{"id":12838,"date":"2015-06-18T23:13:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-19T04:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=12838"},"modified":"2015-06-18T23:18:04","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T04:18:04","slug":"brians-birthday-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=12838","title":{"rendered":"Brian’s Birthday Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the long story about this weekend for those who are interested. Last year I took Brian to the Dominican Republic for his 40th birthday<\/a>. This year I wanted to do something special but not that grand. We were initially going to Kansas City, Missouri or somewhere drivable. Jay and Becca mentioned they were going to be visiting Sandals Whitehouse<\/a> over Brian’s birthday and, if we wanted to tag along, we could get a really good deal now that Brian is moonlighting as a travel agent.<\/p>\n

We’d been to Jamaica a few times already but we’d never been to Sandals Whitehouse<\/a> so we were kind of excited about it. We were to leave on Brian’s birthday, Saturday, and return on Wednesday so I’d only miss three days of work. Since it was kind of a last minute trip, the hotel was already fully booked on one of the days so we just couldn’t make it work. Lucky for us, we held off purchasing airfare until we could secure our rooms so we weren’t out anything (except for some clothes and shoes I’d bought specifically for the trip but I can wear those this summer).<\/p>\n

Because the Jamaica trip fell through, we had absolutely nothing going on. Naturally, I was accepting invites left and right. We got invited to a tasting lunch at Gianni Bacci’s<\/a>, and then the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority<\/a> Beta Kappa Omega chapter’s 80th anniversary gala on Saturday, and then on Sunday we had a birthday dinner for Brian at Bonefish Grill (Thank you, mom!) and the Down to the Wire: 24 Hour Film Race<\/a> showcase at the Wichita Orpheum Theatre<\/a>. Had it not been Brian’s birthday weekend, I probably would have said yes to even more stuff. LOL.<\/p>\n

SIDENOTE: It’s not very often that I have this much freedom on weekends because I teach Zumba every Saturday and Sunday at Andover YMCA<\/a>. I just happened to have subs lined up this past weekend because I thought I was going to be in Jamaica.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s our conversation leading up to the weekend…
\nBRIAN: You hijacked my entire birthday!
\nCHING: What do you mean? We had nothing planned.
\nBRIAN: That’s what I wanted to do.
\nCHING: Nothing? You wanted to do nothing at all? You are such a bump on a log! You need to live and do stuff.
\nBRIAN: I’m not a log.
\nCHING: No, you’re a bump.<\/p>\n

I’d normally feel bad about taking the whole weekend over but we’d been celebrating his birthday pretty much all month (last weekend we had Abuelo’s<\/a> and Redrock Canyon Grill<\/a>) and we’re going to continue celebrating when his parents visit this weekend. On top of that, the weekend turned out fantastic. Even he will admit that he had a blast. <\/p>\n

Anyway, we’ve been together for about 16 years now and we are compatible in every way. I think the only thing that really causes a bit of tension (though nothing serious because we don’t really have serious fights anymore, we make such a great team) between us is that Brian wants to do NOTHING and I want to do EVERYTHING. I suppose that’s how we balance each other out. I would probably die of exhaustion if it weren’t for Brian and he probably wouldn’t experience life as much if it weren’t for me.<\/p>\n

\"Headed<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a picture of us on our way to the tasting lunch at tasting lunch at Gianni Bacci’s<\/a>. We had to pull over on the way there to roll the top up because it started raining. <\/p>\n

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Brian got to try a couple of different beers with lunch.<\/p>\n

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Thanks to our friend Ebony for the gala tickets.<\/p>\n

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I don’t know about Brian but hearing Sheinelle Jones<\/a>‘ keynote at the gala was definitely the highlight for me. She’s so inspirational.<\/p>\n

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We got to hang with the Shermans also, which was an added bonus.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday we met mom and Jenni at Bonefish<\/a> for a birthday dinner in Brian’s honor.<\/p>\n

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Mussels! Mmmm!<\/p>\n

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Can’t go to Bonefish Grill<\/a> and not have bang bang shrimp.<\/p>\n

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Brian had the sirloin and crab cake with double mash side.<\/p>\n

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Jenni had the fontina chop with au gratin potatoes.<\/p>\n

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I had the imperial tilapia with double jasmine rice. I don’t care what they say about tilapia. I still like it.<\/p>\n

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Mom had the bang bang shrimp tacos.<\/p>\n

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We all shared a creme br\u00fbl\u00e9e for dessert.<\/p>\n

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We ended the evening at the Orpheum for the Down to the Wire: 24 Hour Film Race<\/a>. What a wonderful weekend!<\/p>\n

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P.S. This one is our favorite out of all of the film entries.<\/p>\n