Football Watching Sunday

Our little Scrooge

Someone doesn't look too excited about Christmas, does she?

Thanksgiving

Here are some Thanksgiving pics! My parents came down and we had a lot of fun...

Andrew running the Turkey Trot:

The table:

Rainy Monday

I wish I could get to the video camera without waking her so you could hear the snoring too, but here's what I'm sitting next to this morning- does she know how to take advantage of a rainy Monday or what?

Look what just fell in our backyard!

Our conversation this morning

Andrew: I had one of the pumpkin muffins for breakfast.

Jenny: We don't have any muffins. We have cupcakes.

Andrew: I had cake for breakfast?

Jenny: Sounds like it.

Andrew: Well, it was good.

Video

I'm slowly teaching myself how to edit video. Here are two that I did this weekend!

A Dog's Life from derecha70 on Vimeo.

Paris in two minutes... from derecha70 on Vimeo.

Bulletin

AUSTIN, TX—Chuy, a 1-year-old short-legged terrier, gallantly defended the Ice household from a brief, high-pitched squeak Thursday night. According to safe and sound sources, the 14-pound canine launched from the living room couch upon hearing the peep and darted through the house multiple times in an effort to drive away the intruding sound. During her sweep of the premises, Chuy barked continuously and made brief stops in the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom, and the kitchen again, bravely putting herself between her family and the millisecond-long chirp. "Easy, girl," Jenny Ice, 29, said. "Easy." As of press time, Chuy is standing at the ready in preparation for the squeak's return.

She figured out the first one

The first "interactive" dog toy we bought Chuy (the Waggle) she figured out. So I had to step it up a little and make it harder...

This one is pretty tough. She's had it all week and just now figured out how to get the cookies out of it, although she's cheating. She has learned if she drops it down the stairs, cookies usually fall out along the way!

Muddy Dog

I took Chuy to a Dallas dog park a few days ago. Boy did she have fun!

Agility First Step

I'm at home with my parents for the 4th of July and today my Dad helped me make a dog jump for Chuy. Andrew is bringing her up in a few days, so I'm excited to try it out! If she likes it, I think weave poles are next...

Dad Days

This weekend, it worked out that we had two days that represented our two dads very well. It wasn’t planned, but it turned out to be a good Father’s Day tribute!

Ice Tribute Day

Saturday morning Andrew pumped up the bikes and attached the converted bike trailer that holds little Chuy. Our first ride with it was full of stops and starts as we worked out the best method to keep her safely inside the trailer, but we’ve got a good method going now. Chuy is not a big fan of car rides, but she enjoys the bike rides! The only thing she doesn’t appreciate is when she sees a squirrel run across the road and can’t take off after it.

I had a little mishap turning a corner and ended up with my tire sandwiched between a tree and a fence with my momentum going perpendicular to my tire. Don’t ask, but we got to take a trip to the conveniently downtown-located bike shop owned by Lance Armstrong for a quick fix. I’m sure Tim Ice would have welcomed the detour!

After some fast work by Mellow Johnny’s staff we headed down first to Barking Springs, a great little area in Zilker Park with nice cool water and some great swimming for us and the pupster. Rain was threatening a little at the beginning but the sun soon came out. Andrew got to see Chuy’s latest trick- leaping into the water after her Frisbee! She is not yet a confident jumper- she will find one spot she knows she can jump from and always leap from there, no matter what direction we throw the Frisbee.

Since the weather had cleared up, we rode over to the other side of the stream so that we could rent a canoe. We weren’t sure what Chuy’s reaction was going to be, but we thought she’d enjoy it. Turns out she enjoyed it a little too much.

I was in the front and Andrew was in the back of the canoe, steering. Chuy was having a lot of fun running back and forth between us and up to the front of the canoe where she liked to put her front paws up and check out where we were going. She made rowing pretty difficult- the oars made a little bit of white water every time we put them in the water. White water is one of Chuy’s favorite things and she tries to bite it. She was whimpering with excitement and after about 10 minutes it apparently got to be too much for Chuy. She jumped into the water to go after it! I was looking forward, so all I heard was the splash. We immediately but the “brakes” on, she caught up and Andrew picked her up out of the water and back into the boat. Only a few minutes later, she did it again! Both times she seemed inordinately pleased with herself.

