vacation

We had a full weekend of fun. We went to 2 very different birthday parties -- one was a murder mystery party for my college roommate's 30th birthday and the other was the first birthday for the son of one of Kevin's best friends. The murder mystery was a lot of fun, but harder than I expected! It was set in the roaring '20s, so we were dressed up as mobsters, flappers, and other characters -- Kevin was a police inspector...Everyone was a different character and we were witnesses to a murder so spent the evening trying to determine who committed the murder, and protect our own secrets.....nearly everyone there had some motive.....I didn't figure it out, but had fun trying and pretending to be 'Baroness Ravioli'.

The first birthday was the most kids I've ever seen in their house....I lost count there were so many little ones coming and going. They all had a great time, especially since they had set up a bunch of toys in the backyard, the most popular -- a blow-up schoolbus. Lots of food and friends, and we really enjoyed sitting on their backporch - in Houston you have to take advantage of sitting outside before it gets too hot!

On Sunday morning I also did the March for Babies with my sister. Thanks to generous donations I was able to collect $290 for the charity. We didn't find the rest of the people from my work's team, but she and I walked together and had a good time. It is at her alma mater's campus (UH), so a nice opportunity to see what has changed at the campus since she graduated. We saw a sign for a "Chili's too"..never heard of it, but guess its Chili's with a menu that can be fast food or to-go only. based on a google-dive, it is in airports too.

The real reason for my post -- WE ARE ON VACATION! I should be packing right now, but got online to check the NYC weather and get easily distracted when I get online. We'll get ready to go today and head up to my in-laws to leave our dog with them, and then tomorrow morning we head to NYC...we are so excited to see the city and have the break from work. I plan to have a lot of pictures when we return. New York, New York!!

I think our drought is over, at least for a while. We've gotten at least seven inches of rain in the past two days - 2 on Friday, and 5 on Saturday. We needed the rain so I was glad to see it, but wish that it would be spread out over several days or weeks rather than all at once.

Unfortunately I had to drive in it quite a bit.

I had a meeting in Waco on Friday so I drove up Thursday and came back on Friday afternoon. For some reason each time I go to Waco there is bad weather coming back (based on only 2 trips), hopefully I'll break this streak. I want to see the Dr. Pepper Museum, but wanted to get out of town and ahead of the rain as much as I could more. I made good time the way there (~3 hours) but took nearly twice as long coming back since there was so much rain...from Bryan on I drove in rain, and once I hit 290 it was a deluge. My request to everyone else driving in rain: turn on your headlights! I am amazed at how many people drive along in rain without their headlights on. It will help other cars to see you and avoid possible accidents so just flip that switch and turn them on. I finally got home around 6 and we still had to go feed my sister's cat. I was glad to get into Kevin's SUV, being higher up is better for visibility and in case there is standing water.

Saturday I got to stay home most of the day, but did venture to the store so we could make our chicken tortilla soup (so good on a rainy day), and had to go to the airport to pick up my sister from her vacation. I was really surprised to see that her flight was listed as being early, because earlier I'd looked at the status online and saw that it was delayed nearly 2 hours. They got in and out of the San Jose airport quickly so that they could get in the air on time. Getting to the airport was an adventure - my usual route was underwater, so I had to call Kevin to figure out a different route (he is my weather and traffic man!), and after finally getting her and heading back out we saw there was high water at the feeder we were on and even in the SUV I didn't feel safe driving through it. I don't know if my alternative was any safer, but we turned on the hazard lights and went up the exit ramp to get onto the highway. I hated to do it and was nervous the whole time, but thought it was the only safe way to get on the road to head home.

Her neighborhood was clear, so she and i each got home safe and sound...and we stayed in the rest of the night.

Happy Belated Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter. Houston weather is, as always, unpredictable. Lots of rain was forecast, and we got some of the rain and lightning, but thankfully no tornados or hail. The rain was heaviest, of course, as people were arriving with dishes of food and trying to dart into the house without getting too wet. We ate our meal, and I ate too many sweets! and in the afternoon the rain actually passed on through and it was a gorgeous day outside! Our nephew and cousins were able to hunt Easter eggs and we took some photos out in the front yard.

I helped one of the cousins open her plastic eggs to see what kind of goodies she got, and most of the candy was what I remember as a kid, in the exact same packaging - sweetTarts, nerds, the round chocolate discs that look like money, and my favorite, the peanut buddies. but the ones that she was the most excited about I had never heard of? Am I the only one who has never heard of Krabby Patties? Once I saw it was related to SpongeBob I knew why I'd never heard of it, I don't watch SpongeBob (except for right after Hurricane Ike). It didn't look particularly good to me, but was oddly cute, like a hamburger.

Busy Tuesday

I am so tired. After dinner tonight we worked out in the front yard to finish up the flowerbeds. We finished trimming the plants and got ALL of the mulch down (I lost track of how many bags we used). It was exhausting, especially after a full day at work, but it looks great and feels even better to have it done! Now we'll just have to keep up with the weeding and watering. I am so glad that it didn't freeze at our house last night, some areas did have freezing temperatures - in Houston in April?!?!

For dinner we tried out a new recipe I'd gotten from Self magazine, and it was a success. I followed the recipe fairly closely and will add what we did differently. It had a good flavor. Next time I'll make it a little hotter, but its a success when its good enough that we eat it and even better when we actually WANT to have it again.

Five-Spice Shrimp
Classic Indian seasonings give this shrimp dish a fiery jolt.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1-inch piece ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 medium tomatoes, pureed -- we actually used a can of peeled tomatoes
  
• 1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 2 1/2 cups cooked rice
• Coriander sprigs - we omitted, I didn't feel like buying at the store
  

Preparation

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sauté onion until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Grind ginger and garlic into a paste; add it and remaining spices and tomatoes to pan; simmer 5 minutes. In a separate pan, sauté shrimp 30 seconds. Add sauce and stir continuously on high heat, 2 or 3 minutes, until most of the liquid evaporates. Serve over rice. Garnish with coriander.

After simmering the sauce, we blended it to make it a smoother consistency. Also, because we used more tomatoes ( a can instead of just 2) there was a lot more sauce then the recipe (and photo) indicated, but I like a lot of sauce, so it worked out.

I was really pleased with the smell of the dish and we plan to play with this combination of spices to try out some other Indian dishes.

workplace Internet leisure browsing

Who knew that internet browsing at work actually had an acronym? It is "WILB", according to this article about a study in Australia that found that web surfing actually increases productivity. I've known that for years. I have to take "brain breaks" from working on the spreadsheets, queries, and other detail-oriented work that I do, otherwise I'd go bonkers! I don't think this will change the minds of any companies that block the internet, or certain websites, but we can hope.

It has been a long week at work, so I am ready to go home and do some relaxing, and a lot of yardwork.