31 Years

Today, Pops and I celebrate 31 years of marriage. We met while we were taking Driver's Ed when we were 15. At that time, I knew I was in love, but many people questioned my decision. They thought you did not know what love was at that age.

I guess I proved them wrong. We have had 31 great years and we would both do it all over again. Pops wrote about us in his blog post today.

The greatest thing about our marriage is, not only do we love each other, but after 31 years, we really like each other.

Zhu Zhu Hunting

I love to have fun and I will do just about anything crazy. That is if it not illegal or immoral or permanent. (Good questions to ask yourself when your kids ask permission to do something that is questionable.)

In years past, I have stood in line for hours to get the hottest new hard to find toy. I remember dragging the kids to stand in line for 3 hours to get a Cabbage Patch Doll. I can't even begin to imagine how many hours I stood in line for Beanie Babies. I can remember one specific time that a Cracker Barrel in Duncanville was getting some hot ones in at 6:00 a.m. To make sure I didn't miss out, I left the house at 3:00 a.m. to stand in line.

I recently heard about the new hot toy for Christmas this year, Zhu Zhu Pets. I am ALL for pets that don't smell or go to the bathroom. When I heard about how hard they were to find, that made it more intriguing. Karsyn and Landrie have not even seen them on TV until this weekend, so I am hoping that they will love them.

I started my search on Wednesday with helpful hints from Missy. (Thanks Missy to you and all of your family.)

Here is the fun house. That is the main part that you have to have. That was pretty easy to get.

The animals are a completely different story! They are selling for about $30 on Ebay and Amazon. Both Saturday and Sunday I was up at 5:00 a.m. to find some. With the help of Tina, who just randomly found them at Target on Saturday and lots of hours in line, I have just about everything that we need.

I sure do hope the girls LOVE them!

Random Ramblings

I wish I had something new and exciting to talk about, but everything is pretty uneventful around here right now.

We did try a new Mexican restaurant for lunch last week, Tio Joe's, and I would give it an okay. Just had enchiladas. The cheese enchiladas were covered with queso. They were good, but just a little cheesy for me. I won't make a mad dash to get there again, but wouldn't be opposed to going.

The fun part of eating the past couple of weeks is that we have had dinner with lots of great friends. We love spending time with our friends.

Cheesecake Factory - Jeff & Ginger
Italian Villa - Jim & Kathy
Tricia's Cafe - Great Cajun cooking with Tricia, Pelletiers, Hamiltons & Holsts
Blue Mesa - Justin & Shannon
Cheesecake Factory - Hanna Family

A great new scrapbooking store opened a few weeks ago and I have made myself a frequent customer. I am signed up for classes every Tuesday until the middle of December. Lots of fun.

Yesterday was the first annual Jimmy York Memorial Golf Tournament. While I don't play golf, I did go out in the afternoon to visit with friends and stay for the awards dinner. It was great to be in the same room with lots of friends that all loved Jimmy. They presented Tricia with a nice check that will help her with the boys for the next several years.

I have been Christmas shopping and have 21 gifts. Yeah. I hope to keep the pace up and not be trying to finish up on Christmas Eve.

I am loving this California weather! Happy Fall.

Ellerbe - Update

I decided to give Ellerbe another try, since I loved the atmosphere so much. I so wanted it to be great. I took four friends with me.

The joke was on me. On my first trip, I wrote about how the hostess had a little bit of an attitude. This time, it was much worse. The owner was pleasant, but it went down hill from there. Now, I don't expect everyone to be my best friend in a restaurant, and I actually like to keep my personal space, but rudeness? As my friend Amy said about the waiter, "He does not act pleased to be serving us."

He wasn't the only waiter with an attitude. We had to beg for bread, and the food was very mediocre.

I am sad for the owner because he has a great concept and I predict that he won't be open for long. You can't sustain a restaurant with mediocre food and bad attitudes. I really would love to see this restaurant succeed, but until changes are made, I think it is very doubtful.

Sunday Fun Day in Oklahoma

Last Monday, I had the opportunity to go to the U2 concert in the new Cowboy Stadium. It was a last minute deal that Justin called me about. The only problem was that there were not going to be enough tickets for all of my children to go. Janelle was working, but I felt bad about leaving her left out, so I declined the tickets. I was a little bummed, but I also needed to babysit for Jennifer. I was thrilled that Jordan and Jennifer got to go because they are U2 fanatics - in tears that they were getting to go. Jordan got her ticket less than 3 hours before the concert.

On Thursday, Justin told me Billy (his awesome boss and friend) had some tickets to the show in Norman, Oklahoma. He had been talking to a sweet friend of mine that desperately wanted to go, but couldn't find a "date". I thought it would be fun to go, but when I found out Fergie and The Black Eyed Peas were going to be there, I was definitely IN.

Tricia and I have a running joke that one of these days I am taking her to the Winstar to gamble. We now had a plan. I was to pick her up at 2:00, head to Oklahoma and stop off to see if we could win a little money.

We started out BIG. We went to the penny slots. We sat there for a little bit, and Tricia doubled her $$$, $5 and I was up $9. We were so excited and feeling great. We moved to a couple of other penny machines and lost all of our winnings. I was on a desperate search for the nickel slots because I just knew I could really win big there.

We finally found the nickel machines and I hit big. 1300 nickels. $65. We were ridiculously excited! You would have thought we just won our first million. I looked at my clock and saw it was 4:00 and we needed to get on our way.

When we pulled into Norman, the traffic was ridiculous and I was disappointed that we would not be able to eat at the great restaurant I had picked out ahead of time. We had a quick dinner at Soup R Salad. It was pretty lame.

