Lucky Thirteen

Monday was our 13th wedding anniversary.

Every year, rather than exchanging gifts, we celebrate by going somewhere together. This year we chose the Outpost Inn in Round Top, Texas, and stayed in their Casita on Saturday night.

The place was lovely, although the breakfast was simply standard. Not the five star breakfast I was led to expect from their website, TripAdvisor reviews, and even from the guest book in our casita. I suspect that was because Big Danny was our chef, rather than the owner of the B&B. But I did love our room, especially the bathroom. I'm a sucker for a big Jacuzzi bathtub.

And  I found the perfect reading spot outside.

We ate lunch on Saturday at the Stone Cellar. The marghareita pizza was to die for, and we shared a bottle of Cellar No. 8 Zinfandel.

Afterward, we shopped, and I even managed to find my requisite Christmas ornament, which I always seek out as a souvenir on a trip. I'm not fond of mugs or snowglobes as souvenirs, but an ornament is special, and something I can visit with every year, for a short period of time before it gets packed away and doesn't clutter up my house for eleven months of the year.

We went to see Twelfth Night performed that evening, and shared a picnic dinner and more wine. I was a bit worried when I read that the Shakespeare at Winedale performances are held in a barn, but there were plenty of fans so that we weren't *too* miserable in the heat.

We especially enjoyed the Shakespearean cows that the drama students had created.
 

Sunday, we tried out Royer's Cafe for their famous fried chicken. It was quite good, although it was way, way too much, especially since we were there right at their opening, since the fried chicken is only sold for a maximum of three hours on Sundays, or until they run out. Its a bit of an institution in Texas, and was recently featured on the CBS Evening News as one of the best fried chickens in America.

All in all, it was a fun weekend spent in Round Top, Texas, population 77.  I wonder what the new census count will be? ;-)

Finally

It only took four days, and a gentle reminder in the form of the question as to whether or not he had checked the blog recently, but Carl finally noticed the Twilight background about twleve hours later after I provided him with said gentle reminder.

His response?

Someone's been hacked ;-)

My wife does such a great job keeping this site up-to-date with wonderful stories of our family.. she'll never know how much I appreciate her efforts...

Operation Beautiful

All day today when I've used the restroom at work, I've been greeted by this post-it note affixed to the mirror.

Its sweet, and its brought a little smile to my face every time I've seen it. And since I drink a lot of water during the day, I see it a lot. ;)

So I went to the website, Operation Beautiful, and apparently its a bit of a craze that is going on all over the country. It was even featured on the Today Show this morning.

Some of the sentiments are a little too hokey for me (cough... "you have a beautiful soul" ... cough), but I'm quite attached to the drawings of a caterpillar into a butterfly with "You will ALWAYS be beautiful" written on it, as well as the one with the earth, "You deserve the world."

I've always been kind of fond of the hidden secrets of a women's restroom. I'll still go into some stalls in a women's room and find the stickers for 1-800-799-SAFE, the National Women's Domestic Violence Hotline, and think to myself, Ah.. Sarah's been here. Sarah Buel was my DV and the Law seminar professor and she helped run the DV Clinic I did in law school, and she couldn't go anywhere without a handful of stickers to place in women's rooms, since its one of the few places where a woman can find peace from her abuser.

Similarly, in the under-rated Matthew Goode movie, Chasing Liberty, (oh, okay, it also starred Mandy Moore, but really, who watches her when a cute Brit and beautiful European travel destinations are on the screen?!), there is a character named McGruff who goes around handing out stickers of the Six Million Dollar Man to place in random spots around the world. Its to make people realize that they are not alone in the world. That we are all connected.

Which brings me back to the post-it note in the bathroom at work. We're not alone in the world. And thanks to the Internet and the magic of sites like Facebook, we're more connected to the world than ever before.

Kobe Steakhouse

Its a family tradition of ours to celebrate with just the four of us on our actual birthdays. This year, we decided to try the Kobe Japanese Steakhouse for Carl's birthday on Monday night. It was an overwhelming success. Not only did both boys eat a ton of good food, but they had so much fun Ryan wants to go back tonight for dinner. And Alex is already planning a trip to Japan for us so we can eat like this all the time. He is so my son. I love having a little travel buddy!

It started off with some miso soup for all, little boys included. They didn't care for the miso soup, but they did try it. Alex even tried it a few times, before he decided that it tasted good in his mouth, but not so much in his stomach.

Next came an appetizer we ordered, gyoza (commonly known as potstickers to those of us who mainly frequent chinese restaurants), and finally a salad.

Then the show started. "Teppan'yaki" is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food wile a skilled chef performs a show for the diners. We were at a table of eight, and they do put you with people you don't know. Quite European. (And it may be an Asian thing, too, but since I haven't been fortunate enough to travel across the Pacific yet, I wouldn't know.)

Our chef began by banging a gong and performing all sorts of cool knife tricks. Team Danger was a bit turned off by the loud noise at first, but the knife throwing quickly won them over and they uncovered their ears.

What could be better than playing with knives during dinner?

FIRE!!

Our chef making some stir fry rice. The boys adored watching some pieces of rice POP! up off the grill.

Alex was so proud of himself: he and Danger Daddy were the only two people at our table who managed to catch some bits of fried egg in their mouths that our chef tossed at us from her spatula. Here he is showing off the egg in his mouth.

Alex's favorite part of the night: the Onion Volcano!!

