Mirror post from xanga: Can we all just act our age?

I like what I wrote back in February, so I thought I should place it here too:
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Now I am the last person who 'acts his age' at all times, but seriously; we are all growing up; maturing; finding ourselves in situations and with people we've never met before; but for some reason, many of us just can't act our age in tough situations.

A prime example of how to do it right came up last saturday as can be read here. Our actions in that situation could have been much, much different, but we decided to take appropriate action and not cause a scene.

That's on a slightly larger scale than what I'm talking about though.

Why is it that we cannot seem to just be able to give the respect and love that is most definitely deserved to our friends? If something brings joy to your life, tell me; if you desire or like something, tell me; if something brings sadness or distress in your life, tell me; if something makes you uncomfortable or concerned, tell me.

If that something is me, DEFINITELY tell me. (this is not in reference to anything particular going on right now, just something I've thought about before)

However big or small it is, if it's important to you, it's important to me, it's important to your friends.

Why is it that the appropriate action seems more often than not, to shy away and avoid all the things that just a few words could resolve? I understand this can be a difficult task to accomplish, but we cannot just avoid everything that is difficult in our lives. Besides, the potential rewards are just huge - relationships get stronger, people start to understand one another better, and not to mention, you tend to feel better not bottling everything up inside.
I like to believe that everyone has the time to care. Priorities may dictate the amount of face-time someone has to devote to you, but it doesn't mean they don't care. Don't ever believe you're alone, you are not alone.

Sure, bring it all out on the table and it could go the other way, but if we could all just act our age, maybe it wouldn't have to.

Let's give each other the respect we deserve.

Let's share in our joys and pains and try to cultivate relationships that will provide us with something greater...

Houston is Great, and you all should know it

This little Houston Chronicle article irks me, not the article itself, but what it says about Houston.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/sixel/5634211.html

This especially gets to me because I've been spending the time and effort to really get to know this 'little' city of ours and I gotta say, it's a spectacular city!
Unfortunately, if you sit on your butt and watch TV all day at home, ANY city is going to suck. It's a matter of accessibility and sprawl. You lose playing that game in Houston, but if you're willing to take the horse by the reins and find the things you're interested in, you'll find that Houston has EVERYTHING.

The food and the people are the things that are most commented on in this city, but there's so much more from great local bars/pubs that make you feel at home, to wonderful indie live music venues that bring in really great local talent (it's true, if you don't believe me, call me, I'll take you), to wonderfully intimate live venues like the Verizon theatre that make you feel like it's just you and the performer.We have a bustling theatre district with some of the most amazing performances that you would never have guessed would even sneeze in Houston, but here they are nonetheless, and you wonder, how did that happen?

Don't forget the cool museums, both large AND small (some of those small ones are really really amazing, like the Holocaust Museum)

And if you like sports, shoot, choose a professional sport, and we have a beautiful stadium for you to enjoy them in!

I'll tell you! Houston's a great city that noone seems to know! Not only can you find what you want, but you can find it in multiple locations to suit your own needs!

I hate that I keep hearing people say that Houston sucks. Houston does not suck. You just have to go out and discover it, be adventurous, and don't be afraid to say 'hello' to the person next to you, you never know what kinds of wonderful tidbits they can give you about this great city. I seem to find a little bit of unique Houston every time I go out!

If you want to know just SOME of the things going on around town for the spring and summer, check out the downtown spring and summer events guide (bet you never knew some of those things even existed in this city)

http://www.houstondowntown.com/Home/LowerLeft/EventGuide/EventGuide/fullsize.JPG

OH, and if you're free April 6th or 20th, come join me and some friends at the 2008 Japanfest and Crawfish Festival (respectively)!!

Mint Chocolate Chip Icecream Cookies!

So I spent the night working on those mint chocolate chip icecream cookie idea and ya know, it didn't go too badly!


I messed up the oven temperature a bit on this first batch, which is why the cookies are flat and they stuck together, but the next batch came out well (pictures to be added tomorrow)!!

I had some leftover oatmeal cranberry cookie dough left, so that's what that is in the background. ;)

In any case, although I didn't add the green food coloring this time, they taste amazingly similar to the icecream - just like I wanted! Crazy I got this close the first time around!

Pico Saltwater Tank!!

