Getting hot & staying busy

Hello all! As always, towards the end of June in Texas, the heat is on. Holy mother of God, it's hot. I've been very good about working out without fail the past two weeks, so that means I have to go for my runs after the sun has gone down. Even at 8:30pm, you can feel the heat still rising off the pavement.

And it's only just begun. -whimper-

Here starts the real fun. Check out Saturday.
 

Thankfully, we have plenty of things to do that keep us busy and most importantly, things that keep time whizzing by. Its no secret how much I hate summer, so I like it to go by as fast as possible. This Mama needs to work on her tan, so we may venture out to the neighborhood pool soon. Maybe.

As for this past week/weekend, we went to see Man of Steel with Ken on Saturday, which Aaron and Z loved. Following our movie, Z was invited to a pool/pizza party on Saturday night, which got him very excited. The hosting Mom was brave enough to have 7 boys at her place for the night, and she sent me a text of them lined up to jump in their pool all at the same time:

Bless her, for I don't know if I could ever be bold enough to have that many loud, smelly, overly energetic boys at my place. Whew. Since Z was out for the night, we decided to have a little impromptu get-together in our backyard that evening, full of food, music, and laughs. Aaron strung up some Christmas lights & lit up some tiki torches and we enjoyed the backyard after the sun went down. We stopped by Sprouts first, to grab some things to grill, as well as a few of our favorite snacks. They were especially delicious, since we didn't have to share with a 10-year old. I know, we are terrible.

Cheese. Always a favorite.

Expensive, but damn tasty root beer. I dare say the best root beer on the planet. Don't worry, I'm not a total bitch - I saved two of these for Z.

Aaron grilled himself some shrimp he marinated in a sweet hot sauce, and I had some teriyaki skewers.

We stayed up way too late, ate way too much, and laughed way too loud. At what, you ask? Assorted things, but one thing in particular was this picture:

Ah, the brilliance of the stingray photobomb. I'm laughing again, just writing about it.

It was an exceptional evening spent with good people. After picking up Z early Sunday morning, we laid around being lazy for a better part of Sunday. We finally got ourselves moving enough to ... what else? Go eat. We let Z pick where we went, and of course, he picked Freddy's. That boy loves their hamburgers and fries more than Jesus, I swear.

My steakburger combo. They do have amazing fries.

Had to finish off with a chocolate frozen custard. Just had to.

Clearly, I didn't cook much this weekend, but I made up for that last night. I made Aaron one of his all-time favorite dishes from my repertoire, sour cream green chili chicken enchiladas. (Say that 3 times fast.) 

In my defense, I used light sour cream, organic non-chemical ridden cream of chicken soup (yes! it does exist!), and 2% milk shredded cheese to cut back on some of the calories and fat. I mean, after our weekend of indulgence, it was the right thing to do. They still tasted delicious, and were a big hit with Aaron, Z, and Ken. Holla!

That catches us up to today. This week is especially irritating with a lot of things going on at the office, but I'm still able to have Doctor Who on while I work. 

A new doctor already. That took some getting used to.

That helps calm my nerves some. (I'm up to the finale of season 2.) My boss is out the whole week, certain co-workers are testing my patience, and we're having major office renovations done. Needless to say, I'm ready for this week to be over, and it's only Tuesday. More than ever, I need to keep up with my exercising, and therapeutic massages. I had another one yesterday afternoon, and she went to town on the scar tissue in my knee. Boy, that massage was a blessing and a curse, but I know if I keep them up, my knee might be better than it has been in a very long time. I'm more than willing to continue going and find out.

Things to look forward to this week -- it being over, for starters, and Aaron asked if I wanted to go to the Farmer's Market Saturday morning. Oh, that boy sure knows how to make my heart happy. We got some tomatoes from there a few weekends ago that rocked our world, so I'm excited to go back and stock up before their season ends. Not to mention the cantaloupes, watermelon, berries, onions, carrots - oh my! 

As for tonight, I have the night off from Central Market (surprise fluke), so it's all about dinner, then a run, a shower, and curling up with So You Think You Can Dance as I drift off to sleep. Aaron and Z are 90 minutes in to a deep clean of Z's room, which means I can probably squeeze in another episode of The Doctor. I've started thinking to myself in a British accent these days, so it could be possible that I've been watching too much, but oh well - off I go! Until next time ...

