Week 44: 10/25-10/31

Week 44

     10/28 - Today is my birthday! Plan for the day: chill out....and eventually Fuego of course. I'm now 23 years old and I feel old, which is weird, because I don't usually feel my age at each birthday, ya know? Anyways, I spent my morning with pancakes and sausage. As much as I didn't want to, I realized it would be important for me to do some HW today, so I did a quick bit and called it quits.

     My afternoon was spent in relaxation mode. For the first time since coming to TAMU I broke out the hammock! It's been too hot here to do so otherwise, weird. Lately, however, the weather has been wonderful, sunny and 75 today. I hammocked for a couple of hours, got chatted up by a literal tree-hugger about how we need to save the trees. I managed to bring a St. Arnold's Oktoberfest Bier with me so that made napping much easier. Perfect afternoon.

      For dinner Peter and I went to our new favorite place on campus, Fuego. Peter's a swell guy and paid for me dinner so that was nice of him. Afterwards I had imagined myself taking down a pitcher of beer somewhere but then I realized I'm old and full and tired so I just went home, watched Gladiator, poured myself a few fingers of Scotch (followed by three whiskey sweet teas), and played some video games. All in all it was a great day!
     10/29 - Back to reality. Lots of HW, life TBD. I got another big box of goodies from my parents today, my mom sent me stuff from home:

     10/31 - Happy Halloween! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays in the year, for selfish reasons of course. Because my birthday falls so close to Halloween, my birthday parties growing up have always been costume parties. So basically I equate Halloween with my birthday, just a huge costume birthday party all for me. The whole community dresses up in costumes and throws ragers just for me ;p
     This year, I decided I had enough hair and beard to be Rick Grimes from the Walking Dead. One thing to know about me is that I am very detail-oriented when it comes to Halloween costumes. I'm also very good at applying face paint and the like (I could have been a movie makeup artist probably...). Just another random thing I enjoy. I'm also cheap. I believe a good costume is more about bone structure and minute details than anything. If you don't look like Mr. T, don't put on a cheesy mohawk and go as Mr. T., show some class. If you have to explain who/what you are, you probably should've been something else.
     For dinner I cooked up a batch of pulled pork then Peter and I went to The Corner bar and had a few drinks. He then went home and I went out exploring/people watching. Basically Halloween in CS is much like Halloween in CU except a lot warmer and the people have more class. All in all, a fun night. Lots of people liked my costume.

Week 43: 10/18-10/24

Week 43

     10/18 - Melissa and I spent her final full day here just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. It was an amazing visit and I'm so happy to have her :) Also, at some point in the day this happened:

     Later on, we went and saw The Martian (I had finished the book at some point last week). It was a great representation of what happens in the book and Matt Damon was a spot-on smartass. We spent the evening walking around campus, well sweatered, and I showed Melissa the Bonfire Memorial.

     10/19 - Today I drove Melissa to the airport to return to the frozen tundras of Illinois (not quite frozen yet..) I am thankful that she could visit and that all travels were safe. Until next time! :)

     10/21 - Took Peter to Fuego, he belives us now.

     10/22 - Discovered the Alumni building, holy cow. There's a massive Aggie Ring statue in front of it.

     10/23 - Have I yet mentioned how wonderful the liquor taxes are in Texas?  Basically, the taxes are really really low and the prices are low too...it's a win-win. Peter and I are expanding our whiskey repertoire rapidly. This time I got Tincup Whiskey, an American whiskey from Colorado that has a really rad bottle. Tonight Peter and I checked out  World of Beer and got flights of some local beers. It was a fun time.

Week 42: 10/11-10/17

Week 42

     10/13 - I have introduced breakfast sandwiches into my life. I bought a tube of spicy Jimmy Dean sausage and have subsequently made sausage patties. Add egg, cheese, and bagel and I have rivaled anything McDonald's makes. Boom.
     Today I determined a great way to get exercise and make the most out of the world, biking up parking garages to watch the sunset. I did it, it was fun.

