Now, let’s talk about the Cowboys… I’m so glad they beat those pesky Giants. Now they are 4-2 and in first place in the NFC East… It wasn’t a very pretty game with 8 overall turnovers (4 a piece) but the defense held the Giants for most of the game and that is now 2 weeks in a row when the defense showed me something. Keep it going ‘boys.

To make a long story short I ended up having a whole Chicken Fried Steak swimming in gravy, pico de gallo and Tabasco. A little bowl of mashed potatos plus, you guessed it, more gravy and Tabasco. A little bowl of egg plant casserole (this was new to us and it is really good…lotsa cheese). Cornbread…aaannnddd…Strawberry Shortcake dessert… Of course, I washed it down with water…didn’t want to over do it now…

we had this meal at around 2PM and I am still hurting. Every time we pig out, we say coming out of Luby’s, “next time I’m just having the Luann platter”…but we never do…

Alka-Seltzer to the rescue!…

So, Tommie’s friend (who is a Texas football season ticket holder…thanks Marcus!) had an extra couple of tickets to the Texas vs. UNT game on Saturday. Tommie’s mom and sister were coming into town that same weekend so I got the green light to go to Austin all by my lonesome. I invited Lawrence to come watch the game with me (don’t worry Lyndon, there are more tickets to come ).

Packed up the truck and headed down to Austin Friday afternoon to miss some of the traffic. The drive was actually not that bad. Only hit traffic when I got to Temple. After getting into Austin, I had some time to kill so I headed to the Coop and bought me some t-shirts and a cap. Well, that killed about 10 minutes and Lawrence, Jessica, Richard and Ahn had still about 2 hours until they got into town. Decided to go to Lyndon and Kathie’s place (again, thanks guys for letting me crash at your pad) and hang out for a bit. This was my first time to their place and let me just say it looks awesome… the house does really look great guys…

Now, for this trip, the diet was completely off and I was taking FULL advantage of this. We met the guys at Shady Grove (lived 7 years in Austin and never went) and had an excellent chicken fried steak with green chile sauce on it…yum…fried food, how I miss you… Went back to Lyn and Kat’s place for some Texas Hold’em, beer and Xbox…what a great combination…:smile: I actually did pretty good for my first time playing Hold’em…I swear, it’s all business when these people play…the amount of trash talking is, well, let’s just say it more than just a ‘friendly’ game…cut to me going to sleep…time: 4:30AM…

On Saturday, more food… we went to Trudy’s North Star for brunch… I wanted everything on the buffet…twice… To say the least, I was dying when we got back to the house Nothing like working the food down with more Xbox…

Lawrence and I took off for the game and had a lot of fun watching Texas completely pummel UNT to a final of 65-0…it was fun…Marcus & Shannon were there and it was just really cool to finally talk football. I’m so tired of baseball… WOOHOO! FOOTBALL SEASON IS HERE!…ahem, sorry, slipped out…

That night, more great food…Rudy’s BBQ. Definetly ate with my eyes there as I got enough food to feed 3 people…man, that BBQ is good… After we got back to the house, more Hold’em and Xbox. Wasn’t as lucky on Saturday night as on Friday night… cut to me going to sleep… 4:30AM … again …

On Sunday, more food…Chicago style pizza this time and it was really good and for dessert, shaved ice…

I decided to head back to Dallas on Sunday instead of Monday…I missed Isabel (and you too Tommie )…the drive was super easy. It is, I think, the easiest drive I’ve ever had from Austin to Dallas. I made it home just fine. I struggled to stay awake though. Those 2 nights (or mornings, I should say) of staying up until 4:30AM caught up to me. I did make it til 10PM but as soon as my head touched my pillow, I was out…

On Monday, Tommie made burgers and hot dogs on the grill and I ate a bunch (hmm, I think eating was the theme of the weekend). After that, just relaxing and hanging out…

