Celebrating labor by not doing any
First thing: Sister No. 2 is in Sichuan (study abroad), and everything is fine. Her school didn't get damaged by the earthquake, and she herself was still in the air when it hit, so she's dandy.
Now back to our regularly scheduled, earthquake free program:
Nice thing about teachers is that they get all the good days off. The Boy and I spent Labor Day having a really nice meal at the original Carrabba's with his parents. Ended up with the special, a beef/pork/spinach ravioli in pomodoro sauce. His mom got this massive bowl of mussels off the appetizer menu. Seriously, the bowl was bigger than my head and domed with mussels. We were all amazed/appalled, but I suppose it was meant to be a shared appetizer. Still, maybe I'll get that next time. It was good. Too full for dessert (though his mom was kind of amazing and demolished two cream puffs drenched in chocolate sauce, and his grandmother had a good cheesecake).
Made the miscalculation of agreeing to have half a glass of red wine after having ordered diet coke. Ended up feeling it more than normal.
Oops.
Afterwards, went to the zoo. Day was a little hot and muggy (with off sprinkles of rain), but neither of us had been to the zoo since grade school and it ended up being lots of fun. Observations of the day:
* Giraffes walk like they're going to fall over (regardless of how well balanced they may actually be)
* A stop to determine whether an elephant was eating hay or playing with it resulted in a spectacular display of elephant urination.
* Baby animals are cute, regardless of specie
* The zoo has introduced a couple of dogs (some breed starting with A) into the cheetah habitat in hopes that the dogs will make friends with the cheetah babies
* Cottontop tamarins have the scientific name Saguinus oedipus. No sure why, would like to know.
* Komodo dragons are scary
* Big snakes are creepy
* Zoo has no rhino since theirs died a couple of years ago
* There are more tigers captive in Texas than there exist in the wild. (Maybe specifically Malayan tigers)
Ended up having a laugh at cytherea_rose 's expense as she discovers that Twilight means never having to say you're kidding. Decided that employee benefits packages (The Boy's) are a pain to deal with, but necessary. Walked Johnny (the boy's golden retriever) without managing to turn my ankle (my sandals + long skirt + dark mildly unfamiliar streets = potential disaster). Yay, I can walk without hurting myself.
Since we had a large lunch, we decided to just try one of the new gourmet frozen yogurt places I've noticed popping up in the city. Our choices were Swirll and Berripop. Swirll's website had more info (and was closer), so we ended up there. Very unfortunate for them, their logo/sign makes Swirll read like Swill. Not very flattering.
But, the frozen yogurt was interesting. It's made with actual live active cultures type yogurt, so it had a very nice, creamy mouth feel and (surprisingly) that yogurt tang. Very refreshing. Both the boy and I decided that original tasted better than peach, so he got his with strawberries and I got mine with mochi. The place called them Japanese marshmallows, but mochi are really just pellets of sweetened gelatinous rice flour. Theirs were decent. I threw some green tea powder into my yogurt, which made it taste almost like green tea ice cream (except yogurty). Not bad, overall. It's lighter than our usual ice cream haunts, and we can fool ourselves into believing its healthier.
All in all, not a bad night. Certainly different from our usual "bum around the house, play on the internet, watch a movie" sort of routine.
Oh yeah, and for my fandom friends, as cornerofmadness and evil_little_dog have already reported, the results of the UFO Awards are out, and Scars and Consequences ended up first, to my very very huge surprise. I was thrilled to pieces just to be up against evil_little_dog 's Sun Goes Down and artemisrae 's From Here On. (Will try to find proper links in the morning)
So, congrats to everybody, and now it is time to collapse in bed.
Now back to our regularly scheduled, earthquake free program:
Nice thing about teachers is that they get all the good days off. The Boy and I spent Labor Day having a really nice meal at the original Carrabba's with his parents. Ended up with the special, a beef/pork/spinach ravioli in pomodoro sauce. His mom got this massive bowl of mussels off the appetizer menu. Seriously, the bowl was bigger than my head and domed with mussels. We were all amazed/appalled, but I suppose it was meant to be a shared appetizer. Still, maybe I'll get that next time. It was good. Too full for dessert (though his mom was kind of amazing and demolished two cream puffs drenched in chocolate sauce, and his grandmother had a good cheesecake).
Made the miscalculation of agreeing to have half a glass of red wine after having ordered diet coke. Ended up feeling it more than normal.
Oops.
Afterwards, went to the zoo. Day was a little hot and muggy (with off sprinkles of rain), but neither of us had been to the zoo since grade school and it ended up being lots of fun. Observations of the day:
* Giraffes walk like they're going to fall over (regardless of how well balanced they may actually be)
* A stop to determine whether an elephant was eating hay or playing with it resulted in a spectacular display of elephant urination.
* Baby animals are cute, regardless of specie
* The zoo has introduced a couple of dogs (some breed starting with A) into the cheetah habitat in hopes that the dogs will make friends with the cheetah babies
* Cottontop tamarins have the scientific name Saguinus oedipus. No sure why, would like to know.
* Komodo dragons are scary
* Big snakes are creepy
* Zoo has no rhino since theirs died a couple of years ago
* There are more tigers captive in Texas than there exist in the wild. (Maybe specifically Malayan tigers)
Ended up having a laugh at cytherea_rose 's expense as she discovers that Twilight means never having to say you're kidding. Decided that employee benefits packages (The Boy's) are a pain to deal with, but necessary. Walked Johnny (the boy's golden retriever) without managing to turn my ankle (my sandals + long skirt + dark mildly unfamiliar streets = potential disaster). Yay, I can walk without hurting myself.
Since we had a large lunch, we decided to just try one of the new gourmet frozen yogurt places I've noticed popping up in the city. Our choices were Swirll and Berripop. Swirll's website had more info (and was closer), so we ended up there. Very unfortunate for them, their logo/sign makes Swirll read like Swill. Not very flattering.
But, the frozen yogurt was interesting. It's made with actual live active cultures type yogurt, so it had a very nice, creamy mouth feel and (surprisingly) that yogurt tang. Very refreshing. Both the boy and I decided that original tasted better than peach, so he got his with strawberries and I got mine with mochi. The place called them Japanese marshmallows, but mochi are really just pellets of sweetened gelatinous rice flour. Theirs were decent. I threw some green tea powder into my yogurt, which made it taste almost like green tea ice cream (except yogurty). Not bad, overall. It's lighter than our usual ice cream haunts, and we can fool ourselves into believing its healthier.
All in all, not a bad night. Certainly different from our usual "bum around the house, play on the internet, watch a movie" sort of routine.
Oh yeah, and for my fandom friends, as cornerofmadness and evil_little_dog have already reported, the results of the UFO Awards are out, and Scars and Consequences ended up first, to my very very huge surprise. I was thrilled to pieces just to be up against evil_little_dog 's Sun Goes Down and artemisrae 's From Here On. (Will try to find proper links in the morning)
So, congrats to everybody, and now it is time to collapse in bed.