Weekend in a Nutshell

The weekend went by way way too fast. It was a nice, relaxing weekend!

On Friday:
Went over to Kate and Steve's for dinner (pot roast, mmm) with the boy, and we played Dominoes and hung out for a while.

On Saturday:
I did domestical activities, read from Vision in White and Julie/Julia, and watched about 4 Dexter episodes (i'm addicted). That night went to Cedar Creek to celebrate Steve's 30th Birthday with everyone. It was such a great time. Got to see both sisters at the same time, can't beat that!

Me and my beautiful sisters, Kate and Liz.

On Sunday:

Had brunch with the boy. Went and did some grocery shopping at the new HEB! And then hung out with Patrick and made dinner. We watched The Unborn, which neither of us really liked, oh well.

RR365 Dish 1:

I made "Smoked Turkey Shepherd's Pie" for Patrick and I on Sunday night. It turned out tasty. Next time I'll let it simmer longer because it was definitely runny, and the carrots weren't exactly cooked all the way through so they were crunchy. But it was tasty! Can't beat Mashed Potatoes, mmm.

This week should be a relatively good one, I think. Who knows might actually happen.

I posted another book review on my book blog (nerdy but fun) - check it out: http://samablovesbooks.blogspot.com/

Much Love.

Yay: Surprise lunch with my little sis today

Dang: Laundry.

Simple Things in Life

I seem to find myself blogging about the simple things in life a lot. Well here's another one - the new HEB that just opened across the highway from my apt! When I lived in Wacky Waco for four years I shopped at either Walmart, or HEB. Both had good sale items and good food. Well, when I moved to Houston, I was sad to see that there wasn't an HEB or a Walmart anywhere nearby. I shopped at Kroger instead. Which, don't get me wrong, I like Kroger, a lot actually, and I know the Kroger by my apt very well after 4 years, and I even recognize the checkers, but its not HEB. Well, my friends, a new HEB just opened on Wed. AND its across the highway from my apt. AND its a new "hybrid" HEB, which means, its a Central Market and HEB mix. All the fun food of Central Market and all the fun sale items of HEB. I'm thrilled. I didn't make it to the grand opening, because to be honest, I googled yesterday to find out when it was opening. BUT I will be making a stop there today to buy items to make dessert for tonight (I love baking) and then will make a trip on Sunday to buy groceries for the week (i'm now trying to make recipes only from the Rachel Ray 365 Cookbook, we'll call it RR365 for short, because I love that book and I dont' use it often enough and hopefully it'll encourage me to cook more, and I love the Julie/Julia project and so it sounded fun to try my own, downsized version of it). In other words, yay for the new HEB!

Looking forward to:

BAYLOR BEARS v. TECH RED RAIDERS on November 28th at the new Cowboys Stadium. SIC EM Bears!

Random Weekend 101

This weekend turned out to be very random and very fun!

Friday I left work, and then Maggie and I went to Mixers and Elixirs at the HMNS. It was super fun. They had an 80s band that played that night, and so it was catered with snack food you might find at a sleepover (gummi worms, goldfish, chips, popcorn, snickers, rice krispies). Afterwards we met up with my sis/bro in law, patrick, and erin. While hanging out, we came up the brilliant idea to go to Lake Charles on Saturday since it appeared none of us had any real plans for Saturday.

Saturday - we took the impromptu road trip to lake charles, la. I'd never been to Lake Charles, but I heard it was fun. We rolled out around noon with 7 ppl in my bro in laws tahoe. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the casinos, people watching, and having a good time.. It was very spontaneous and random. We came back last night around midnight and i passed out from exhaustion. I didn't win any money, but that's okay. My $4k vegas win last april 08 i think guarantees me to have bad luck from now on. On our way back from Lake Charles, we stopped at Dequincey, La. at Charlie's Cajun hole in the wall. An entire buffet of fried food, not kidding. I had a great time and would like to go back to L'berge Du Lac for a weekend getaway, it was a really nice resort.

Today. I have done nothing other than watch movies, a load of laundry, the dishes, make a run to Chili's to get to go food, and hang out with the boy. It has been and is the perfect day of veg. Exactly what I needed after my spontaneous road trip yesterday.

This week should be good. Nothing really planned except for work.


Much Love.

A Few Mishaps...

I thought I'd share a few embarrasing stories from the past week.

