wonderful weekend!

the meeting of the grandparents was a smashing success.  thanks to y'all for your sweet well-wishes.  the beau was a huge hit with both grandmas.  the beau proclaimed my dad's mom "adorable" and requested that i be that way when i'm old.  here's hoping her cuteness is genetic.  he thought my mom's mom was very sweet and very southern and took great pleasure in mentally noting the number of times she said "bless your heart" {in between servings of her hot chicken salad and homemade rolls and making her promise to give me the recipes for both}.  he made friends with my grandmother's quirky husband, despite {or maybe because of} his wacky midwestern sense of humor, and charmed my grandmama's beloved dachsund, tinkerbell {that feat alone won him her undying adoration and approval}.  they both declared him a keeper {duh} and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy hearing their stories and eating their yummy homecooked meals.  we even managed to make it home with some killer flea-market finds: a gold glitter christmas tree for me and hamburger helper and orioles baseball t-shirts for him. 

and i need your help for this weekend! the beau and i are headed up to d.c. to go to the jimmy buffet concert {my first one!} with his parents and some other family members/friends of theirs.  i want to bring something {or maybe a few things} to contribute to the tailgate BUT they absolutely must be finger-food friendly, very portable {three hour drive from small town, va to the concert venue}, and very NON-perishable {a small cooler is all we've got in the way of refrigeration for the trip up and then they'll be sitting out in the sun for the tailgate all afternoon}.  i know a lot of you gals are tailgating-experts, so please please pretty please help a girl out and send me some suggestions! you can either leave a comment or e-mail me at scg2b {at} virginia {dot} edu.  merci beaucoup in advance!

one last thing, there are a lot of potential life-changes in the works for me right now.  i can't go into specifics just yet, but having this many big things up in the air stresses me out to know end, so please say a little prayer or cross your fingers or whatever works for you for me over the next few days!