Spring Time

Here's a rundown of what's been going on lately:

One of my goals for this year is to drink more water. I don't usually drink much a day of anything. Claudia bought me a camelbak to encourage me to drink more water and it is working. Down side to it is having to use the restroom all the time.

Another goal of mine is to go to all of these coffee shops. Most of these I have coffee dates with Belem. I think she's gone to more of these than I have so I need to catch up. I've been to 6 out of the 10. Belem has been to 8. Ryan and I tried out Paper Co. which is actually connected to a church in the First Ward. I honestly would have never know it was there if it wasn't for that article.

I am CPR certified again. I have to be CPR certified for work and mine was expiring soon. If you ever need to take a course in Houston, then you should check out the classes offered by the Junior League because they offer them for free. I'd sign up early though, they fill up fast.

Two weekends ago, we met up with friends for dinner at Brasserie 19. When you have an occasion to celebrate, they will put a sparkler inside a trophy filled with pink cotton candy. We saw one go by, and I was like "I want one of those!" Our waiter heard me, so Claudia just asked if we could get one. We certainly didn't need a trophy of cotton candy in addition to the desserts we already ordered, not to mention the meal and drinks, but it was fun. Afterwards, we went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel. Ryan loves all the movies by Wes Anderson and always looks forward to his movies. I find the direction and quirkiness of them fun. I'm sure we will be adding this one, and the collector's edition to our drawer of dvds when it comes out.

The next weekend, we had crawfish and more crawfish. We had some the night before on Friday with Claudia and then my brother cooked crawfish for my family on Saturday. We all just hung out together and again, ate too much. The rest of the weekend, we just relaxed, took Lily to the dog park, and I got to see Millie.

This weekend, we had a very busy Saturday. I watched my nieces for a little bit while my brother had some things he needed to do. We had a fun time at Dan's birthday party where we had burgers, hot dogs, and more crawfish. Too bad we couldn't stay to taste the awesome cake his mom made him. From there, we joined Stacy for her birthday dinner at Brasserie Max & Julie and drinks after.

Today, my family came over and thanks to Adrien, we went to a place nearby to take some photos of my nieces with bluebonnets. I love seeing bluebonnets bloom all over Texas in the Spring.

Happy Spring.

San Francisco

Ryan and I had a great trip to San Francisco this past week. We were there from Monday through Thursday. We typically like to be busy on our vacations unless it is one meant for relaxation (ex: cruise or all inclusive resorts). The first day we were there, we just dropped off our luggage and didn't return until it was time for bed. San Francisco has been on our list of places to visit for a long time. We were debating between SF or Seattle when we booked this trip. Even though Seattle is high up on the list of places to visit, we couldn't have asked for better weather for our time in San Francisco. Everywhere we went, there was such a beautiful view of the city. Here is a run down of what we did:

Monday: checked in (we booked a place off Airbnb and stayed in Hayes Valley, very close to a tiki bar, coffee, and ice cream made to order with liquid nitrogen), City Hall for bus passes, Blue Bottle Coffee (pretty much a garage in an alley), Painted Ladies, Ferry Plaza for Boccalone(meat cone? Yes, please) and Humphry Slocombe (Secret breakfast ice cream which is cornflakes and bourbon), China Town, grabbed some dim sum from Good Mong Kok Bakery, met some lady from New Jersey who told us her life story in two minutes, pinched my cheeks, grabbed me behind my neck and tried to put her hand in Ryan's pocket all because she wanted to know where to get dim sum around there, stopped by Vesuvio for a drink, ate free chocolate at Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, fun street show by Bob, Magowan's Infinite Mirror Maze where I cussed a few times running into mirrors, clam chowder in a bread bowl along the Pier, Night tour of Alcatraz, late night Ramen at Katana-Ya, and finally back to the apartment.

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Tuesday: breakfast at Plow, tour and tasting at Anchor Brewing Company, cable car museum, rode the trolleys, Lombard Street, rode more trolleys, burritos in Mission, nap, dinner at Woodhouse Fish Co. for crab, fried clams, and $1 oysters, got dessert from Smitten Ice Cream, and then finished the night at Smuggler's Cove which was 2-3 blocks from our apartment.

