Update on my Thirty by 30

I finished the second book in the Lord of the Rings "trilogy." I put trilogy in quotes, because all true Lord of the Rings fans know that it is really one very very large book with three distinct parts that just happened to be separately bound and published in different years. Confused?

I finished part two. It was good. Not in a "Oh my word! I can't believe I didn't know about this book sooner! My life has been changed and I am now a better person!" kind of way, but it was tolerable. I can see why Marc likes it. I can also see why I have not read it yet.

I asked Marc last night if he was surprised and proud of me. After dunking me for a kiss (ooh la la!) he said, "Yes. I thought you wouldn't make it through the first chapter." Thanks for the vote of confidence, sweetie! Now, by saying that, he knows I will finish the third installment of the non-trilogy... even if it kills me. I am shooting for this weekend.

This weekend is officially our "Celebrate our Anniversary/Knock a Few Items Off the 30 by Thirty List" weekend. We will be going to Ft. Worth to stay at the Hilton...for free! I would be more excited about the free part, but they owe it to us. Trust me.



Last year, we spent our anniversary weekend at the Hilton in Ft. Worth. When we checked in they gave Marc a smoking room. He took one sniff and knew the room wasn't for me and my sensitive nose. After going back for a second replacement room we walked up with our luggage. It also smelled like smoke. I am not kidding.

That would have been bad enough for a little complaint to the manager, but wait...it gets better.

After getting our THIRD room and settling in for the evening we thought all was well. We went out to eat at a great restaurant (Riata in downtown Ft. Worth - it is awesome and we're going back this year!), we enjoyed walking around the downtown, we even paused to hear a crazy "end-times" sidewalk evangelist (just for fun). As we settled into bed and turned out the lights we slept peacefully.

Until our phone rang at midnight. No one was on the line. Odd, I thought, but not a huge deal. About five minutes later our door opened. No knock. They just opened up the door. Thankfully we had the security latch on. The guy at the door said, "SECURITY, OPEN UP!" We did. He asked us who we were and why we were in this room. We said, "We are Marc and Carrie Anderson and we are here because we paid good money to be here and were given this key!" He said, "Oh, whoops. Must not have gotten you in the system correctly. We saw a light in the room earlier and we wanted to check on it. You guys have a good night."

Yeah, buddy. We'll have a GREAT night.

So I think that was enough for a free stay, right? Well, there is more.

The next morning as Marc consulted with the manager and told them of our frustrating evening, I went out to retrieve the car from the valet parking guys. When Marc came out a half hour later with the manager to confirm the story I was still waiting for our car. They lost it. Yep, that's right. I know.

After carefully describing our car they finally found the misplaced vehicle. Needless to say, the manager on duty was very apologetic and got us a voucher for a free stay. We asked if we could get a free stay at another Hilton, but he said he couldn't do that.

So, that is a really long way of saying that, while I am happy we get to stay there free, I am trying to remain very cautiously optimistic.

Other plans for the weekend include resuming our NRH2O fun by going to North Richland Hills Water Park (like last year), eating at Riata, eating at Queen of Sheba and doing some browsing around the downtown. So that means after this weekend I will get to cross off #2, and hopefully #5. Hey, we might even go for #27, but don't push it.