Kindness... as Interpreted by Ze Frank
During the election I came across some hilarious commentary by Ze Frank about the debates and ever since I've been enjoying my Youtube subscription to his channel and the video I came across today just stuck with me and I needed to share! It's about KINDNESS! And during this time of fresh starts with the New Year and resolutions I think it's such a great message!
Check it out below!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=504__4ZzHac&w=640&h=360]
While the entire message stands out to me, I did pull an awesome quote that I'd love to share and hope you enjoy whether or not you watch the video!
"Kindness - It's like little rays of light that emanate out from the interactions you have with people, maybe little candles that light inside them...You can tell the people that have had a lot of experience with kindness, they glow like they do have a lot of tiny little candles burning inside of them." - Ze Frank
Pass on the kindness and start glowing and seeing others glow!
2012 In Review | What an Awesome Year to Blog!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for perdueosity.
Here's an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 35,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 8 Film Festivals
Click here to see the complete report.
Christmas Breakfast 2012 | CRAZY FUN!!!
Well, we are catching up as usual! But I definitely wanted to be sure to post about our 2012 Christmas Breakfast because it seems to get better and better every year! So last year we ran out of Mimosa's, so we made sure to stock up on the beverages, but this time around we ran out of food (this was a first)! We did a Breakfast Burrito Bar - sorry no pictures, the food went fast! But it's not surprising when we had such an awesome turnout with probably 15 more friends than last year! We had to have had 45 people or so at our house for this awesome holiday gathering!
The food was delicious, but the company was even better! We had a blast visiting with everyone and of course the White Elephant game was an even bigger hit! Lots of great gifts to choose from and people were stealing left and right!
Check out the fun pics Paul caught! Santa even came out!
It was such a fun event we are already scheming for plans next year! We may even have to move locations!
Hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Holiday! :)
Bagel Bash 2012 | A "Legendary" Event!
With the exception of 2010 (when Paul and I were married), we have done the Annual Bagel Bash Cruise every year. Our good friend Matt has put this together for years as a celebration around his birthday and in several occasions others birthday's as well! This one was Matt's big 35th birthday and I could only dream about having a gathering of this magnitude!
The Cruise set sail on December 6th, 2012 on the Carnival Paradise with over 20 friends on board for Bagel Bash! Matt was not only surprised by the turn-out this year, going from an intimate gathering of 6 to 8 people to over doubling in size, but he also came to find a lot more planning went into this as we all had our Bagel Bash shirts on board as a surprise and there was even a tribute video! Gloria, Kristy and Paul did a lot of work putting together these special pieces to make Matt's 35th Birthday one he will never forget!
We were on the boat for 4 nights with 2 full days at sea and one day in Cozumel Mexico! It was a blast! Check out some of this great adventure!
The ship left port and we had our first sit down dinner! It was absolutely delicious and so much fun to embark on this awesome trip with so many friends!
Being that I am pregnant (no alcohol for me :( ) for this trip, I was off to bed earlier than others and excited to relax for our first day at sea. Paul on the other hand was ready to party and that he did! He partied so much that we got a very late start on our first full day at sea - honestly we didn't get many picture other than formal night because of that! Paul really enjoyed his black suit with black tie for formal night though! He thought he was a "secret agent!" Hahaha
Everyone looked great for formal night and we were ready for a day in Cozumel! The boat docked at 8AM, and we were off the ship by 9 or so. This was definitely the best time of the entire cruise (at least I thought so)! Matt, Gloria and a hand full of others went on a sailing excursion while Paul and I decided to roam the island! We rented a Chevy convertible and had a blast! First we drove all the way to the end of the island (where the road turned to dirt) and stopped off to visit with some local wildlife. Raccoons! I think... Then we were off to Senor Frog's to meet with Matt and the crew for lunch. We got there early and actually didn't catch them until we were on our way out - Next Stop Paradise Beach to meet up with Curtis and Natacha! The beach was beautiful and the water was clear and refreshing! It was such a great day! After leaving Paradise Beach, Paul decided he wanted some authentic Mexican food... we stopped at this place and they said they'd make us food... it actually turned out to be a whore house! We didn't stay long enough to get the food! From there we worked our way back to the port where we did some shopping (Paul and I got a little sombrero and maracas for our little one on the way! ;)). Then it was back to the ship for Matt's official Birthday and festivities!
