Paw Pals: My Babies

My lovely babies. They all are so bad and so sweet at the same time. Tino and Alfie are the cuddle bugs while neo and stewie like sleeping by themselves. It's literally a zoo at my house these days. Too much stuff. Not enough time to do the daily chores. And when i do have time, i just find myself sitting motionless while watching criminal minds. I seriously can not get enough of that show! I watched this one episode for the third or fourth time and still found myself tearing up just a little bit. My laptop at home is on the fritz. I've been allocating some time each night to begin the transfer of all things valuable into my (un)trusty little external hard drive. I hope i don't lose any FOTOS. If that happens, prepare for a great depression.

Restaurant: Jerry Built Burgers

Jerry Built Burgers is a new and REALLY COOL burger place not too far from the med center. They source whatever ingredients they can from local farmers and vendors and use organic products when possible. The bun is the best part of the burger. The meats ... well ... they're not all that wow. They also cut their own crinkle fries, prolly one of my least desirable cuts of pomme frites. Sometimes, no matter how mediocre the food is and even over-priced, you come back cos the place looks so neat. They've got one of those state of the art hand washers that i think are installed in some rudy's. And a super cool freestyle coca-cola dispenser to either drink your typical sodas or BLEND YOUR OWN. I didn't try it cos i don't drink soda but i stood and watched kids (and some adults!)have at it. It almost seems unthinkable paying so much for the food but when it comes down to it, that's the price one must pay for a fancy soda machine and eating responsibly. And can you say blue bell ice cream milkshakes! No i didn't try that either. But i really wanna. I might go back just to get a shake. At each table is a condiment caddy that has hot sauce AND sriracha. They have a TON of employees and there are people who collect your trash for you. They sort through it and recycle and compost what they can. So RESPONSIBLE i can't stand. Speaking of compost. I was supposed to start my own like a YEAR ago.

Trippin': Cairns - Daintree River Cruise

The Daintree River Cruise was a boat ride down a river with areas that had both saltwater and freshwater. The main goal was to see some crocs! The probability of it was low though because the water temp was warmer than the air temp. Why so cold cairns?!? Our skipper was pretty amazing. You could tell he was a master of these waters and the animals that call it home. He could spot little lizards and baby crocs from at least thirty feet away. And even after he did his best to show us what to look, it took me a couple of minutes to finally search out what he was trying to describe. Incredible guy. We did manage to see a good size croc that was mostly hiding in the water. The captain was telling us how deceiving the size of the croc is when the head's slightly out of the water with most of it's body in the water. It's a lot longer and bigger than you think. I think that deep down a little part of me wished for some dramatics such as a croc swimming wildly towards the boat and taking a lunge. It didn't happen and i have no exciting stories to tell. But i know how freaked out and terrified i would be if i accidently fell into the water. I would not be able to keep cool and just start thrashing around and screaming bloody murder. The one thing that clearly sticks out in my memory is how the captain was watching us intently for a minute or so. Creepy? No. He was just caught off guard by our 'american' accents. Or rather, our lack of an asian/fob accent. That city has so many asian tourists from neighboring countries so he's used to broken english or no english at all. Let's just say that i remember tour guides giving examples of what not to do, by using an example of a non-english speaking tourist, more than once.

Musik Mundi: Loew's

Alyssa Bonagura - I Make My Own Sunshine
Gin Wigmore - Don't Stop
April Smith - Colors


Whoever is in charge of selecting the music for these new slew of loew's commercials should be commended and given a raise! I watch a lot of telly but usually i'm only partially paying attention to whatever it is i'm watching since i'm prolly eating and reading at the same time or doing art and crafts. And i mos def don't usually watch the commercials. But every time the loew's commercials come on, i look up from what i'm doing and watch the commercial cos i really like the music and the commercial itself is also kinda entertaining to watch. I watched the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi Friday evening. It was really good. It's crazy to think that a restaurant that serves only sushi could be a 3 star michelin restaurant. I guess it all depends on whether or not you have the palate. Some people come out and are inspired to eat the unique types of fish showcased in the film. Or you could be like me and feel a little nauseous because it was just way too much raw fish for me. I don't think i would want to get to that point. In the end, the doc is more than just about sushi. It's about the dedication and sacrifices involved to become a master sushi chef, and that perfection is not attainable. There's always something new you can learn to better your craft. I think my favorite part of the doc was when his youngest son went off to open his own sushi restaurant, he told his son that he better succeed because he has no home to return to. It's tough love but his reasoning is that parents our day in age tend to baby our kids and tell them they can always come home if they don't succeed, thus breeding failure. Failure is not an option. You must do whatever it takes to succeed. There is no gray area with Jiro. He is very matter-of-fact with every though he has. This man has dedicated his entire life to his craft. For a better review of the movie you can google it or read it here. What else did i do this weekend? I slept for nearly eleven hours. Jealous? And i got the most painful reflexology massage at the place next to teahouse on bellaire called "PAIN RELIEF CENTER". OMG it hurt so bad. I'm never going there again. I thot it was just me but when i mouthed the words 'it hurts' to big poppa, he drew a line from his eye down his cheek with his finger. As in he had TEARS it was so painful! Haha. I just burst out laughing. So yeah. Don't go there. Man, i use splenda in my coffee every morning and today i decided to try that pure via stuff. GROSS! It made my coffee taste awful. Co-worker friend agreed. And i used up all my lactaid milk so i'm stuck with it.