Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Late night movie review
I am watching The Impossible, the Naomi Watts/Ewan McGregor film about a family's struggle to reunite with each other after being ripped apart by the Indian Ocean tsunami over Christmas vacation in 2004. Let's just say I will not be sleeping tonight. It is reminding me a lot of James Franco's 127 Hours about the man in Utah who got his arm trapped under a boulder while hiking. Both movies are so intense in depicting the agony. You know how you yell at the athletes on TV when they fumble the ball or cheer them on when they catch an interception? I'm sitting here barking at the characters in the movie when they make boneheaded decisions and rooting for them to make it out okay as if it is happening in real time before my eyes. I would definitely recommend both of these movies....just not right before your next vacation!
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Fair Food
Howdy folks! I know it's not Wednesday, but by writing this on Sunday we can count it as either late for last week or early for this week. Six of one half dozen of the other. My excuse for being tardy is that I wanted to go all food bloggy and share my reviews of the State Fair of Texas fried food finalists (the Big Tex Choice Awards), and we went to the fair on Friday since that was Fair Day. Yes, folks, in Texas there is such a thing as Fair Day, a public school holiday designed to peer pressure otherwise reasonably financially responsible families into dumping hundreds of dollars on carnival rides and games. This concept still baffles this Virginia girl even after ten years in the Lone Star State.
Anywho, since the carnies kind of scare me, we like to treat Fair Day as an opportunity for a tasting menu of fried yumminess. However, there was not much yumminess to be found this year. Granted, we could only try a few items due to the fact that we had three kids tall enough to ride contraptions that cost five bucks per person, but what we tried was underwhelming. First up was the Fried Gulf Shrimp Boil. This tasted ok, but leaving the tails on meant that the eater had to dig them out of the shrimp ball. Presentation fail.
Second was the Twisted Texas Taco. I had to come home and look up what kind of meat it was that I consumed. 'Nuff said. Lastly we got the Fried Sriracha Balls and Chicken Fried Loaded Baked Potato. There wasn't much difference in flavor. Both reminded me of baby food dipped in hot sauce.
It may just be that I am directionally challenged, but I really struggle to find the Big Tex Choice finalists at the fair. I spend so much time crisscrossing the fairgrounds with the little map turned upside down trying to find the right stands that by the time I get there I am expecting something along the lines of the French Laundry to compensate for my efforts. If I ever get to run the fair, I would put all the winners in one building in a line to make it easier for foodies like me.
Anywho, since the carnies kind of scare me, we like to treat Fair Day as an opportunity for a tasting menu of fried yumminess. However, there was not much yumminess to be found this year. Granted, we could only try a few items due to the fact that we had three kids tall enough to ride contraptions that cost five bucks per person, but what we tried was underwhelming. First up was the Fried Gulf Shrimp Boil. This tasted ok, but leaving the tails on meant that the eater had to dig them out of the shrimp ball. Presentation fail.
Second was the Twisted Texas Taco. I had to come home and look up what kind of meat it was that I consumed. 'Nuff said. Lastly we got the Fried Sriracha Balls and Chicken Fried Loaded Baked Potato. There wasn't much difference in flavor. Both reminded me of baby food dipped in hot sauce.
It may just be that I am directionally challenged, but I really struggle to find the Big Tex Choice finalists at the fair. I spend so much time crisscrossing the fairgrounds with the little map turned upside down trying to find the right stands that by the time I get there I am expecting something along the lines of the French Laundry to compensate for my efforts. If I ever get to run the fair, I would put all the winners in one building in a line to make it easier for foodies like me.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
New mom bucket list
Now that I have passed my enrolled agent exams and the bigger kids are all in school, little Wyatt and I have a few more days of mommy and me time with no commitments or obligations (at least between the hours of 8 and 4 each school day). I go back to work in less than three weeks. While it is lovely every once in a while to kick back and watch HGTV all day, we want to make good use of our remaining time together. Besides that, one of the kids told me recently that I should really consider remodeling the kitchen so that it looks more like the ones on TV, so that was a sign that perhaps the Property Brothers need to be kicked out.
In between exams we have done several fun things. We visited the Magnolia storefront in Waco (from the aforementioned HGTV's Fixer Upper show). We accompanied Christopher on a work trip to Tulsa. We walked around the Dallas Zoo a few times when it was not oppressively hot. We caught up with old friends and made new ones at MOPS meetings.
So, with that, I ask for your best mom and baby bucket list items that I can check off in the next few weeks. Got a day long Julia Child-esque recipe for me to attempt? I'm game. Know of an awesome little shop somewhere within an hour of Dallas that I need to check out? Tell me about it. Anything that I can do with a baby as a sidekick I am eager to try.
In between exams we have done several fun things. We visited the Magnolia storefront in Waco (from the aforementioned HGTV's Fixer Upper show). We accompanied Christopher on a work trip to Tulsa. We walked around the Dallas Zoo a few times when it was not oppressively hot. We caught up with old friends and made new ones at MOPS meetings.
So, with that, I ask for your best mom and baby bucket list items that I can check off in the next few weeks. Got a day long Julia Child-esque recipe for me to attempt? I'm game. Know of an awesome little shop somewhere within an hour of Dallas that I need to check out? Tell me about it. Anything that I can do with a baby as a sidekick I am eager to try.
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