One last day at sea! We took this time to relax and enjoy what was left of our vacation! What a great time! And a Happy Happy Birthday to Matt (and Erick)!
Next vacation I'll definitely be planning to have some adult beverages!
Perdue Vision Pecan Pies - Just in Time for Thanksgiving!!!
Paul has been on a pecan pie rampage! Several months back Paul took the liberty of making a pecan pie for our neighbors. They moved into the neighborhood and neighbors all around were bringing them cookies and candy and all sorts of stuff, but they were surprised having moved to the south that no one brought them a Pecan Pie. And that was Paul's queue!
Paul decided since he had never made them before to make two! One for us to test and the other for the neighbor. And they both turned out AWESOME! Absolutely delicious! We scarfed that pie down in no time! And got some rave reviews from the neighbor as well.
Now with the holiday's approaching Paul decided he wanted to give thanks to his clients and close friends and family with some pecan pies! What started out as a client gift for a few turned into 24 or more pies for many!
So Paul decided to make this into a project, and what better way to share the love then to share the recipe and début Paul's first cooking video! He definitely had fun with this one! Check it out!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMiC9R1H7MQ&w=750&h=422]
For detailed written directions, see below:
Perdue Vision Pecan Pies
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Bake Time: 60 to 70 minutes
Chill Time: 2 hours
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Light OR Dark Corn Syrup
- 1/4 cup of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) pecans
- 1 (9-inch) unbaked deep-dish pie crust
- 1 pie pan
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Mix corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla using a spoon. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into pie crust.
- Bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Cool for 2 hours on wire rack before serving.
TIPS: Pie is done when center reaches 200°F. Tap center surface of pie lightly - it should spring back when done. For easy clean up, spray pie pan with cooking spray before placing pie crust in pan. If pie crust is over-browning, cover edges with foil.
Our 2-Yr. Anniversary Couldn't Be More Sweet!
We are so excited to announce (on our Two Year wedding anniversary) that we are expecting our first little one! He or She will be gracing us with their presence on or around Cinco De Mayo!
This second year of marriage has been even better than the one before and I anticipate year number three will be that much more amazing as we go from a family of 5 (Chunk, Tula and Sophi included) to a family of 6!
Happy Anniversary Paul Paul! I can say with unconditional love and absolute certainty that I love you more and more every day!
Check out Baby Perdue!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJSH-ieeI28&w=750&h=422]
Wild Bill's Spooktacular!
My motto these days seems to be "better late than never!" So here is the Wild Bill's Spooktacular! I'm not one to frequent Wild Bill's often, but I have to say that for Halloween it's pretty awesome! It's amazing the creativity that comes out around Halloween, and this is one people watching experience you can't miss out on!
Paul used to be big on throwing Halloween parties, but this is the 2nd year we've gone to Wild Bill's and it does not disappoint! I'd say my only complaint is they didn't get to the Costume Contests soon enough!
Check out some of these awesome customs and at the bottom we have pictures of the winners for the Scariest and Most Original!
We've got our friend Matt dress as the guy from Beastie Boys Sabotage, and with him Gloria as a gangster, me and Paul (can you guess what I am??), "Storey" (Kristin) as a Gothic flapper, and our Robert as a bath salt zombie... There was so many more though!!!
We had a couple of devils, Curtis is a Transformer guy and his girlfriend Natacha is a french maid! There was a zombie alien dad and baby and a zombie version of the Mad Hatter and Alice!
Now for the winners... We stuck around for the Scariest Contest and the Most Original.
For the most original, it was between Kiss' Gene Simmons and the Ghostbusters' Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! And the winner was Marshmallow Man!!! And for Scariest, it was between the evil puppet master and this crazy barbarian skull man (I don't remember what he was calling himself) and the winner was the Barbarian Skull Man! He was definitely scary! Of course I kind of thought the Puppet Master one was cooler!
