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By Amber, on January 29, 2012, at 10:10 pm Back in December I saw some crystal peacock feather earrings on ideeli that were beautiful but kind of expensive for an impulse purchase. I decided to sit on the thought, and by the time I’d decided I had to have them, the sale was over and — oh, guess what? You can’t get them anywhere online!
For over a month I single-mindedly stalked every sample sale site I knew of that has ever carried KJL, sites of department stores that carry KJL, Amazon…I even set up a special search on my Zappos profile so I could check at a glance (they had a matching bracelet, but not the earrings!). The pendant resurfaced once on ideeli, but not the earrings. I was recently shopping on Harwin and found lots of cheap peacock earrings, but nothing came close and I knew nothing ever would.
And then one day…they came back! I even purchased the membership upgrade so I could snap those suckers up the second they were available. Sweet, sweet victory.
They are super heavy, but I love them!
By Amber, on January 26, 2012, at 10:24 pm 
Bacon broke free from breakfast a long time ago, but why not chorizo? (And why don’t I have any photos of chorizo??) Granted, I can get chorizo con huevos at any hour here in Houston, but let’s see you do that in Philadelphia. It’s time for chorizo to shine!
I guess Austin has been on the hipster taco tip for a long time, but Houston is finally catching up. We got a Torchy’s Tacos and Mark and I have been eating the heck out of that. Green chile pork for him, chorizo egg & cheese for me. It’s beautiful when you can get breakfast tacos for dinner, and they’re open late.
BUT — tonight we tried Tacos A Go-Go at the new Heights location, and I’m afraid that after tonight we may have to just be friends with Torchy’s, because the chorizo, egg, bacon and cheese tacos that I ate have won my heart. Plus they’re open until 2 AM on weekends, which might as well be all night for us.
I have a growing list of chorizos I’ve sampled in Houston. Like bacon, I don’t think I’ve had a bad one, but some are better than others. I think the ground chorizo we get from the Whole Foods meat counter is as good as any restaurant’s, and never gristly.
And then there was the time Mark cooked my chorizo and eggs in the pan in which he’d cooked a habanero omelet earlier in the day. My heat/spiciness tolerance is offset by about an order of magnitude from Mark’s, and that may have been the hottest thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. The suffering I endured through that meal is a true testament to my love of chorizo.
By Amber, on January 24, 2012, at 9:05 pm 
She probably won’t be thrilled that I used that photo but I think it’s good, so ha! Trust me, Heather — I have a feeling the bull riders will like this one.
My sister is on the climb out of a couple of the hardest years you would never hope to have. We’re all so glad to have her here in Texas where we can get together frequently for our favorite f-words: food, family, and fScrabble. Mark likes food and family but isn’t so fond of fScrabble, so he brings his own favorite f-word.
Happy birthday, Heather. I couldn’t ask for a cooler sister and I’m so glad we live much closer together now. Can’t wait to introduce you to the Houston Rodeo! Bull riders optional.
By Amber, on January 15, 2012, at 8:51 pm 
This morning I awoke to find my laptop display no longer working! Instead of the productive, makeup-free, pajama-clad day I had planned, I was forced to brave the mall. I was hoping the citizens of this fine city would be at home watching the Texans’ playoff game, but approximately all men who chose not to watch the game were at the Apple store. All of the women who chose not to watch the game were at Sephora. Fortunately I survived both with minimal bruising. I’ll try to make my Tuesday/Thursday posts this week, but no promises — I’ll be using my work laptop, which is better than nothing but still super-annoying.
I did, however have a productive Saturday. I had some Toastmasters training to attend from way too early until early afternoon. I saw some friends, met some great new people and learned a lot. I am excited for where Toastmasters will be taking me in 2012 and hope I haven’t over-committed myself, but one of the great things about this organization is that there is always someone willing to help you, even if they don’t even know you.
The other highlight of the weekend was purchasing our rodeo tickets! We’ll finally get to take my parents and my sister this year. They’ve been to smaller rodeos, but nothing compares to the world’s biggest. Can’t wait! We’re taking my sister to one of the championship rounds, so I’m thinking this is a perfect year to make sure she meets a bull rider…
(PS: as you can see, I’m trying out some larger photos. Is this breaking anything for you? Please let me know if things were better at 600×400.)
By Amber, on January 12, 2012, at 10:30 pm  Drinking and cycling. Note the interesting footwear choices. It’s January 12, and I just finished uploading the last of 2011′s sorta-daily photos. Thank goodness that’s over. Just since the last day or two am I able to get through a day without the occasional worry about what I’ll shoot, or go to bed/wake up without having a mini-heart attack trying to remember whether I took a photo.
As I’ve mentioned, this year I’m trying weekly photos. I haven’t put any into my flickr yet, but that’s Week 2 above, taken hastily with Mark’s phone. We see that thing going up and down Washington Avenue now and then. It’s a bicycle bar. There don’t appear to be seat belts. What could possibly go wrong?
Now, if someone starts a pedaling cake bar, I will be the first in line.
By Amber, on January 10, 2012, at 10:34 pm I’ve never been a member of a commercial gym, so I’ve never had to deal with the dreaded January deluge of gym newbies who are ‘really going to do it this year.’ However, I used the private gym at my last job every day, and there was definitely a slight January uptick of people who didn’t know the lay of the land — that this lady sets her bag on this bench in the locker room, and that guy always uses treadmill #3 out on the cardio floor. January was actually nowhere near as bad as Intern Season, but that’s another story.
Anyway — these days I exercise solely at home (highly recommended if you can swing it), but tonight I was faced with a deluge of a different sort of resolutionist — the Toastmaster Resolutionist.
Our meetings typically run 15-18 people, which is about half of our membership. Tonight we had about a dozen members and MORE than a dozen guests! It is typical to have a few guests at a meeting, but this was amazing. They just kept coming; looks like public speaking is trending for 2012! We love guests and new members. The trick, as with any resolutionist, is to keep them coming back.
Apropos of nothing, a couple Seattle photos that didn’t make the cut on the last post:
By Amber, on January 8, 2012, at 9:28 pm I really didn’t mean to extend my blogcation through the first week of the year, but as it goes with one’s workout routine, the more time you take off, the harder it is to get back to it. I have the sore muscles to prove it.
We spent the last week of 2011 in the Seattle area, where Mark grew up. We stayed with his parents for most of the week, but we did spend one night out at the Salish Lodge, which is a place we visited the first time we met in person. This time we booked a fireside couple’s massage, a rosemary-mint scrub, and had a romantic dinner by the dining room’s original 1916 fireplace. Dinner was amazing — we ordered the chateaubriand and the kitchen decided it was too small after they’d already begun cooking it, so they sent us a plate of Washington cheeses and started a new one. It’s amazing that we were able to waddle back to our room after that meal. Of course, it didn’t stop us from enjoying an equally amazing breakfast in the dining room the next day.
A view of the fireplace in our room, from the cozy bed:
Note that housekeeping left while turning down our room for the evening:
Preparing to leave the next day:
Salish Lodge is a pretty amazing place, and worth a visit if you get a chance. If you book a spa and meal package like we did, the value is excellent.
On the way back to Mark’s parents’ house, we stopped in Seattle so I could see Pike Place Market. I saw it on my first visit to Seattle, but that was years ago and this time I came prepared with a camera!
Come inside for more after the jump!
Continue reading Hello 2012!
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