Eat, DINK and Be Merry » Friends

A room of her own

Amber — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:56:48 +0000

What a whirlwind weekend! I spent lot of time with the important Fs: friends, family and food! If you asked Sweet Pea what the best part of the weekend was, she would tell you it was the beautiful Bakhtiari rug that my parents brought her — er, brought Mark and me. They bought it about a decade ago and it doesn’t match the colors in their new home, but it does perfectly match ours! Of course, Sweet Pea doesn’t care — she’s busy loving the fact that she is finally allowed on carpet, which is not the case elsewhere in the house.

She likes that rug so much that she didn’t wake us up by serenading us the way she usually does on weekend mornings. She doesn’t need us for entertainment anymore — not when there are so many little patterns and fringe pieces to pounce on!

I hope you had a nice weekend. Today after our customary enormous Sunday brunch I made another bracelet, and this time I documented the process so I can share it Tuesday or Thursday evening. I also have a random beauty product review to share.

Let’s go get ‘em! Have a great week!

Baby shower

Amber — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:04:45 +0000

I hope you had a nice weekend! My Saturday was mostly occupied by a dear friend’s baby shower. I have known her since college, when I used to sit behind her on a smelly river for a couple hours before sunrise every day. She and her husband were college sweethearts and he was a rower as well. I’m terrible at keeping in touch with people who don’t live near me, so it has been fun to see her go through her first pregnancy. She is due October 28th, but I advised her to hold out for November 1st. ;)

I bought that dress to wear to the office with a cardigan, but forgot to do the sit-down test in the dressing room. Whoops! Turns out I won’t be wearing it to work, after all. But I found something else that I think will work with a cardigan. And although I was cursing Houston’s heat today (it reached 106 at the airport), I have to admit I’m excited that I will be able to wear it for a couple more months!

Deer and beer

Amber — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:00:19 +0000

Birch beer, that is.

Tonight Mark and I went to the home of one of his coworkers for deer tenders and deer burgers! I think I have had tiny pieces of venison at Rainbow Lodge, and I have had elk and antelope, but I consider this my first real venison experience. The hostess provided the burgers and a different coworker provided the tenders — I was the odd one out in the group as far as not being a hunter. I’m not interested in shooting anything myself, but I’m always glad to eat whatever someone else has shot! My contribution is dessert.

Anyway, the food was great and the company was great. It was a nice way to spend the last evening of my pretirement. I feel like I am going back to school tomorrow after summer vacation — I have met my ‘teacher’ once, but the school and all my classmates are new to me. Will the other kids like me? Will I be able to find the bathroom? Will anybody sit with me at lunch??

I’m actually not too anxious. The first week of a new job is usually a pretty good one, especially if you don’t know anything about the business you’re going into, because you get to start learning a bunch of new stuff, there is only so much actual work you can do, and if you’re lucky they take you to lunch the first day. Speaking of which, my new job is across the street from one of my favorite restaurants. That’s what we call efficiency!

Weekend wrap

Amber — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 03:10:09 +0000

I had an unusually social weekend, which worked out well because it got me out of the house while Mark studied for something he has coming up. On Saturday my Toastmasters club had our first officers’ meeting of the new term. I was excited to share all the ideas I’ve been accumulating since the spring conference. All of our officers are enthusiastic and ready to make some improvements to our club — we had so much to talk about that instead of running from 12-2, the last few of us whose afternoons weren’t already scheduled for other things stuck around until 4:00. It’s going to be a great year!

The meeting was hosted by our new club president. Her house is beautiful and I think she is my decorating twin — if I actually bothered to decorate, that is. I came home inspired to dig out some treasured items that have been packed up since moving to Texas, and I have a few project ideas that I hope to share here in the next month or two.

Today my friend Jen treated me to brunch at Grand Lux Cafe, which was created by the originator of The Cheesecake Factory. Look at this:

Those are red velvet pancakes with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting. They are every bit as good at they sound, and the frosting doubly so. I also had an enormous side of sausage.

Jen is having her first baby in October and needed some clothes that she can grow into, so we walked off a few of those calories at the Galleria. Having no children myself, I quickly found myself in the alternate universe of maternity clothing stores. We were offered water and mini Luna bars. Sales people were extra-helpful. And did you know that maternity stores have bathrooms?? I guess it doesn’t matter that much since the mall has about 50 public and department store bathrooms anyway, but I am filing that information into the back of my brain in case I need it one day!

