wine night.

That last post made me sound pretty lame and boring, huh?

I kind of am.

But I figured I'd at least attempt to fool you with this post, though.

Last Thursday, despite the utter exhaustion I felt when my bum hit the couch after work, I joined some ladies from our newlywed community group for wine night at Houston's Noveau Antique Art Bar, a swanky gem disguised inside a somewhat run-down square building in the middle of a vacant lot downtown. I was really excited after checking out some pics online...the place is filled (I mean to the brim) with old Tiffany's style lamps. See:

So cool, yes? It was.

Either they don't have air conditioning or it wasn't working the night we went, so we did sweat a bit, but I really loved this place. It was super romantic and chill, and I'm excited to take the hubby sometime! I'd love to go on a Wednesday for Frank Sinatra night...how cool would that be? Antique furniture, soft light from the colorful stained glass, old music, and a nice glass of wine. So great.

We took a pic outside in front of the fun murals on the building...had to use the self-timer and prop the camera at an angle on my car's trunk, thus the sideways photo. Really it just looks cool and artsy and totally fits the locale though!

Note our totally unplanned, but totally stellar matching black ensembles.  :)

And another from inside...post 3-hour sweat fest mind you, so no judging.

So see? My life isn't that boring. My mother might disagree, but let's be real, no one can compete with Carolyn's social life.

Well, I just sat on my computer for a whole hour waiting for my online class instructor to show up...which she never did. Not cool. Got me out of ironing Ben's 5,000 work shirts though! :) Happy weeks everyone!

frontage roads: a texas tutorial.

Everything is bigger in Texas.

Including the highways. I think I-10 has something like 8 lanes on each side at its widest point. And that doesn't even include the frontage roads running along either side. Add another 4 lanes in each direction and you've reached a whopping total of 24. And guess who gets to drive on that overwhelming slab of concrete...this kid.

We haven't really warmed up to one another yet.

Reason #1? Those darned frontage roads.

Little ole' Knoxville has no idea what a frontage road is, and if I had seen one before coming here I sure didn't know it. But Houston pretty much lives by them, and it makes for quite the confusing and frustrating driving experience. Allow me to explain.

You can't get on or off the interstate without encountering one...and they're ridden with those pesky red lights. AND they're one-way. So let's say you accidentally drive past the entrance to the Starbucks because you're brand new to a huge city...sorry Charlie, but you've gotta drive all the way to the next light, use the nifty U-turn lane, drive on the other side's frontage road to a light, U-turn it again, and then drive really slowly and carefully to make sure you make the Starbucks entrance this time and avoid another rectangular detour. I do this on a daily basis. Argh.

 Apparently they call it a "Texas Turnaround"...

But then let's say you've got your always necessary Tall Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte in hand and are ready to leave Starbucks. Go on and make your right turn (only option) and quick! Get over 4 or 5 lanes without smashing into any of the Texas-sized trucks hurling down the road at obscene speeds so you can make the U-turn once again and get going back in the right direction. It's intimidating. It's scary. It's nearly impossible, and it takes guts. I don't have those and am not sure if I've yet accomplished the "floor it and clear the width of the frontage road" maneuver without getting honked at.

You've probably stopped reading by now, but I'm gonna keep going. Houston has a major interstate or highway running each direction and half-direction through the city, and each has an accompanying frontage road. They got really creative with the titles...Northwest Freeway, North Freeway, East Freeway, Southwest Freeway...then there's the Gulf Freeway and Katy Freeway...those get a few extra points I suppose. But at the same time they're considered to be a part of the interstate or highway they run with...290, I-45, 59, I-10, the numbers go on.  

Impressed by my Houston road knowledge yet? 

Well let's just say it's pretty confusing at first to figure out where things are by an address.

"Ok, so the restaurant is on the Southwest Freeway, but wait, it's off 59, how does that work? Ok, I'm on 59. Look! There's the sign, let's get off! But wait, it's on the other side of the interstate. Shoot! This road is one way and goes on forever and the line of cars waiting at that red light is soo long, and I can't get over in time, and nooo, I missed the turn again. Oh forget it, I don't need dinner anyway. I'm eating PB&J."

Whew, deep breath. But seriously, we go through conversations like that all. the. time.

Gotta love Houston folks.  :)

Also...things like this happen on roads in Houston...yes, it's real life. It was last week.

a list.

My weeks have just been flying by. Between working 40+ hours, spending my evenings watching lectures, cooking and baking far more than our poor refrigerator can store, and attending to all the other ins and outs of life, I feel like I blink and it's Friday again. I'm not complaining, I love Friday, but seriously, I'm pretty sure yesterday was Sunday. So how is it already almost Friday again? Crazy times.

I don't have any pictures to share, mainly because there hasn't been much worthy of a photograph. Instead, I have a list...my favorite way to share the this and that of the past week.