After that, I held our little jumper while Andrew paddled all the way back by himself…

After a short picnic lunch we took a quick side trip to the Austin Farmers’ Market and then back home. That night we went to a great restaurant called Ronnie’s Real Food and immediately decided that the next time the Ice’s are in town we should take them there.

Balaze Tribute Day

Sunday dawned and I visited a new church- one of the first ones I have actually liked in Austin. Then Andrew and I met a fun family at a hamburger place my dad really liked last time he was here. We both got ice tea in honor of my dad.

After that we headed to the golf course! Andrew and I would both like to know how to work our way through the golf course without too many mulligans. We got a bucket of balls and headed to the driving range. Last time I was in Dallas I went out with my dad and he gave me some pointers. I passed them on to Andrew. We both had some whiffs, some real stinkers and a few good shots. Hopefully with some more practice we’ll get better!

Finally, Andrew made dinner Sunday night. Since my dad cooks half the time at home, this was very appropriate. Andrew made a chicken rice pilaf out of one of our favorite cookbooks. It was really good!

All in all, a very good weekend!

Anniversary #1 (Part Two)

Although our camping trip was fun, I wouldn’t say it felt very “anniversary” like. Luckily for us, we got the opportunity to do it up right! The night we got home from our camping excursion we made dinner and ate on our fancy plates- we now have 7 place settings, thanks to my parents anniversary gift of another set. One more at some point and I’ll be all set!

So the next weekend, Andrew and I went to the Driskill Grill, which is one of, if not the, fanciest restaurants in Austin. His parents had gotten us a gift certificate there, and so we spent the three days before planning our strategy- did we want to do the three course set meal? The five course set meal? Or order a la carte?

We ended up ordering a la carte. The set menus did not have lamb chops as an option, and lamb chops are always Andrew’s first choice (mine would be chicken fingers, but it’s not that type of place).

The whole room was very traditional- close to what I think of for an established NY steak house- dark wood, dark carpeting, lots of dividers to make sure you hear buzz, but not overhear what other people are saying. When we sat down we had a very traditional looking charger- lots of gold scrolls. However, as soon as they took it away, we all the plates were super modern. It was an interesting contrast.

We love a show on Bravo called Top Chef. It turns out it’s a good thing, or we wouldn’t have known what was going on. When we sat down we were served an amuse bouche, which is a word neither one of us knew a year ago. I got a salmon tartare and Andrew got a baby brushetta. We quickly switched as soon as the waitress left. Andrew really liked his and mine was excellent- perfect tomatoes!

As a first course, we ordered the chef’s sampler. It came with three bite sized items for each of us: smoked duck, lamb with mint, and a fish dish. It was also very good, but at this point we had only eaten small bites and so as soon as you decided if you liked it, the food was gone! Then they brought us bread. I can eat as much bread as you put in front of me so I tried to be very careful not to fill up too soon. The sourdough was amazing though! I ate the first piece quickly, and then started rationing the second so that I wouldn’t fill up.

For the second course, Andrew had a Caesar salad “rebuilt” and I ordered the mushroom baklava. Andrew approved of the salad- it actually had anchovies in it, which so many don’t now, although the presentation felt a little contrived (everything came stacked in two towers with cucumbers wrapped around it). The most interested part was this little fried ball that when you broke it open the dressing came out.

I had the mushroom baklava. I wasn’t expecting it to be sweet, I thought it would be thin layers of pastry with mushrooms in it, but it had sweetness as well. It was really good, but unexpected!

For the main course Andrew ordered scallops and I ordered the lamb chops. The scallops were good, but the lamb chops were amazing! At this point I had gotten full (as much as I had tried to hold off on the bread, it caught up with me) so Andrew got about half of my lamb chops.

I had been hoping to make it to dessert, but I was too full already so we headed back home to sleep off our full tummies!

Anniversary #1

We had a lot of discussion about what to do for our first anniversary. Originally I thought we should go to a bed and breakfast in the hill country around Austin. However as I started looking around I realized most of them had a 3 night minimum over Memorial Day (our anniversary was that Saturday). With the dog and a lot of upcoming travel for both of us, we weren't quite up to 3 nights away.

I finally settled on camping at Inks Lake State Park. We had a ton of fun over the winter camping at Enchanted Rock, and Chuy could come along. She has turned into quite the water dog, so I thought a lake would be a lot of fun. So I made reservations for two nights and a canoe trip.

