Go Mavs!

Last weekend I went to visit my friend who lives in Atlanta.  She is from Dallas, we lived together in Dallas, and we are both Dallas Mavericks fans.  She now lives in Atlanta, so when the Mavericks were in town to play the Atlanta Hawks, we knew we had to go!

The game was Saturday night, so I got there Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner with her friends.  We then went to Pinkberry, yum! and headed to the game.  We wore our Mavericks gear to the game, and there were actually a few other Mavs fans sitting around us.  We did miss the entertainment they have in Dallas, as well as the announcer in Dallas that says, "Twooooo Points."  We were excited the Mavericks won!

We didn't really take any pictures that are worthy of being posted on this blog.  So, I will share some pictures from some of our previous Mavericks experiences, which all occurred in the great city of Dallas.

Here we are at my first Mavericks game ever in December 2007.  

It was the Mavericks vs Suns game and JP happened to be in town for the game so we all three went plus one of JP's friends who lives in Dallas.  JP is a huge Suns fan so it was a fun game.  The Mavs won :) 

Here we are at the Mavs game for Amanda's birthday in January 2008.  

Our tickets were super good and VERY close to the court.  We got to see the players up close!

Hopefully we have more Mavericks games in the future! Go Mavs!

Who consistently makes the best Super Bowl commercials?

I'm sure this is exactly what you were expecting to see when you visited this blog.  Well this is a good summary of what I've been up to the past week or so.  Yep, I've been reading a LOT of articles about Budweiser, well more specifically AB InBev.  In 2008, Anheuser Busch was purchased by InBev, a Belgian company whose CEO is Brazillian, to form AB InBev. 

I am taking a marketing class this semester, and my group of 7 is made up of six boys and me.  So, when it came time for us to pick a company to write 56+ pages on, Budweiser it was.  What is quite humorous to me is the fact that there is also a group in my class that is the exact opposite of my group, 6 girls and 1 guy.  That group chose Estee Lauder as their company.

I specifically have been researching the internal environment of AB InBev as well as the external environment of the beer industry.  So, if you have any questions about managerial logics of the new executives or are curious about how the economy is impacting beer, just let me know.

How to Purchase Beef Brisket

Although I wouldn't call myself a vegetarian, I am definitely not a meat lover.  I do love a good hamburger, but other than that I rarely get excited about meat.  My meat buying experience consists mostly of ground beef, boneless skinless chicken breasts, and pork chops. 

JP, on the other hand, loves meat.  He often chooses not to have sides like potato or salad with his steak because those would only take up space that the meat should be taking up.  To him, rice is a filler.  Since we have been married, he has smoked boston butts, ribs, and brisket.

Typically, HE is the one who purchases these meats.  However, he really wanted a brisket this week, and since he has started working he doesn't have much time to go to the store.  So, yesterday when I was making our grocery list for my post-work trip, I asked him what he wanted and of course brisket was on his list.

http://www.dorseymeats.com/store/images/bee14.jpg

Now, I have no idea what makes a good brisket.  JP told me to purchase the one with the most meat and least amount of fat.  Well, being the perfectionist I can be at times, I was really trying to get the one with the least amount of fat.  I was mentally estimating the surface area of fat on each brisket.  In my opinion, they all had too much fat!  I called JP and asked him questions, and basically made the process way more complicated than it should be.

So, as I was about to give up, I saw this large male employee walking near me.  I yelled, "Sir, can you please help me?"  He walked over to me, and I said, "Now, I want you to pick out the brisket that you would buy if you were buying one." He laughed and started analyzing the briskets.  He spent several minutes comparing the different options (which made me feel not so bad about all the time I had spent analyzing). 

He finally made a decision, and I grabbed that brisket and headed towards the cash register.  Once home, JP approved of the brisket, and we now have a crockpot full of brisket as well as a stock pot full of it too. 

It's off to work I go...

If you happen to hear unemployment went down, I have proof that it did.  This guy has a job.  After many months of studying for the CPA exam and passing it, applying and being accepted to grad school, and job hunting, I am no longer the only one getting up in our apartment to go to work each morning.

He will be working at a local accounting firm, Culotta, Scroggins, Hendricks, & Gillespie, PC, where he will be doing mainly tax accounting stuff.  

Everyone asks if it was hard having JP unemployed for so long, and although at times it was, God took that time to grow us both and teach us SO many things!  We are so thankful for this opportunity God has provided for him. 

And yes, I did take a "First Day of Work" picture, and yes he hates pictures so this was the least awkward looking one I took.

The Tomahawk Chop

It all came down to the last game of the season.  Would the Braves make it to the postseason the last year of Bobby Cox's career?  As the season wrapped up, I KNEW that if the Braves made it to the postseason I HAD to go.  And yes indeed, the Braves did make it to the postseason!  As soon as the clinched the National Leauge Wildcard, I go on Ebay and purchased tickets for JP and me to go to the Braves first home game of the National League Divsion Series.

We ended up making a weekend out of the game, spending Friday and Saturday nights with JP's grandparents, and eating lunch with my friend Amanda Sunday before the game.  Although these things were fun the highlight of the weekend was the time we spent at Turner Field.

After an interesting parking experience, we made our way to Turner Field where they were handing out tomahawks to everyone.  Our seats were really good!  We were in section 112 which is right behind the visitors dugout, row 25.  We could see everything so well!  Here is our view of Bobby Cox making his way down the line of high fives as he headed towards home plate. 

I have been a huge Braves fan since I was in elementary school.  I have been to many games but had never been to a postseason game.  Oh the environment at the postseason game was incredible!  Before the game every person (except for the few Giants fans) was on their feet doing the tomahawk chop.  It was the atmosphere I had watched so many times on tv, but had never before gotten to experience.  I was too involved doing the tomahawk chop to take any pictures but thankfully a fellow fan took some video and shared it on youtube.

The Braves were down until the eight when they hit a two run homerun to take the league.  I thought the tomahawk chop at the beginning of the game was great, but the atmosphere after that homerun was even better.  Everyone was jumping up and down and high fiving strangers.  No one sat down.

Unfortunately, when the Braves were just one strike away from winning, the game went down hill.  We had to walk out of Turner Field after an Atlanta Braves loss.

Despite the loss, it was still so much fun, and I want to go to a postseason game again!

The guy who took the above picture was part of a group of people sitting right behind us who work for the San Francisco Giants.  In that group was the Public Relations person for the Giants.  My dream when I was a kid was to be the Public Relations person for the Braves.

All in a days work

Recently my job has been very busy.  One of the things we have had going on is converting our food service to hotel-style room service.  I was actually on the committee that worked on this.  After over a year of working on this project, we rolled it out Sunday October 17.  Me and my fellow co-workers had to work 12 hours that Sunday, but it was great to see something we had been working on for so long finally happen!  Check out this video that explains what exactly the hotel-style room service is and what the benefits for the hospital will be.