Our whirlwind trip to visit my family exhausted us, but I'm glad we made the time for it. I saw some relatives for the first time in a long time, and Sarah met some of my family for the first time ever. This set includes my niece, Jessica, who celebrated her first birthday! I'm in love with my niece. Perhaps I'm simply projecting, but she ( Read more... )

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Had a good day. Began by humoring my parents with lunch at a restaurant called “Jose Tejas.” The food was tasty, although not quite the same as what you'd find in Austin. Everything seemed saltier than it should be, at least. The margaritas were just fine, however; Patron, the tequila of choice for Sarah and me, was recently added to their menu ( Read more... )

One of the advantages of moving every year or year-and-a-half is that you streamline the process and your belongings somewhat. This weekend I completed nearly all of my packing, early enough to catch the last few innings of the first Major League Baseball game of the year. Sarah and I grabbed a late dinner at the Double Dave's pizza near campus, ( Read more... )

Too many times I believe that my days of sport eating have come to an end, only to find myself answering the call to duty once more. After knocking back four pints of beer to celebrate Allen's birthday at Austin's Pizza, whose interminable happy hour apparently stretches from 1pm to 8pm every day, I joined four others on a journey to Ben and Jerry ( Read more... )

Normally I adhere to the two-floor rule: only use the elevator to go up or down more than two floors at a time. However, in the aftermath of the race, I today observed Personal Elevator-Appreciation Day. To celebrate a day of wanton elevator usage, I joined Peter's dinner expedition to Plucker's, where he ate at least 40 of the maximally hot " ( Read more... )

I learned two things at the Boiling Pot tonight. First, Harry's imaginary girlfriend is real. Woah. After two and a half years, you think you have someone all figured out. Second, apparently I don't hate seafood after all. This latter lesson came as a pleasant surprise, since disdain for seafood has been a part of my culinary identity for a ( Read more... )

As a child I never paid much attention to the Chinese New Year except as an occasion to see relatives and "earn" lai see by reciting the only four words of Chinese I ever learned. Now, living far from all the relatives who might give me those red envelopes containing crisp new bills, the holiday seems primarily an excuse to celebrate with friends ( Read more... )

Yeah, so trying to spend ten hours at a buffet eating nonstop is pretty dumb. Hence, it must be even dumber to convince your undergraduate friend to get you into an all you can eat dorm cafeteria the next evening. So what unprecedented levels of dumbosity does one attain upon eating a fourth meal at a buffet that same week? You see, I had never ( Read more... )

I joined pfiddy's rescue/mocking expedition back to Buffet Palace, along with ikarpov, chaoticcalamity, and Uli. Walter and Peter are machines. We found them right where I left them, but their disposition had much improved. Apparently I missed the crucial stage when the management discovered them. The assistant manager reportedly told them that she'd "rather die than stay ( Read more... )