Another Quiet Day.../Zoo

...so instead of boring you with the simpleness of my Saturday, I shall dig back into the 'archives' of my photos. At the end of February, i made a visit to the Zoo. I'd been putting it off, because I was spoilt growing up in St. Louis. Spoilt in the fact that our Museums and other attractions are subsidized and therefore are free. Science Center, Zoo, Art Museum, etc.

So I finally bit the proverbial bullet and made a visit. There are things I liked about it and there are things I miss about my own zoo. I really wish a panda (my all-time favorite zoo animal) lived here, but I'll settle for the baby giraffe and elephant. I mean, how cute are they?





The giraffe was insanely curious and was not shy. He came right up to the two-way glass in their feed loft. He was also pretty darn adorable. I've more pictures at flickr and even more in my HD.

The elephant really wanted to play but his adult companions didn't want to. He finally settled down on the dirt pile for a nap, but kept playing around with the dirt as evidenced in the picture above.

I swear I spent most of my time there at those two paddocks. I really must go at another time when the animals are more active. Most of the other residents were napping. Perhaps I should ask when the best time was. Probably right when it opens.

At any rate, I should give in and give it another try. I really wish they had more sea lions... two is pathetic in comparison to the several we have in St. Louis!

Quiet Day

No terribly scintillating post today, for today was a rather uneventful day.

Did laundry. Emptied the dishwasher. Took an unplanned 3 hour nap - whoops. 

4 days until I can walk like a normal person. 

Today's image actually comes from a purchase made two days ago.

Remember my obsession with sprinkles?

This cookie is my dream cookie, almost. Coated in my favorite sprinkles, it's not your run-of-the-mill sugar cookie, but it was pretty good. The (minorly) interesting part of the story comes from its purchase point.

My mom and dad *love* to cook. *LOVE*. I haven't quite inherited their passion, but it's certainly rubbing off on me. When they were here in the fall, they *adored* Central Market. I don't blame them - they have some great stuff there, though a bit pricey for everyday shopping for my tastes. When Mom and I did our random drive of Houston, we ended up in the unofficial Koreatown. Which also happens to be quite immeshed with a Hispanic population. We stopped and looked around in a Mexican grocery store. We found the above cookies as well as some delicious looking pastries. 

I just might have to go back - and if I want to cook Mexican food, I now know a good source!

Two for One

Because of yesterday's timeline, I missed posting and was too tired to post when I got home.

Yesterday

Yesterday's highlights included a random lunch! Mom and I decided to drive around town and see what there was to explore. "Blind" exploration, if you will. See a street and just take it. I ended up in the 'unofficial' Koreatown. We decided to lunch at a random restaurant (there are far too many in close proximity), and lucked out with a delicious meal for a deal! 

That's bulgogi (Korean BBQ beef) on the left and rice on the right. And yes, it's purple. We think it's from the black beans mixed in. Damn tasty, I'm telling you!

The day was topped off by attending a world premiere opera, Last Acts, based on a play by Terrance McNally and composed by Jake Heggie. A 3-person emotional heavy-hitter, it was stunning to watch these three singers explore the emotions of the piece. Contemporary opera is unfortunately unpopular with the 'old' opera crowd it seems - but they should put their doubts aside. He has this way of writing music so it supports the emotions onstage instead of distracting or detracting. 

Sometimes it's fun being on the other side of the curtain!

Today

Today's adventures included navigating rush hour traffic plus a big thunderstorm. Makes me flashback to driving around in L.A. I don't miss stop-and-go traffic. I must find a good non-highway route to Hobby.

But before those water-logged adventures, we traveled back in time. At the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), a new exhibit opened about Pompeii. Having actually been at the site this past summer, I wanted to see what they chose to send along for the exhibition. It was interesting to see all the jewelry and other items that they found and the conclusions that they had drawn. Most of the items were not 'on display' at the ruins, so I definitely did get to see things I hadn't before. After finishing there, we explored a few of the other exhibitions that I deemed "can't miss" when I explored last week. 

Unfortunately Mom had to go back to the land of winter today, but I think we had a fun week. Not too long now before I start another show...

Wonderful Day

Folks, I have had a wonderful day.