Andrew really likes to get up early once he's up, but he doesn't like the idea the night before or before he gets out of bed. There was some negotiations on the departure time, but compromised with 7 am. We got out there by 8:30 am and waited in a (long) line to get a campsite. We got a great one that was still occupied but they would be out by 2 pm. We decided to go on a walk and check out the area.

We headed to Devil's Cove. It was a pretty fun swimming hole. Chuy had a blast playing in the water and followed me across to the other side when I went over. She played over there with a nice lab who was there with his family for a while. We swam back across (I slipped and fell in trying to get back in gracefully and she loyally jumped in after me) and had lunch. We explored a little more and then headed to set up our campsite.

After set up we explored the rest of the state park and marveled at all the extravagant RV set ups in the campsites with electricity. Dinner was a bit of a bust- we had some trouble getting the fire going, my foil chicken dinners were pretty unexciting, and the jiffy pop wouldn't pop. Thank goodness s'mores are pretty full proof!

That night was awful. I think Chuy was hot and never really got settled. She was up all night, and barking about every 45 minutes at something. We didn't sleep much. As our anniversary dawned, I got up early and took Chuy outside to get breakfast going and try to let Andrew get a little bit of uninterrupted sleep. We were all pretty tired, but had decided to head over to recreation area on the Colorado River.

It took us a long time to find it, and when we got there it was pretty disappointing. The river is dammed there to make Lake Travis. Lake Travis is at 40% capacity, so we had a lunch on what used to be the lake bed and let Chuy play in the water for a while. We drove around the park, but it was pretty depressing so we headed back. The sun had been hidden by clouds most of the day, but as we pulled up it came out. We had some fun lake shore time (Chuy had a blast chasing the waves created by boat wakes). We weren't looking forward to the idea of another night with a barking dog and a storm looked like it was about to roll in, so we packed up and got outta dodge! We didn't want to wait for the next day's canoe tour- there was no way it could be worth it. We drove through some pretty torrential rainstorms and then made dinner at home. After a long two days we slept well!

Chuy Playing Fetch at Inks Lake from derecha70 on Vimeo.

Chuy's First Ride

When Andrew's parents were here I mentioned that I had been wanting a bike trailer so we could bring Chuy along on our rides. We always want to take a bike ride when it's really pretty outside, but then I feel awful putting Chuy in the crate on such a nice day. Andrew's parents still had the trailer they used when Andrew and Ben were kids, so they sent it to us. I put it together last weekend- the instructions were great! My favorite part was one line that said, "Attach the crossbar to the frame. You may have to force it a little." Perfect!

After a little thinking about the best way to adapt it from child-ready to dog-ready, I bought some materials and built a doggie seat. So yesterday we hooked it up to Andrew's bike and tried it out. It went well, so next weekend we are off to the dog park!

Chuy in her bike trailer from derecha70 on Vimeo.

Day in the Life

I always have a hard time explaining what I do for work to people. “Consultant” doesn’t make much sense. So, here’s what I did yesterday:

--CENTRAL TIME--
5:40 am: Alarm goes off, shower, blow dry hair (using a kitchen plug- we have no plugs in the bathroom and I don’t want to wake Andrew up by drying my hair in the bedroom), change, do one more last minute check that I have everything
6:30 am: Cab picks me up to go to airport. I get a cab driver I’ve had before- he’s always very talkative and energetic for this early.
7:15 am: Board flight. I usually get upgraded to first class. At this point I’m starving and so glad they give us O.J. when we board
7:35 am: Plane takes off: naptime/breakfast/read book/iPod time. I won’t work on the plane. If I have to fly, I’m going to use it for enjoyable activities only. After all, people who drive to work every day get to listen to the radio.

--PACIFIC TIME--
8:50 am: Flight lands, I head to the Avis bus, get my car for the week- a Chevy Trailblazer
9:30 am: Arrive at client site. I have 30 minutes to catch up on my email before the 10 am meeting.
10am: Meet with client to review the open questions from the last two weeks of testing the system we’ve built for them. They want to make several changes. We want to make sure we understand them exactly so we only have to make one more set of changes. For instance, they want to calculate interest revenue based on the days of the month, not by taking the 1/12 of the annual rate each month.
12:40 pm: We break for lunch- Wahoo’s Fish Tacos. I’m so glad they serve brown rice now!
1:30 pm: Update our system change log from the morning meeting. Review it with other team members to make sure we’ve got everything listed
3:30 pm: Send out copy of changes to the entire team for review
4:00 pm: Reconvene with client to discuss list and make sure we have a complete list. More changes come up.
5:30 pm: Meeting with client ends. Meet with programmer to discuss how long it would take to reprogram and retest all the changes
7:00 pm: Send updated list with effort included, to everyone on team.
7:05 pm: Answer questions from the person writing reports out of the new system
7:40 pm: Leave work, check into hotel, call Andrew, unpack for the week.
8:30 pm: Eat room service dinner (small pizza with veggies)
9:30 pm: Fall asleep watching a Lost episode Andrew put on my iPod. I’ve made sure to put out my running clothes right next to the bed so that I have no excuse the next morning.

