Road Trip!

I went to visit Marly and Christopher a couple of weeks ago and got to carpool with Elizabeth who was headed to see friends, too. I love a road trip! I picked up Chick Fil-A for lunch on Friday and what did Elizabeth bring? Dessert!! We love love love Tiff's Treats! We had our tasty treats and then saw signs for Buc-ee's and knew we had to stop. Elizabeth had been told that we had to try "Beaver Nuggets", but, we passed on them. They didn't look very appetizing, but, her friend Tiffany, swears they are delicious. We opted for other bad stuff. You'll see below....

How could we not resist this? Hilarous!

Elizabeth just had to have gummi worms. Apparently, she was not allowed to have them as a child and now must eat them whenever she sees them.

I love chocolate pretzels! What's not to love? Sweet and salty? Delicious combo.

I had a fun-filled weekend with Marly and Christopher. We shopped like crazy people (which is what usually happens when we get together). I may have purchased five pairs of shoes. But, Robin says that flip flops are not considered shoes, so, I only bought four pairs of shoes. :)

We shopped, ate, watched Olympics, bowled, and drank a few tasty beverages. Whew! I also got Marly completely into the USA vs Canada hockey game on Sunday. I was the "pro" telling her what everything meant (Tom would be so proud). We were both screaming at the TV. It was good that Christopher had gone to a friend's house to play...there may have been cussing.

Marly and me before going out on Friday night.

It was so beautiful on Sunday, we took a long walk and Christopher played in the park.

Marly also gave him a bike-riding lesson, too.


I had a blast in Houston and tons of laughs with Elizabeth and our carpooling. We talked about everything! Thanks for driving, E!

Bike Riding + Mud = what do you think?

Let me tell you this: you should never ride bikes with someone who has a mountain bike and you have a road bike. They do NOT understand slick tires. I have no traction on my tires, people! My bike is for roadways only. I thought that was what we were going to do today. Unfortunately, after the rain this morning, the trail was not clean and dry.

About a mile and half into the ride was when it happened...let me set the scene. We were coming around a lake/pond where there were people feeding the ducks and walking around on the path. I was following Tom and coming around the corner. He sees a couple walking on the path and attempts to go around them. His back tire slips so he slows down and gets back behind the couple. He didn't tell me that he was slowing down so I either had to hit him or try and go around. I chose to go around...my mistake. I went straight into the mud and went down. As my fellow bike riders will tell you, it's hard to stop a fall and if you're clipped in, you are cooked. Thankfully, I had a helmet on because my head did quite the bounce on the ground. I did smash my sunglasses into my nose. The mud broke my fall so I didn't end up with road rash, but, I had mud everywhere. Being the trooper that I am, I continued the ten mile ride (as I have said before, I am awesome).

When we finished, Tom could barely get his shoes off before running into the house to get the camera so we would have a permanent reminder of this.


Enjoy!

My perspective...

People have been sharing their photos from last week's snow on facebook and other blogs, so, I thought I'd share mine:

My house on Friday morning

My street




These next pictures are the same angle, but, different day/times.

The backyard on Thursday morning

Second angle of the backyard on Thursday morning

Thursday evening

Thursday evening

Friday morning after the buckets of snow

Friday morning....poor tree is down

Julia Childs, I am not.

I tried to cook tonight. Should we just leave it at that? Of course not.

Last week, Robin sent me a chipotle chicken and rice recipe and said "It's really yummy and easy." This should have been a red flag. I am a moron when it comes to the kitchen. This is why I chose my roommates based on their cooking ability.

Back to my story...so I went to the grocery store on Sunday and purchased all the ingredients. It took me about 15 minutes standing in front of the mexican food area to find "Chipotle Chiles in Adobo Sauce". There were two different size cans, what was I supposed to do? I bought both. I kept saying in my head, "yummy and easy, yummy and easy".

I came home from the gym tonight and was ready to cook! I had the Chef's apron on and everything. Cooked my chicken, diced the onions and on to the garlic. Um, honestly, I don't think that I've ever used real garlic (always used the jar of minced garlic). I didn't even know how to peel it. Tomas had to do it. Yep, that's what I said.