Sausages galore.

Whew! Last week was a blur. Albeit a blur made up of good laughs and lots of food, but boy, it went by quick. Wednesday evening, we met the BFF and her husband for another comedy show. This time, we were at Cap City Comedy Club, the headliner was Josh Wolf, and his opening act was Tommy Pope.

Hooray! Date night!

Once again, I had never heard of either of these guys, and once again, they were hysterical. My friends have good taste in comedic talent! Seriously, if you need a laugh, find these guys on YouTube or watch Josh Wolf on Chelsea Lately. An added perk? We got to meet them and talk to them some after the show.

Josh Wolf is in the middle, Tommy Pope and the emcee Bob are

photobombing us in the back.

Me and Tommy Pope. Oh, and emcee Bob ... again.

(Psssst, Bob ... that's only funny once.)

My Josh Wolf autograph - we played a guessing game on how to

spell my name as he was writing, so ...

The BFF's autograph. Funny guy.

I finished out the week with what else? Yes, amazing food. Thanks to my boss for this trip -- it was mahvelous, to say the very least. We went over to Banger's Sausage House & Beer Garden, a pretty tasty joint off Rainey Street. I must say, their sausages don't blow me away and most of their food is in dire need of a few shakes of salt, but their jalapeno mac & cheese and their chili cheese fries rock my socks. Hard.

 

Hail the holy chili cheese fries. I am NOT a chili cheese kind of gal, but these are good.

Like, cut-a-bitch good. I could eat these for the rest of my life, if I didn't fear how

big my ass would get. Just looking at them gets me all revved up again.

This is my third time to Banger's (what can I say, it's my boss' favorite place these days), and 

this sausage is probably the best one I've tried, so far. It's the drunken chicken sausage, 

comprised of beer, Serrano peppers, red pepper flakes, cilantro, and more beer. You get to

pick your bun, sauce, and toppings, so I went with the chef-suggested kolache bun, 

caramelized onions, and garlic aioli. Hell yes.

This is the other thing they have that sends my heart soaring -- jalapeno mac & cheese.

I ordered the red beans & rice, at the server's urging, and it reinforced how much I don't

trust anyone's opinion but my own. My boss got this mac & cheese and thankfully,

shared it with me. At least they took the unholy red beans & rice off our bill.

Because you can never eat too many sausages in one weekend, we also opted for a trip to Sprouts Saturday night to get some of our own to grill. Green chili pork, chicken parmesan, sweet Italian, and chicken apple were what we brought home, as well as some teriyaki marinated steak kabobs for Z. Oh, how happy grilling makes this girl.

Pre-grilling close-up.

My chicken sausages, topped with grilled onions and

Whataburger mustard. (Yes, it is sold in stores now - there is a God.)

Paired up with fresh corn on the cob from the Farmer's Market last weekend - sublime!

I also decided to attempt drying my own strawberries in the oven this weekend, for a healthy fruit snack with no added crap. I found a how-to on my beloved Pinterest, and proceeded to slice up an entire container of strawberries. She said to make them thin, because she cut hers thick, and it didn't work as well as she had hoped it would. 

My beautiful, thin cut berries.

In the oven, according to directions. Fast forward a little ...

Epic fail. Guess I sliced them TOO thin. Sigh.

I'll try it again next weekend, I know I can nail this. Lastly, on Sunday, I decided to do something I've been wanting to do for a while now -- dive into the Doctor Who series!

My Dad and I used to watch the really old version of this show on PBS when I was a kid, but I had always been curious about it after it was resurrected in 2005. Since we have Amazon Prime (best invention ever, by the way), I can watch all episodes of all the old seasons for free. Boom! Love it.

So, those were the highlights of our week, and weekend. I won't bore anyone about how hot its getting, because we all know how much hot weather sucks. (I hate you summer!) But, I did send off my Foodie PenPal package this past scorching Saturday, and I'm excited to be receiving mine sometime within the next week! It's nice having something to look forward to, besides sweating!