1. I ventured back to the Galleria this past weekend. Well, I didn't, we did, since I'm still too confused and intimidated by the maze of a mall to go at it by myself. I need my sweet husband to help navigate the small country that is the parking garage. Our mission: locate the only J. Crew in Houston and replace my tortoise-shell hairclip that unfortunately broke last week, leaving me at a complete loss for a hairstyle. Let's just say I've been at my job for a month now and my coworkers have yet to see my hair down. Houston and blow dryers don't mix. Don't worry though, we accomplished our mission and my favorite accessory has been restored.

2. In an attempt to counter that disagreement between Houston and the hairdryer, I actually went after work today and got a few inches chopped off. It was quite the experience. I spent hours searching for a hair salon within 30 miles where I could get a simple cut for less that 50 bucks. Yeah, it doesn't exist. I did, however, find the Paul Mitchell School, where you can get a cut from a stylist-in-training for $15-$20, depending on their experience. I ended up with a Phase I stylist, meaning the cut was very cheap, but I basically served as a mannequin. I'm not sure the girl knew what she was doing, but she went and got her trainer like every 5 minutes to help her, resulting in a total haircut time of an hour and a half. I think it looks okay, though. I immediately came home and washed all the goop out, and we'll see if I dry it before bed.  :)

3. Ben and I cherish our nightly tv time, maybe too much even. But all our shows are coming to an end! The summer season of White Collar came to a very breathtaking end on Tuesday, and Next Food Network Star wraps up this weekend! Best be on the lookout for some new and addicting television!

4. I am SO excited to announce that my family is coming to visit!! I can NOT wait! :) My dad and sister are coming the second weekend in September to watch the Texans-Colts game (Maddie is a die-hard Peyton fan and needed a reason to wear her million dollar jersey), and (hopefully) my mom is coming for a little while longer over her fall break in October. We got our football tickets in the mail this week! Super pumped to introduce them to all that Texas has to offer...the heat, the traffic, the frontage roads (worst idea ever)...hah, and the good things too (like the food! yum!).

5. I'm currently on a frantic reading spree, trying to finish The Help by this weekend so I can go see the movie. I'm a little less than halfway through and have to work all day tomorrow, so I'm thinking I might not make it, but that's okay. I'm excited to go with some ladies Saturday afternoon (when I'm not working, yay!) to watch the movie, which I've heard is fantastic!

6. I've been getting to know the people at work better and am loving it. :) Their fabulous personalities are what keep me sane at 3:00 in the afternoon after doing therapy for 6 hours straight. My relationships with the kids are getting better too, which helps a lot. With summer coming to an end and school starting back up, my schedule is probably going to change quite a bit with less kids being at the center. I'm looking forward to a break but hoping I'll still be there enough to fund my shoe-shopping habits.  :)

7. It's hot. 'Nuff said.

8. I made a key lime pie for community group last night, and it was delish. The recipe is courteous of the Food Network and can be found here.

9. I found a new Jillian Michaels workout on our free OnDemand shows from ExerciseTV, and I haven't been able to walk normally for two days now. Kill-er. That makes chasing crazy hooligans around rather difficult.

10. Did I mention it's hot? I believe the news just informed me today was the 22nd day of 100+ degrees for Houston. Thankfully we have wonderful management at our apartment who sent maintenance to give us a shot of freon and change the air filter yesterday. So our A/C is still going strong! Now if I could only find a way to not burn myself on the steering wheel when I leave work everyday...

Okay, 10 points is mighty good enough. Kind of a long and boring post, but hey, not too much excitement going on around here these days. Just trying not to sweat too bad. Have a great Friday everyone!

summer's bounty.

This past weekend we had Erin and her roommate Victoria over for dinner. It was a wonderful evening spent eating yummy things and catching up on the life of a soon-to-be Houston inner-city school teacher. Erin and Victoria are doing TFA (Teach for America) in Houston and have been working their little tails off, so I was excited to hear about everything and serve them a nice meal. I made this Heirloom Tomato Polenta Tart recipe I've had saved since last winter that was begging to be tried before fall rolls around and sends corn out of season. We dug into it before I got a picture, but know that it was pretty and tasty and festive, and I highly recommend it...especially the polenta crust, it was so flavorful and really carried the dish.

I also made this:

A Blueberry-Peach Galette you can find here.

Gosh it was delicious, and surprisingly easy, too! Which is saying a lot considering the homemade pastry crust. I had to do some new weird technique called frisage...sounds intense but basically involves mushing the dough with the heel of your hand and then dragging it across the counter. I'm sure there's a scientific reasoning behind it, but it was kinda fun too. I recommend consulting YouTube if you ever come across the word in a recipe. It taught me well.

I'm down with frisage any day if it leads to this:

Yumm. With a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream, it was the perfect ending to a meal that just oozed summer. Hmm, speaking of ooze...

Ooze is good. Very, very good.

Happy Tuesday!