Hope you enjoyed! To see more awesome pictures and costumes check out the full gallery here! Oh and by the way... if you're still wondering - I was FireFox the web browser! ;)
Howl-O-Weenie 2012
I'm feeling pretty good as I've been behind on my posts, but I am however getting this up before Halloween, so this is progress! A few weekends back, I think it was the same weekend as the Greek Festival, we finally got the opportunity to take Chunk to Howl-O-Weenie!
Last year we were out-of-town for a wedding, so Chunk went without us, and the year before that I think we may have actually had another wedding. So we were so excited to be able to check out the festivities!
They had all kinds of great contests, starting of course with the costume contest. While we were certainly proud of Chunk's banana costume, it was no match for all of these other creative doxie owners! We didn't even try to compete!
I wish we had gotten more pictures of Chunk in the banana costume, but this was the best we had... doesn't do the coolness of the banana costume justice.
But there were definitely a lot of cool costumes, and it wasn't just the doxies dressing up, but they were duos with their owners! Check out the Wicked Witch and Dorothy!
I couldn't resist including this little guy! He's a ferocious lion and while you can't see his owner... they were dressed as the Circus Lion Tamer!
But my personal Best in Show were these three! The Bus and Crosswalk Lady comes in third, The Doxie Jockie duo come in second, and finally the Allpotraz Convicts come in first! There were so many creative costumes... it was a very cool event!
After the costume contest, they had the licking contest which Paul was a judge for, then it was onto bobbing for weenies (which Chunk would have been great at - but he was a little out of his element!).
And I can't forget to thank Paul's cousin Lori, her husband Larry, and their adorable girls Lexi and Lena for coming out to the festivities! They have a big dog, so this was a new experience for them! And Lexi and Lena loved holding Chunk! Paul got this great picture of them, so I just had to include it!!!
Atlanta Greek Festival!
A few weeks back we went to the Atlanta Greek Festival with our friends, Elaine and John, and their family. This is an Annual Tradition for Elaine's family as she is very much Greek! The Festival is held at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Atlanta. It was pretty wild as they have to shuttle people over due to the large and growing turn-out every year!
We parked just off Clairmont road and caught the bus over to the festivities! We were able to get some awesome Greek food (Paul and I LOVE Gyro's), check out the shops, listen to some live Greek music, watch the traditional Greek Dancing and of course (my favorite) check out the bake sale!
I was hoping to embed the video Paul took of the Greek Dancing, but I couldn't get it to work. SO click here to see the dancing!
And I'm ending the post with my favorite part! The bake sale! I got Baklava of course, Kourabiedes, and I think Finikia. It was all super delicious and Paul also got a Baklava sundae! Oh My!!!
An Unconditional Love! Derrick and Jesus are Married!
Our close friends Derrick and Jesus were married a couple weekends ago! Paul met Derrick in college and they have been best of friends ever since. And when we met Jesus several years ago we knew our good friend Derrick had found his soul mate!
I love their love as it's so clearly meant to be. I recall years before Derrick ever met Jesus, he told me he could never imagine meeting someone he could spend the rest of his life with. At the time and even now, I couldn't comprehend his way of thinking! I honestly feel like there is someone out there for all of us and we are bound to unite with someone in our lifetime and hopefully that love would continue for a lifetime!
Well Derrick and Jesus definitely found that lifetime love in one another and the ceremony was one of the most emotional I have had the experience of being a part of! Paul was the photographer of course and there are so many wonderful pictures it was so hard to narrow down!
Derrick rented out a beautiful house on Lake Norman (part of our long weekend), and it was a great place for such a fun and loving occasion!
Derrick and Jesus' closest family and friends gathered for the occasion and it was definitely a memorable day and evening! We couldn't have asked for better weather either.
I can't say enough about how sweet and thoughtful the vows were. It was absolutely impossible to hold back the tears! But even through all the emotion they are all smiles. Following the ceremony we jumped right into the party. It was more like a family gathering where everyone could mix, mingle and just have a good time.
Congratulation Derrick and Jesus! Here's to a lifetime of laughter, love and snuggles! We love you guys!
