Weekend in Review

This was one of the best weekends I've had in a while. 

My brother works for Suntrust.  Suntrust is a sponsor for the Nashville Symphony.  For the concert series that are sponsored by Suntrust, employees may enter to win free tickets to the show.  M and I were talking a couple weeks-a month ago about how we'd like to go to the symphony.  Unfortunately, Shermerhorn Symphony Center was damaged in the May flood.  They won't start performing back at home until after the first of the year.  So we looked at the calendar and saw there were some good selections before 2011, but M had never been in Shermerhorn, so we decided to wait unless we could get tickets from my brother.  

Shermerhorn Concert Hall facade

Shermerhorn Concert Hall.  Breathtakingly gorgeous with phenomenal acoustics.

He entered for us, and won.  We got to go see the show Friday night at War Memorial Auditorium.  I absolutely love the conductor, Giancarlo Guerroro.  He is talented, enthusiastic, and humble.  He acknowledges approval, but prefers to dote the attention on the performers.  The pieces for the evening were Prelude to 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'  by Wagner, Symphony No. 36 in C major, KV 425 "Linz" by Mozart, and Brahm's Concerto for Piano No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83.  It was absolutely amazing.  The acoustics in War Memorial are not quite as awesome as Schermerhorn, but the symphony played beautifully.  I highly recommend catching a performance if you can afford it.  It's a wonderful experience.

After the show, we went home and went straight to bed.  We were both exhausted from a busy week and quite relaxed thanks to the peaceful melodies of the symphony.  Puppy-dog actually let us sleep in Saturday morning until 8:15.  I know this doesn't seem like sleeping in, but it's a whole hour+ more than normally get on Saturdays.  We woke up and fiddle-farted around.  We ate breakfast, showered and got dressed.  I ordered a coat on Amazon earlier in the week, so while we were eating breakfast, our racist Sally started barking at the door.  Fed-ex runs early on Saturdays.  I opened the package to discover that a) a medium coat wasn't gonna fit once I put on layers and b) they had sent me a black coat instead of the gray that I ordered.  So after we got ready, we set out to run some errands.  We took the coat to the post office to return it, picked up M's car at Firestone, ate lunch at Kalamata's (a Greek place in Brentwood,) and picked up M's prescription at Kroger.  Then we drove back home, dropped off my car, drove to the Melrose Kroger and picked up my prescription.  From there we drove to Mt. Juliet to hit the lake.

Adam and Heather were already out on the water, so they picked us up and we just boated around.  The weather was perfect for wearing light clothes and company.  Heather gets practically every magazine subscription you could ever want, so I spent the majority of the time catching up on my favorite celebs in People.  We discovered a weird rope swing hanging on this little island, so we eased the boat up, and Adam hoisted himself up to swing a bit.  We laughed, took, photos, and a video.  We were kinda nervous it wouldn't be sturdy and he'd fall in the water, which would've been equally amusing since none of us were wearing suits.

We found a nice little area to park the boat a bit, and dance/admire the fall foliage.  After a while, we headed back in.  M and I headed home, fed puppy-dog, and I headed to my parents house for festivities for the Third Saturday in October, an annual event in the Elmore family.  I am the only one out of four in my immediate family that did not attend the University of Alabama.  My brother's ridiculously smart, so he got plenty of out-of-state money to go, whereas my parents grew up in Alabama.  I, however, decided to defy all family tradition and attend Bama's rival, UT.  (I don't regret my decision in the least.)  So every year we watch the game together.  M went to dinner with his dad, and then they come over around half-time.  We proceeded to watch Vandy and UT lose.  Sad day.  It's also that Auburn is now ranked #1.  Yuck.  We had a good time with the fam, they're a hoot.  My childhood best friend, Amy, was home for fall break, so she came over for a little while, too.  M and I came home and again went straight to bed. 

Sunday we slept in again, piddled around, ate breakfast, showered, etc.  We were planning on going to the Gentry Farm because we still don't have pumpkins.  We attempted to make plans with Brittany, Jimmy, and Louis to go get pumpkins and do the corn maze.  Brittany was going to be busy all afternoon, so M and I decided to go shopping.  It was a great success.  Here's why...We went to TJ Maxx home goods in Brentwood.  I got a cute black and red dress and decided I could definitely utilize this cute bargain as my Halloween costume, too.  M got 4 button up shirts, a pair of dress pants, two ties, and six pairs of socks for under $120.  Talk about big-time winsauce.

After TJ Maxx, we hit up Boscos for some lunch.  Turns out, on Sundays Boscos has brunch until 3pm.  M got a spicy Bloody Mary (blech!) and smoked salmon omelet (double blech.)  I got a double Mimosa and a Belgian waffle with a fruit cup.  We tried a sampler size each of the Stock Ale.  It was light and refreshing.  Nothing like boozin' it up on a Sunday afternoon while shopping.  I love our impromptu Sunday afternoons.  So then we jump started a lady in the parking lot and headed to Party City where I hurriedly picked out some mouse ears because I'm going to be Minnie Mouse!  From Party City we headed to the mall.  M found some great jeans and a new belt at Banana Republic.  They had a 25% off sale and he had a $10 off coupon.  Then we headed to Gap where I found a dress that I liked, and M convinced me to buy it.  It's not my typical purchase, but I managed to save 30% on it by finally being approved for a credit card.  I have been trying to get a credit card for the past year and a half.  Success.  Then I found a cute scarf at a kiosk outside of Gap.  I am a sucker for scarves.

We headed home to feed puppy-dog and relax a bit.  We left to meet Jimmy, Brittany and Louis at Cabana in Hillsboro Village for 2 for 1 drafts and 2 for 1 pizzas.  We had a great time on the outdoor patio.  M and I each took Louis for separate walks, and by the time Jimmy took his turn, the bottom dropped out.  M, Britt and I headed inside to finish our beers while Louis and Jimmy waited in the car.  It was a shame our evening was cut short.  We headed home quickly to avoid potential tornadoes.  

Once we got home, M and I finished disc 1 of season 1 of Mad Men and went to bed.  The weekend was great, and when my alarm went off this morning, I was so confused.  I just wanted to stay curled up and warm since it was still kinda dark and drizzly outside. 

M was sweet enough to get my car in the rain last night, and for some reason he switched keys with me to do this.  This morning, I thought nothing of it, had been at work for about 15 minutes when M called and asked if I had his keys.  I had to drive all the way back home to give him his keys.  No bueno.

All in all, great weekend!  Can't wait to carve pumpkins this week and for our Halloween party next weekend!