How was your weekend?

Weekend snaps: crawfish boil!

Amber — Mon, 02 May 2011 03:25:12 +0000

We have some friends here in Houston with whom I rowed in college (in Philadelphia!). Every year they have a huge crawfish boil and every year Mark has to work that day. This year he decided he was calling out sick if necessary, but fortunately the planets aligned and we got to go, free and clear! These friends take food seriously and they lived in New Orleans for several years, so they have their technique down and it was a real treat for us.

This guy was the night’s lone survivor; he was found cruising around the driveway long after the last pot was dumped onto the table:

Me with my friend Crawford:

We stayed until cleanup, and Mark got to bring home a doggie bag (or two):

Island treasures

Amber — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:20:31 +0000

I got a package! Miss Jes sent me a few things, some or all of which she picked up when she went to St. Croix:

I noticed that they misspelled ‘wonderful.’

These earrings are made from butterfly wings! Don’t worry, the butterflies died peacefully in their sleep at the age of 92.

Isn’t that pretty? It has a magnet on the back. It’s not going anywhere near the fridge — some people get a little too excited over there!*

Thanks, woman!

*I may or may not be talking about myself.

Muddy Buddy legacy

Amber — Fri, 21 May 2010 04:39:21 +0000

Who doesn’t like to get up at 5 AM on a Sunday to run around the woods in a helmet, bike some trails, run again, bike again, run again, and then crawl through a mud pit? Nobody, that’s who!

Don’t we look excited??

Muddy Buddy has been an annual tradition for me since 2003 (minus 2008 when Mark and I were busy moving to TX), when I first learned of it and informed Jes that we would be participating. One year she went so far as to break her collarbone to get out of it, but my good friend Dan stepped in and wore our ‘Tough Broads’ team name proudly. She came back the next year under threat that I would personally break the other one if she got hurt again, or something like that.

Then Mark came on the scene and became our cheering section:

Until one day Jes moved to Colorado and passed the torch to Mark. We did our last (well, his first) VA Muddy Buddy in 2007, skipped 2008, and did our first TX Muddy Buddy in 2009, in Austin.

We pretty much decided that 2010 would be our last Muddy Buddy for a few reasons. Most importantly, I just don’t look forward to it all year like I used to. Maybe I am getting old, but I have several other ways I would like to spend a Sunday morning (hint: they all start with ‘sleeping’). Also, I kind of made a resolution to stop doing things that stress me out. See: 10K runs. There’s also the cost. I think when Jes and I entered in 2003, it was something like $80/team. Now it’s almost twice that. For a crawl through a mud pit and a t-shirt? And there isn’t even a swag bag anymore, even though the sponsors get bigger and bigger? You need $100,000+ per event for ‘race development,’ when the course is almost exactly the same every year? I love you, Muddy Buddy, but I’m starting to feel used.

So we decided this year would be our last hurrah, which was the primary reason for our Hill Country trip and pretty much the only motivation that pulled us out of the warm bed at our rental cabin at 5 AM. And when it was over, we cleaned up, chowed down, and took a nap.

Messy Jessie’s

Amber — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:00:32 +0000

This is my best friend, Jes:

(Why is Lance riding the opposite direction of everyone else?)

I met Jes at my first retail job when I was 16, and we became fast friends. I credit her with my love of cycling — first she taught me to mountain bike, and then she taught me how to ride in a city. (Lately I only ride in a spinning class, but I’m trying to fix that!) She’s one of those rare people who are good at everything they try and can turn any stranger into a friend in seconds, everywhere they go. Being an extreme introvert, I regard the latter ability much the way I regard the ability to run a five-minute mile.

Jes got laid off recently from a job that she was too good for anyway. She’s taking some time to try running her own business, selling handmade aprons and such. If you were here for Thanksgiving, you may have seen a terrible picture of me wearing one of her aprons.

She’s just launched her site and is busy sewing her butt off, but check her out. I’ve put a link in the ‘artists’ section of my sidebar, so you can always come back later when her inventory is full, but she does custom work, too!