and the dish ran away with the spoon

Very good week so far. Friday my dearest brown boy managed to hitch a ride with his friend to Houston, so that meant special date for Shelley! We went to one of our favorites, Maggiano’s, to giggle over the song selections of the resident piano crooner (who else would follow up Frank Sinatra’s “New York New York” with Cameo’s “Word Up”?), and eat mountains of Caesar salad and spaghetti (meat sauce AND meatballs…i.e. Amanda style). An aside: Amanda, someday you should try meat sauce + meatballs PLUS marinara for an extra treat…I will take you to Maggiano’s on a special date next time you are in town.

Anywho, we also went to House of Pies and Aneil won me this supersweet toy out of the claw machine:

It is a flying cow and I’ve named it Julio.

On Saturday we trekked to College Station for Maria’s marathon birthday celebration. I’ve already teased her for having a birthday lunch instead of dinner, since we ended up hanging out at her parent’s house and eating their food allll day. This had it’s perks, however, because there was a large game of Cranium, hanging out with Maria’s nephew Thomas, and a real competitive Jenga tourney. That night I drank 2 chuggers + a pint I think + 1 shot so I was pretty much a goner. That is A LOT of beer. I also ate glorious glorious cheese fries from Fitzwilly’s and attempted to drunkedly play shuffleboard. It was fun but the following changes to College Station were extremely disturbing:

1) Thai Taste closed down!!!!!!
2) Nipa “Hot” closed down!!!!!!!
3) There are about a million new restaurants (TGI Fridays and the like) along the previously barren portion of University Drive
4) Duddley’s has been renovated such that
a. The bar has a backlit fancy liquor display. Yes, liquor. At Duddley’s.
b. The Ms. Pac Man table is GONE
c. The booths have been upgraded.
d. They have added a damn Golden Tee machine…I realized this when Aneil and Casey simply never returned to our table after they went to get drinks from the bar.

I did not get to go to Los Nortenos, so that was disappointing, but I DID get to see my darling Chad and he was pretty and wonderful as usual.

Sunday I was feeling pretty ooky from all the beer and/or sleeping on the floor and/or waking up toooo early, but once I ate my leftover mountain of spaghetti I felt better. Maria and I even had an Emmy viewing party, although I realized that I really don’t watch any of the shows up for awards. It was pretty pathetic. Conan, however, was very funny (as expected). Oh also the one show I actually watch (Project Runway) lost to The Amazing Race, of all things! Pretty disappointing. Also did any of you watch the red carpet pre-show?? The hosts were so freaking awkward and asked the celebs the most inane/insulting questions ever. The weird little dude would ask people about Tom Cruise’s mystery kid and/or say things like, yeah too bad your show was cancelled, hope you win anyway. So so soo awkward.

In other news, I am already way behind in school, but I’ve managed to memorize the four P’s of marketing so hopefully I’ll make Erik proud. This weekend I head to Colorado for my girls’ weekend with my old coworkers from the plant. Apparently the highs are in the lower 70’s and the lows in the mid 40’s so I can’t wait. (No excessive sweating for 3 whole days!)

Lub you all!