Caddie Shack III

Every golfer (I think human) should know that Caddyshack was the best golf movie ever made. They should also know that eight years later the worst golf movie ever made was released, Caddyshack II. Sorry Rodney Dangerfield, there is a reason that comedic geniuses Bill Murray and Chevy Chase didn't sign on for the second installment. It sucked.

On that note, allow me to introduce you fine people with a real caddie shack. Emphasis on the "shack." This is out at a little muni course in Chaguaramas, Trinidad.

Walk the walk, while talking

My friend and I are determined to get back into shape with the goal of completing one strenuous physical activity per day. Most days we play golf (walking and carrying our own clubs), play two hours worth of hard-core tennis, or find something else active to do like swimming laps. Monday we decided to walk. Look how sunny my disposition was before we got rained on. Captain Lulu Walks Alot.

Here is Shannon walking. Notice the incline. We were walking up a road popular in Port of Spain for cycling, running and walking. At 2.2 steep miles to the top, Lady Chancellor Road is the perfect start to getting in shape. Or so we thought.


The start of our walk began at Queen's Park Savannah, the "Central Park" of Trinidad. That large grassy area in the picture below is the park. Yeah, that's where we started. Others like to stay in the park and play cricket and football (soccer) while we crazy ladies haul our cookies up some steep road using only our feet. Suckers.



And then we went even higher. Lady Chancellor Road dead ends at an area called, Lookout Point. More like make out point, right guys? Well, the only people up there Monday were a bunch of old ladies stretching there gloits and dloits. How romantic.

Below you see me trying to scare incoming rain clouds away with my huge guns. At least my dad tells me they're big. He even asks others to feel them while I flex. Jealous much?


Apparently the clouds were not impressed by my bulging biceps and soaked us anyway.

Cousins

BF's cousin, Cat, sweetly visited us last month and I just recently got my camera back (left it at a friend's) that had all of our adventures on it. If it is cold or rainy wherever you are, please enjoy these sunny scenes.

Fun on the golf course. I promise that while I am happy to see you that is just a golf ball in my pocket.

Cat totally got a Trini proposal from our caddie, Nigel.

Nigel loves the ladies. Look at him, just claimed his undying love to Cat and is already hanging on our friend, Shannon. Player.

Out on the town.

New friends.

Maracas Beach.

This is how they get coconuts down from the trees. One guy shimmies all the way to the top and puts a rope around the bunch. Then this guy down below pulls them all down. These trees are really tall and the skinny little guy climbs up without anything besides the rope and the pair of shorts he's wearing.

Cat was managing the situation to make sure that everything was up to code. She is good like that.

Thanks for visiting Trinidad, Cat! See you back in Dallas.

Common Ground

As some of you know, I worked for the Bush Administration during my time in Washington. I will let you interpret my political leanings from that bit of information. The current President and myself do not see eye-to-eye on, let's be honest, anything. Until now.

It would seem that POTUS loves him some pie. A senior White House adviser has reported that it is the President's weakness. I'm right there with you, buddy. I love pie so much that I dedicated an entire room to the delicious dessert at my wedding in November.


Pie unites us all in peace and harmony. Okay, maybe not. But at least it unites us in yummy noises and calories.


Maybe the world will be right again. All we need is pie. Preferably pie from The Pantry in McKinney, TX.

Whole songs have been written about pies. My mom reminded me of Andie McDowell's tribute from the movie Michael. My favorite is from the film, Waitress with Kerri Russell. I will sing my little ones to sleep with this song of "strawberry love" one day.

My Hero

My sweet nephew, Owen.

This picture makes me want a baby...and a cape.

Sea Horses

In a post earlier this week I told ya'll about our trip to the beach. One stop that I didn't tell you about was our visit to the horse farm. Our friends that we were traveling with have a couple of colts that were recently born here and we stopped to see them.

This place was basically a horse nursery. Most of these horses were race horses at one time and many of their babies will soon be. Each of the stalls below had either fresh new babies or had a very pregnant uncomfortable mama t0-be inside.

They're like big dogs and liked to be petted. I like my nose rubbed too.

