Friday Five

The Excuse:

None needed!

The Week:

So for a change, I found myself in Houston this week. Due to reasons entirely of my own doing, I didn’t wind up seeing any friends this week. For whatever reason, I really didn’t think about where I was heading until it was too late.

In fact, I had a very hard time in general remember where/when I was. Yes – when. After my last couple of trips took me to the Eastern time zone, I was convinced for the first couple of days I was still on Eastern time. Which almost caused me to miss the Inauguration speech. I knew it was at noon – what I failed to realize until the last moment was that it was noon Eastern, not Central. But fortunately I was able to get my class a break for anyone who wanted to watch the speech as well as take it in myself.

The Restaurant:

This week I found a place called Mint Cafe, a Mediterranean restaurant by the Galleria Mall. I’m pretty sure it’s a family owned place, but you can’t always tell. It is, however fairly new, which means that as of right now it doesn’t have a liquor license. To counteract that they do allow you to BYOB, and they have some freshly squeezed juices as well. (I went for the mango <insert Eddie Izzard reference here>).

For my dinner, I had a kabob combo that included chicken, beef and a seasoned ground beef kabob. All very tasty. It was served up with hummus and rice, although I swapped out the rice for a Greek salad – I appreciate any restaurant that will allow you to swap out sides.

All-in-all, a great find.

The Exercise:

I actually managed to find my way down to the fitness room twice this week. It felt great to get back in the habit again.

The Travel Note:

Over the months that I’ve been travelling, I’ve forgotten many an item while on the road. I’ve lost, among other things, a coat, a fleece and two pairs of pajama bottoms. Now I can add season 2 of The West Wing to that list – forgot the sleeve in a seat back pocket. I’ve filed a claim with Continental, but haven’t heard anything back yet.

The Five:

Have I mentioned recently that I am always looking for ideas for my Friday Five? If not, well, I’m looking for ideas.

In the mean time, here’s five miscellaneous facts or thoughts:

1. Karin mentioned the other day that Roscoe will be turning 5 this upcoming March, which means he’ll have been a part of our family for the last 4 1/2 years. I now understand parents who say they went to bed one day with a newborn in the house and woke up the next morning getting them ready for school.
2. In all my trips to the south, I have never tried sweat tea.
3. People often ask me if I miss snow. I miss the fun memories of snow – watching it fall outside, playing in it, etc. But I don’t miss the realities – shoveling, digging out cars, traffic, scraping a car twice a day, etc.
4. I used to have hair that went about half-way down my shoulder blades. Every now and then I miss my long hair – except during summer.
5. This will come as a surprise to nobody, but I love gadgets. I once had a TSA guy say my computer backpack was a portable Best Buy.