More soon! xoxo

Monday, Monday (bah baaaa bah bah bah)

Let me start this post by saying it has come to my realization that when viewing my blog on Firefox, the font could possibly appear as Comic Sans. As this font drives me insane, and I firmly believe it should be bastardized and exiled from planet Earth forever, let me apologize to anyone who has read it and had their eyes violated in such a way. Some other Internet Explorer computers also show my blog in a funky, bad cursive-ish type font. I didn't pick that one, either. The way I see it on my Mac at home is the way its intended for all to see, so please forgive me if you are looking at something unbearably ugly. I promise, it wasn't me. :(

Now that I have cleared the air on that, we can proceed. This weekend was busy, but spectacular. It included some good food:

Took a trip to one of our favorite places in the world.

 

Of course, I had to get my all-time fave - the green chili pork.

And I finally tried a beef fajita. Yummers.

Went by Central Market to grab a few things, and we had to share a gelato.

Aaron made homemade donuts again, which I usually can resist.

But this weekend? Not so much. They were calling me ...

My parents came over for game night on Saturday night, so we just HAD to get Chinese.

Mmmm, beef lo mein.

Contrary to what it may look like, we did do other things this weekend besides eat. Not that there's anything wrong with eating your way through a weekend - no shame at all. We also laughed a bunch:

Z laughed with his buddies in their first "Komedy Klub" meeting.

One member is missing, but hopefully he'll be at the next meeting.

Z, Aaron, & I played the always hilarious Who What Where board game. If you've never played,

I would highly suggest giving it a try. You have to draw sentences comprised of three cards:

one who, one what, and one where. Because you're grabbing cards from a box at random, your cards

 make silly sentences like one of mine -- "Mr. T herding sheep in the belly of a whale." It's a scream. You want to see what that drawing looked like, don't you? Alright, here it is:

Another sentence I got was "Popeye playing the accordion on an airplane":

Like I said, it's hilarious. And as I have just exposed to the world, my lack of artistic skill is staggering. Hey, don't judge! As I mentioned a little while ago, my parents also came over and we had a game night. My Mom's favorite: 

Also hilarious!

Lastly, I also got to meet new doggies this weekend, which is always a plus for me:

Isis and Tut, brother and sister 6-month old Bassett puppies.

Lots of delicious food, laughing my arse off, and puppies? God, I'm spoiled. I also ran again for the first time in 3 weeks. It's time to stop pretending I'm still nursing my knee, and just get back in it. It was hard, and I was sore the next day or so, but I did 2.07 miles at the same pace I was at before I took time off. Today, I just finished running 2.08 miles, but I was a tad slower. In my defense, it is 96° outside and this is the first time I've run in the heat of the day. Clearly, it's a stupid thing to do, and I don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon. Hurry up and end, summer. I hate you!

 Until next time ...

Foodie PenPals & the beach

So, one of the neato blogs I was recently introduced to by a friend (Thanks, LHB!) was a sometimes hilarious, sometimes utterly depressing, all-too-real account of a woman who is struggling with her weight. Long story short: she lost over 100 pounds, became a spokesperson for Weight Watchers, then within a year, gained it all back - plus some. Her ride is real, thought-provoking, and more common that most people think. While browsing her posts, her most recent one had something that caught my eye - a program she saw on ANOTHER blog post called Foodie PenPals. (Suzi's post is here.) First things that ran through my mind after reading this: Are you serious? There is such a thing where people send each other food to try? And I'm JUST NOW finding out about this?!

SIGN. ME. UP!

I couldn't email the lovely brainchild behind this program, Lindsay @ theleangreenbean.com, fast enough. Thankfully, I made the cut for this month's sign-ups, and WOOT! I will not only be sending a lovely person in another state some delicious goodies from Austin, but I will be receiving a box of delicious goodies from yet another state - different person! How ridiculously fun is this idea? I'm jealous and a little pissed at myself that I didn't think of it first. You're a mad genius, Lindsay.

I will be blogging about what I send and what I receive, after the boxes have been received on both ends. I cannot wait, let me tell ya. I'm looking forward to this in a big, big way. Join us (using the link I posted above), if this sounds interesting to you, too!