     10/16 - HOUSTON, WE HAVE NO PROBLEMS. Melissa has landed today for her extended-weekend visit! Ahh! I'm so excited. I drove into Houston bright and early this morning to pick her up from the airport. I have big plans for the day (with options of course). Traffic wasn't too bad and it was a fun drive anyways. I found her just where she said she was, whew! I'm glad I went to the right airport, there are two...

     First on the day's agenda: breakfast. We went to Frank's Grill for a quick breakfast. It was...good. It would've been much better had we not ordered boring food. When you're just getting eggs and bacon, it's all the same. I found out about Frank's based on Google review. If I'm ever somewhere I've never been and I'm hungry, I Google "food" and then make a decision based on average ratings and reviews...I figure that's better than completely random...This is what led us to Frank's, though next time I'll put more effort into my breakfast research.

     Next stop: NASA! Yup, we are headed to NASA for a "quick" run through the museum and facility. Pros: it was really cool to see all the actual early spacecraft and the moon landers and such. There was so much stuff there it was a little overwhelming. Cons: They can put a man on the moon but they can't make a damn NASA tour that makes any sense. The direction and explanation in the place was very ... open-ended ... It took us a very long time to find the actual museum, which was hidden in a movie theater (?) But it was a fun time! Later we drove over to see the Saturn V rocket, massive! They had to build a ridiculously large warehouse around it. Enjoy some photos:

      Next stop (and really the primary stop) the beach! Just a stone's throw (40 minutes) away from south-east Houston is the city of Galveston, TX. We could care less about the city itself, just give us the beach! We drove a bit and found a nice spot to park right on the sand, then it was suits and sunscreen on and off we went! Very relaxing, very nice. The sand and surf were actually really good quality, very fine sand and not a lot of sharp shells and whatnot. We walked up and back then decided that rations would be a good thing to obtain.
     Lunch break consisted of us taking a look at some BBQ joints and then eventually just picking one. We went to Queen's BBQ. The band Queen, unfortunately, was not there. The food was amazing. Their specialty was smoked turkey breast on a po-boy, so we got one of theose and a beef brisket, of course. Both were so good it was difficult to decide which was better. We each had a half of each type. mmmmm. After lunch we thought we'd try and see what "Pleasure Pier" was all about. No, it's not some sketchy strip club, it's an amusement park. Basically, we walked up to it, saw that it was small, expensive, and lame-looking, then walked back to the car. Just give us the beach please.
     We spend the rest of our time in Galveston at the beach, reflecting on memories of Gulf Shores, drinking water, taking naps, and reveling in each other's company once again. A great time.

     10/17 - BTHO 'Bama. No, that is not a threat against Barack "The Rock" Obama, but rather a saying that Aggies use on Gameday. Beat the Hell Outta _____ is a common expression heard here in Aggieland, so yeah...football and whatever. I wanted to show Melissa the madness of tailgate Saturday here in the land of steak and football, so we headed on over to people watch the festivities for the Alabama game, the biggest game of the year. We were both impressed by the sheer magnitude of football heads in attendance. You see, at Illinois, we only ever used "football" as an excuse to throw a party, talk to people, and drink drink drink. Here however, they actually care about the football aspect of things. Strange, huh?
     After we left the madness surrounding Kyle Field, Melissa and I discovered our new true love: Fuego. What is this place? You may be asking. Well picture heaven, then add delicious layers of queso and deep-fried avocados. That's right, deep-fried avocados. Fuego is the only restaurant I ever have to go to again. It's a fraction of the price of Chipotle, open 24 hours, has a drive-through, and is inifitely more delicious. Oh yeah, we scored. We returned to the apartment to spread the gospel of Fuego to Peter and he didn't buy it... he'll learn soon enough.

      Later, Melissa and I wandered out to Northgate so I could show her the relatively classy bar scene. We enjoyed hanging out on the rooftop of Corner (obviously a go-to at this point) and people-watching the minions below.

Week 41: 10/04-10/10

Week 41

     10/05 - Breakfast was fancy today. I'm enjoying my freedom. Sunday brunch is a big part of that freedom.
     I got a big box of health foods from my parents in the mail today. It's from a place called "Thrive" which I guess is an online health-foods store. This brings me back to the good ole' days of when  I was home-schooled and my mom worked at Nutrition Works. Lot's of time spent doing HW surrounded by vitamins....

