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.