Curious Notions

January
- Kim came up for New Years. We celebrated downtown with Alan’s couple of friends and Jon and the boys.
- Kim and I wrote on two balloons on New Year’s Day. One balloon of our regrets and things we’re letting go. The other balloon our desires for 2009. Then we ever so poetically, released them on my balcony.
-I went to San Diego for the fourth time. I made it to the zoo and stayed at the same hotel as Jon and Kate plus Eight when they went to San Diego on their way to Hawaii.
- Made Jambalaya for the first time.
-Ate a lot of food with Jon while he was visiting Texas.

At Paradise Pointe Resort in San Diego.

February
- Spent my favorite holiday with Jamie.
- Did my own taxes for the first time
- Found a new hair stylist of of Sixth Street after asking her for a kiss for Bing for his birthday.
- Sent out Valentine cards and packages.

Celebrated Bing’s birthday on Sixth Street. The night I met my hair dresser.

March
- Watched a lot of movies and cooked a lot of dinners with Alan.
- Cindy came up to visit. Introduced her finally to Flip Happy Crepes.
- I got about 3 hours of sleep a night.
- I go to San Diego for work yet again and stay at a hotel that had sex toys in their mini bar available to purchase.
- I search for a Madam Mam’s replacement. (Never found it)
- I celebrated Brandi’s birthday with Jessica. This is the 2nd time in 2008 we managed to spend some time together. We went downtown for her birthday and ate at Hula Hut.

With my girls, celebrating Brandi’s birthday. I wish this year we saw each other more. There was a time a year or two ago we saw each other once a week at least.

April
- I go to Second Chance Prom with Neville. Sweet since I didn’t have a date to my highs school prom. Well.. Liz was my date :)
- I meet my little and take her to celebrate Earth Day at Republic Square.
- I take a fabulous vacation to NYC (originally suppose to include Boston too and visit Mary Ellen but her paper got accepted into a conference). I got to see the Jennifers and Jon. Jon was my lovely host. (entry, entry, entry, entry)
- Had my first Brazilian Wax. Yikes.
- The father of two of the kids I’ve babysat since both of them were born, died.

Jon and I in NY.

May
- My brother graduates college! My parents came up to see him walk.
- Alan and I didn’t renew our lease and I started to mourn the apartment. I was in love with our location and view.
- Continue to babysit for the boys who lost their father. Started with the night of the memorial service and then the funeral.
- Selina asked me to be her bridesmaid.
- My brother turned 23. Making me feel old.

Our view.

June
- Go to funnest book signing I’ve been to with Si Nae and her boyfriend. We went to see Chuck Palahniuk promote Snuff. He threw out blow up dolls.
- I worked a lot.
- I saw a lot of movies with Alan.

Si Nae, her boy, and Chuck Palahniuk!

July
- Alan and I moved out and stopped being roommates :( But it was a good move for us :).
- Went to Florida for the first time to get Mary Ellen married. Flew in a few days early and I joined her clan in cooking, building, bitching, bonding, all in the name of love and the most beautiful wedding I’ve been to yet. It was pretty much a DIY wedding and you can see the labor of love in everything. The baby food jars around the garden sheltering tea light candles, the fireworks/crackers, the dance floor her uncles and aunts built, the cascading fruit basket one of her uncle fashioned at 3 in the morning the night before the wedding, etc. SO many details that were not only beautiful on its own, but also in the labor and thought and love that it represented.
- I take a Thursday off of work and Brandi and Jessica and I hang out for the third time this year. They treated me to a trip to Schiltterbahn for my birthday. Last year it was Sea World.
- Turned 25. Jen T who normally only comes once or twice a year happened to be in town for my birthday :). Si Nae dropped by flowers. I had a pretty birthday cake in the shape of a snow globe. I celebrated with friends. Felt special. Alan took me out to a romantic dinner and bought me a cell phone. It was a good birthday. Though I hate that I’m now 25.

Birthday celebration.

August
- Lily teaches us to make sushi.
- Alan introduces me to Mikados. I mention this because now we go here fairly often for sushi. I’ve yet to take him to Musashinos.
- Cindy comes and stays with me for almost 2 months for her pharmacy school rotation.
- I take my little to her first play. Jack and the Beanstalk.
- Nisreen and Nino get engaged and Nisreen asks me to be one of her bridesmaids.

Sushi making night

September
- I take my certification test and am now certified in clinical research.
- I go to the Domain with Nisreen to study for that test. We go just looking around for her wedding dress and we actually FIND it at St. Thomas.
- I fly to Orlando for work, wishing Alan had gone.
- I take my little to her first UT football game.
- Cindy and I try to learn about football.

So it wouldn’t just be for me why I wanted Alan in Orlando with me. Lookit the golf course!

October
- To my surprise, I’m taken by UT football. Really taken after watching OU game. I thought I had burnt out on football forever, but it’s really quite addicting.
- Alan takes me to see UT/Missouri game.
- Alan had a birthday.
- I dress up as a Hula girl for Halloween.

Kissing Meatwad.

