Green Christmas
No Comments
Rich’s 30 plus one birthday kicked off our holidays. We went to lunch at Lulu B’s and dinner at Eddie V’s where I hoped to bump into Matthew McConaughey who is rumored (by a woman we met in Tahiti who lives in Dallas and has seen him before) to go there five days a week. But no sight of him. (And still no sight of Sandy either. I even saw her in a tabloid at Walton’s and then again in another at Bess on NYE…) The dinner was delicious – we both got the BLT salad and filet (Rich’s medium, mine butterflied and charred) and then enjoyed a birthday dessert on the house.
The next night was Christmas Eve. I was making dinner and there was a knock on the door. Not sure what to do, I ducked behind the counter and whisper shouted to Rich, “What should we do?” He was preoccupied playing the new video game I got him and while I waited for an answer, I decided to tip toe over and see if anyone was there. I looked through the peep hole and there was a man standing on the other side of the door. I quickly moved away and pressed my back against the wall and then he knocked again. I froze, motioned Rich to stop playing his game and finally opened the door and that is when we met our neighbor across the hall. He invited over for a Christmas Eve happy hour and we met the neighbors next to us too. It was our first time meeting our neighbors and we were glad we finally did. They are all very friendly and no longer suspects in my Lucky Brand thief mystery (yes, some lowlife trash (and I think literally because I think this scum might have been from the trash valet service) stole two packages from our front door while we were in Tahiti – including my contacts which is so mean if you have ever seen me without my contacts.)
The next morning we woke up and made a cup of Mocha Mint and opened some presents. Then we skyped with my parents and opened their presents. We made breakfast and watched Christmas Vacation (which was my first time seeing the whole thing!) Then we skyped some more. For dinner, I made ham (the best fire glazed ham from Central Market) with cheesy potatoes, corn and fresh baked rolls. After dinner, Mike and Nikki came over and we went to see Black Swan and I think we all decided that we liked it even though we could have done without the bending, snapping legs and webbed toes.
The next day, on a mission to find Rich a pair of jeans to replace the ones that were stolen, I decided to give the mall a try. I made it to one store (I will NEVER shop at Lucky again) and decided to put my mission on hold. (Days later, we found him not just one, but two pairs of jeans!) On the way home, I stopped to pick up some lunch for Rich and Mike at Jersey Mike’s. Not sure how they liked their subs, but I loooved the people there! So friendly and totally made up for my poor customer service a half hour prior.
On NYE we went to dinner at Jack Allen’s and then headed down to Rainey street. We went to Icenhauers which was crazy busy but I think it would be a nice place to hang out on any other night when people weren’t jumping on the furniture and throwing things and falling and screaming and crying (seriously, reminded me of a CCC). Then we went to Clive and sat outside on the heated patio but I gotta tell ya, a heated patio in Buffalo is much warmer than any of the heated patios in Austin even though it’s not nearly as cold outside in Austin.
During the holidays, I changed my name at the DMV and it was changed by the nicest blind man at the SS office. I had never seen a blind person use a computer before and it is quite cool – he would type on the keyboard and then whatever he typed would pop up in Braille on a little ticker just below the palms on the keyboard. He was so quick and cheery that it made my hour and a half wait worth it just to meet him. He even found a mistake that has been on my record my whole life – it said that I was born in the Republic of North Korea! He might not have seen it, but he knew it didn’t sound right and now it says I’m from Seoul South.
Friday night after work we went for a walk downtown like we used to when we lived there (one of the things we miss). We found a cute little coffee shop on Congress and stopped at Walton’s for dinner (I had the yummiest organic chicken salad). On Saturday afternoon, we took a walk along SoCo and had lunch at Mighty Cone with a frito pie from the bbq trailer.