That was a great weekend…

Weight tally: On Friday – 180.8, On Monday – 185.6 … lol

EDIT: I would be remiss not to mention that the person that took me out both times on Texas Hold’em was none other that Jessica…don’t mess with a pregnant lady…

Well, here goes my weekend recap…:mrgreen:

Friday I was set to go out and bike for a little bit but got lazy and decided to spank Lawrence and Lyndon on ESPN NFL Football 2K5…what was it? 59-0? Granted you guys were using Arizona and I was the Boys’ but still that’s a spanking in my book…too bad it wasn’t a ranked game…I know they will take revenge on me soon enough so I gotta enjoy this moment…doesn’t happen often…

Saturday we were so ready to go out and run some errands… First, we needed some lunch so we decided to go out and try this tapas place we had tried at Taste of Addison called De Tapas. First, the place was eerily empty…hint number one… Then, we start looking at the menu and 90% of it was tapas (expected as the name of the place was De “Tapas” but I expected just a ‘little’ more variety). The selection of tapas was OK but dang the prices were a little high for just tapas… I went for jamon Serrano and a Spanish cheeses plate…I thought that also getting some bread I could satisfy my hunger… I was right but barely…the cheese plate had about 10 thin wedges of cheese and the ham plate had about 5 slices of ham…don’t get me wrong the cheeses and ham were great but dayum!…

Tommie and Joe didn’t fare as well as I did. Tommie got crab croquettes and a beef skewer…Tommie was happy with the taste but not enough…Joe wasn’t happy either…

So the day started not so good…you don’t go out to a restaurant and not feed Tommie well…it’s just not done…just joking baby…I love you…:shock:

Well, now we have gone there and know not to go there if we are hungry…kinda ironic for a restaurant, huh…

And all the errands we were gonna do? Just got one thing done…we bought Tommie’s b-day present, finally…a pair of K-Swiss court shoes so she can do her ‘hiyaa!’s better…:smile:… Also, we took Isabel to Willow Bend Mall’s play area…she had so much fun and we had so much fun playing with her and just watching her crawl around…

Sunday I finally got my lazy butt off the couch, again, and headed out for an early ride… Even though I was dying the last 5 miles, I made it. I rode 40 miles on Sunday. After 30 miles had to stop at a convenience store and buy a Gatorade which I knew wasn’t gonna last the whole ride (I planned ahead and knew where to stop) but I also had to get an energy bar (was pooped with 10 miles to go, ran outta fuel)… Ended up getting a Snickers Marathon bar…dang those things are good…ate it as I was heading out of the store and after about 10 minutes I was the Energizer Buny with sore legs…:mrgreen:…made it home ok but was useless the rest of the day…

After that, Sunday was just quiet… Did some research for the fantasy football league that I’m doing for the first time but the draft was postponed (again) at the last minute…thanks Pat!

I’ll try to post more often…not just my weekend recaps…I’ll try…

If there’s something called “food overdose” I think we got it Saturday night…

Saturday night was our date (thanks again to Jerry and Johnny for babysitting!) and we headed out to Perry’s with Joe’s recommendation (and if Joe recommends it, you ‘KNOW’ it’s good). First, we dressed up a bit as this is a ‘nice’ restaurant and all and headed out in my dirty truck…oh, how I wished I’d had time to wash and detail my baby but after 25 miles of bike riding that morning I was in ‘relax’ mode the rest of the day…

Anywho, we get to Perry’s… this restaurant is not nice…it is noiyce!…small, cozy…great… We sat at our small table for 2 and listened to our waiter Anthony as he started describing the specials. I swear this restaurant was ‘made’ for us. Every single special sounded delicious and we wanted every single one of the dishes. If we could have, we would have told them to give us one of each from the menu and specials menu and just explode in a feeding frenzy but we would have probably have had to take out a morgage on our house to do that. I start looking through the wine list and to my surprise, even though this is a high end restaurant, the bottles of wine, for once, are decently priced. I decide on a Franciscan Merlot and boy was that little Napa Merlot good…so far, we’re doing good…

Now, we have to decide on appetizers (all diets were off that night btw). Tommie goes for their Bleu Cheese Salad which Joe recommended to Tommie and I went for Ceviche. I don’t care too much for Bleu Cheese but Tommie said the salad was really good. The ceviche was really good also. Another point on the plus side for the restaurant.