Wednesday: grabbed some breakfast near by, Ryan went to pick up our rental car, picked me up, drove out to Muir Woods National Monument to see redwoods, waited for the cars in front of us to finish adjusting to park, but then a tree decided to fall on us. Yelled towards a state park worker nearby, "Excuse me! A tree fell on our car!" He left to go seek help or something. County worker named Dale drove by, said he can't cut the tree down. State park worker came back, said a State Ranger will have to come down to write a report and then they will most likely call the Fire Department to cut it down. Dale came back around, didn't think they would have to call the fire department, so he turned into HULK and lifted the tree from the car enough for us to drive it out. Still had to wait for a State Ranger (not a National Ranger because it isn't in his jurisdiction as we found out) to come write up a report. Four trucks showed up to saw the tree part that fell on us into pieces and put it in chipper. Over 2 hours into this whole ordeal, we finally were able to flag down 2 State Rangers who began to write the report. Another Ranger showed up then too. Finally finished with that ordeal and got into Muir Woods, enjoyed the redwoods, had a snack, drove up to East Peak on Mount Tamalpais, and took in the amazing view. We then stopped by the designated areas for photos of the Golden Gate Bridge, went to the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, made the phone calls to insurance and rental car company, rested for a while at the apartment, and then had dinner at Incanto that evening. We tried to grab some more ice cream from Smitten, but they closed by the time we got there.

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Thursday: We wanted to get to the airport early since we had to talk to the car rental company about the damage to the car. We just went straight to the airport and then spent many hours there since our flight was delayed. Finally got home and crashed.

We had such a fun time in San Francisco. I love traveling to experience new places. We don't have another trip lined up yet, but I'm excited to travel again.

Spring Time

Last week, we went over to the Owens' to celebrate Violet and Parker's birthday. They had a cute camp themed birthday with tents and a canoe in the backyard for the kids to play in. I can't believe how fast these kids are growing up! Love them.

After their birthday party, we met up with the Smullens and Toals for dinner at Torchy's. Millie and Ian finally got to meet, but I forgot to snap a photo of the two of them together.

We were also able to meet Brian for brunch at the Breakfast Klub while he was in town and meet Cynthia. Even though we probably had enough to eat that day from that brunch alone, we went with Claudia to LA Crawfish that night for our first crawfish meal this season. I'm so very ready for the crawfish to get bigger and to eat lots lots more.

Ryan and I just got back from San Francisco yesterday, so long post about our trip coming soon.

February Wrap Up

Last week was pretty busy because I went to an annual state convention, but luckily this year, the convention was in Houston and at the GRB. I first went to the TSHA convention back in grad school and have gone to most of them with friends from grad school, like Jenny, Katie, and Rachel. Katie and Rachel couldn't come this year, but I'm glad I was able to catch up with Jenny for a little bit. I also hung out with some previous co workers and had some fun nights out with them. The keynote speaker, Brene Brown, was hilarious. I'll probably buy her book soon. If you haven't seen her TED talk, you should click here.

Gra(n)d School girls at TSHA 2006

Saturday, Ryan, Gary, and I joined Dan at the BBQ cook off at the Houston Rodeo. I have actually never been to the BBQ cookoff part before, so it was fun to check out. The cookoff was CROWDED. Ryan mentioned that he thought he saw someone selling chocolate fried pickles on our way in and sure enough, we spotted them on our way out. I told him it sounded disgusting but for something so odd, he had to get them. When he ordered them, the workers didn't even know what to do. They went from worker to worker asking what they needed to do to make chocolate fried pickles. That alone made ordering them worth it. Eventually, the put some fried pickles in a basket and added a container of chocolate to dip it in. Of course the two did not taste good together, but we tried. The BBQ was very good, music was fun, and the people watching is always entertaining, but I was so tired from the week. I work from home and all around Houston, so I'm not typically around a lot of people anymore. I think after the convention and then the cook off, I was missing some alone time. I crashed pretty quickly when we got home. We met up with my family the next day for lunch and then I crashed again.

When Ryan was at his convention in College Station a few weeks ago, I had noticed some dirt on a wall and when I tried to clean it up, I found termites. We had estimates and inspections the week after that, we had to reschedule our treatment since it rained, and then finally while I was at my convention, we had someone come out and treat our house for termites. Two guys had to crawl under our house, dig a trench around each one of our piers, put in whatever chemical they use, and then put the dirt back. He also drilled lots of holes into our wall where I found them to treat that area as well. NOT FUN, but oh so glad they are gone! The joys of owning a home...