First of all, the sky was clear and no rain to be seen. The weather was delightfully crisp. And the sun was shining. There were four main factors to today's wonderful day:

Bayou Bend.  I braved the slightly disconcerting suspension bridge to the gardens (yes, I'm a wimp about heights and moving bridges).  Mom and I wandered around the gorgeous gardens on Ima Hogg's estate. Ms. Hogg was very fond of pink. The azaleas were in full bloom and the grounds impressive

Galveston. We made the fairly smooth and easy drive down to the Texas Coast. Upon arrival, we had the requisite seafood (what else would one have when you go to the Coast?) and then visited the antique shops. Opening night gifts for "Billy Budd" were acquired as well as exploring several other stores on the Strand. We drove to a beach I had visited a year ago where the sand is littered with shells. We spent awhile combing the sand for fully intact shells which are amazingly easy to find. In fact, we encountered a gorgeous one, complete with resident: 

 
Blue Fish House. As mentioned here, I've become a sushi fan. Mom definitely wanted to find out what I've been talking about. We met up with WM and had a sushi feast. But the night wasn't over yet.

Chocolate Bar. What a way to finish out the night. Going to the mecca of chocolate, drooling over all the possibilities and indulging ourselves in some absolutely divine ice cream (chocolate-flavored of course - their uber-chocolatey cookie dough for me, espresso-infused chocolate ice cream for mom) Did I mention that tonight was live jazz night and the 4-man group was delightful?

What a wonderful day. 

Juno

Today, I saw Juno. Seeing this movie makes me so happy. Why? Because it reassures me that there is still good writing out there and there is still brilliant directing and great acting out there. And good, quality movies are still being made. I've been doing a lot of TV catch-up lately, and I keep seeing ads for terrible-looking movies. Ones that are obviously made to make a lot of money (and often don't). Those movies make me sad.

If you haven't seen Juno (and most likely you have since I've come so late to the movie game), then go see it. Ellen Page is brilliant in it; and I really enjoyed seeing Allison Janney, not to mention J.K. Simmons who was great as Juno's father.

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My mom escaped from Missouri winter only to be chilled by the front that has come through. We're hoping for a lovely day tomorrow to go exploring outdoors!

Cleaning

Mom's coming for a visit, so it was time for a deep-clean of the apartment. Thanks to my allergies, my apartment's gotten more than a few cleanings recently. So today's rolling-up-the-sleeves duties weren't as arduous as they could be. I try to keep my apartment fairly clean. Most of today's cleaning was more of putting things away that I leave out because it's just me around, no one to impress or annoy with my semi-clutter. My apartment was more 'lived-in' than 'dirty'.

And, I started off the day by making one of my favorite breakfasts, Swedish Pancakes. A long-time favorite which was often cooked by one of my dad's college roommates on our joint family trips or visits, it's definitely worth all the hassle of prep time and cooking time.

The only other thing on today's absolute to-do list was to relax. Mom's here for just a short time and we have a lot planned. I want to make the best of the trip. Now if only she could bring dad and the pups too...

I'm looking forward to taking a lot of good photos to share with you soon!

March Project, Day 1

Welcome to March! It's time for a new project. I don't know if I'll be able to stick to it as well as the February project, especially since I'll be starting time consuming work midway through the month.

My intention is to take a few pictures every day and post them on this blog. Something that pertains to that day.

I may or may not post descriptions about the pictures or I may share thoughts I had during the day. And if I'm really hard up for ideas, I'll go back to the February Project as there are still several pictures I had hoped to share stories about.

Hopefully my life won't be too boring for you!

So without further adieu...

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I hung out with my cousin today, and friends of hers from college. One of our stops was here:



I was introduced to Jamba Juice in Northern California by a good friend of mine from college. Nine times out of ten, I'll pick Jamba Juice over something like Smoothie King for my smoothie craving. I prefer fruit or fruit juice smoothies to the ones containing yogurt or other dairy products. It was definitely a tasty treat today on a slightly humid day.

Later, when dinner was a necessary thing, I was introduced to a new restaurant:



Not bad. I'm a fan of Hickory Hollow already but Goode Company wasn't bad at all. I had stuffed baked potato topped with sausage. Yum! And the portion was just right. So, another Houston restaurant to enjoy.

What was a nice slightly busy day was capped off wonderfully by an unexpected happening.



I needed to pick up some groceries for tomorrow's breakfast, so I stopped at the glitzy 24-hour Krogers near my house. I had taken just a few steps inside the door when I heard my name called out. One of the Studio singers, JB, was standing there chatting with another singer friend of hers. And moments later, JB informed me that another Studio colleague, AG, was also randomly shopping at the Krogers tonight. So JB and I ended up catching up and shopping together.

I love unexpected happenings like that! A nice start to the month, don't you think?