Birthday fun!

For Doug's birthday I took him to see a 3D IMAX movie, In the Deep, which was about the underwater world off California's Channel Islands. We both lived in Cali and both love to dive so it was very cool! The 3D was amazing, I loved it and he did too! We just think we're quite fashionable in these glasses. So Jackie-O.
Mwaa! Kiss!

Yea we roll like that!
After the IMAX we went to Rice Village and this is in a cool store called Candylicious. It's a very cool store! They have candy from all over the world. My favorite candy when I was a kid (well one of them) was Abba Zabba, a white taffy filled with peanut butter. They are from the West Coast and are not typically sold here in the south. He also got the kids a couple different things. :) I like the layout of this image better than the previous one because you can see more of the store.
We had a late lunch at Mi Luna, a Spanish tapas restuarant in Rice Village. Two of my favorite dishes which we ordered are the rape con miel - a monkfish in saffron cream sauce, & an eggplant dish. We also got calamari!
Yesterday we went to the grand opening of the Stahl Preserve which is part of the Spring Creek Greenway, a long linear park along both sides of Spring Creek and a joint project of Harris & Montgomery counties. Carmine Stahl is a dear friend of mine and a very kind gentle soul. He was a Methodist minister for many years, retired and then became the park naturalist at Jesse Jones Nature Park for many years! He moved to Ohio a couple years ago but was in town for the dedication of his preserve. He's the author of Trees of Texas. I designed the Spring Creek Greenway website and produced a video for them a couple years back.
Doug and I went for a short paddle. This little lake is lined with bald cypress trees.
I had planned to make this meal for Doug's birthday itself but we stufffed ourselves at Mi Luna and so ended up making this yesterday instead. It was soooo good. I grilled NY strip steak with sauteed mushrooms, plus twice-baked potatoes, asparagus and I made him a peanut butter cake which we had with chocolate ice cream! Yum! It was such a gorgeous day yesterday, we ate dinner in the backyard.
Plumber's butt! (There's a worse pic, I opted to spare you... ha ha!) Doug spent hours replacing my kitchen faucet. Two trips to Lowe's and a lot of frustration trying to figure out what the deal was on how to get the old one out. The Lowe's people are soooo helpful though, call them over the phone and they'll give you info over the phone (or in person) you need to do the repair yourself. And they have a lifetime replacement policy on any product in the store, which I didn't know until yesterday!! After like 1.5 hours of trying to get the old faucet out, we called and they said it helps to remove the sink. Once he did that, it was much easier! Doug was so incredibly patient during this whole thing, I was blown away! What a sweetheart!! Saved me $250 the plumber wanted to charge me!!
Taking the sink out!
Yea! A working new faucet!
Just us, being weirdos! LOL.

Now I think I'm coming down with the flu. I woke this morn supposed to go to lunch with Carmine but then as soon as I got up realized my muscles are all incredibly achy but it's not from working out because I haven't in the past couple day. And then I realized I also had a headache and felt nauseous. So I'm back in bed, wanted to upload these real quick and do a couple work things then I'm going back to sleep until I have to get the kids from school. I turned in my cyanobacteria article and next have to get back to work on my book! We want to go camping somewhere near a ghost town in the Hill Country. Anyone know of one, near somewhere cool to camp? (we'd camp in a state park or something and then take a day trip to the ghost town).