Getting Caught Up

Well, it certainly has been a while. Our camera was broken, or rather, my computer was broken, so we couldn't upload the photos from the camera. In either case, I simply cannot blog without photos. And so, a hiatus happened.

But much has happened since the last time we spoke! Are you ready for a photo-dump? Because it's going to be epic. Here we go.

Firstly, we got a pet cat!!

Her name is Qorra. She's 7 months old, she used to be a stray, and she is VERY playful.

She's also extremely intelligent, which is good, but also difficult. We have to keep her occupied and challenged all the time, otherwise she starts to get bored and antsy. But it's also fun to watch her figure out the many puzzles we give her to play with.

We went rock climbing with Rasika in Austin!

I also got an Xbox360!

And then, of course, there's the food. Last month's cover story in Bon Appetit magazine was about fried chicken. We followed the instructions to the letter, and it was probably the best fried chicken I've ever eaten.

I made Brandon a Valentine's themed bento.

My dad gave Brandon and I bottle of champagne as a gift, so we got some brie to go with it and had a fancy snack for dinner.

We got some ahi tuna and made shish kebobs!

I learned how to poach an egg!

Veggie burgers from scratch!

Miniature frittatas for breakfast!

Snacks for our Game of Thrones parties with friends!

And that's it for food! Here, have one more picture of Qorra, for good measure. She's relaxing in Brandon's lap. ^_^

Now that we've solved the problem with the camera, I should be able to blog more regularly from now on. Now I just gotta remember to take pictures...

Lots of love!

Val Came to Visit!

Sometimes you just need some girl time. Val needed to get some fresh air, and apparently there's none better than the air your best friend is breathing. So she came to San Antonio, and we did the rounds:

The Cove.

The Alamo.

Cacti behind the Alamo.

The Riverwalk.

An interesting photo opportunity on the Riverwalk.

 

Girl's night in, with snacks and an episode of Star Trek: TNG!

Lounging around on the couch!

Chocolate chip & banana pancakes, and pepper-bacon!

Pizza at Home Slice in Austin!

Meandering around downtown Austin!

Looking pensive!

Much-needed girl time: success. ^_^

Home Slice Pizza

After our hike in the dry riverbed, we were STARVING. We went to South Congress Avenue in Austin and decided to finally, finally try Home Slice Pizza.

Every time we go to Austin, Home Slice Pizza has at LEAST an hour wait. This time, we decided it was worth it. We put our names in, then sat on their back patio and had a drink. 45 minutes later, we had our table.

 

Those are some hungry people.

Appetizers!

For our appetizers, we had their garlic knots, which come with house-made tomato sauce for dipping, and a walnut, pear, and gorgonzola salad with a very subtle vinaigrette; I'm forgetting what it had in it. Sorry guys. 

Then there was the pizza. We got a margherita pizza, which was phenomenal. They DID NOT skimp on the garlic. This pizza was drenched in garlic. The basil and tomatoes were fresh and bright, the cheese was melted to perfection.

I haven't had pizza this good in a very long time.

Brandon got a calzone. It had spinach and ricotta cheese inside, and more marinara sauce for dipping. Normally, ricotta is an expensive cheese and restaurants use it sparingly. This calzone was stuffed to capacity with perfectly melted ricotta.

They clearly made their dough in-house. It was fresh, warm, doughy... And the marinara sauce was clearly just roma tomatoes blended to oblivion, with a lovely blend of herbs thrown in. Again, fresh, bright flavor.

The crowd at Home Slice is definitely very hipster. People hang out on the back patio drinking beer and playing ping-pong. Most of the staff are covered in tattoos. But a lot of these hipsters are parents now, so there were a lot of kids there. We noticed that at tables that had children, the waiter brought some pizza dough for the child to play with. I felt it was somewhat of a waste of food, but every child there was thrilled (and well-behaved), so I suppose it was worth it.

If you're ever in Austin, just know that Home Slice is worth the wait.

Adventures with Melissa!

Brandon's parents left, but now we have Brandon's sister! She is crashing on our couch, and we are having a great many adventures.

Over the weekend, we went to Austin and did some hiking. First hiking trail was short, and the only major focal point was a tiny cave, surrounded by a rock wall to keep people from falling in. So naturally, we hopped the wall to check out the cave.

Siblings on the rock wall.

It was less of a cave and more of a tiny hole in the ground.

Up-close pictures made it look more cave-like.

Oh yeah, I was there too!

It was so hot out. So, for our second hike we decided on a trail that supposedly lead to a lovely little swimming hole under a tiny waterfall. We soon found out that "the dry season" means just that. 

This is the riverbed. We are standing in it.

So we walked along the riverbed for a while!

...Until we came to the famed waterfall and swimming hole.

We sat in the shade for a bit,

Melissa saw her first Texas lizard!

And then, naturally, we decided to climb the waterfall.

And chill out on the rocks.

After regaining my energy, I got in on the action too!

Upstream, Brandon found a plaque in what would be the middle of the river.

The rock formations were really pretty. Everything was very smooth.

We climbed around for a bit,

Cooled off,

And hung out. 

 After a while, we had our fill, and went back to Austin for a bite to eat...

TO BE CONTINUED!