So not too long ago, I suckered my brother into the whole world of saltwater reef tanks. Got him into a 10 gallon nano tank that's actually doing very well. Unfortunately, he got WAY into it, hasn't looked back and I kept pointing out how he got suckered... =P

Lo and behold, for my birthday, he got me a 3 gallon pico tank and brought everything I would need to get the tank going. doh.

The water's a little low on the salt content, but I'll fix that soon here. Otherwise, it's actually a pretty cool little setup and I'm looking forward to getting some real coral in there!

It Can't Totally Suck

Sometimes the best decision you can make in a given situation is the one you make that can pass the "it can't totally suck" test.

Think about the situation at hand and if you can logically determine that it can't totally suck, then why not? Go for it

New Places to check out

So I watched the game last night at Farrago's with a private party of sorts and spoke with a guy, Sam, about some cool eateries with some History around here.
Top four spots I got out of the convo:

Thelma's BBQ
Etta's Lounge
The Mink
Leon's Lounge

Thelma's is one of those 'out of a house' places that's apparently quite famous! Sam regailed me with his recent experience of a Rudy's catered event in Austin and said that Thelma's is not quite as good (and you don't even get any 'extra moist' at catered events), but!, considering I judge ALL briskets by the benchmark that is Rudy's, I'm not surprised and would still give Thelma's a shot. That said, Roy Burns BBQ is another 'out of a house' joint that I need to check out.

Etta's is supposed to be yet another 'out of a house' hole in the wall where mama Etta cooks down home soul food at the greatest of ease! The moment Sam said that mama Etta was there, I knew immediately that I had to be there too! He said you are completely slammed with Christian paraphenalia as you walk in the door and everything's just run down enough - true Southern living here - and I can't tell you how much that would say about the food in my mind!

Apparently, the Mink offers 10 dollar bottles of wine on Tuesdays! Pretty good selection too from what I've been told. Pretty laid back joint with mods/hipsters/scenesters/nerds/geeks/professionals, etc, supposedly a good mix and cheap wine. At least worth a look and only a few steps away from Tacos a Go Go if it doesn't look good ;)

Leon's Lounge is supposed to rival La Carafe as the oldest bar in town and just as Warren's, is supposed to be chalk full of locals, run for and by the locals for years and years. A true dive bar in midtown where you can go and have a good conversation and drink...

Tony Mandola's Gulf Coast Kitchen and birthday

So little known to most of the world, but it was actually my birthday today. Thanks Rockets for a freakin awesome 22 STRAIGHT =) nice present for sure.

So we made reservations at Tony Mandola's Gulf Coast Kitchen out in the River Oaks area. I generally do a really low key family dinner on my bday and this was no different.

I had the special of the day with fresh whole flounder stuffed with pico de gallo and muenster cheese with a nicely prepared broccoli rabe and cajun rice. We also had some fresh snapper and ciopino at the table as well.

I have to say, Salvalda, our waitress was absolutely a hoot and took very good care of us. Service was excellent and I would recommend the place on that alone.

The flounder was very good, although the flavor of the meat wasn't quite as rich as I'm used to for Gulf Coast flounder. I'm not quite sure why that is. I could have used a bit more muenster, but that might be because the fish wasn't quite rich enough. The rabe was excellent, and I will most definitely be using that more often in my own cooking! (yeah, I know, I seem to be more excited about the side dish rather than the main course... )

I wouldn't order the Ciopino. Although the seafood in it was very good, the soup itself was overly sweet for some reason and I wouldn't be able to eat a full bowl of the stuff.

We of course had dessert - Banana Key Lime pie, Warm Bread Pudding with rum sauce, and an off the menu dessert that had mounds of coffee icecream between two large puff pastries and loads of chocolate poured over the whole thing (sorry, i don't remember the name).

I especially enjoyed the bread pudding as I am a big fan of the stuff. Always like to see the golden raisins and the white rum sauce was quite good.

The coffee icecream seemed a bit run of the mill though and that just didn't do too much for me in the whole scheme of that particular dessert.

The banana key lime pie really worked pretty well together, but I think I like that key lime pie is supposed to have a little bit of a pucker factor, and the banana just took all of that away, so maybe I was just thrown off a bit.

All said, again, service was absolutely top notch and fun, so I would go just for that. The food was good, but not quite as good as the 30-40 per person that we paid. I would stick with some of the more reasonably priced items and try to get out of there around 20-30 per person and it would be about right.