TGIF

Frozen grapes. Oh, one of the many joys of summer! My son tried his first frozen grapes this morning, and he is head over heels with the "tiny popsicles". If you have never had frozen grapes, you'd best hurry to make some! Just wash them all off, pick them off the stems, dry them off, throw them in a Ziploc bag into the freezer, and voila! Frozen grapes.

(I know, I know, I'm the next Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart. Try not to be jealous...)

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Last night my mom took me to a super-cool event in our little city called "Top of the Town". It was a very spontaneous move since she had just bought the tickets earlier that day. Let me just say, what a great idea for a fundraiser! It was $25 a ticket, but you got to go up in several of the "skyscrapers" downtown (20+ stories is a skyscraper 'round these parts) and take in the view. There were several buildings that had free food to eat -- the best one was loaded with all types of chocolate and live jazz. We also got two free drink coupons each to enjoy a glass of the bubbly and a glass of wine if we wanted. All the money went to charity -- gotta love that! It was really special to me to walk around all of the buildings downtown and have my mom tell me how they all fit into our "family history". There were buildings that used to house department stores where my grandmother sold shoes, the department store my mom bought her prom dress from, the restaurant my dad apparently ate lunch at EVERY Thursday because of their "chicken fried steak" plate, the bank building my parents actually met in (back in the early 1970's), and many other sites. Both sides of my family are from this little city, going back to my grandparents and great-grandparents, so it definitely is a special place to me.

My favorite building was one in which we got to walk around outside on the 21st floor -- the views of our little city were beautiful. It was built in the late 1920's, I believe, and it now houses both office space and private condos. On the way up in the elevator, some people were talking about how one or two of the Hanson Brothers have a condo in that building. Hahahaha, gotta love small-town celebrities. And don't worry, I restrained myself from breaking out into a little "Mmmbop" in front of all of those people.

Here are some pictures from the evening. (Click on the pictures for an up-close view.)















The newspaper had printed something about needing to wear close-toed shoes if you wanted to go up in a historic hotel that is being renovated (and where Elvis slept back in the day), so I was at a loss of what to put on. (However, they didn't hold anyone to the rule so it ended up that I could have totally worn open-toed shoes like everyone else.) I mean, in the summer, I am a flip-flops only type of girl and don't hardly own any close-toed summer shoes besides my Converse, so I finally threw on my cowboy boots with a sundress. I don't wear my boots all that often, but I do love my cowboy boots because of their quirkiness, and apparently so did a few others. I stopped counting after a while all of the comments on them, and before the end of the night, two people had taken pictures of them! Ha! That definitely made my mom and I laugh.

All in all a very fun and spontaneous evening.

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Here's to a great Friday!