Major updates

I've been bad about updating this blog because our computer was running sooooooo slow. But this weekend we (my wonderful dad) installed more memory and now it runs like a champ. So all the photos I've been saving up to work with are now easily accessible and don't make me want to shoot my brains out whenever I have to even open a photo to edit.

So here are some long over due updates and then I'll do some more recent updates on their own posts...

#11 - Have fresh flowers in the house each month.

I did miss a month of no fresh flowers (crazy month of June) and I also missed taking photos of some pretty roses (April) I had in the house but here are two photos of some of the beautiful fresh flowers I've had in the house.

Sunflowers in May

Hydrangeas in July

Tips: HEB has amazing flowers for great prices - plus a 7 day guarantee! Tell your husbands!!! Once mine found out he didn't have to spend $50+ on flowers, I started getting them a lot more often. And if you haven't been to the new HEB in Westlake - I highly recommend it. Besides all the other fabulous departments, their flower section is awesome. They carry so much more than the typical roses and carnations mixed bouquet. It's great. And some of the flowers (if not all of them - I don't know) come from a grower outside Blanco called Texas Specialty Cut Flowers - so you're supporting a Central Texas business as well. Did I mention how great it was???

#36 - Go to a Concert

Back in April Chris and I went with our friend Erika to the Lone Star State Jam in Waterloo Park (downtown Austin). The all-day concert included the majority of my favorite Texas Country singers like Kevin Fowler, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Roger Creager, Cory Morrow, Eli Young Band, Bleu Edmondson and more! Not only was the music great (Creager was my favorite of the day) but it was amazing people watching. It brought me back to the good old days of Chilifest in college where we'd get wasted and watch these same bands....only this time I was sober and hot and annoyed by the drunk college kids getting into my space and sitting on my blanket. :) Sometimes it sucks being the old fuddy duddy (as my mom would say).

Roger Creager (see the drummer there on the left - he went to high school with Chris!)

Erika with Kevin Fowler

#60 - watch 101 movies

I need to get rolling on this one, don't I??? I've watched plenty of movies, I just don't think Lifetime movies should count for this, do you? :) So I'm going to only include major released movies - which means I really need to get watching!

I did however go to the actual movie theater to watch a real movie recently (can you tell I rarely make it to the movie theater). I, along with the majority of women in America, went to see the Sex and the City Movie. sweetness! I loved it. I wasn't able to watch it for several weeks because of my busy schedule so once I had time I had a hard time finding someone to go with that #1. wanted to see it and #2 hadn't already seen it. Luckily my dear friend Celia fit the bill.


The best part about the experience was the couple that brought their two kids (one an infant the other about 3 years old) to see this rated R movie. Note to parents: if the word SEX is in the title of the movie - it's probably not kid friendly! Get a clue here people! I was really annoyed by the kids being there since they were sitting behind us and not quiet - until there was a sex scene on the big screen and I looked over at the 3 year old walking up and down the stairs and I see her holding her hands over her face, covering her eyes. I had to laugh - it was cute. And thank goodness the baby started crying soon after that (can you blame him?) and the family left.

Update on Mighty Fine Burger Shakes

I wrote last month about the a-mazing shakes at Mighty Fine Burgers (MFB). I never ordered shakes before that fateful day at Might Fine Burgers and now am here to report that I'm addicted. I'm addicted to seeing if chocolate shakes around town are any good. My ever-growing Montana-sized ass now hates MFB for introducing this new love of dairy goodness.

I still haven't made it back to MFB (thanks to month from hell) but have had an opportunity to sample chocolate shakes at other food establishments and am here to report that none of them hold a candle to the MFB chocolate shake (please don't judge me for the amount of eating out I've apparently done in the past month - remember - just finished a month from hell...).

Wendy's new shake - crap compared (too powdery)
Whataburger - eh
Sonic - also too powdery for my taste - have decided I just don't like their ice cream either
Steak n Shake - it's in the name so it must be good (which it was) but still not AS good as MFB

I just don't know why I can't stop myself from getting chocolate shakes when it seems that I'm just disappointed each time. When will I learn to stop wasting these calories and give up on finding a shake that is as good as MFB only closer to my house?

I've concluded that it isn't really MFBs fault....I now blame Blue Bell!!!!! How dare Blue Bell make such fabulous ice cream that MFB is forced to use in their shakes. I must now head to Rudy's BBQ (owned by same people as MFB) to see if their shakes are worth my time. Maybe I need to limit my search to only places that use real ice cream in their shakes.

Or maybe you can just help me find a way to cure this craving for chocolate shakes before my ass is as big as Texas!

#47 - Spend a weekend at the lake house with just Chris

My month from hell included: working long days, stressful deadlines, chris having hernia surgery, staying with him in the hospital for 4 days, working long days, having to do everything around the house since he is in recovery, dealing with a big conference, having to play nurse to Chris (which he of course liked), working 13 hours on my feet, taking time out of work to take Chris to appointments, an emergency vet visit that cost us $320 and more! Don't you think I deserved a nice relaxing weekend? Yeah - me too!

Chris and I headed up to the lake house this past Friday for a long weekend of doing nothing. It is his family's lake house on Lake LBJ - only an hour from our house. This was our very first time at the lake house for the whole weekend by ourselves. We love to go up there but every time we do - his family is there, or my family is there or our friends are there. And while I truly do love sharing the lake house with everyone - it was sooooo nice to finally have our first weekend where we were the only ones staying there (and don't tell my mother-in-law but I even left the dirty dishes in the sink for a day!!!!).

It was Finn's first time at the lake house and he loved it - sniffing (and occasionally eating) deer poop, barking at the ducks, finding Heidi and Fritz's toys (in law's dogs), running like crazy and sleeping in the shade. In fact he loved it so much he refused to get in the truck when it was time to leave on Sunday. He ran back down to the lake and wouldn't come up to the house (3 acres is a lot of room for a dog to play "you can't catch me"). I finally tricked him into thinking he could go in the house and BAM grabbed him and put him in the truck. He was definitely sad to say good bye to the lake.

I wish I could say I have some fabulous photos to show you but in all honesty, I was too busy laying in the hammock drinking mojitos. :) So next time I'll get those photos. Promise!

#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