Being cognizant of our dining out expenditures lately, Elise and I treated ourselves on Friday night and had dinner at El Arroyo. Well, when you’re friends with the new general manager, I guess we didn’t really treat ourselves…
Elise had barbecue chicken tacos, I had a chicken fajita Caesar salad and we had three top shelf margaritas between the two of us. The best part of the meal was when Bill told us that there will be an opening for the Catering Manager position in the coming weeks. Elise and I are both really excited about that. Hopefully Elise will be able to get that job.
We went home after dinner and watched Detroit Rock City and Spinal Tap (one lead to the other).
We woke up early on Saturday. I took the top down on the Jeep, we drove downtown and perused the Austin Farmers’ Market. We didn’t buy anything, we just looked. All of the vegetables and flowers that were being sold looked nice though.
After a few planning setbacks, Tommy and Shannon came over and we all hopped in the Jeep and went to Lake Travis. We rented a ski boat for three hours. We didn’t do any skiing, but I did jump a wake that caused the boat to come crashing down into the water, almost giving my wife a concussion and a sprained ankle. That wasn’t very fun. Well, it was, up until the point at which Elise was hurt. Luckily Elise shook off her pain and we drove around the lake and stopped for an hour or so to swim.
On our way back to the marina, another boat waved us down. Two guys had run out of gas in the middle of the lake. They spoke of wonderful gifts in prizes we would receive in return for towing them. We towed them to the nearest marina. No gifts or prizes, just an “Oh, we left our wallets in the truck.” I gave them my business card and claimed that “If I do not receive a large cash sum from you within ten days, next time I will ransack your vessel and seize all your treasures. Aaaaaargh!”
I didn’t say anything to them. I decided to leave it up to Karma.
Having been worn out by the sun and since Elise’s husband-inflicted-ankle-sprain didn’t allow her to walk, we decided to go home and take it easy instead of going to Tommy’s to watch the Lewis vs. Klitschko fight. We didn’t feel like cooking so I ordered a large Downtown favorite from Austin’s Pizza. Man, that’s some good pizza. Man, that’s some good pizza. Is there an echo here? No, I just thought I’d say that twice.
Elise and I went to the grocery store on Sunday. We spent a lot of money and our refrigerator still looks empty.
We went over to Bill and Andrea’s for dinner. I made chicken fajitas, marinated with the Penzey’s fajita seasoning that Joanne gave me. The fajitas turned out really good. I’m always a little hesitant about using “seasoning”. I used to have a real problem with the stuff back in the 80’s. I had a pretty bad usage issue. It’s an addiction. Before you know it, your hiding from your loved ones, sprinkling seasoning on all sorts of foods. Taco Seasoning, Steak Seasoning, Poultry Seasoning, Seafood Seasoning, Italian Seasoning. This list goes on and on. I used to blare Duran Duran’s Hungry Like the Wolf at all hours of the night on my Hi-Fi, just seasoning. It was the song that brought me and my seasoning to a spiritual plateau. My parents stepped in and there was an intervention. I spent days in a detoxification facility and had to take seasoning methadone for weeks just to curb the hunger. It was a long, bumpy road. I made it though. I’m fine now. I can season fajitas responsibly now. Just a dab. No need to go all out. I know when to stop. I’m strong. I’m hungry.
I also made a chipotle salsa that’s pretty wicked. Elise and I really like chipotles. Elise made some guacamole that tasted really good – even after having just been made. I’ll bet it’ll taste even better today after the flavors have had time to marry. Same with the salsa.