Tex-Mex and Mexican food was everything I dreamed it would be in Texas. Tour guide Katie led me to great eateries, cute little shops and good-lookin’ sites like the hill country and Travis Lake.
The heat was hot, but maybe less humid than Boston.
It was a great visit with tasty food and fun times in the sunshine. Check out the rest of the pictures.
Remember Super Size Me? Well if anybody doesn’t know that creator Morgan Spurlock has a show on FX, I encourage you to check it out. 30 days is sort of a fish out of water story with a little social commentary thrown in. The very first episode has Morgan and his then girlfriend trying to live on minimum wage for a month.
Check out the first season on hulu.com.
Season 3 premiered on Tuesday night with Morgan working in a coal mine for 30 days. It looks like Hulu is also going to get the latest season’s episodes a week after they air for anybody without the FX channel.
The people have spoken.
7 people encouraged a big screen and wanted to play some Mario Kart, 3 people said to go for it if I wanted and one person objected on the grounds of earth-harming consumerism.
Now, I don’t live my life according to how people vote on my website. But I did buy a new television.
After reading reviews and doing other research, I ordered up the model I wanted from Amazon as it was available there for the cheapest price. The local delivery company dropped it off over the weekend and I am in business. I don’t have anything HD, but the new TV is already a blast. Mario Kart is amazing, the Netflix looked great and regular television is even a little sharper than before.
I thought about taking a picture to post here, but I think I’ll just link to the product page (I’ll link to Newegg.com, since I like them better than Amazon).
Full cable? HD? Who has it? Do I need it?
I don’t like to keep a lot of books around, so I use LibraryThing to record which books I have read, not which books I actually own copies of.
I’ve mentioned my LibraryThing usage in a previous post and since I’m planning a little change, I thought I’d mention it again. I finally surpassed the 200 books that LibraryThing allows in a free account and so have purchased a lifetime membership. This new status allows me unlimited book entries and I have decided to add the back catalog of books that I have read in order to make a more complete online collection. (There will be titles in the sidebar that aren’t ‘recently read’ during this process.)
I have kept a record of my reading habits for many years now, so when I have finished adding everything from my old book database, my LibraryThing account will contain every book that I have read back to the fall of 2002, along with some titles that I had remembered reading before that time.
Annie Jo on LibraryThing (soon to be a more complete record of my book consumption)
After the sweet potato pie disaster (or success if you like ham-tasting pie), I needed some cooking success to boost morale. It has been pointed out to me that veggie burgers are easy to make. Many times this has been pointed out to me. So I finally decided to dive in with a recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, my Mark Bittman book.
The burgers turned out to be wonderful and I can see how easy it will be to create delicious variations.
Happy burger and dog eating to everyone today.
I had never made a sweet potato pie before, but decided to give it a whirl.
Delicious flaky crust, check.
Smooth custardy filling, check.
Robust ham flavor, ch-
Wait . . . what?!?
That’s right, my sweet potato pie tastes exactly like ham. While I might be able to make a fortune with a new offering in the fake meats market, this wasn’t the taste sensation I was going for. I tried Googling this phenomenon but was unable to find anyone who’d ended up in the same boat as me. I’ll have to review my recipe, but I don’t remember cured meat being listed among the ingredients. Do you see any bits of ham in there?
So now I’ve got half a ham pie leftover. No amount of whipped cream can cover up that piggy essence.
The second season of the television version of This American Life has started up and I managed to get my grubby paws on episode one.
It was amazing.
If you haven’t seen the show, check it out. Season one is available for download on iTunes and Amazon.
I do not subscribe to Showtime. You may remember I am also in love with the Dexter program that the network airs. If I even subscribed to any cable at all I might consider expanding to the premium Showtime, though probably not. For now I will keep my eyes peeled for season two on iTunes. I would happily part with my cash for those episodes. The whole television thing seems a bit busted these days.
This coming Thursday also brings the return of So You Think You Can Dance. I eagerly anticipate the first day of tryouts.
Baby nephew was a lot of fun. He smiles, he stands (with a little help) and he jumps. Also, he loves to read! What else is there to say? I miss him already.
Hello Oliver!
Here is a little action video.
My crazy mom sent me a card for Mother’s Day. With an iTunes card!
Thanks Mom!
So let this be a lesson to remember your mother, if you’re lucky enough to have one around, with flowers or candy or whatever she loves best this Sunday. You were all once as helpless as baby Oliver here and she was there to take care of your little self.
I haven’t been going to the theater to see movies much these days. Mostly it’s Netflix. I used to go very frequently so this weekend has been a blast of the past I guess.
First up was my first ever film festival experience with We Are Wizards at the Independent Film Festival Boston. The movie, or I guess I should say film, was pretty enjoyable and I think Wizard People’s Brad Neely was the star. He produced a crazy audio track to accompany the first Harry Potter movie and was the funniest dude in the documentary.
Then today it was Baby Mama with Tina Fey. It was as you might expect if you’ve seen previews.