This little guy was my favorite. I call him Gus.

Trinidad as The Cheat

To all my Homestar Runner friends out there, hewwo. Those of you who have no idea what I'm referring to, go here. Now. Hurry up!

Me and Homestar go back to my college days. We were tight. Many nights were spent with my friends (Mayes, that's you) hovering around the computer enjoying (peeing in our pants) Homestar Runner's antics and Strong Bad's emails.

Lucky for me, my husband doesn't think I'm a huge dork for enjoying harmless Internet cartoon fun. It takes one to know one and BF loves him some Homestar Runner and the gang too. All of this is leading up to the fact that we think that the island of Trinidad is shaped like The Cheat. Coincidence? I think not.

Exhibit A: The Cheat

Exhibit B: The Trinidad

This conspiracy - the the creators of Homestar Runner also created the Caribbean island of Trinidad - leads me to walk with a bounce in my step and a giggle on my face. Yes, it's possible. Giggle face.

What is The Cheat, you ask? In Email #60, Strong Bad described The Cheat as being, "a cheese, or maybe an anvil." Homestar Runner once identified The Cheat as a Trivial Pursuit cheese wedge in the episode, "Date Night." (I think you will appreciate that, Kate.)

He has no legs, flippers for arms (yet he can still type on his computer) and has a gold tooth that he doesn't like to show people.

The Cheat was hidden in a large egg containing a lifetime supply of fish sticks when he met Strong Bad(according to a Strong Bad flashback), no one knows when is birthday is but it is celebrated on April 18th, Cheatday, the date found on his Scandinavian fake I.D., he works at a tech company with Homestar and his favorite color is blue.

Happy belated birthday, The Cheat and cheers to the rest of the kids over in Homestar Runner land. What Homestar character is your county/ state/ country/ continent shaped like?

Finally

Kate Gosselin finally got taken off of Dancing with the Stars last night. Huzzah!

Nothing personal but she was way out of her league and agonizing to watch. With all of those kiddos at home I would have a hard time concentrating too. I would be lucky to remember pants in the morning let alone going on camera to Tango.


Just started watching a couple of weeks ago by accident. It was like a train wreck that you couldn't look away from.




Go Nicole and Erin!

Sandy Bottoms

While my folks were in town a couple of weeks ago we decided to go see the beaches on the north east coast of Trinidad. Buh, bye city life! We're heading to the beach, suckas.

This was a fun little trip because BF hasn't had much time to explore the island like I have. He is a working machine! It was a long trip to our final destination so we made a couple of stops along the way. Did I tell you that we drive on the left side of the road here? On the right side of the car?

Grande Riviere (final destination) was a good 3 hour drive from Port of Spain so we made a stop at a local farm stand for provisions. Here we purchased the BEST watermelon that God ever made. It sure beats Whole Foods. That sweet little woman weighed all of our goods on her ancient scale (see bottom left corner) and the total was super cheap by American standards.

Back on the road. Once we reached the east coast of the island we started to take in some beautiful Atlantic views. You'll notice that the road had zero guard rails...more on that later.

Our second stop on our journey was the Toco Lighthouse, located on the north eastern most tip of the island of Trinidad. From here you can almost see Tobago 22 miles north. This is also the point where the Caribbean waters meet the Atlantic Ocean. The water is much more blue the further you get into the Caribbean.

This is the Mama. Isn't she cute?

My dad was checking out the scene. We saw a guy fishing for eels. They were super gross.

The Mama caught BF and I reviewing our photography skills...and our newly wed affections.

But seriously, isn't it pretty? The shore around these parts of the island are very rocky and are like nothing that I had ever seen. I have some better pictures but my camera won't give them over to my lappy.

On the road again...Now allow me to address the roadways here in Trinidad. Down in the city they are okay but up in the mountains their "2 lane" road is narrower than a standard single lane of traffic back home. Driving was a true adventure. For most of the journey we were driving along side the water, no guard rail, with pot holes that could swallow a SmartCar, and locals driving 50 miles an hour. Suffice to say, we had a blast. You get used to cars being very very close to you as they drive by. Did I mention that we drive on the other side of the road AND car?
Check out how narrow the road is. Whew. This particular section had a much appreciated railing.