My favorite part of the night: while our chef was chopping up all the vegetables and adding sauces and seasonings and stirring things, Ryan was siting next to me emulating her every move with his hands. It was hysterical. She would stir, he would move his hands in a circular motion. She would toss the veggies up in the air, he would make a motion with his hand as if he were tossing them. Every thing she did, he did. For the first time, I was really sorry I didn't have the iPhone 4 just so I could record his actions, and not just try and take pictures. Everyone else at the table was highly amused with my little chef, too.

The salmon and terriyaki chicken being cooked. Our steaks came later.

Alex and Ryan adored their Terriyaki Chicken and their rice. I wasn't sure if they would eat the chicken after they saw how much was being added to it - they are generally pretty bland eaters who don't care much for sauces. But they both loved it, and ate way, way more than I thought they would.

As an added bonus, kids eat free on Monday nights!!

We had so much fun, and I give a full five stars to Kobe. In fact, I rate this as one of my five favorite meals of all time. Definitely my favorite one with children in tow. ;)

Happy Breeza-Day to Danger Daddy

Monday was Carl's birthday, so we celebrated his birthday throughout the weekend.

Saturday night, we went out with the Swanson Clan to eat dinner at the Walburg Resturant in Walburg, Texas. Its a fun place, with an all you can eat German buffet that was quite reasonably placed. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, and Alex even ate six (!) pieces of Catfish, which I called fish fingers. I'm still trying to figure out how Fried Catfish made its way into a line-up of German food, though.

Carl opened his presents, including the scrapbooks the boys made for him, as well as the tickets I had bought for us to see the Jersey Boys next month. Hopefully he will be a bit happier with that present after we see the show. So far, I am being accused of buying a gift for myself masquerading as a gift for him.

Alex and Ryan wanted to give Daddy a "camo" birthday, and oddly enough, Party City stocks green camouflage paper plates, napkins and wrapping paper. They picked out an army-tank birthday cake, primarily because I think Alex wanted the Transformer tank toy that came on top of the cake.

(the quality of these photos is rotten. I am SO ready for a new camera so I can stop using my iPhone camera!!)


After dinner, we went out to the biergarten to listen to the Walburg Boys play polka-style Johnny Cash music. It was ... interesting.

On Sunday, we went to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch to drive through the safari. We had gone two summers ago, for Father's Day, and the boys still talk about how much fun it was when the "Breezas" grabbed the bag of food to feed them right out of Ryan's hand, and then managed to shake all the animal food and crumbs all over Carl's car. He's been joking ever since that he's still finding Breeza crumbs in odd spots. And Carl has been officially hating any and all Breeza items ever since. Its a running joke, and the boys love to buy him Breeza gifts as a result. (Hence, Ryan picked the Breeza scrapbook to make for Daddy this year, despite its hot pink ribbon.)

So the boys decided to "trick" Daddy with a trip to the mall on Sunday, but we really drove to the Wildlife Ranch. Carl was in on the trick, since I had to make sure we took his car rather than the Mommy van. He played along quite well.

The Breezas did not disappoint, and we even had two Breeza heads in our car at one time.

They took the bag out of the boys hand again, but instead of emptying out inside the car, the Breezas emptied it on his windshield outside.

Carl tried to grab it back, and managed to get a little Breeza nibble in the process.

So now he REALLY loves the Breezas.

In addition to Breezas, we saw ostriches, giraffes, a rhinoceros, some "hookem horns" (as Ryan calls all longhorns), some Llama Llamas who were Mad at Mama, and other animals they boys came up with their own names for. Like:


Ninja Deer

and Samurai Deer.

When the boys get older, I'm really going to miss when they stop calling things by their funny names. I don't ever want a Breeza to become a zebra again.

"If you build it, they will come."

The LEGO store has opened at Barton Creek mall. Early, to boot.

While the grand opening celebration is not until this coming weekend, I received a tip that it was already open for business.

Over the grand opening weekend, they are going to build a giant Buzz Lightyear to accompany the Woody already installed. Sort of a ploy to get you to bring your children back three times over the course of the weekend, if you ask me. Clever.

So after an always fun photography session Saturday morning, we rewarded Team Danger with a trip to the LEGO store.

And they found Nirvana.

When we parked our car, Ryan handed me a notepad and pen, so that I could make notes for his "List."

The paper and pen were soon forgotten, as I was rapidly instructed to use my phone to take pictures of every item they wanted.

At one point, I was told to take a picture of  every single Star Wars LEGO.

I pointed out we already owned several of the Star Wars LEGOs.

Never mind that, I was told by Alex. "That's Ryan's LEGO." Ryan quickly caught on to his brother, and now wants the LEGOs owned by Alex, as well.

 They fell in love with the Build-your-own-minifigure display.

Although there were several tears as to why we didn't buy all two dozen minifigures they built.

I have to confess, the store is quite beautiful. And I'm in love with the big wall of miscellaneous LEGOs at the back of the store. We're missing several from certain sets, so hopefully we can replace them if I can ever get organized enough to figure out exactly which pieces we are missing.

I'll have to go back one day without the munchkins, so that I can fully look around. I was quite happy to see a large amount of the little figures for sale. Those are what the boys most like to play with, so if I can spend $5 on one guy rather than $50 on a box with three guys and a ship they don't build, this *could* end up saving us some money in the long run.

Oh, who am I kidding.

Not when the Death Star LEGO ship is for sale.

At the top of both boys' lists.

For the bargain price of $399.99.

Eclipse Background

Let's see how long it takes Carl to notice I've added a Twilight background to this blog.

Then we'll know how much he actually reads what I'm writing.