ikea and the half-price b

Get it? Akeelah and the Bee..? Yeah, maybe that one was a bit of a stretch...

Our fourth and final day in Houston found us on a shopping spree that took us all over town hitting some of our favorite stores. We enjoyed strolling through IKEA and admiring all the cool Swedish imports. They have a lot of neat stuff that is actually affordable!

We had some damn good lunch at Pei Wei, which is like a fast casual version of PF Chang's with many of the same menu items. At Half Price Books I found a new copy of the Tomb Raider: Legend game for $7. And of course we found time to squeeze in a few more Big Lots stores and the Container Store, which is always fun!

That night we tried some pizza place near the hotel... Barry's Pizza or sum'in. I believe it is operated by some unfortunates who've never had the opportunity to visit a real pizzeria. I'm just sayin'. Don't say I didn't warn you!

fazoli's FTW!!!1

I'd have to say the highlight of today's adventure (for me) was Fazoli's. Doesn't take much, does it? I used to love going to Fazoli's. OK, OK... I admit that the food is not the bomb, but Italian fast food was a nice option to have in BR. When it closed I was distraught. Exaggerating... So now that it is no longer there I try to locate them when I travel. We found one in St. George, UT, last Fall on the way back from Zion National Park. I enjoyed the baked ziti and some fresh garlicky breadsticks.

Today there was no baked ziti.

Rigatoni Romano was the closest match.

This were in Katy, innit.

...The dirty bastards.


I guess I was mildly let down, but it was still pretty good. I miss Fazoli's.

In other news, we went to two Big Lots and completed a circuit at the Katy Mills Outlet Mall before throwing in the towel and getting the hell out of there. They are relentless with that Christmas music, aren't they?! You can pipe it into my head all day but that doesn't make it feel like Christmas. Have I no Christmas spirit? Am I not dreaming of a white Christmas? Nah, not quite... I just want to survive this hellacious Houston traffic and make it back to the hotel alive.

:)

The sun was out today! We went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and headed straight to the butterfly conservatory.

The Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science is a stunning, living exhibit that showcases hundreds of live butterflies in a naturalistic rainforest setting. The central conservatory is a dramatic three-story glass cone filled with tropical plants and exotic butterflies. During a typical visit, one can expect to see 50 to 60 different species of the world’s largest and most colorful butterfly species, flying through the balmy air, hovering over flowers or sipping fruit juice – and occasionally, landing on visitors!

It's pretty cool. As soon as you walk in, the heat and humidity hit you. The thundering sound of a waterfall lures you closer. As the trail descends, you pass the resident iguana sunning itself on the rocks. The waterfall scene comes into view. The butterflies flutter by and greet you. They do butterfly things... Feast on the lush flora in a frenzy. Enjoy a slice of mango. It's the good life. We had the fortune of being just about the only ones there at the time. And yes, a few butterflies even landed on us, which was delightful.

Afterwards, we celebrated with lunch at the McDonald's in the museum, then we headed to the paleontology exhibit to see the dinosaurs. It was cool. We trekked all throughout the museum and saw pretty much all of the exhibits to some degree. After a few hours in the museum, we walked through the Japanese Gardens at Hermann Park.

We finished the day at Dave & Buster's. Burgers and games, oh my. We had a blast playing some game where you drop in a token and watch it inch a massive pile of tokens ever towards a precipice, hoping that some should slip over the edge and cause the machine to spew tickets. Sound like fun?? Trust me, it was. When we cashed in our tickets, they told me I had 1578 points! I walked away with an alarm clock, a D&B hacky sack and a miniature rubber snake -- and I still have 8 points to spare!

a soggy day in houston town

Greetings from Houston! We just got back from seeing Tori Amos' American Doll Posse World Tour downtown at Jones Hall. It was a great show. Tori came out as Clyde, one of her doll characters from the latest CD. Clyde performed Bouncing Off Clouds, Little Earthquakes, Juarez, Mary, Little Amsterdam and Beauty of Speed.

Later Tori came out as Tori, donning a bright orange wig with straight-across bangs and wearing a sequined stars and stripes american flag body suit thing that was sleeveless on one side. Can you picture it? If I come across a photo of it, I will share.

Tori performed Big Wheel, Space Dog, Pancake, Cornflake Girl, Doughnut Song and Glory of the 80's. While the band took a break, she did an improv and a few other tunes, like Cloud on my Tongue. Once the band returned to the stage, she did a few more songs with them (not worth mentioning) and finished the show with two encores: Precious Things and Not David Bowie, and Hey Jupiter.

In case anyone's keeping score, it was my 12th Tori concert and Sam's 13th (the one time he went without me was when he got to meet her). The crowd was well behaved (I thought). Not too many interruptions. And the venue was nice. They offered some catered fare, which I don't believe I've seen at a concert before. Salads, pasta, panini, cheesecake... It all looked great, but of course it came at a cost -- I bought a chocolate chip cookie and a small bottle of water for $5. But it said Jones Hall on the label, does that count? They also have their own napkins, ooh!

Speaking of food... [rewind] We ate at Cafe Adobe today. I tried the signature Avocado Adobe. They take half an avocado, stuff it with cheese and your choice of ground beef, fajita chicken or steak, lightly batter, fry and top with ranchero sauce. Mmm!

After that we went to see the Menil Collection and to visit the Rothko Chapel. Interesting!

So far, our time in Houston has been rewarding, especially when you take into consideration that it rained incessantly on us all the way here, including the time we spent detouring on highway 190 thanks to the natural gas well that is still burning near I-10.

omlol

1. Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.
2. Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.

[via lolcat bible translation project]

margaret ann's cinderella party

For Margaret Ann's 47th birthday, we threw her a surprise Cinderella party. She loved it! In fact, she was moved to tears, many times over.

Here is the moment when Cinderella arrived to crown Margaret...



Next, Margaret was whisked away for a special Cinderella makeover...



Then, when it was time to make a wish and blow out the candles, Margaret couldn't think of anything more to wish for, saying "I got it right now."



After a while, I transferred to the laptop some of the photos I had taken so I could print some off for Margaret. I also showed her some of the videos I had filmed, and she reacted as though she were reliving the moment all over again. She was a big ol' sobbing mess! Beside herself with joy, she had everyone crying. And she never tired of expressing her gratitude and love. I don't think I've ever seen anyone happier than she was on this special day.


(Scroll sideways or click the buttons on each side.)

Can you tell she was loving the attention? Cheese!!!