Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!   It looks like its going to be a wet one in Houston, which means I need help getting rid of all the Halloween candy we bought....

I carved a pumpkin earlier in the week and am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  It took me a while to figure out what to carve and in my car on Monday morning it came to me, rather than a face of any sort I'd do the Texans logo! 

A quick google dive and some enlarging of images and I had a good template.   The tool kit rather than knives is the only way for this accident-prone girl to go.  

Not bad for a Monday night's work.

GO TEXANS!   

Birthday

Last Friday was my birthday and I had a great day.

I took the day off from work. I did that last year too, starting to call it my 'birthday holiday', and I highly recommend it.

We didn't have any big plans, which was fine with me.  Having a relaxed and lazy morning was just what I wanted.   I slept in a bit, watched some morning tv and then got ready for the day.  I tried to get my car a/c fixed - its been acting up for a few days - but wouldn't you know that at the dealership it decided to work and we can't find whats wrong til it isn't working for them to see it, so back home I went.   K was going to pick me up from the dealer since I didn't want to spend my day at the dealership (my vacation days DO seem to revolve around car repairs sometimes....).

My only real plans were to get a mani/pedi, and I was able to convince K to join me for his very first pedicure.  He wasn't sure if he'd like it, but he was a good sport about it and I do think he liked it, whats not to like about being pampered?!

We had a wonderful dinner at a new to us restaurant, called Raffa's.   It was so delicious.  I'm indecisive about where to go eat and even driving up there we weren't sure which spot we'd eat at -- its in the same area as the place we went to for K's birthday in June.   I'd wanted to check out Raffa's but never had, we looked at the menu and decision made!    I love trying a new place, and it was very unique food - we had to ask about several different words on the menu (confit, beure blanc) - I had an inside-out crab-stuffed flounder and K had butternut squash ravioli with duck confit.   After dinnner we stopped into a wine bar in the same area.  A great way to try wine, I ordered one but didn't like it when I had just the taster portion so our bartender asked what I liked (whites on the sweet side) and picked out 3 possibilities for me - sweet, sweeter, sweetest -- I preferred the middle one, I just wish I remembered the name.  Turns out K liked the one that I started with -- which is why wine by the glass is perfect for us -- can hardly fine one we both like...

It was a great day, and instead of a cake we got Culver's custards over the weekend.

K shifted his grading to the weekend and this week so he could spend the day with me -- October birthday means it coincides with midterms...

Oktoberfest

We are finally having some fall weather! It was so nice, we just knew we had to spend Saturday outside. We've been wanting to go to an Oktoberfest and a google dive a few weeks ago told us there was one going on in town on Saturday.

Its only the second annual and was held in the parking lot of a mall so we weren't sure what to expect.   We got there right at opening time (2pm) and did good by not buying tickets ahead of time since the cash ticket option sent us to a general admission tent and we were able to go in through a gap in the fence rather than wait in line with the pre-sale tickets.   I'm still not sure why we got in so much sooner than the main entrance line, but took advantage of it.   We also made sure to get food and drinks before it got too busy - very glad we did since there was a HUGE turnout of people (and lines for food and drink after not too long).

There were several food options, we had a hard time deciding but we knew we had to get something German and so we tried a 'saussibon', it didn't look very appealing in the photo - the way the sausage is rolled it reminds me of a cinnamon roll, but looks can be deceiving because it was quite tasty - the sausage was not greasy at all, it was served on a pretzel roll  and it came with homemade potato salad (again we went German rather than trading it out for chips).   We split one sandwich (just in case we didn't like it).   First time I've had a pretzel roll....won't be my last.

We got settled at a table -- bordering sun and shade since the wind actually made the shade kind of chilly and this way we had the best of both worlds.  We got a pitcher of Oktoberfest beer from Austin (live oak I think) and enjoyed the surroundings.  There was some recorded music playing (some German, some remixes), lots of costumes, and great people watching.    

Craziest moment of the day  - the guy next to Kevin getting a bunch of beer dumped on him by his "friend" as punishment for taking a pour from his pitcher of beer.  oh, early 20-something logic...

Boss' Day

I had a great boss' day! I knew my staff was planning something and they STILL surprised me. There was a sign on my door - it was there when I walked in - impressive since I'm the first one to arrive.   They'd also brought in breakfast to share, gave me a wonderful card they'd all signed and the perfect gift for this time of year - caffeine and chocolate!!   

I am lucky to have great staff members and felt very appreciated, my favorite part was definitely their kind words.   Being a boss isn't easy, and its good to hear feedback that I'm doing well at it.

To all the bosses out there, hope you had a great day!  

I like my brother's take on it, he replied to my post about happy boss' day that it should be 'happy bosses' day (a day when bosses have to be happy), so true.

I blame my lack of posting on the fact that its my busy time of year with work :)

NNO

We participated in "National Night Out " with our neighborhood yesterday.   Our small section was having a get-together and we participated, though we were skeptical if anyone would show up.  We walked down to the little park near our house with our fold up chairs, a small cooler with waters and a box of cookies (thank you Sam's!). We didn't see anyone at the park but walked up to it and a woman and her daughter were there -- putting up signs to show it moved to a nearby cul-de-sac. Good decision, since the park was wet and had lots of mosquitoes.

Once we got to the right location, we met lots of neighbors!!  We enjoyed visiting with everyone and the cookies were gobbled up.   We'd have stayed longer but it was so humid and mosquitoes started eating me up after the sun went down.  Our cold front came through overnight, too bad it didn't come one day earlier -- the NNO would've been even better!

This weekend was also decision time about the tree I'd won during my streak of winning things. We really tried to find a place for a tree in our yard, but just couldn't find a spot.  I spoke to the HOA on Saturday and found a great solution - we donated it to the neighborhood to replace a tree lost in the drought.  I'll never know which tree is 'our' tree, but I'm so glad it can be put to good use, i felt like such a scrooge saying no to a tree!

We went to see the movie "Gravity" this weekend, I was not really interested in seeing it, but am glad that K insisted -- WOW, I have no idea how they filmed it, I really thought we were watching people in space!   We saw it in 3D, not sure it was necessary but was a fun way to see it!

It was a weekend of meeting people, on Friday I met my dear friend Delena's baby girl for the first time, and silly me I forgot to take any photos.  She is a cutie!