaine is my guy. :)

And here the guys are singing, sans robot heads and shiny coats. I don't remember the song but I'm sure it was funny.

The show was a great way to almost begin spring break, but it didn't officially start until 10 a.m. today. I stayed at school working and moving for about another hour, and now I'm home and getting ready to go. I'm almost all packed (this might be a record), Lancelot is washed and ready to head to his vacation home, and I'm working on cleaning up after myself so I can come home to cleanliness.

I take off at noon tomorrow and will get back the 18th at around 5. I'm excited! Costa Rica, here I come!

Much love.

Dance to the Music...

Team Austin Powers ROCKED SALTT Dance Marathon 2009! We were awesome and the ONLY team fully committed to our characters, I feel. I mean, let's get serious: I wore a bald cap for about 5 hours straight. It was sweaty and unpleasant, but I made a really... interesting and strangely beautiful Dr. Evil.

Check out the team:

There's "Vanessa Kensington," "Austin Powers," "Dr. Evil," and "Foxxy Cleopatra." Yeah baby!

And Lord knows Dr. Evil can do a mean Macarena...

And I was so good, Melanie was a little freaked out by me. I'm sure the children were afraid. Most people didn't even recognize me!

It was totally awesome. Granted, Team Austin Powers didn't bring home the championship, but everyone knows we won and, had we counted all our points properly, we could have. Melissa, the quintessential Team Captain and my high school alter ego, gave up the win. It was all for the best, though, because the winning team gave their prize money ($500) back to SALTT for Migrant Camp. Good for them.

What else have I been up to? I've been busy, that's for sure. My kids are doing research papers, so I've been pretty swamped with that. Last Saturday as a service project my church did a "Love Your Neighbor" weekend and went to South Miami High School to do a landscaping project. I'm covered in red ant bites, but the Red Team's section of the school looks great and I made a new friend. All in all, a great experience.

I also got a camera for my trip (I leave a week from tomorrow, woo hoo!!) and have been taking care of last minute stuff on weekends. Rico's also back with us for a bit, so he and Lancelot have been playing more. They actually played together the other day! It was really cute!

I'm trying to think of other exciting news but I'm drawing a blank. I'm sure I'll have tons to say after Costa Rica, though! Oh, and the FotC show is next Tuesday, which is pretty exciting. I'm sure it'll be hilarious!

Working slowly and surely on my sister's shower and bachlorette party plans but it's kinda tough from here. I just want it to be great for her!

Okay... Back to Lost. And then to bed.

Much love.