For our main dish we had some problems deciding. Everything sounded so good. But, being as this was a steak house, Tommie opted for their Prime Rib with Bleu Cheese and Crab stuffed Shitake mushrooms with their Au Gratin potatoes and I went with their Filet Oscar which was a 12oz. Filet Mignon with Crab claw meat and Hollandaise sauce on top with their Au Gratin potatoes. I’ve had many a steak here in Dallas and I must say, this was the ‘best’ steak I’ve had so far. So tender, juicy and flavorful…

We were stuffed after that, to say the least. But, we didn’t know when we were gonna have the chance to eat that good again so, dessert, here we go!… Again, we wanted every single dessert they had. Créme Brulée, Cheesecake, Chocolate Fudge Cake, etc… We went with the chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream (at Joe’s recommendation again). Tommie could only do a couple of bites so I had to take one for the team (darn!) and finish the whole monstruosity of a slice of cake. Sweet Jebus!, that was good… By that point, I think I was pushing the elastic limits of my stomach. I hadn’t eaten that much in a long, long time. Both Tommie and I were hurting pretty bad.

If any of y’all find yourselves in D-town and want a really good steak in a very romantic restaurant, head over to Perry’s…they’ll treat you good…and before I forget, thanks to Anthony, our waiter, who was really cool, attentive and made it a great experience…

Man, we had such a decadent weekend food-wise… I think I’m gonna have to start biking 15 miles…

-olives, baby mozarella, camembert, french bread appetizer
-Barbequed pork tenderloin seasoned in lime, salt, oregano and garlic.
-red beans and rice
-tostones (fried plantain chips)
-home made garlic vinagraitte salad with parmesan

and the topper…

chocolate supreme for dessert…

Didn’t watch the game tonight, not because I avoided it but because we went to Taste Addison. We ate a bunch of food from the restaurants that are in Addison (you can call it restaurantville from all the restaurants that are there). I specially enjoyed the crab cake I ate from Trulucks, the lamb kabob with curry from Clay Pot and this Tenderloin sandwich from De Tapas. The food was amazing… There was a second reason we went to Taste Addison: B52′s were playing there… It was great… They played all their old stuff (Private Idaho, Rock Lobster, Roam, Love Shack, etc… )…. had a blast…

To work off all that food (and the food that has taken permanent residence around my waist) I decided to do road cycling. I have been trying to think, for a while, what type of exercise to do to lose a few pounds. I had always (before bad habits took over my body) liked to ride bicycles for long distances so voila, cycling is my exercise of choice. Went out Saturday and bought me a bike, helmet (gotta keep the noggin intact) and a couple other accessories (no Lycra pants………..yet) and should be starting my daily bike rides either today (Sunday) or tomorrow… I’m going to try to take it easy in my first few weeks of riding and build up my lungs. Then, I can start working on endurance and pace… I am actually really excited about this and hopefully I’ll stay with it….

Here’s a pic of the new “toy”, as Tommie calls it…

The fence is finally finished (except for the staining/sealing which they do a couple of weeks after the fence is finished). I took pictures everyday of the fencing process and will post them hopefully tomorrow. I will also post more pictures of Isabel.

It’s pretty late… I should be going to sleep…gnite all…

We get our new fence started tomorrow…….excited and nervous……..I hope it comes out nice. We will post before and after pictures…..they are supposed to start tomorrow but of course it may rain the rest of the week so we will see. Jessie is going to the “hotel” for the week. She will have a great time in daycare playing.