hokay...here's the lowdown on yesterday's belated birthday surprise adventure:

karl, rayray, and taguba came and picked me and lili up at 10am. (we missed you lanna!) breakfast (minis, anyone?) at the chick. then on to the interstate. all i knew was we were headed north. hmmmmm. different than usual, since it seems we always end up in the atl somehow. anyway, we were on the road for a while. heading up into the moutains (thankfully i didn't have to put the blindfold on until we got close to the final destination). after some questions about the directions and reassurances that we were on the right track...we got close. cue the blindfold (actually one of lili's scarf thingies). cue lots of talk by others in the car about cute things that i could not see. cue me almost falling asleep. cue the car seeming to get hot. cue me almost puking in the rodeo. alright, enough of the cue-ing...that's sorta annoying. so, we get to the gate of where we're going...the girls cover my ears and make noises so that the gate attendant person won't give away where we are. she plays along and talks about how much i will enjoy disneyland. well played, gate attendant lady...well played. we proceed through what seemed like 47 miles of even more windy roads until we finally come to a stop and begin to walk. yep, i'm still blindfolded. karl guided me to the point of "the reveal." (by the way, all of the highlights were captured either by photo or video...so that should be coming sometime.)

so...where were we you ask? the biltmore house. saweeeeet. i hadn't been there since high school. so beautiful. all decorated for christmas. we walked. we oohed. we ahhed. we ate in a stable...trough and all. we took some really fun pictures. we enjoyed various kinds of chocolatey goodness. we walked some more. we saw all 4 floors and the basement. we checked out the terrace. we saw the for real annie (minus the red hair. seriously people, it was incredible. i wish i could explain it). we took more crazy pictures. we saw a couple (which included a girl karl went to high school with) in this super romantic spot...apparently breaking up. ouch. then, of course, we stopped at starbucks. peppermint mochas and such...yum.

and then we hit the road again. i basically slept the whole way home. wow, so tired...all the birthday greatness this week sorta caught up with me. all in all, a totally spectacular (new favorite word!) day. i know the greatest people in the world. thanks again to all of you who made this birth(week) really grand. i heart you.