We headed to the stadium and made it in with about 15 minutes to spare. We had fantastic seats! The only problem was that there were so many middle aged drunks around us. It was pretty disgusting. Tricia got beer poured all over her purse and coat before the concert even started.

Let me tell you, The Black Eyed Peas were FANTASTIC!!! I could have sat there for another set. They were worth the price of the ticket.

Bono was great too. He is not too bad for an old man, although he is moving around a little slower.

The only bad part of the day was the drive home. It took us about 30 minutes just to get out of the parking area and it was a long drive home. After I dropped Tricia off, I had another 30 minute drive and was wondering if I was going to make it. I got to be about 3:30, which is just about the time I normally start waking up.

It was a great day and I would do it all over again. Thanks Tricia for such a great day.

Maximo's = Minimo's

I am wondering if maybe I need to start drinking. My drink of choice is Dr. Pepper and it doesn't do anything to alter the taste of food. I am thinking maybe I need to start drinking alcohol so my food will taste better. My tastes are not matching up to other diners, and I'm thinking that must be my problem. Maybe it is that they drink until their taste buds are numb and they don't know what good food is.

I was watching "The Naughty Kitchen" last week and Blythe went to see her old boss at his new restaurant, Maximo's. It looked really neat. I checked out the menu on line and it looked good. Gourmet Mexican. I am thinking Javier's. The chef that opened Maximo's had previously been at "The Mansion" for 28 years.

One of the first ways I evaluate a restaurant is by the smell when you first walk in. The decor was nice, but I told Pops, "We might be in trouble because it doesn't smell like Mexican food." We sat down and they brought out the chips with three different salsas. I was impressed. The sauces were all very different and good. The chips were made from flour tortillas instead of corn. It was different, but good.

We ordered the "Dos Quesos". There were two different quesos. One was white with poblano peppers and the other was yellow with chorizo. The white was so bland and tasted like melted cream cheese mixed with milk. No flavor at all. The yellow was a little better, but I am not sure that it was all "real" cheese.

I ordered a chicken dish that sounded so good, but was very bland. I poured lots of hot sauce over it to give it some flavor. The chicken was so overcooked that it was mushy. It was served with some cilantro rice that had good flavor, but it had been sitting for so long it had a very starchy taste.

Pops had the chicken mole. It had a pretty good flavor. You could really taste the individual spices, but the sauce was so thick, it was like a thick cream gravy that is served with chicken fried steak. It was gloppy.

We decided to give the dessert a try and that was a good choice. We had some crepes that had caramelized bananas and tres leches ice cream. It was probably the best part of our meal.

I like to see businesses that succeed. It makes me sad to walk into a restaurant at 8:00 p.m. on a Saturday night and it be deserted. You gotta bring the food if you are going to be successful.

Ellerbe Fine Foods

I have driven down Magnolia Dr. in Ft. Worth a few times lately, and this really neat restaurant keeps catching my eye. Friday night we wanted to try something different, so we headed over to Ellerbe Fine Foods.

Oh, how I want to LOVE this restaurant. The atmosphere is fantastic. It is in an old gas station that has been revamped. It reminded me of a restaurant in Europe. It has a marketplace attached to it that will soon have prepared dishes. In front, there is a great patio with huge water troughs filled with wildflowers. The restaurant is multi level with white table clothes with brown butcher paper on top and wild flowers and herbs on the table. This is the best atmosphere that I have seen at a new restaurant in a long time. I was hoping the food would be great and I would want to make this one of my favorites. The best descriptive words I could come up with are quaint and charming.

I must say, the hostess at the front door was a little snooty for my taste. She asked if we had a reservation and then looked a little put out that we didn't. It was not a problem because when we were there from 7 - 9, only about a third of the tables were full.

The concept of this restaurant is that their dishes are prepared with fresh seasonal local ingredients. My understanding is that the menu changes regularly. My thoughts on the food are that the chef worked so hard on trying to incorporate the local fare that the taste was lost in the translation. The presentation was very beautiful, if only the food had matched up with the looks.

For an appetizer, I had the corn soup. It was good, but needed a little more salt for my taste. It had an interesting texture because it was pureed and strained. I wanted to try a salad, but they were a little "funky" for my taste. I would love to see a lettuce wedge or a basic salad for those that don't want to go too far from the norm. For my entree, I had the glazed pork shank. It was served on top of black eyed peas and creamer peas with a little bit of fried okra. While the pork was so tender that you could cut it with a fork, it was very bland. It was supposed to have a stone ground mustard sauce, but I did not see or taste any sauce. It got the punch it needed when I dipped in it some ketchup.

Pops had the Chef's Choice Steak served with Herbed French Fries and Sicilian Candy. What is Sicilian Candy? Roasted garlic to spread all over your meat. The steak was a sirloin and it was pretty tough with a pretty good size piece if gristle. Although it tasted like it was cooked over charcoal, it had very little, if any seasoning. The french fries - some of the best I have ever eaten. They were delicious!!! That is where the ketchup for my pork came in.

The dessert was great. We split Maw Maw's Bread Pudding. No raisins or pecans, just a bunch of rich goodness. When you are given the check, you are also served some wonderful tiny sugar cookies with cajeta filling and dusted with powdered sugar.

As I said, I Loved Loved Loved the atmosphere. With a little tweaking, I think it could be a great restaurant with a long history in Ft. Worth. I would love to see some of the dishes that are frequently at other upscale home cooking places. Great mashed potatoes, shrimp and grits, gourmet meatloaf, etc. The bread was good, but nothing special. I would love to see a bread basket with a variety of homemade breads.

As I said, I will definitly go back and give it another shot and hopefully it will turn into one of our favorites.