Turkey day has come and gone. The thing that I like about Thanksgiving is getting friends and family together. I also love turkey, but only the white meat. I am not racist or anything….I have had my fair share of ‘Dark Meat’…..but I just like white turkey meat. Maybe I am a turkey racist then. I also love a good bottle of wine and what is better then sitting down and having both turkey and wine at the same time. This year Rick and I decided to host Thanksgiving, due to the fact that his whole family would be in town for his big Birthday Party (which is in two days and I can hardly wait). So we invited my family down and along with his family we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. I did choose to have it catered though. I just didn’t have time to do all the cooking this year. It was great…everything tasted incredible. I do wish that I could have snuck away for a little bit though and gone over to my friend Tony Arnone’s house for his annual Thanksgiving Dinner. He actually does all the cooking and invites everyone over for a good gathering. Tony is an incredible cook and his Thanksgiving Dinner should never be missed.

I must admit I like the easy clean up. All I had to do was put all the dishes into crates and the catering company will come and pick everything up tomorrow. No washing dishes for me. Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can focus on Rick’s 40th Birthday Party. I am so excited that it is only 2 days away. After his birthday it will be time to decorate for Christmas.

Of course after dinner we had to pull out the Rock Band and throw down a little jam session. Everyone got involved and either played the drums or guitar and then everyone else did background vocals. I never said I can sing….but I am a good sport about playing along. Just watch for my next tour dates.

I finished up the Party Favors last night for Ricks Big 40th ‘Monte Carlo Style" Bash. I am having two friends dress as Cigar Girls and carry a tray around towards the end of the party and pass out the party favors. I created a little box filled with some ‘Monte Carlo Style’ gifts and toped the box off with two cards and a poker chip. I then had chocolate cigars made and banded with ‘Happy Birthday 40th Rick’. I think this will just finish off the party. The girls that are going to help me out with this are going to look HOT… I will be sure to post some pictures of them after the party. It will leave the guests talking as they leave the party.

I love the convenience of technology. I love being able to quickly send off an email from my computer or phone to a multitude of different people. Let’s face it…it is just easy. Anyone who knows me knows that I am all about being efficient. Sometimes that is a major downfall in how I run my life. I like everything being streamlined and done as quickly as possible. I love efficiency. However, once in a while I like to revert to pre-technological days. I like using the United States Postal Service. I love writing thank you notes, letters and sending out incredible invitations to events. I love knowing that people are going to receive a little something extra in their mailbox. It is like getting a present that you were not expecting, and who can not be happy about that.

Well, Rick’s big 40th birthday is looming on the horizon so I knew I had to throw the most incredible party he had ever seen. I have been planning it in my head for over a year now. I have been talking to caterers and writing down ideas and themes. My mind gets going on something and it just doesn’t stop. It just keeps getting bigger and better in my head. I talked to Rick about throwing him a party and the plans I had for an "Monte Carlo Style" Birthday Event. For those of you that don’t know Rick…he loves to gamble and is a total Monte Carlo style guy. He is always treated VIP style in Vegas and he enjoys winning in Vegas. Yes he is always winning in Vegas. I knew that to set the tone for this incredible event I needed an incredible invitation. I love creating invitations that make people say wow, so I brainstormed with Rick to come up with a French Riviera - Monte Carlo theme invitation.

The invitation consists of a wooden box with a sliding top. In the box, we had the actual invitation information silk screened on actual gaming felt with a European Roulette table theme. This felt table was then glued onto a piece of Brazilian Cherry Wood Veneer on top of gold card stock.  We carried out that Roulette table theme with a special RSVP piece that consisted of a plastic piece of a Roulette Wheel that we had manufactured with the number 40 printed on it and a white Roulette ball imbedded in the piece and the RSVP information printed on the back of the Roulette Wheel piece. All of this was then laid on top of actual shredded currency that I obtained from the Federal Reserve. Finally we decided that we wanted to create a piece to the invitation that made it become interactive. We decided that we would have a poker hand and the best hands would win prizes at the party. We randomly choose three cards and then sewed them together (we didn’t want anyone swapping cards with other party guests to get a better hand). We then glued an information circle on those three cards explaining how the Poker Hand Game would take place. As people arrive to the party they will be given the chance to randomly draw two more cards from a deck of cards to complete their 5 card Poker Hand. At the end of the night who ever ended up with the best hand will walk away with some pretty cool prizes.

I am very excited about throwing this party. I love dressing up and having a good time. I will include pictures of the event after it happens. I have talked to a few friends that haven’t received their invites in the mail, or if I accidentally missed you on the list email me and I will get you all the information.

Stacey and Ryan have been training and running triathalons lately and they impregnated the triathalon bug in me. How they managed to do it, I still don’t quite understand. They don’t teach that in sex ed in Utah. I had been toying around with the idea of starting to train for a triathalon for a few weeks now. I really think it is a good match for my ADHD. This allows me to do three different races in one race. I looked around at a few different Road Bike stores here in Salt Lake City. I narrowed it down between a TREK and Specialized bike. I kept looking for a good deal and was having a hard time finding the right size and having it in stock at the store. My other biking buddies, Tony and Fred were out and about and ran across a Trek Madone 5.2 Discovery Team bike at Highland Cyclery. It is a 2006 so I got an excellent deal on the bike. The best part of the whole bike is that it is BLUE!!!

Now I need to find my first Triathalon. If anyone has any ideas or helpful insights please let me know. I guess my other Triathalon issue is swimming. I really can’t swim… I can doggie paddle, but I don’t think that is going to do it. Now I need to find me a swim coach.