How to entertain our dog

Welsh Terriers are pretty smart. To quote a breed overview:

"The Welsh Terrier if very energetic and active. He loves to play with children and can handle rough play. He is curious, happy, and spunky. An active family suits him well. By socializing the Welsh Terrier well, you can avoid problems with timidity or aggressiveness. They can show dominance with other pets so should be introduced early. Welsh Terriers often enjoy swimming. Most like to dig. Some are hard to housebreak (especially females). A very intelligent and clever breed, the Welsh Terrier is smart enough to know what you want and outsmart you to divert you from your intentions. They need variety but firmness and consistency in their training."

Most of this rings true. Chuy is VERY energetic and active. Every once in a while she gets a case of the “zoomies” and runs around in big loops at full speed (and her top speed is pretty speedy). She is super curious, happy and spunky. Andrew left his sock drawer just the tiniest bit open once and she emptied it. He walked in and she acted all proud, “I got them all out, every one!” She likes water A LOT (although we have not progressed to swimming yet, we are getting closer).

And she is clever. Welsh Terriers are not known for being particularly obedient, but it’s not because they are not smart enough to know what you want. They enjoy learning, they just don’t enjoy doing the same thing over and over. So they don’t like to sit over and over. We’ve heard you have to mix it up to keep them interested. We took a basic obedience class and she did pretty well, but it ended at the end of February. Since then, I think she’s been getting a little bored. And when she’s bored, she makes her own fun.

She has lots of toys that are supposed to keep her thinking as well as playing. The Kong is pretty basic. You stick some good tasting stuff in the center and she has to lick it out. Not that mentally stimulating, but still a good diversion.


We also have the waggle, which is a similar thing, but we still little pieces of food in the sides. She has figured out that they will come out as she rolls, but she can’t get it to work on a regular basis. So this one is still making her think.


But still, I don’t think she’s getting enough intellectual stimulation. I started looking into three possibilities that I thought we would all enjoy: agility training, earthdog trials, and flyball. I have tried places all over Austin, but they are currently winding up their classes for the summer since it’s about to get too hot! Maybe an intermediate obedience course is in order…

Ten Fun Things we did with Andrew's parents while they were in town:

1. Taking an Andrew-led tour of UT
2. Going to see Grapes of Wrath
3. Shopping at the Austin Farmer's Market
4. Taking a walk along Scenic Drive with a picnic at the end
5. Going on a Central Market/Whole Foods/HEB spice aisle tour
6. Napping with Chuy on the recliner
7. Watching the bats on the Congress Avenue Bridge
8. Hiking at McKinney Falls State Park
9. Biking around Town Lake
10. Taking Chuy to Red Bud Isle

Paris - Getting home!

Our last adventure was getting home- and it was a little bit of an adventure! Paris had a one day transit strike that just happened to coincide with the day we were leaving…nice. Our flight was at 2 pm, so we left the apartment at 8 am just to be sure we would make it. The subway ride to the train station went very smoothly, but after that things started to fall apart.

Because of the strike there was no one working the ticket desk. The machines wouldn’t take our credit cards and only took coins. We had the 16 euros in cash, but mostly in paper money. None of the shops would make change for us. For about an hour we went round and round trying to talk people into making change for us. Finally a nice Frenchman came to our rescue. He bought us our tickets on his credit card and we gave him our cash. Now with tickets in hand (and 12 euro cents in cash left over) we headed to the track.

The next train was coming in 30 minutes. As the track started to get more crowded with people waiting we met an American family that had already taken the wrong train TWICE (thanks to some confusing track changes due to the strike). It turns out they lived in Austin!

