Houston Synopsis

Due to a desperate need to get away, coupled with a desire to see family and friends I took two days off last week and headed down to Houston for a four day weekend to catch up with Michy and Ho, Marielle, and Amy. 'Twas a marvelous trip. Highlights include: (in no particular order):

• Cooking up Beef Stirfry from scratch with Michelle (I cut up the red peppers and spring onions and dumped them in the pan...A culinary triumph of epic proportions.)


• Feeling all self-righteous and proud as we ate aforementioned stir-fry while we watched the anti-fast food documentary "SuperSize Me"


• Feeling somewhat less proud as we gobbled very delicious, but not quite as healthy, hot toasty S'Mores' for dessert.


• Having drinks with Amy S. and Dave a mere days before they leave permanently for illustrious Bloomington.
  
• Going clothes shoppin' with Michelle and Joel, and hence exposing myself (insert joke here) to the world of hip fashion. Note: It's a bit of an indictment on my sense of style when EVERY SINGLE PERSON you run into says "major upgrade" no matter what clothes you happen to have on in the store. I could have sauntered around with a jock strap on my head and people still would have marveled at the clear improvement. Still I came away with my first pair of Lucky Brand jeans. I'm so hip!


• Celebrating Marielle's birthday at a trendy music-filled Tapas place called Mi Luna in the Rice Village, and remembering exactly what I've been missing these past couple of years. It's very hard not to smile around Marielle...her inherent happiness is just so infectious...and exactly what the doctor ordered.


• Having wine and yummy ordeuvres at Blogger Vanessa's place, and meeting her new daschund puppy Gustavo, whose ostensible charms are juxtaposed by an insatiable propensity to defecate on to the carpet.


• Helping Mich and Joel choose a new computer and setting it up. The got a computer with over 1 gigabyte of RAM....a slight upgradeover the one they had previously, which came standard with 64MB. It's weird..but I actually enjoy setting up computers...


• Having yummy fish tacos and a beef tamales inside BerryHill and being amazed that while walking from the parking lot to the restaurant, Michelle and I decided we should sit outside because it was so nice, and yet by the time we had gone inside and ordered, it was a torrential downpour.


• Having drinks with Marielle and co. at Baker St. and coming to the realization that she knows more people than um... um...What's a good metaphor...um... That fictional dude in my mind who purports to know everyone in the world. (how was that? Pretty crap? Yeah I know)


• flash floods that lived up the the billing their name suggests. I'm telling you, Houston weather is sheer craziness.


• Being unable to hold back a toothy grin when Marielle opened her present, looked at me and said "Wow! You Did So Good!"
  
  

All in all it was a fantastic trip, and I have the souvenirs to prove it in the form of swanky clothes. Hurrah!