Winter break

| January 1, 2011

We had a full winter break with a lot of family in town, meals at different houses, and plenty of cute kids to keep us entertained—especially this butterball. Now, I can’t help but wake up feeling anxious + grumpy about the work I have yet to do before heading back to school. It’s something I have to work on. Before I start my (hopefully productive) day, here are a few pictures of what we’ve been up to lately.


Filling up on AKA Sushi and flipping through the 3×3 Illustration annual (which made a great present for the little sis). ¶ Lunch and bold beverages at Empire Cafe. ¶ Leftover pie from our pre-New Year house party. We should call it the Old Year Party. Certainly we’ve never had so many people, and “bacon candy,” at our place. ¶ Visiting Kaboom Books and chatting with their owners, where we scored Area for 12 bucks. Also, falling in love with their dogs: a charming pair of Hungarian pointers a/k/a Viszlas. ¶ Finally cleared the moving boxes out of the living room and found a place for my new Lena Corwin pillow from Jackie(!). ¶ Visited the antique shop across Empire Cafe and bought two super-sturdy school (say that 3x) chairs originally from Dayton I.S.D.

snippets

| November 7, 2010

It’s finally getting chilly in Houston! So happy!

Pictures from this weekend

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  1. I skipped Friday’s dinner and slept for 14+ hours. Bedhead at its best. Time for a haircut.
  2. We enjoyed breakfast at Nikos Nikos in Market Square. Breakfast Falafel and Nikoritas.
  3. I finally have a registration station. Looks simple, but it took my dad’s help plus lots of sanding & multiple trips to the hardware store. At least one of us is handy.
  4. Advent calendar from Central Market. I cheated and ate Day 1 already. Shhh.
  5. Hubs at his office.
  6. We tried to replicate La Madeleine’s Country Potato Soup. The ingredients weren’t too specific but we did mash the potatoes at the end and added chopped leeks to garnish. It was delicious.

restored

| October 11, 2010

Oh man. On Thursday, I slept through my alarm and BJ had to drive me to work (since me + stress+ Houston highways = bad morning), dealt with a few difficult kiddos who made me consider throwing in the towel, and, for the third time, missed seeing Beach House! And this was only 1 day out of a pretty rough work week for the both of us. So this weekend—filled with food, family, friends, and alliteration—certainly restored our spirits a bit.

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We had friends over on Friday for wine, snacks, and girls-versus-guys Taboo. After the girls beat the guys, I went to bed early, but everyone else drank and talked until 3 a.m. The next morning, we hung out with Mai and her dog Scrappy at the new Market Square Park downtown. She invited our cousins over to her place afterwards for slowly cooked lamb shanks, ribeye steaks, mashed sweet potatoes, and bacon-looped jalapeños loaded with cream cheese. Highlight of the weekend, though, had to be playing with Scrappy, who loved to jump onto the bed and spoon. (Meanwhile, Igby was in such a territorial, jealous mood all day; her inner Napoleon rose to the surface.)

lula

| April 5, 2010

Hooray for student holidays. I’m about to go into school and work alone in the classroom. We had a very chill weekend—hung out with my family, woke up early Saturday and patted ourselves on the back, tried Chick Fil A’s breakfast (two thumbs up), bought bread, carrots, macaroons, and dark chocolate at the farmer’s market, bbq outside, slept in, went to Easter vigil, bought books, and picked up a copy of Lula at Issues. A few of my favorite pages:

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1, 2, 3, go

| December 29, 2009

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Monday, BJ, my sisters, and I went downtown to work. At the end of the day, we stopped by the Menil, but they were closed until Wednesday. (Why does this always happen to me?!) All was not lost: it was a beautiful day, so we walked around and Thuy and I couldn’t resist jumping in the huge pile of leaves in front of the Twombly gallery. As a special treat, we ate at Oporto Cafe and ordered the usual: baked brie and portobello mushroom. Mmmm MMM.

I’m going to miss having everyone under one roof. I think it’s starting to sink in . . . tomorrow, BJ and I head to D.C. for the wedding. We can’t wait to see our friends before going back to work again.

Bon voyage!

black confetti

| August 21, 2009

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As awesome as it would be if these were pictures of black confetti, they’re actually birds outside of the grocery store. The last few times we’ve been here the birds were squawking and flying like they’re on drugs. They come really fast in waves. It’s puzzling and kind of creepy.