#38 - Mighty Fine Burgers

I soooo was not in the mood to cook dinner last Friday so I emailed Chris and said "let's have a dinner date!" I imagined some romantic dinner and how I would be able to cross off a dinner date on my 101 list...and then I got this god-awful craving for red meat. This rarely happens - usually once a month when my body is begging for some iron (if you catch my drift). And this is where the weirdo in me kicks in and Texans start looking at me in horror - I don't normally like red meat and I really don't like steak. The texture gives me the ibbity gibbities. So when I crave red meat, the idea of a romantic dinner at a steakhouse is not what my body wants - it wants ground beef - usually a big fat burger!

That's when I remembered all the buzz I'd heard about a new burger place in town - Mighty Fine Burgers. The owners of Rudy's Country Store and BBQ (...now drooling thinking about smoked turkey and BBQ sauce...) opened this burger joint so it had to be good, right? Romantic dinner was out - new juicy burger was in!

So after a much-longer-than-anticipated stop at Fry's electronics (where we were supposed to be looking at SLR cameras for ME but ended up spending $150 on CHRIS), we walked into Mighty Fine Burgers with a mighty fine appetite.

We walked up to the counter and the guy asked how I was. Being the polite person I am, I said "good and how are you?" His response "mighty fine!"....should have known... I order: jr. cheeseburger with nothing but jalapenos (trying to be good with the calories) , fries and a chocolate milkshake (totally blowing the "trying to be good with calories" thing). Why did I order a milkshake? I never order those - I know they're full of evil calories that I won't be able to walk off after dinner because I'll be too full and tired. What was I thinking? I wasn't apparently...I was just acting on gut instinct.

Photo from Statesman.com

After waiting for our order to be up we sat down at the picnic style tables next to some random guy watching the basketball game on TV and had our nice romantic dinner date. The results?

Chris is a burger connoisseur - he scarfed his food down. Must have liked it! I had to agree - the food was pretty good. Not the BEST burger I've ever had but the joint never claimed to be the best - just being mighty fine. And they were mighty fine. If I had to pick a least favorite part it would have to be the fries. The problem was that I'd heard all this talk about how they'd bought this fancy schmancy crinkle cut fries machine that was supposed to make super fries or something darn near close. They were a little too limp for me. Still tasty but not my favorite. Bad batch maybe?

But oh wait....this experience isn't over - I wouldn't end on a bad note. I haven't told you the best part - that chocolate milkshake that I never should have ordered. See, this milkshake is pure evil. It cast a spell on me to the likes I've never known (except that Spicy Pickle gobbler panini and the River Pub mango mojitos, but that's besides the point). It was so creamy and cold and full of yummy Blue Bell ice cream - I only wish it had been bigger because I scarfed it down way too fast...which only resulted in a massive brain freeze, by the way...ouch!

They must have put some secret ingredient in the shake to make my brain demand a second helping (my bulging belly ultimately made me resist). Or maybe there is no evil secret ingredient but just my pure, unhealthy love of ice cream. Either way, I'm sitting here now trying to convince myself that I don't need to drive the 15 minutes over to Mighty Fine Burgers just to get another round of yumminess. Must resist! Pants too tight.

So will we be back? Oh yes...but not soon enough.

#69 - Done!

I'd gotten in the bad habit of being 10-15 minutes late to work every day. When you have to be at work at 7:30 a.m. and you live so damn far away from work, it's hard to find the motivation to get to work on time. However, ever since we've had Finn (the puppy) I've been to work (if not early) every day! I get up earlier so I can play with him before he has to go in his kennel for the whole day, so I actually get out of the door on time. It's a miracle!

#59 - read a non chick lit book!

Some of my favorite Austin girls started a book club. This is great because it's getting me to read more and making me read books I wouldn't have thought to pick. Tonight we have a book club meeting on this book - which I finished the other night. It was pretty good. I was worried it was going to be too much of a time piece book (which I don't normally like) but it did a good job of feeling modern while staying true to the biblical times (except the part where she talks about guys that hump the sheep! eek!).


Synopsis from Amazon.com:
The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycles of birthing, menses, and even illness. Like the conversations and mysteries held within this feminine tent, this sweeping piece of fiction offers an insider's look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter, Dinah. Told in the voice of Jacob's daughter Dinah (who only received a glimpse of recognition in the Book of Genesis), we are privy to the fascinating feminine characters who bled within the red tent. In a confiding and poetic voice, Dinah whispers stories of her four mothers, Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah--all wives to Jacob, and each one embodying unique feminine traits. As she reveals these sensual and emotionally charged stories we learn of birthing miracles, slaves, artisans, household gods, and sisterhood secrets. Eventually Dinah delves into her own saga of betrayals, grief, and a call to midwifery.

#52 - sort of done

A couple weekends ago we were in Houston for our friend Celia's wedding. So on Sunday we stopped by Sugar Land to hang out with the cutest nephew ever - Gavin (who is now 3 1/2 months old). While I love babies - I haven't been around them much in my life and so being with Gavin gives me a chance to become comfortable with taking care of babies.

One of my goals is to baby sit him by myself. I sort of did that that weekend. Shannon and Laura had to go run a quick errand that day so Chris and I watched him for about 20 minutes. I don't want to count that as my #52 really being done though since I just had to sit there and play with him - but it is a big step forward in completing it!

Here are some new photos of Gavin:

In his favorite bouncy chair

Hanging with his daddy