Merry Christmas

Christmas is finally here!! Now while I'm looking forward to all the good eats and spending time with family and friends,  I am not looking forward to all the traveling.  Waco, Austin and San Antonio at some point in the next five days...post will be minimal but I'll come back in a major way to close out the year. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  Enjoy yourself but be smart and safe!

-House

You've got mail

Look at what came in the mail ...a scale and some arm & hammer.! ...Just in time for Christmas!!

dope!

Benihana with my lil' mama!

Benihana happy hour...1/2 priced rolls!

my new favorite!

The weekend baby!

This past weekend proved to be just what I needed to bounce back.  If you recall, last time I checked in I was having a very shitty week. But I was right back on track after a combination of the wifey being in town for two weeks hanging out with friends, alcohol and Mexican food. So here's a weekend recap...

Friday

We hit up Danie and Kris's House warming/Christmas party.  It was pretty cool...met some new people, made some new friends and ate some good food.

 

party patrons

After they chased each other for 3 hours, they needed a break.

 

 That's a big ass tree!

 

 "Apples to Apples" [note: its WAAAAY more fun when alcohol is involved].

Saturday

Sleep until 12, left the house at 3 to do some shopping.  Went to my new favorite store, J.Crew and saw this guy with a fresh sweater that inspired this post.  Ran into Briscoe and Melinda at the mall and decided to do lunch with them.  Hung out with them for 8 hours (!) and ended the night at Baby A's watching the Cowboys beat the Saints!

Sunday

More of the same from Saturday.  Went to hoop with Briscoe and Melinda (we murdered 'em!!) and ended the night with more shopping and Pluckers.

Ahhh good [relaxing] times!

Nice sweater

The latest blog I wrote for work!  To see more check our blog at Austingoodwill.blogspot.com



One of my favorite things to do when I'm not at work is to spread Goodwill's mission...and shop!  So when I have the opportunity to do both...Yahtzee! 

This weekend the wife and I were doing some holiday/personal shopping at J.Crew when I saw a guy wearing a sweater that I thought was pretty awesome! The conversation, as best as I can remember it, went a little something like this:

Me: I like your sweater! It's awesome.
Sweater guy: Thanks! I've been getting so many compliments about this sweater, I bet you can't guess where I got it?
Me: No, where? [my wife, who was standing in a few feet away, said Goodwill]
SG: Goodwill.
Me: What?! That's crazy! I work for Goodwill!
Girl SG was talking to:  Really?! I'm so jealous! I bet you get the first pick at all the stuff that comes through, huh?
Me: Well I don't work in a store, I work at the main office.  And the employees that work in the stores can't purchase any of the items in their store.
Girl SG was talking to: Oh. really?
Me: Nope. Never ever.  They have to go shop at another store.

[Note: The conversation ended before I could explain why store employees can't shop at their own stores but I told sweater guy that his picture would be on our blog so I'll explain now. 

The reason why employees aren't allowed to shop at their own store is a way that helps us dispel notions like the girl the sweater guy was talking to.  If our customers think that all the Goodwill employee get all the good stuff first then they'll stop coming to our stores, which hurts our earnings, which hurts funding to our Workforce Development programs.  That's what it means when you hear "we put people to work."  The money that we make from our retail stores goes to fund programs that help people find employment.]

I've been working here for a year and 12 days now, and I can't remember a time when I've gone out, work-related or not, and I didn't end up talking about Goodwill in some way.  Whenever I tell people that I work at Goodwill they always have some many questions and I never turn away from an opportunity to educate.  So here's to you sweater guy! Thanks for being so cooperative about letting me take your picture and thank you for putting people to work.

TGI[almost]F..

This week had definitely been the shittiest week of my entire year.  We had a great company Holiday party on sunday but between setup and MC'ing the entire party, it was extremely exhausting. Monday-Thursday proved to be equally as exhausting between work and Christmas shopping... ok, enough complaining!

Today after work I had to hit up IKEA to pick up some easels for my nieces.  I hate going without having an idea of what I'm looking for because when I do I usually spend hours trapped in there but today I got in and out in 15 minutes...sweeeet!

After that I hit Grapevine Market to pick up some wine for a party we're going to tomorrow.  I'm in desperate need of a party right about now!

"Grey Goose" Christmas tree

[6] "bottles of Goose, that's Geese!" -Weezy

Fu-ki plum! [Look familiar?]

Friday's just hours away....

What's in your wallet?!!

An early chri'mas present from the wifey...

I got my drank and my 2-step!!

Tonight is the night of our company Holiday Party, which is kinda like a big deal.  It's been 4 months since we started planning this thing and it's finally here.  The process has definitely been a stressful one but the final product should will be flawless.  Now, I just completed my first year here but somehow I ended up being "elected" chairman of the planning commitee [brushes the last bit of dirt off] so I had to make sure to set it off right!  We have over $3000 worth of prizes including 2 HDTV's [one of which I'm trying to go home with!] plus a dope DJ [No Rapid Ric], casino games, drinks and free food!  I'm getting ready to head over the hotel now to make sure eveything is a go.  Since I'm Mc'ing I probably won't be snapping many, if any, pics but I'll try to sneak in a few just for the blog.

Peace.

"Fame is a drug"

Dope Couture released the "Fame" tee early fall but I missed out on it!  [It made it's first debut in Drake's "Successful" video [around 1:38].  So when I got wind of their scheduled re-release, I had to jump on it!

Check out the Dope Couture shop

Zilker Tree Festival

The weekend brings a break from work as well as quality time with the wifey.  Last night we hit up Baby A's with CB & Melinda and today we took part in the annual Zilker Tree Holiday Festival.

peep the pics...

Lucy getting ready for her first race

Mother-Daughter [sock] pic

family photo!

Zilker Tree

beauty is her name...

THIS is a lone reason to run the race!  Enjoying a bag of fresh Kettle Korn after a 3 mile run is pure bliss!

!!!!!

and funnel cake!

Money shot!

What you [be] sippin' on?! What's in that white cup?!!

Space Jam J's!

December 23rd...

Yeah Buddy!

Hilarity!!

This is pure comedy!!

TGIF

Finally it's here!! Friday, the weekend...a break! This week went by suuuuuper slow and I was definitely struggling to make it to the end.  At this point in the year, I'm too tired to give 100% at anything I'm involved in.  At least after next weeks finals, I'll be on a break from school for a couple of weeks.  One more year...then Grad school!

Intensity x3

camera phone pt2

Look at that rock!

Someone ran into the neighbors fence and by the looks of this, the fence lost!

Lol see thru fence!

Intensity

Hot Date!

Had a hot date last night with the misses.  We hit up this restaurant that Sandra Bullock owns called Bess, off of West 6th.  I was really expecting it to be more upscale than it was but the atmosphere was still pretty cool.  The food was great but the service was terrible.  Afterward, we hit up The Cheesecake Factory for some dessert...that never gets old!

Peep the pics:

Cheeeese!

We in here!

        

      

        

         

Grrrrr!

        

delicious!