Visit: Churchill Downs

The second half of the weekend took us to the track, in celebration of Steve’s mom’s (belated) birthday. As a little girl who watched “National Velvet” more times than the VHS could handle, I was very excited to see Churchill and my first horse races. I was a little less excited when I found out the dress code didn’t require oversized hats.

We had seats in an outdoor box right at the finish, and a table inside in the dining room. Best of both worlds. We entertained ourselves by rotating continually through the buffet, the betting windows, the paddock and back to the box for the races. I can’t even imagine what the place is like on Derby day, but that has certainly climbed into my lifetime Top 10 “To-Do’s.” Contingent on air conditioning and a private box of course.

I won a $11.30 on the day on a box trifecta. Still not quite sure what that means, but who cares? I WON (something).

Visit: The Bourbon Trail

The Bourbon Trail is this magic place in the Kentucky hills where the moonshine business actually became a tourist attraction. In the midst of several dry counties (remember, Kentucky is a horrible state), you can go tour distilleries, taste the products and load up with memorabilia. Caters to a unique crowd.

So on Saturday, we headed south from Louisville. With six of us in tow, we made three stops – Makers Mark, Heaven Hill and Jim Beam. Getting there proved to be more than half the adventure, but the weather was beautiful, the tours were informative, and the “white dog” basically gave me more respect for our historical moonshining descendants. Also completely burned off my taste buds.

Maker’s:

Heaven Hill:

Jim Beam:

Three distilleries down, three more to go to complete the trail. As if the tasting themselves weren’t wonderful motivation, you get a little passport to have “stamped” at each of your stops. A full passport? Earns a FREE t-shirt. We sure as hell can’t pass that up, so a return trip will be planned shortly.

Weekend, briefly

As Steve so rightly put it: “We had a weekend for us.” And so, we filled it with all the people and things we love best.

And while I may not actually love Kentucky, it did provide a perfect weekend playground. We spent our Saturday touring three distilleries on the Bourbon Trail, and made a trip to Churchill Downs for some racing on Sunday.

A return trip is already in the making. Please don’t be concerned however, as I am not calling a truce with Kentucky. After all, this is the state that brought us the Wildcats and doesn’t serve alcohol until 1:00 on Sundays. Redeemed, but still (almost) total rubbish.

Things To Ignore:

Roommates. I now have one.

My husband’s younger brother is living with us for six weeks while he takes a physics class in summer school. One week into the deal, and already I realize just how spoiled I have become. I can’t share the TV. I hate having someone listening in the other room as I huff and puff on the elliptical. I want to walk around in my underwear. I cannot serve queso as dinner. Sucks.

I’m such a whiny white girl.

P.S. Love you Brett!

God-Parenthood

We were pretty darn thrilled a couple of weeks ago when Steve’s best friend (affectionately PeeWee) called to ask us if we’d stand up at his daughter’s baptism as her godparents. I know I actually shrieked. Little Leah Jane is 7 months old and she is the FIRST baby that I love, adore and otherwise allow to spit-up on me.

Let me step back and note that I’m not really a baby person. There is always someone in the room who is waaaaaay more into little infants than I am, and that person normally hogs the child and mother. Fine with me. I’m also super freaked out by first-time moms, who are typically ridiculous with their you’re-not-holding-the-baby-the-right-way-I-swear-you’re-stunting-his-growth-and-future-Harvard-admission-chances. I’m no professional, so that usually leaves me talking to the family dog when a new baby makes an appearance. However, I decided to change my tune for Leah.

Lucky for me, Leah’s mother is about the most natural mom you’ve ever met, which may also be helped by the fact she’s a trained labor and delivery nurse. She was quick to coach me through holding the baby, feeding the baby and otherwise pretending that I wasn’t totally inept around the baby. I love her for this. I also love that her daughter is perhaps the most well-behaved infant EVER, and therefore makes it pretty easy to become mildly obsessed.

So early in May, we became godparents to our favorite little girl. Please observe the very godmother-ly outfit I wore above. I’m not Catholic, but I’m pretty sure I have the godmother “look” nailed here. Also, if your godmother didn’t wear grey satin Coach wedge heels with gold trim at your baptism, I’m not sure she really loves you.

We’re looking forward to many, many happy years celebrating with Leah, and becoming the crazy Aunt and Uncle she just can’t quite get enough of.

Bring May Flowers

There may be a lot of old people around here, but the ones who lived in our house before us certainly did a nice job of landscaping in our backyard. The April showers did us good.

The True Beginning

Today was the official start of summer as far as I’m concerned. Forget the calendar, there are other methods of calculation for such important events.

Living in a small college town, almost half of our normal population is made up of students. I mean, we wouldn’t get an Olive Garden with only 40,000 permanent residents, but really. It’s SO awesome when they leave. Finals were over this afternoon and graduation ceremonies started. Lines of minivans and U-Hauls were lined up heading out-of-town, and I couldn’t help but grin like a crazy as I drove past in the opposite direction.

After a fall full of cut off t-shirts and leggings, a winter full of North Face and Uggs and a spring full of neon and fanny packs, I’m quite happy to watch it all depart. The joy of living among those pulling all nighters and studying for a semester’s worth of slacking off when you are no longer enrolled in classes can only be topped by the sheer glee of watching their little Hondas loaded to the brim with every worldly belonging headed out-of-town.

Thanks, I’d love to have my town back.

How I am an idiot, Part I:

I was somehow able to disconnect both our internet and our DirecTV service in one fell swoop earlier this week. Still haven’t quite figured that one out. Several days offline, at home? Not for the faint of heart! Thank the good Lord I downloaded Sonic the Hedgehog (3!) for Wii before this catastrophe hit.

Back to regularly scheduled programming ASAP. Which means, possibly sporadic posting. About crap no one cares to read.