Week 11 - Bristol and Beyond

OK...We've noticed that over the past several weeks our Fiser 52 adventure has become a little more of a “what did we do this past weekend”. That being said, we are continuing to seek new adventures in Memphis and beyond.
This weekend the Fiser 52 headed separate ways!
Gray's Weekend:

One of the things about my job that I enjoy the most is the unique environments that I get to work in. This weekend was no exception. One of our clients has a sponsorship with Bristol Motor Speedway and each March and August we host a VIP/Hospitatlity event for them during the NASCAR race weekends.
***Quick shout out...I will never tease my wife again for being an event planner after being involved in one of these race weekends. There are so many details that are involved that most people don't notice, but would if they were missing.
I left on Thursday morning to go to the other side of the state, which is a long way over there. Luckily we got to fly! Race weekend starts on Friday with qualifying and practice, continues with the Nationwide race on Saturday, and concludes on Sunday with the Sprint Cup race.
If you have never been to a NASCAR race, I strongly suggest that you attend just one. Your eyes will be opened to a whole new world of things that you have never seen. Here are few things that I observed:

1. Practice and qualifying is really boring. There are no good crashes and tempers are not hot

2. NASCAR fans have the filthiest mouths I have ever heard

3. Despite observation #2, NASCAR fans are the most reverant fans that I have ever seen (still the only major sport that I know of that prays before the race, and surprisingly every person in the crowd stands, takes their hats off, and bows their head)

4. Getting back on track, Dale Jr. must have used the "F" word 50 times over the scanner during one lap after being penalized for speeding in the pits

5. I ran into Joe Gibbs walking onto the elevator

6. I think jorts, tank tops and mullets are back in style

7. I think I saw a dead person on the way back to the shuttle

8. The cheese sticks at Carino's in Johnson City are phenomenal

9. Driving a 6-passenger golf cart in a crowd of 165,000 people takes some skills

10. 5:30 am EST flights seem like a good idea when you book them, but they are really not that great. 3:30 am wake up calls are no fun.
I'm hoping to have some video from this weekend added to this post, but no guarantees!

Sarah's Weekend:

While Gray was busy watching cars go round and round, I headed down to Jackson for a relaxing weekend with Gray’s parents. We had the best time walking the dog, shopping and cooking in the kitchen! I even learned how to make Strawberry jam which was quite the production but tons of fun. We watched several movies including Coco – which for the record is in subtitles! We watched it for the first time on one of the TV’s and couldn’t understand why there were only random subtitles every now and then – finally we got smart and tried it on another bigger TV. Only then did we realize we were missing the whole bottom row of words! It was such a fun weekend and I even got to help welcome Anna home from Ecuador!
Wrigs definitely enjoyed his weekend too – he got to take a flying leap into a gooey mossy pond and take a seat in the bird bath. Needless to say he was wiped out on the drive home.
It was a great visit to Jackson and we can’t wait to go back with Gray at Easter!

Here's a random funny pic - since this blog is definitely lacking pictures!  Wrigs got his paw stuck in a bucket - of course I had to get a picture before helping him get it off!!

Week 10 - Gibson's Donuts and More...

Surprise! We are early this week. I would like to think it is because we are still inspired from our Week 10 activity.

On Friday, Sarah and I decided to go play some tennis and grab a quick dinner at Swanky's afterwards. We finished things up early, so we could prepare for our Fiser 52 adventure on Saturday morning.

We are the type that enjoy sleeping in on Saturday's. Call it a sense of entitlement, but we feel that we deserve the sleep after waking up early the other six days of the week. There are very few things that will get in the way of our sleep-in time on Saturdays...travel, hunting (Gray only), and one of our Memphis favorites, Gibson's donuts!

Bypassing the showers and a little glaze (no pun intended) in our eyes, our journey to paradise began at 7 AM. Our mouths began to water before we even turned onto Walnut Grove. When we arrived, I decided that this was going to a "BIG" breakfast for Gray, so we ordered a half dozen melt in your mouth donuts. Of course I had four and Sarah controlled herself with two.

(take a wild guess which one is Sarah's)

After I had polished off my fourth, here come Richie Sessions and Adrien Yelverton, with the kids, who apparently have the same idea that we have. If that is not enough evidence that this place is great, right after Richie and Adrien arrived a tour bus of 60 people from SMU showed up to get donuts before hitting the road. The place quickly became a jungle, so we decided to roll out with our bellies full and smiles on our face.

photo evidence of the tour bus

You thought we were done...

From Sarah - All of our work on the house is done (for now)!!  I know I posted some before pictures last week so here are some after pictures of our new windows and our lanscaped backyard!

new windows (but a dirty house..oops!)

no more rotting wood!