The story of the burnt steak:




Well, as y'all know, Patrick and I were going to see Phantom on Saturday night. I had this brilliant, albeit naive, idea that I'd make a romantical dinner of mashed potatoes, green beans, steak, and salad. Now, in my romantical head I had visions of setting up my kitchen table with candles, wine glasses, perfectly cooked steak, and plates, so that when Patrick arrived it'd be ready to go. Well...my mind is a lot more confident in my cooking skills. I set out to Central Market that day to buy the ingredients. I was following a recipe because I had never cooked steak on my stove before. I started to cook the steaks on the skillet, and Patrick arrived right as I was throwing them on the stove. And while he sat and watched TV, and I cut up the potatoes, I realized that yes, in fact, the skillet was smoking, and friends, I live in an apartment. Which meant it did not take long for the ENTIRE apt to fill with smoke, and the smoke alarm to go off, and me to freak out. We ended up running around in a comedy of errors. All doors/windows were open, with the Callie Cat safely barricaded in the bathroom. Needless to say, that once the smoke cleared, the steaks were burnt, charred more likely on one side. Oops. I have a wonderful boyfriend who insisted on still eating the steak. I've learned my lesson though. Don't attempt a new recipe when you are on a limited time frame, yikes.





The story of the broken heel:



I had a hearing on Monday morning. During this hearing, I was rocking on my black heels (as I do when I am nervous), about half way through the hearing I feel something break on my shoe, I look down, and sure enough, my heel snapped off. I tried not to think about it. And as I started to walk away from the Judge's bench, I thought surely its still attached somewhat (and not wanting to direct attention to the broken heel because there were approximately 30 attorneys waiting behind me) I decided to simply act like nothing happened. Well, that didn't work. Sure enough I look down and realize that in fact I have lost the heel somewhere in the court room. When, all of a sudden, another attorney, bends down, picks up the lost heel, and says "Ma'am, I believe this is your heel" in front of everyone. I mean, what can ya do at this point. I laughed, took my heel, smiled, and graciously basked in my embarrasment as I left the courtroom, and proceed to walk back 6 blocks to my buidling in downtown, pretending I had a heel on my left shoe. Luckily I had another pair of black shoes in my car. Whew.

Happy News to report - I am officially moving into a bigger office TODAY! Yay!

Much Love.

Yay: New office.

Dang: The amoutn of launrdy I need to wash, dry, fold, repeat this weekend.

Mexico Vacay Day 6 and 7 and 8

Days 6 and 7 and 8:

View from our balcony

On Day 6 (Thursday) - we layed by the pool once more. We were stragglers that morning. Woke up, had a buffet breakfast, and then found a hut by the pool. We stayed out there for most of the day, fluctuating between the pool and our lounge chairs. Patrick's sunburn was pretty bad on his back so we tended to stay out of the sun more often than not. I finished my pottery bowl also that day. That night we ate dinner at the Chez Isabelle restaurant (the French restaurant). It was one of the tastiest restaurants/fanciest by far. We had a good dinner and turned in early.


On Day 7 (Friday) -

On the scuba boat

We decided to take on a scuba adventure. That morning we had a scuba lesson for an hour and a half in the pool at the resort (we are not certified, keep in mind). In this lesson we learned the basics of how to scuba and scuba'd to the other side of the lazy river. Which I am sure received some funny looks, but we liked it! After our lesson we ate lunch and then vegged. At around 2:30 we went down to the beach and met the other couples for our scubaing boat. We went out to a coral reef park near Isla Mujeres and got to scuba in coral reef! We only went down abuot 30 feet, which was fine, considering my scuba knowledge was limited to what I had learned that morning. No freak outs this time. Amazing how I was more comfortable under water than up in the air. Someone told me it might be about my level of control. I was definitely in more control under the water. I LOVED scuba diving. I really want to get certified now for otu next beach vacation. We saw some pretty fish and eels. I took a lot of pics, and I still need to get those developed at Costco (cheap prices).

At the buffet

Our friends Jason and Kim from Canada!

That night we ate at the Mexican Buffet (with 5 layers of bug spray). It was super tasty. They decorated the entire place in a mexican theme. Afterwards we headed to the Alegria bar for one last night at the discoteque. Patrick sang again at Karaoke and this time it was "Thong Song" by Sisco. It. was. hilarious. He had the crowd roaring. We also got a chance to hang out with our Canadian friends one last time. It was a great last night at oure resort!


On Day 8 -


This was our departure day. Our flight wasn't until 5 pm that afternoon and our transportation didn't arrive until 2:30 so we got to have a late lunch and wonder around the resort for a while. It was sad saying goodbye to such a wonderful vacation! I enjoyed every minute and was thankful for getting to spend so much time with Patrick (he's so busy right now I don't see him very often). I felt rejuventaed and relaxed and ready to tackle the real world once more.

My upcoming weekend -

Includes:

I CANNOT WAIT! Recap of the above on Monday!