Rick Steves Travel Brochure

Dinner last night was awesome -- the Lasagna Rolls turned out ok (note to self -- don't use Black Forest smoked proscuitto) but we made the Dr. Oeteker "Lava" cakes which are little cupcake-sized chocolate cakes with chocolate inside. Awesome! After consuming plenty of vino (we actually drank ever bottle of red left in the house), we walked over to the Horseshoe Lounge for a beer.

It's a divey bar with shuffleboard, beer, and plenty of interesting characters. One old-timer packs a lunch and keeps a bottle of whiskey in there too. My favorite moment was when a lady ran around frantically, "Fire marshall is comin', put out your cigarettes," and I suddenly felt like I was in a speakeasy. When the jukebox held the silence too long between songs, I even held my breath. A couple uniformed guys come in, look around, then walked out. Moments later, with a blissful smile, the lady runs around with a freshly-lit one in her hands and said, "OK, ya'll can smoke again!" Classic Austin.

Yesterday in the mail I received my Rick Steves Tour Guide Brochure!! I admit, I don't really want to go on a tour since I like researching myself and like the freedom of Ryan and I making our way alone. But, Rick Steves has a beautiful ethos about him and I really look up to him as an entrepreneur who is dedicated and passionate about what he loves! I hope to meet him someday. I read through it this morning and am in bliss.

I'm sad that we won't likely go to Europe this year...but we're in an investment phase of our life that will make future trips much easier, especially a little later in life. I find it strange how quickly priorities shift and how open we are to them -- has the culture of multitasking made us this way? I listened to my SWR2 podcast (all in german, which means I barely understood it) about multitasking and its impact on us. We're both super good about adopting change and are open about taking a look at "today" and changing the goal for "tomorrow" in a split-second.

Speaking of goals...we should get ready for the day and do something. Haha! Oscars are tonight, we are going to Melissa's house to watch them. Yay!

Tschüß!!

Dinner Tonight

Our friend Mary, who just accepted a bitchin' job and will be moving to Seattle next month (sad, sad, sad, as she is one of our first friends in Austin), is coming over to our house for dinner. Since we're saving money for the rental house and I'm sure she's saving up for her move, it made sense to eat at home.

Although she's not vegetarian, she does have some restrictions -- so I'm thinking I'll just go vegetarian, since it will be a nice change. About a year ago, inspired by my best friend Melissa, I was trying a lot of veggie things...fake meat, dishes that didn't require the obligatory ground beef, etc. I enjoyed it, but the "meat and potatoes" kid inside of me would always pick up his utensils and demand some meat.

It also doesn't help that a majority of traditional Deutsch dishes want Fleisch. Especially my favorite recipes, like Reisfleischtopf and Rinderrouladen. Would I really shun vegetarianism simply because the bulk of good German recipes use meat?

Increasingly, I am fascinated by irrationality and (as I heard in an NPR story) how "humans are predictably unpredictable." I see this at work constantly, including on my own team. There are certain associates that you know, at some point in the future, will throw a fit about something that really has no bearing, merit, or meaning. But, they're going to do it soon about something and I'm going to have to deal with it. Now I'm at the point where I can spot it and circumvent it before it becomes an issue. (Well, some of the time...I still get surprised.)

The same predictability applies to training. There were some courses where you anticipate not only questions that emerge from natural human thought process, but also the flaws in your own capabilities. For instance, there are certain concepts that I always stumble over when I teach them. Just before I do the aforementioned stumbling, I will find myself giving the disclaimer, "I'm about the screw this up, so bear with me..." and then I bumble on down the path and maybe I get it right, maybe not.

Back to food -- if you put escargot in front of me at home, I'd probably gag a bit. However, put me at a nice wine tasting in a historic house with peacocks roaming the lawn and I might foray into it. Add to that scenario that I have just gotten lost getting to the place, which led to an angry argument with Ryan about event preparation, laziness, dragging him to the event, and then watched him embarrassingly highlight my faults in front of our friends...and that escargot tastes really, really good.

Wait...maybe it's not irrationality...but am I just a shallow, bitter, revengeful person? Haha, my reader, I read your mind and I demand you stop thinking those nasty thoughts! Shame on you! I'm nice!

Anyhow, time to plan the menu for tonight and this week. The house is fairly clean (still cluttered a bit) and I really have no desire to do a whole lot of outdoor activity. It is going to be in the 70s today so that plan might backfire on me!

Tschüß!

Messy, messy

Lasagna.

Ceasar Salad.

Goulash.

All of these dishes have something in common with our life right now...filling, a jumble of ingredients, and really really messy. Kind of like the below picture.


(We've cleaned most of that off...seriously, things are dire right now.)

So, what's keeping us busy? Another house. Well, thankfully we're not planning on moving into it, just renting it out. The house out front of ours was for sale when we bought ours, but he took it off the market for a while and then put it back up. We're in our option period and trying to get estimates on some fixes...but it's taking a lot of work to arrange everything and I really look forward to it being done.

I've done quite a lot of cooking lately, which new and old recipes...the goal here is budget meals. I'm focusing more on fresh ingredients (nothing from a can except maybe broth) and good meat. The house thing has put my German hobby on hold a bit, since unfortunately this means we won't be able to go to Germany this year. Sigh. I'll get back on track in a few weeks, I'm sure. I did make a mean Wienerschnitzel last night...

Tschüß!