We got to the airport about 11 and exited the train at the first airport stop. Our tickets wouldn’t let us out! I had watched the guy buy the tickets for us, so I knew we had the right ones. An attendant let us out, with a “tsk, tsk” and a disappointed head shake. I still don’t know what we did wrong!

Once we got out we almost immediately realized we should have waited until the second stop. So after an airport tram ride we were finally at the right terminal. We learned that even if we had gotten on the train to the airport before us we would have just arrived- that train broke down! Needless to say, it was a mad house.

Luckily, my status really helped us out. We got to go in the first class line to check in (significantly shorter) and then got fast tracked through security as well. All in all, I think it took us about 10 minutes before we were walking to our gate. We spent a few quiet and restful hours in the Admirals Club and then boarded our plane.

After we were all boarded the captain made an announcement that because of the transit strike air traffic control was on a slow down and our take off would be delayed approximately 90 minutes. We had a connection time in Chicago of about 2 ½ hours, so this was a little concerning. However, the captain said that if we really took off when ATC said we would only be 45 minutes late arriving to Chicago.

Luckily, we departed only 90 minutes late. We stayed up about the whole flight and ate some REALLY bad airplane food. We got through immigration and customs fine, took another tram ride, and went through Chicago security. We even had enough time to get my mom some Garrett’s popcorn- one of her favorite Chicago treats. We got on our tiny little plane and took a noisy ride back to Dallas. My parents were there to pick us our and our Parisian adventure was officially over!

Paris Trip Report 2

Andrew had gone to the bakery Saturday evening to buy a baguette for dinner and he noticed that the French were buying an impressive amount of bread- 6 and 8 baguettes, and Sunday morning we found out why. We had quite an adventure finding a place to eat breakfast- everything was closed! We finally were able to grab a bite at the old American standby- McDonalds and then we headed down to check out Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter.

Notre Dame is built on one of the two islands that were the original settlements that became Paris. We loved the little streets and the gardens we kept stumbling upon! We also tried a Nutella crepe and Andrew fell in love with it! Overall we had a great day together. That night we went to a little Italian restaurant for dinner and had a great meal.

Monday I wasn’t feeling so good so I slept in while Andrew went to the Louvre. He started in one of the wings that doesn’t have the Mona Lisa and was practically by himself. He saw some great stuff- including a full head from Easter Island.

He came back to the apartment for lunch and then we headed down to the Catacombs. I found them pretty creepy, but Andrew really liked them.

Tuesday we met at Fat Tire Bike Tours early to head out to Versailles. I had been out there before, but I think bikes are the way to go! The grounds are HUGE and bikes make it a lot easier to see everything! We had a fun time shopping at the town market, and then ate a great picnic on the pond. The inside of the chalet was okay, but Andrew was unimpressed after the treasures at Louvre.

Wednesday, our last day in Paris we headed up to Sacre Cour. Talk about tourists! It was really crowded. The church was okay, but the neatest thing we saw was a guy juggling a ball on the top of a pillar- he could do it forever!

Paris Trip Report

The flight to Paris was ok. I was able to sleep but Andrew stayed up the whole trip, mostly watching shows on my iPod. When we arrived in Paris the immigration and customs was super efficient- it might have been the fastest process either one of us has every been through. We took the train to the center of Pais and then connected to the subway. From there we easily navigated to my aunt and uncle's apartment. The apartment was great! It is a two story apartment on the top floor of a 7 story building. It used to be the maid's quarters for another apartment. My aunt is a great cook, so it has a fully decked out kitchen. We had a bedroom upstairs and there is a nice sitting area downstairs next to the kitchen.

Here's the view at night- not bad!

We got to the apartment about 9:30 am and our plan was to stay up the whole day so we could adjust to the time more easily. However, while I was showering Andrew fell asleep on the bed and then I did too. We woke up about 4! Ooops...

So we finally got up and headed out. The apartment is not very far from the Arc de Triomphe. We walked down there and along the Champs-Élysées, just getting used to the city. For dinner that night we went to this great little restaurant that only serves steak frites. All you have to do is tell the server how well you want your steak done. Easier for our limited French! The sauce they serve with the steak is a closely held secret and for good reason- it was amazing! Andrew wanted to lick it off the plate.

We had a nice walk home and then it was off to bed. The next morning was rough- the time change really got me and I had trouble getting up!

