Tamales and Beer

A wonderful thing happened this past weekend.  Okay, a couple of wonderful things...

First off, it was the birthday of a very special friend who flew down here to Houston for her birthday.  Had a great time.

On Sunday, the two of us participated in the other wonderful thing... the first Texas Tamale Festival.  This was indeed a good thing.

After a couple of rather chilly, rainy days the sun was shining brightly and the temps hit the upper seventies.  Not a cloud in the sky and a wonderful Texas blues band was playing.  I have always loved the hard driving blues that comes from this neck of the woods.  Just think ZZ Top...

Anyway, the festival was held at the No Label Brewery and I have to say that the beer was really good.  I had the bock (the name escapes me) and my lady had the Ridgeback Ale which we both agreed was the better tasting of the two.  I am not saying that the bock was bad, I am saying that the Ridgeback Ale was THAT good and at $3 a pint, it was a great deal.

Speaking of great, the tamales were really good.  It was all you can eat for $10 and they served beef, chicken, pork, black bean, and a spinach tamale.  All of them were very tasty and provided by a company called Texas Tamale Company.  I have to say that I was really impressed.  There is just something about tamales and beer.  The only thing missing was some Illinois Chilli (not a fan of the Texas Chili...)

To top off the afternoon of music, beer, and tamales was the obligatory tamale eating contest.  First one through two dozen tamales was the winner.  It did not take long for a large man in a beige shirt to win.  He beat out a man holding a Danish flag by half a tamale.  Afterwards, the Dane did not look very good and everyone cleared a path for him as he made his way to the porta-potties.

Little Mr. Cranky Pants

It is just desserts, you know... but I am still not happy.

I have spent the last two years extolling the benefits of living this far south to those friends and family members that live up there in the hinterlands.  I have literally called my dear, sweet, seventy year old mother in January while she is suffering through two feet of snow and temperatures in the single digits.  I have called her to tell her that I may need her to send me an "emergency sweater" because it might get down to 50 here.  I chortled heartily as she used language that I never imagined her using in conversation.

Well, this week it got down below freezing here in Houston.  Yep, below 32 degrees...and it is only mid-November.  I thought I left behind all of this nonsense, but here it is.  I now have to bundle up and occasionally blow into my hands.  The furnace is on and the comforter is on the bed.  Yuck.

But all in all, I still say that I have the better end of the stick.  You see while I am experiencing this bit of a cold snap right now, it will be back up to the mid-seventies by the end of the week when I have a special friend coming down to visit.  My folks and friends up north will still be stuck in this until April.

Can't wait to call them...

A trip to the moving picture show

Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24

I have always been a bit of a movie buff.  I remember sitting with my father and watching old Laurel and Hardy, Bowery Boys, and Abbot & Costello movies via KPLR TV (St. Louis) on Saturday afternoons.  I would listen to him tell me about some of the stars and co-stars from these flicks and what other movies they were in... so needless to say, I have had a love and knowledge for movies drilled into my noggin'.  I have always tried to see at least one movie a month at the cinema.

One benefit of living in a city as large as Houston is the absolute breadth of theater choices we have.  There is everything from the shiny Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24 (what a name) complete with restaurant attached (Harlow's), to the great megaplex AMC 30 on Dunvale, to the quaint and intimate 14 Pews which literally has 14 pews for seating.

My kid's favorite is the AMC megaplex because the ticket booth is outside in the courtyard, although they do love the muli-storied theater at Edwards Greenway.  They loved taking the escalator up to the theater.  I might also add (for all of you adults out there) that there is bar service at the Dunvale location.  Staying in the alcohol vein, 14 Pews regularly serves free beer (donated from St. Arnold's Brewery) to it's patrons.  I am not sure what all of this alcohol service has to do with going to the movies, but who am I to argue with having a drink before a show.  They have been doing that at live theater events for decades.

I also hear tell of a theater that serves dinner while watching... may have to check that one out.

Cheers!

Doing nothing...

It was bound to happen, you know.  Before long I had to come to this point...

I did not do a blessed thing this weekend.  Nope, I sat on my backside for most of the weekend and watched the ole' idiot box.  Forgoing all possibilities and obligations (such as a much needed cleaning of my bathrooms), I stared at a television and a computer screen.  I think that sometime Sunday evening, I actually started to grunt monosyllabic sounds while stuffing a frozen Snickers bar down my gullet.  Yeah, it got pretty bad there.

Now wait a minute... that is not necessarily true.  On Saturday night, I attended a wonderful gathering with some good people for a couple of hours.  The gathering had a New Orleans theme so I made some pralines for the occasion.

Yes, let's stay with this topic.  Because it occurs to me that our little get together happened on November first and we dined outside.  Yup. Outside.

The web guy dining al fresco in November

Now let's think about that for a moment... for those of us that were born and bred north of the city of Dallas, the very notion that you could relax outdoors on November 1st without the aid of a jacket or bonfire is a bit out of the ordinary.   I informed my family out there in the hinterland about my al fresco dining experience and discovered that my mother can have quite the potty mouth on her.  They woke up to freezing temperatures on Sunday morning.

We are entering the time of year that makes Houston a fantastic place to live.  While everyone else is starting to bundle up and there was even snow in Boston this weekend, I am sitting outside eating a wonderful dinner with some friends.

So, yes... I did do something this weekend.  There, I feel much better about myself.  Now I just have to come up with something that justifies wiping out an entire box of frozen Snickers while watching Netflix...