Tornadoes, Unseasonably Cold Weather, and a Heat Wave? Oh My.

It's been a fairly busy couple of weeks since my last post!  This weekend we have literally done nothing, so now's the perfect time for a little catch up post!  :-)
The weekend after the 4th, my dad and Sondra came into town from Louisiana for a visit.  It was so nice to have them here!  We definitely don't get to spend as much time together as we'd like (flights to New Orleans ain't cheap), so we really enjoyed the weekend.  When we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do for the weekend we really only had one stipulation...nothing outside!  It's just too darn hot these days.  So, that put Carowinds, the White Water Center, Crowder's Mountain, and the like all out of the picture.  Here's the kicker though...there was literally nothing going on in Charlotte that weekend.  NOTHING.  No concerts, no shows, no events, no festivals, no nothing.  It was like everybody went all out for the 4th of July and then took a week off!  After a little brainstorming, we came up with a busy little weekend. 

Once they were in town, we headed uptown for lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery, and then went to Discovery Place for the IMAX movie Tornado Alley.  Now, I am terrified of weather.  Seriously.  If I wake up in the middle of the night during a storm, Buddy and I have to get up and investigate.  So, I figured this movie would either comepletely terrify me or would make me feel better about storms because I'd be more informed.  :-)  It did neither.  It wasn't necessarily what we thought it was going to be.  We figured there's be some pretty serious "in the middle of the tornado" business.  Mostly, it was a documentary about some folks making a documentary.  Good times.  Plus, the film was a little jumpy so I was worried I may have a seizure at any moment.  Anywho...since we were there, we figured we'd take a spin aound Discovery Place.  We really had a lot of fun!  Who says that place is built for kids??

That night, we hung around the house, barbecued some chicken for dinner, and nearly peed our pants giggling so hard playing Music Catchphrase.  The next day, Dad and Barrett went out to play a round of golf while Sondra and I went for mani/pedis and to the book store.  Perfect day.  :-)  For dinner, we went out to Chima for dinner.  It's a Brazilian steakhouse uptown that we'd been talking about trying for dinner some time.  If you're into meat, this is the place.  Barrett says it's a glorified all you can eat buffet.  There's a big salad bar and then servers come around with varying cuts of meat (lamb, pork, filet, salmon, etc...) and slice you off a hunk until you're so full you can barely breathe.  Perfect place for my dad...the meat/potato/bread man.  The weekend went way too fast...we're already looking forward to our next visit.

Last weekend, I was in Lake Lure, NC for Kristi's bachelorette party!  We had a BLAST!  The weather was pretty much Debbie Downer for the weekend.  It figures...the one weekend we'd like to sweat it out and get some sun...we get clouds and 75 degrees.  Oh well.  We didn't let it rain on our parade!!  Poor Lake Lure though.  I'm not quite sure they'd ever experienced the likes of us!  I think the typical crowd is old folks and families!  Good thing we made friends with the manager of the restaurant.  :-)  They were like, "Hmmm...you guys are fun, and we like you, but we're not really sure what to do with you."  Either way, we rocked Lake Lure's world.  I am so, so excited for Kristi and Chris!!  Can't wait to do more celebrating next month!

View from our condo.

Just a little stroll down the mountain.

Dinner Cruise around the lake.  Super fun...and educational too!

Site where Dirty Dancing was filmed!

Baby's Stairs

Pretty sure this is illegal.  Bartender told me to do it.  Whatever.

Now...we're just trying to survive this heat!  Holy Moly!  I mean...I know that in January I was silently begging for warm weather...but this isn't warm weather!  It's a blazing inferno!  You know it's too hot outside when it's too hot to go to the pool.  Really.  Barrett's been keeping cool by holing himself up in the guest bedroom studying for the Series 7 Exam.  He even packed himself a lunch yesterday...to take upstairs.  :-) 

Side note - I got approved to take courses as a non-degree student in the University of Southern Mississippi Graduate Program.  :-)  I won't officially apply for the Masters in Child & Family Studies Program till March, but hopefully getting approved to take these classes before I'm admitted to the program is a good sign that I will get accepted in the Spring.  Either way, it's one step forward to getting my Masters.  :-)

Hope you all are staying cool and hydrated!