We headed to the Effiel Tower to meet a bike tour we wanted to take through FatTireBikeTours.com. The company is based in Austin and was started by an Aggie a few years older than I am. It could have been a really good tour, except they weren't fully staffed yet, so even though they split us into two groups, we were still too big to be biking around Paris (25 bikes). We were able to see a lot and started learning more about the history of Paris.


After the tour ended we were pretty pooped. We stopped by a grocery store and made dinner that night, planned the rest of the trip based on what we had seen and went to bed again.

Paris – Getting there

Andrew and I went to Paris last week. My aunt and uncle have an apartment there and they generously gave us a week in it as a wedding present. So for Andrew’s spring break we headed over there. We used miles (one of the benefits of all the travel I do) and with the free place to stay, we actually had a very cheap vacation!

We flew out of Dallas because it took significantly less miles and because we could drop Chuy off at my parents house. As we were getting ready to leave Austin we made the pile of everything we were taking in the living room. Andrew walked out and was shocked at how much stuff we had:

- My suitcase
- My carry-on bag
- Andrew’s suitcase
- Andrew’s carry-on bag
- Andrew’s dress clothes (Andrew had to fly out of Dallas again as soon as we got back to go to a conference and needed a suit)
- Chuy’s crate
- Chuy’s toys, food bowls, leashes, etc
- Cooler (Chuy’s food needs to be refrigerated)
- Bag of books and stuff for Dallas (I think every book a Balaze owns gets read by at least two people in the family and usually more)

It all got in the car, but as dog seems to require about as much stuff as a baby, it appears we are done with traveling light for a while.

We got in the car and headed up to Dallas without incident. After a nice meal and some catching up we went to bed. Early in the morning we headed to DFW. We were taking a flight from Dallas to New York’s La Guardia and then we needed to get to JFK on our own for the evening flight to Paris. We didn’t check any bags, which made the transfer easier. After looking at the options, we could either do a bus/subway/tram combo to get from La Guardia to JFK or we could take a cab. We decided on the cab. Or, I should say, I overruled Andrew and we took a cab.

When we got off the plane in La Guardia we both had cell phone messages from our credit card company. Apparently our card had suspicious activity on it, and sure enough, the number had been stolen. The company said they would send us a new card but in the meantime, we were to cut up our card. Luckily, we have an emergency credit card for just this situation…

After going through a second round of security at JFK and several hours in the Admirals Club we boarded and were off!

Carbohydrates

One of my goal this year is to eat a more balanced diet. I knew I probably ate more carbohydrates than I probably should and not enough veggies, so I've been trying to eat two veggies a meal and watch how many rolls I eat.

This week I joined gyminee.com. It's a website that tracks your calorie intake and your workouts. I've tried several other websites like this, including fitday.com and mypyramidtracker.gov and I like this one better already. It seems to have an easier user interface.

The only thing I don't like about the site is that I have learned I am eating WAY too many carbs. Every day this week I've gone well over my carb limit at lunch. I do okay on total calories and fat, but as I feared, my diet is not very balanced. There is something about a pie chart that really brings it home.

When I told Andrew about it and he would have guessed I ate 70-80% carbs, so he wasn't surprised at all. Now my challenge is to figure out how to eat low-carb meals while relying on restaurant food during the week!

Chuy's Destruction Tally

Andrew's slipper
Andrew's sunglasses
Andrew's watch
Andrew's pencil

Do you see a pattern? Guess which one of us is less likely to use drawers...

Chuy's first haircut

We love how Chuy looks like a little teddy bear, but the weather is starting to get warm here (so nice to be back in Texas!), so we I scheduled an appointment to get her groomed. I told them to cut her pretty short and boy did they! I didn't even recognize her when I picked her up.

Here is the last shot before she got groomed:



And here are the after shots:

As my mom said, it grows back.

Queso

Andrew and I enjoy discussing the merits of different restaurants in Austin, and the queso is always a major category. Here are some highlights:

Torchy's Tacos: Torchy's is, in our opinion, the best queso in Austin. The consitency is the same from the first bite to the last and they add a little guacamole, which makes it just perfect. Sadly, their tacos have declined in quality recently. You never know if it's going to taste awesome, or if you are going to get a taco that is all scrambled eggs and almost nothing else that should be in there.