So, if I can't even peel garlic, do you think that I would thoroughly read the directions to the recipe? Exactly. I'm just going along, pouring the ingredients into the big pot and stirring....then, it calls for "2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, minced". I read "2 cans of chipotle chiles in adobo, minced". Since I bought the different sized cans, I decided to use the big can. I wondered what I was supposed to do....shrugged my shoulders and dumped the entire can into the pot. Finished up the cooking and it was smelling delicious! "Yummy and Easy"

Tomas and I got our plates and beverages and sat down to eat. SWEET LORD. Holy Moly. Jeez. Zoinks. KaPow.

Apparently, I was supposed to pull 2 chiles out of the can, dice them up, and put them into the pot. I poured the entire can in there....10 chiles.

I......AM.......A.......MORON.

Lisa...Robin...it's okay to be ashamed.

I must now go eat the entire bottle of Pepcid.

Jury Duty

Sorry for my delay in posting.....I'm in jury duty hell!!! Three week trial! Does my face say "Pick Me, Pick Me"? And, I SUCK at keeping secrets....sssshhh, I didn't tell you that. Do you know how hard it is to NOT talk about this trial? K-I-L-L-I-N-G M-E!!!!! How can I not gossip? I love to gossip..that's why I started this silly blog in the first place.

UGH!!!!! Eight Days down.....

Mavs Game

Jules and I went to the mavs game last weekend. We started out our afternoon with TWO games of Phase 10 Master's Edition (love it!) and TWO games of Farkle (whoopee!!). We also had some great gossiping time, ice cream, and chips/queso. We had great seats to the game, thanks to Elizabert. Unfortunately, the Mavs didn't show up to play that night and lost by 18 points. I'm not 100% on that 18 points...we left 9 minutes before the end of the game. We wanted to get back to Jules' house to catch the end of the Cowboys game. At least, they won!

Here is my view from our seats. Not bad, right?

Here was Julie's view....not so good, right?

This was just a preview game until we can have our anniversary game with Elizabeth which will hopefully be VERY soon! The party girls will be ready ready ready!!! Of course, we are old...maybe we'll do Phase 10 and farkle again. Watch out, Elizabeth...I will punch you in the face!

Beautiful and Adorable Christmas Cards

I have to admit..I love to get mail. Not the bills, of course. Random cards or anything really. I can barely contain myself walking up to the house from the mailbox when I get something personal. Usually, I've opened the envelope before I've made it into the house. So you know that Christmas is especially fun with all the cards coming in. I am a big slacker in sending out Christmas cards. I did get on the bandwagon last year with my infamous photo, but, I got lazy this year.

Back to this year...I've received lots of great cards. Yesterday, I even received a note from the post office. It said that I had a letter that needed to be picked up and "postage due" was checked. hhhmmm, odd. I sat there for awhile and contemplated what it could be. Tom came home and I showed him the note and he didn't have any ideas, either. Then, it came to me. I told him my guess. Before I tell you that I WAS RIGHT, I'll finish the story chronologically. My little note said that I had to pick up the letter the next day after 8:30am at the post office. Okay, no problem. I'll just be late for work.

Fast forward to this morning: off to the post office I go. Have you ever tried to go to the post office before Christmas? People are frantically trying to get their packages to their destination, but, they've already missed the deadline to get it there by Christmas Eve. Oh, the horror!

There was a man in front of me that just couldn't understand how the post office couldn't get his letter to Austin by 7am tomorrow morning. They could guarantee by noon, but, not by 7am (really, noon wouldn't work? If it's that important, you can drive it down there faster). He went round and round with the postman. If I were that postman, I would have smacked him up side head. Finally, he got it that the post office will not get his letter to his destination. The postman suggests Fed Ex....the moron guy asks him where it was located. I think the postman knew, but, was so annoyed by this guy, he said "I have no idea." The guy then asked for a phone book! I was about to smack him at this point. Finally, he leaves.

My turn, my turn!!! I give him my little note and returns with my letter. I had to pay my postage due before he would even hand me the letter. I grabbed it eagerly, hoping that I had some relative that I never met before send me an enormous sum of money.

What was it, you ask? A square-shaped Christmas card. I will say that it's a cute square-shaped card, but, you have to put extra postage on square cards!!!! I won't call you out, card-sender, but, you owe me 20 cents and I will collect!

Merry Christmas Everyone!! Woo Hoo, holiday spirit.