As I was blog hopping tonight, I ran across one entitled The Creative Notebook http://creativenotebook.com/. The day's entry is called Toot Your Horn Tuesday. Since I have been rather down on myself the last few days (weeks...), I thought I would take part. She said to simply list 10 things that you have accomplished in your life. Then she said:

"Now, take a look at that list. You did great! Look at all you’ve done with your life, with your time. You ROCK!!!!!!"

Well, I thought it might be a good idea for me to remember some of the things I have accomplished in my life, so here goes:

1. I graduated from high school. (Not really any big deal except that I am the only one of 5 children in my family that did it.)

2. Received my B.S. in Biology in 3 years after a 3 year sabbatical.

3. Received my M.S. in Biology with emphasis on Botany. Was within 2 months of graduating when my dad died unexpectedly. Almost gave it up.

4. Coordinated and ran the science fair for a school of 450+ below poverty level students.

5. Two years in a row had regional winners go to state competition in the Group category, where the previous 7 years had been won by a private school.

6. Took my mom on a Girls' Only Weekend trip to New Orleans.

7. Married a wonderful man.

8. Made a black velvet dress for a local entertainer without using a pattern.

9. Made clothes/quilts as all my Christmas gifts last year.

10. Still working on trying to figure out what goes at 10.

Tommy's Birthday at Bourbon House

What can be said about Tommy's birthday celebration at Bourbon House? Nothing really good...and for the price of dinner, that IS sad!!! We had to make reservations.....or so we were lead to believe. So we did.....for 8:30 pm Thursday, May 31st. Raf arranged to get off work early and Tommy had taken the day for his birthday. Raf walked to the restaurant and was already there when our cab got there. So we went in and were told that it would be about 5 minutes for our table to be ready. We decided to wait in the bar as the men wanted a beer. It is a really beautiful place with cool light fixtures, and grill work on the ceiling fans.
So here is Tommy and Raf waiting in the bar for our table.
Here is Raf falling asleep in the bar at 9:20 pm, while waiting for our table.
Tommy woke Raf up cause he was snoring:p
The last time Tommy and I went to Joann's, he picked out some fabric for me to make some clothes out of, for myself. He requested a blouse out of this material for this birthday. Well, here it is. Of course he didn't give me time to get ready to have my picture taken....like run.

Anyway, for a place that is supposed to have awesome steak, they only had one, a 14oz rib eye, on the menu....for $25. So the two men ordered that. I ended up with a $28 seafood platter. the catfish, shrimp, and crab claws were good but the oysters were not done enough. Don't get me wrong, I eat raw oysters. But I like them either fried or raw.....not some where in between. And would you believe the ONLY AND I DO MEAN ONLY vegetable they offered was french fries???? I mean come on, if I want fries I'll go to McD's....at least there I have a good chance of them being hot.
These are the lights and ceiling fans. The pic on the left was taken through a mirror that was by our table.

On the way out, I visited the ladies room. I know the other lady in there must have thought me strange. I took a picture of the tile floor. Hey, I think it's really pretty.

Something that was rather frustrating was that we past soooo many empty tables on the way to ours. And there were tables in the front of the restaurant that we could have sat at. By the time our waitress actually got around to taking our order, it was almost 10pm. I can guarantee we won't go back.

After we left the restaurant, we walked across the street to a little bar, like the ones that predominate Bourbon Street, and had another drink. By this time, the two guys were getting a little toasted, but they can never be faulted on their behavior. I had been drinking water all evening, as I don't drink, so I decided what the heck and ordered a frozen strawberry daiquiri. The first sip gave me brain freeze so I did little more than carry around til we got home and then I drank it as it melted.

We caught a cab and let me say what an experience that was. We generally take cabs when we go to dinner so no one has to be the designated driver and we don't have to deal with nonexistent parking by our house. We have always gotten really lucky and had very nice cabbies. Well, the one that brought us home, or to the corner closest to the house, was a trip. Every time we came to a stop light or sign, he fell asleep. Raf, sitting up front with him, had to keep waking him up and reminding of where we were going. Once we got off Decatur and into the Quarter, wrong turn, he kept wanting to let us out at each corner. We had to literally encourage him to go further, not this corner, but the next one.....one more and then turn left.....no.. your other left......now go to the stop sign.....stop sign, red metal piece with the word stop on it.....ok, we will get out here and walk the rest of the way....thank you so much...lol

Raf said that if he had spent one more minute beside that guy he would have been gagging. Apparently, he'd taken water rationing to the extreme.

Anyway, we all made it home safely. Tommy said he had a wonderful time cause he was with his wife, and his best friend.

Oh yeah, I finished the strawberry daiquiri around 2 am. I only had the one drink all evening. Man was I sick Friday morning....slept all morning after Tommy kindly got me Tylenol and refrained from saying I told you so as he tucked me back into bed. He really is a wonderful husband.

By the way, he is now 49 years old. Next year it will be the big 50. We will definitely chose a better restaurant!!!!!