We made one last stop in Toco and that was to a horse farm that I will fill you in on tomorrow. Too much cute for one post. After hours in the car, one car sick passenger, and many horses we finally made it.

Grande Riviere is one of the major egg laying grounds for Leatherback Sea Turtles. These Sea Turtles are the size of cars - HUGE. Averaging in size from 5-8 feet long and weighing between 500-2,000 pounds, you can see what I mean. HUGE.

They come back to the beach where they were born every year to lay their eggs. One turtle was tracked at traveling over 12,000 miles, from Indonesia to Oregon. Most often they lay their eggs after dark. You can find evidence of hatching in the tiny leather-like egg shells strewn about the beach. It is amazing.

We had the perfect beach weather. The sun was out and the water was warm. My dad and I were floating around a sand bar a good 50 yards from shore when we met one of these gentle HUGE giants in the water. No kidding. Here I am just floating along minding my own business when I look to my right and see a Leatherback 5 feet away from me. She was looking straight at me.

I love the aquarium but this was too close to nature for me. Those who know me know that I hate being in the same water as fish (razor sharp fins, need I say more?) Not knowing if she would take me out to sea or eat me I began to freak out. In my attempt to swim to shore the tide went out. I wasn't getting very far and realized I should alert my dad to our big lady in the water. He had no idea what I was saying and just floated right over her.

This was a very rare occurrence as the turtles don't usually come to shore in the middle of the day. Just my luck. It was pretty cool. But you can see below that my mom captured me coming out of the water, pretty frazzled. Pardon the bikini shot.

Any who, that was our beach adventure for the weekend. After spending a couple of hours at the beach we made the long trip home to Port of Spain. What a day.

Days of the Dress

Are the days of skirts and dresses really gone? Not for this little lulu, that's for sure. I was just perusing the Pioneer Woman's post on her daily wear and was sad to hear that this gorgeous Okie woman never wears skirts or dresses. Not even to weddings!

While her going out garb was stylish and put together very well, I would love to introduce some sweet cotton skirts and dresses into her fashion vocabulary. She is currently posting a video series on fashion and I'm hoping she will get a feminie, sans-pants number out of the deal. (PS - I LOVE her and her Frye boots below.)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the best parts about being a girl is getting to wear a pretty dress. My typical summer outfits resemble something like this:

This is the perfect little summer dress. It could be worn as a beach cover-up, paired with a great necklace and metallic sandals would make it the perfect "lady that lunches" outfit, or I would throw it on to run errands in the Texas summer heat.

Doesn't this look comfy? I'm wearing something similar right now. Somehow wearing a skirt or dress, no matter how casual, makes me feel pretty and feminie without being uncomfortable. No wedgies here! T.M.I.??

This is the perfect summer dress from Anthropologie. I would wear it to run errands, out to lunch with my girlfriends or even to stop and smell the roses at the Dallas Arboretum.

PW, this is an ideal dress to wear to a summer wedding. It is colorful and is a flattering cut. You could easily wear this for a date night with Marlboro Man with those cute Ralph Lauren eyelet wedges that you blogged about. Sorry I can't link to it but the html is messed up. You can find it at Anthropologie.

My most versitile summer staples every year are simple white V-neck tees and plain white tank tops. I'm not a huge fan of the term "wife beater" but it is the best way to describe the kind of tank I'm referring to here. How about we call them "wife huggers"? That is a much more accurate description around my house. I can find these most often at Target and Old Navy and usually buy multiples. Both brands are best for not shrinking and having a nice long cut torso.

A simple white tee or tank and fun necklace are a fool-proof match with cute print summer skirts. Until the weather warms up or when it cools off all you have to do is pair this outfit up with a cute cardie and your good to go.

On a non-skirt/dress related note. If I weren't wearing a skirt or dress Anthropologie's Souffle Jumpsuit is what I would LOVE to be wearing. So fun. Bravo, Anthro. Bravo.