Thursday was Aaron's last day of school. We are still finding it hard to believe that his first year of teaching flew by as fast as it did. Since everyone is now out of school, the next logical step is ... planning a trip to the beach, of course! I started researching condos and cottages in Port Aransas, and I must say, I was very deflated. When did prices for summer rocket so high?? People do realize this is the Texas coast, right? Don't get me wrong - I have a soft spot for Port A in my heart and always will, but this isn't the Bahamas, or some dreamy, white sand beach in Hawaii. It's murky gray water, and beaches that are so covered in dried seaweed that you can barely find a place to put your stuff down. I was shocked to see the average range is about $180-$250 PER NIGHT, even in the tiny, non-descript cottages that have been there since the beginning of time. Can we say ridiculous? I put in the dates we want - which are weekdays, not weekends, by the way - at a place we have stayed at a few times over years past, and the automated total that came up almost knocked me out of my chair. Ready? Brace yourself ... they want $945.00 for 3 weeknights in Port Aransas. Bwahahahahahaha! That would be HELL no. The weekend rates were even higher! I was about to give up all hope of our beach trip happening, then I clicked on one property that still offers semi-reasonable rates, about $85 a night. I can deal with that much better than I can deal with $185 a night. I can't disclose where it is, because I'm being a brat and have to hog this little gem to myself. I'm sure it won't be long before everyone else catches on and the rates go up there, too, but until then, you can't make me tell! Note to self: plan trips to Port A only in the off-season from now on. Good grief.

TGIF! Hope everyone has an awesome weekend. And until next time, I shall leave you with Z and Cody, playing with Z's recorder:

Ahhh, the weekend.

What a great weekend it has been. We started ours a little early by going on the double-date that I mentioned on Thursday. Went with Amy and Jim to The Roaring Fork for a lovely meal (think: beef tenderloin with Shiner Bock fondue, green chili mac and cheese ...) then next door to The Paramount Theatre to see Ross Mathews. I had never heard of this guy before they invited us to go to the show, but wow, he is hysterical. A good time, and many good laughs, were had by all.

Friday was pretty low-key, just went to Z's last flag football practice, and hung around the house. I *almost* went to the grocery store, but managed to talk myself out of it pretty quickly. Friday was also Z's last day of school, so he wanted to eat out after practice, in celebration. We let him pick where we ate, therefore, we ended up at Freddy's. Not so good for my waistline, but damn tasty. I tried the cheesesteak this time - yowsa.

Saturday started with me going to see one of my favorite human beings, Iris. She is a massage therapist sent from the heavens, and I've been going to see her now for about 10 years, off and on. This was the longest gap between visits - about 18 months - so, I had a lot to catch her up on. Since I have been running again, I hurt. Mainly my knee and lower back, so she really worked hard on those and we were able to set up a plan for me to keep having sessions done to help the arthrofibrosis in my knee. Yes, this is the same knee I've been dealing with for over 25 years, the one I had surgery on when I was 14. It now has a boat-load of scar tissue built up in it, so my mobility is pretty much zero, and I can't straighten or bend it completely. I'm stuck in this sort of bent position all the time, if I don't want to be in agony, so she is going to help me work out the scar tissue. I'll take that over another surgery, any day.

After my massage, we had Z's last flag football game. It was a phenomenal way for he and his team to end their first season together - they beat the team of jerkfaces from earlier in the year. They played this one team that had the worst coaches, sportsmanship, and over-zealous parents I have ever witnessed in any little league sport, ever. It sucked because they beat us the first time we played them, but ah, revenge is sweet. We beat them this time, and they had to choke down the loss. I was so proud of our boys.

We ended Saturday having a long dinner outing with a family we adore from Z's school. We have family dates with them about once a month, and this one kicked off summer for the boys. More good food was shared, and many big laughs. Got there at 7pm, and before we knew it, the clock said 11pm. That's how you know you're with good friends. Time flies when you're having fun!

Today, we cleaned house - well, Aaron and I did. When we told Z what to do, he remembered that Santa gave him a coupon book last Christmas that had this in it:

Bastard Santa. So, Z relaxed while Aaron and I cleaned up a bit, did some laundry, and threw away a ton of stuff leftover from the school year. Since we worked so hard, we decided we wanted a snow cone from our favorite shaved ice place, Kawaii Ice, and took Cody with us.

Now, sadly, time for fun has come to a close, and it's off to work for me. Sigh.

I love weekends like this. Lots of good food, lots of good friends, lots of family time, and lots of relaxing. I need to soak up as much of this as possible, before my hellish work schedule at the apartments kicks in. We even started planning a potential trip to the beach in July ... ooo, the possibilities! *clap clap clap*.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend, as well. I found a couple of cool websites on the recommendation of a friend that I'll share next time I write. Until then ...