NEW backyard!

flowering bushes - which obviously have to grow and flower :)

Of course Wrigley had to keep things interesting for us...while we thought he'd behave with all the new plants in his backyard instead he walked straight up to one of my new hydrangea bushes and broke off a branch.  Apparently non-flowering hydrangea bushes look a lot like Wrigley's favorite thing ever - sticks!  Gray quickly devised a plan, complete with stakes and chicken wire, and now our backyard looks like this...

It's only temporary, we'll take down the fence once the plants have all taken root and grown some leaves, so they aren't so tempting for wrigs.

We still love him though - how could you not...

Week Nine - Road Trip to the ATL

Road Trip!!! That's right...The Fiser 52 packed up and headed east to the ATL. As most of you know, Sarah and I met while we were living in Atlanta, and she still works for a company based there. The reason for our trip was a baby shower, and no it wasn't for Sarah. It was for her boss!

Our whirlwind trip started on Friday night when we drove to Birmingham and stayed at the Hey residence. We got in at 10:30 and were asleep before Craig and Christopher came home. Had it not been for Christopher being locked out of the house, we wouldn't have seen either of them. The next morning we woke up early and completed our journey to Atlanta.

When we arrived in Atlanta, we met up with Sarah's friend Suzanne who allowed us to stay in her awesome house near Emory. She even loaned me her fiance while Sarah was away at the baby shower. Not sure what went on at the baby shower, but Suzanne's fiance, Dave, and I headed over to one of our old favorites in Virginia Highlands, Everybody's Pizza. After filling up on a delicious pie, we met the ladies in our lives and relaxed until dinner.

Still full from lunch, the four of us headed to Inman Park to a place called Pure. Kind of a Swanky's type place, but on steroids. ***Sidenote*** If there is one bone I have to pick with restaurants in Memphis, it is that they are so quiet sometimes. A shot of HGH will probably help out. Anyways, back to the blog. ***Sidenote End*** We met up with some other friends from the glory days in Atlanta, Kim and Drew and enjoyed a great dinner with even better company. We weren't done yet though...

Suzanne and Dave - the NEWly engaged couple!

A little birdy told us on our drive that a band with a fraternity brother of mine was playing at Smith's Old Bar. That birdy turned out to be right. The Dirty Guv'nahs were playing there and we had never seen them play before. Sarah and I dragged the crowd to SOB and were glad that we did. The Guv'nahs were well worth the $10 it cost to get in. Check them out here http://www.thedirtyguvnahs.com/Home.html . I think they wouldn't mind if we made them the official band of The Fiser 52.

From Sarah:  On another note we're getting some work done on the house!  We are replacing some windows that were so thin they might as well have been open all the time!  We also decided to finally go ahead and landscape our backyard.  When we first moved into the house the whole backyard was filled with weeds that were about hip high.  Gray and I worked hard to clear it all out but then realized we were left with just some mud and weeds!  Since we have workers in the house and in the backyard Wrigley has two choices...either his kennel or being locked in my office with me.  Guess what he chose...

Smart Dog :)

Here are some before pictures from our projects...be sure to stayed tuned to next week for the after pics!

Old Windows

No Windows!

Yard before...

Enough from us. Come back next week as we bring The Fiser 52 back home to Memphis!

Week Eight - Galloway Golf Course

In an effort to try to make spring come a little quicker, Sarah and I headed to Galloway Golf Course this week to swing the sticks. We consider Galloway our little Country Club since it is right down the road from our house.

History was made this week as the Fiser 52 had its first guest appearance by Mr. Andrew Duhon. Here are some stats on Mr. Duhon...
1. 5'11", 175ish
2. SWM
3. Killer 6-iron skillz
***Please submit your application for a date to datewithduhon@gmail.com

Utter shock at being told he is our first guest...(looks more like a yawn.)

It was a little chilly, but Duhon and I recently bought clubs and they have been sitting in our houses staring at us with a "just swing me" look. Sarah came along and fulfilled many different roles: Caddy, Photographer, Personal Agent for all those people that wanted our autograph and most importantly Cheerleader. She did get some swings in and I am humbled to say that her first shot went further than my first tee shot.

Some lowlights of our round:
1. Me whiffing the tee shot on hole #2
2. Sarah jumping off the golf cart while it was moving and nearly knocking her teeth out
3. Duhon's putts from 5 feet and in
4. My tee shot that landed in a yard across the street that was promptly thrown back by the guy doing yard work

Some highlights of our round:
1. Sarah's caddy skills
2. My 3-iron skills (surprisingly my best club in the bag)
3. Duhon channeling his inner Phil Mickelson and saying, "Forget laying up, I am going to drive the green on this hole with a lot of water." And he did just that.

Duhon cleared these lakes - it's tough to see the green since the grass is anything but!

In all seriousness, Galloway is a great public course and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for an affordable round of golf.

That's all this week. Catch you next week!