     10/06 - Most of this week was just making food and eating it. A great big breath before the next week's fun! I got another care package today! This one from the lovey Melissa :) She sent me books! Yayy! There are cookbooks and other books! I'm most excited about the bread book, should lead to some great things.
     10/08 - Today I went to a scholarship banquet for the Fellowship I received. It was super fancy, much fancier than anything UIUC ever had, and a lot more people were there! Texans know how to banquet.
     10/09 - Today I tried my hand at the basic bread recipe from the "Tessajara Bread Book" that I got from Melissa. This book is apparently the "bread bible" so I'm excited to dive into it. It turns out there is a special way you're supposed to do everything, much more in the method than in the materials. Here are my results:

They turned out really well! The secret is in when/how you add the salt and oil, And how you knead the bread. I'm looking forward to experimenting some more.
   

Week 40: 09/27 - 10/03

Week 40

     09/27 - Yikes, the only picture I had of myself this week. Today I went to the Texas Reds steak and wine festival in downtown Bryan, TX. It was cool! I got there after the steak had all been served, but the wine and beer tents were still rolling along nicely. I opted to try out the beer tent instead of the wine, though that would've been a cool thing to do as well. I ended up trying a bunch of different local beers on tap, all were delicious for the most part. If I ever find myself in the area again I'll go the wine and steak route. There's a brewery in town that I want to try to make it out to sometime. 

     09/28 - I've been working steadily towards perfecting to art of breadmaking. I'm proud to say that I haven't had to purchase a loaf of bread in a really really long time. It's fun to experiment and tweak my methods.

     10/02 - So Peter and I decided that we had to try our hand and making our own Caramel Bourbon milkshakes, so that happened today. I happened to have some leftover cinnamon Teddy Grahams (Teddy Grahams are my go-to snack) so I smashed those up and sprinked them into the shakes as well. Another important thing to note is that we used Blue Bell Ice Cream, a semi-local ice creamery that is uber deliciouso.

     10/03 - Today I went tailgating! Peter and I knew some people from our grad student org who had a tailgating tent set up (I don't ever remember the acronym for it). It was crazy, there was a large fenced-off area where the cadet's horses were hanging out. Horses! We didn't go to the game but basically just drank a lot and then hit up Chick Fil'A on the way home. Fun fact: the first time I've ever really eaten at a Chick Fil'A. It was a fun day in College Station land.

Week 39: 09/20-09/26

Week 39

Homemade bun of course

     09/20 - Today I tried my hand at making BBQ beef brisket....I must say it was a grand success! So delicious. I made up a dry rub and let the beef slab sit overnight, then slow cooked it all day. One of the best things I've ever made and I didn't use any recipe! I may try to remember the dry rub ingredients and type up a recipe for the Recipes page someday.

     09/23 - I have ventured deep into reading "The Martian"..it shouldn't take long, I can't tear my eyes off the pages. I estimate it won't take more than a week, tops. It may or may not also make it on my book review list.
   

Week 38: 09/13-09/19

Week 38

     09/13 - School is in full swing so, not much happens during the week. I spend my time going to class, doing HW, making food, and lounging. That's about it. It's good though, I enjoy my classes and I know the free time I have now won't last so I better make the most of it!

     09/16 - I got some Chacos. Cool shoes, cool concept.
     09/17 - Tonight Peter and I joined some fellow grad students at Grand Station Entertainment, a big bowling, mini golf, bar, games, laser tag place. It was cool! I accidentally ordered a hurricane thinking I was ordering a Heineken, drank it anyways... They have a special where after 9:30 you can get unlimited bowling, mini golf, and laser tag for just $10. We played a lot of laser tag and then bowled for a bit. Cool group of people.

     09/18 - Today not much happened other than a visit to a local whiskey bar: Rough Draught. It was a cool little place just down the street in College Station's Northgate district. The whiskey wasn't too expensive and a great way to try out different Texan distilleries.
      09/19 - My family sent me a care package consisting of the SAS Survival Handbook and a TAMU flag! The flag is now proudly displayed.

'merica