El Chilito: As good as Torchy's queso is, for breakfast we prefer El Chilito. They have amazing pickled onions, their tortillas are awesome, their coffee is far superior, and their queso is also awesome! They also have an amazing smokey salsa. They are the overall winner for breakfast, and their sister restaurant, El Chile is among our favorite Mexican restaurants for dinner. Another plus is that they are both a 2 minute drive from our house...

Kerby Lane Cafe: We've only had their queso on migas, but boy does it make the migas!

Freebirds: Freebirds queso is a recent addition to their menu, and it's pretty great. Possibly the weakest among these listed, but now that they have carnitas for Andrew, we go there and the combo meal with chips and queso to go along with our burritos. We always leave happy!

This post is making me hungry!

Andrew's report of Chuy's morning

Go to park for morning walk - check
See favorite neighborhood dog Nola (Airedale Terrier) and play together - check
Find a worm and attempt to eat it - check
Find mud and jump in - check
Attempt to eat worm #2 - check
Notice Nola again and play more, much to Nola's annoyance - check
Find and EAT worm #3 - check

Chuy Playing in the Park

We got a video camera for Valentine's Day! So we took it to the park, and here's Chuy playing fetch. We realize this might be interesting to only us, but we like it! It's an HD camera, so you can click the link to "Watch in HD" and see it even more clearly!

Obedience Class Update

This weekend will be class #6 of 8 in Basic Obedience. Chuy doesn’t get grades, but if she did, here’s about how she’d be doing:

Walking on a leash: C (there are just SO many interesting things to look at)
Sit: A+ (She knew how to do this before class started though, although no one else did. Woo hoo for being teacher's pet one week!)
Down: A (She’s good at this also)
Stay: B- (She could have an A in this, if we would practice with her more)
Come: B- (She will come in the house if you call, and if she knows this is what you are practicing at class. Outside or at the dog park, she will do a “drive by” if you call her, but she doesn’t stop)
Leave it: B (She is surprisingly good at this)
Return: B (This is supposed to be the “super-duper” come that is no-nonsense. Eventually the idea is that if she’s running off leash and sees one of us raise our hand she will run back and sit next to us. We’ll see. She does okay on a leash, in the house. We are supposed to add complexity- outdoors on leash, then outdoors off leash in a small fenced area, etc)

We have also learned that no matter how much Chuy likes the treats we bring, she’s always interested to know if the grass is greener in someone else’s treat bag. We have learned not to go to class until she poops. If she doesn’t go before class, she will during class, and that is bad dog class etiquette. We do better sitting in an isolated corner, and as far away from the little 3 pound Yorkie as possible- to her the little guy is prey!

Three classes to go...If we keep getting better at this rate, it will be worth it!

New Year’s Resolutions

This is a little bit of a late post for New Year’s resolutions, but I just figure this way we have already made progress on them! Andrew and I spent our drive back from Christmas with my parents talking about what we wanted to do this year. We made a list (we both love lists!) and have been slowing working down the list…here it is:

Get out more – Andrew almost never left a mile radius of the house last semester. He mostly went to school and back, school and back. So we came up with things we want to do:

• Camping/Hiking: We got a lot of cool camping stuff for the wedding. So we need to use it! Since deciding this we’ve been to McKinney Falls State Park and Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. We also are planning to “climb” up Mt. Bonnell and Inks Lake State Park.

• Day Trips: We put on our list trips to the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory, Shiner, TX, and tubing, but are open to other suggestions also.

• Vacation: In March we are headed to Paris for a week and are really excited about it. I have a “Learn French” podcast but it’s not going that well. Communicating will be interesting, but we have some good bike trips planned with a company based out of Austin. Should be fun!

Volunteer- we looked into a lot of different options and decided to volunteer once a month with the Austin Parks Foundation. They didn’t have any January volunteer opportunities, but we are going to volunteer starting this month. We are also signed up to volunteer in two weeks with Marathon Kids. It should be fun!

Eating Healthy: We (mostly) eat things that are healthy. I just don’t think we eat enough vegetables. So I have been trying when I cook to make sure we have at least two veggies on the plate, and that I leave veggies for Andrew to eat while I’m gone. Sometimes they get eaten, sometimes they don’t.

We’ll see how we do the rest of the year! Hopefully we stick with them.

Some Chuy Pics

Our last couple weeks have been pretty consumed with Chuy, so here are some pics of the little girl!

It's so hard to decide what to play with!
It can really be exhausting...
This is the only bandanna Andrew approves of...it's her "Hank the Cowdog" look