November
- Ran my first 5k with Nisreen, Katambra, and Melissa.
- Jessica has a birthday, so the three of us (Brandi, Jessica, and I) reunite for the fourth time this year. FOUR times. That’s so sad. We go to Pete’s Dueling Pianos with plans to go to ren fest again but Brandi got struck with hives.
- I practically live at work.
- My brother breaks in his apartment by hosting a Thanksgiving meal. He makes his first turkey. Delicious!
- I take my little to the Paramount theatre for the first time. We see The Hungry Caterpillar. Then I have a mini high school reunion.
- I take Thanksgiving week off from work and spend a week in Houston.
- I see fireworks with Kim and kind of Chris.

Nisreen pours everyone a double shot of bourbon at my brother’s Thanksgiving dinner.

December
- I finish paying off my car :) One of my New Year’s Resolutions. I bought in July 2007. Not bad, if I do say so myself.
- I spend Christmas in Houston.
- On the 26th of December, Kim and I for the 2nd time release balloons for New Years. We’re stunned that this time around, we do not have any regrets to write on that regret balloon. Instead, we write what we want to stay away from. Good times with Ms. Kim.
- I get to see my best friend, Mary Ellen. Second time this year. First time being for her wedding in July.
- I go back on Saturday (today) to get some work done and to spend NYE in Austin. With friends and beau.

Our balloons. Purple = wishes. Pink = what we’ll stay away from. Since we didn’t have regrets this year.

It’s been a good year. I read 10 books, ate a lot of Pho, and laughed a lot.

Yesterday, I took my little to see a performance by the Mermaid Theatre from Canada. Should really click on this link to see images from the show. Those images are exactly what you see during the show. It kills me that they’re puppets! The puppeteers dress like ninjas so you can’t see them in front of the black backdrop and a black light to make the puppets that are painted with fluorescent paint pop. After the show, you get to meet the puppets in lighting. They’re mostly carved from foam and covered in fabric, then painted. It didn’t look like a puppet show at all but rather a digital projection. Pretty cool. It’s too bad you can’t take pictures in the Paramount.

Kate took her little to the same show. She’s in Houston for a while for work and she brought up another Houston high school friend of mine. After the show, we both dropped off our littles and then met at her place with Alex and her roommate, also a high school friend Brooke. We all picked up foods from different places, plopped down at her kitchen table, and had a impromptu high school reunion perfect for busy girls. ALL of us except for the two Houston girls have not seen each other for MONTHS and we could just sit down and quickly catch up in an hour and a half’s time.

I took a picture of our 4 different meals. I’m not very tall and this was the best I could do before we devoured our meals.

Kate

Brooke

Alex

me

This weekend, I continued on with my quest for the Madam Mam’s Kee Mao replacement (I broke up with Madam Mams). I’m no where near close. So far the closest is Thai Passion on Congress. There are two locations.. It’s been a full year since I first discovered this place with Will. Since then, I come here after nights out drinking. Not only is it decent tasty Thai, it opens late. We usually roll in there at around 3AM after the bars close. I forgot to take a picture of my food when I was there last weekend as I was exhausted. But yeah, if you’re in Austin. Go to Thai Passion for good Kee Mao. Don’t go to Madam Mams :)

Last weekend I tried two new Thai places (had Thai three times in one weekend!)

First. I tried SATAY on Anderson with Si Nae and Aaron. I rate it BEST ambiance. It’s the only Thai place I’ve had that actually tried for ambiance. Had the Kee Mao (of course). Eh. Over priced. 11 dollars? It shouldn’t be more than 7 or 8 dollars. Also, no Asian people. That’s a bad sign for an Asian restaurant. The Kee Mao was alright. I wouldn’t go back; it’s not worth it.

The second new Thai place I tried is on Sixth Street. Called, Thai Tara. WORST Kee Mao I’ve ever had and I’ve had plenty. It was bland. Not spicy. No taste. Mush. I tried this new place with Nam and he wasn’t too impressed by his food either. He ordered some kind of seafood dish with clams and imitation crab. He also introduced me to Tom Yum . I enjoyed the soup but I haven’t had Tom Yum before so my palate isn’t as discriminating as Nam’s. It’s a hot and sour soup… had lemon grass in the broth. I enjoyed the broth. I wouldn’t ever come back here either. Oh yeah, no Asian people eating there as well.

Here’s some crappy photos I took with my cell phone. I really need to get a new camera.

The Tom Yum

Tom Yum again

Yucky Kee Mao at Thai Tara

Nam’s seafood dish.

So I haven’t found a replacement. I have 2 fellow Madam Mam’s followers who have told me they each found a place that not only rivaled, but blew Madam Mam’s out of the water. Ashwin told me about a place in Plano (I’m trying to talk him into ordering me some takeout when he comes into Austin this weekend) and Chris told me about a place in Houston that I will try to visit in a couple of weeks.

I know the easy thing to do is to just go back but I have way too much pride. I would go back if I hadn’t told them I wasn’t going to.

Quest continues.

Anyone who knows me at all knows my passionate love affair with Madam Mams that started when it first switched management in 2001/2002 and BECAME Madam Mams. Since then I’ve turned many a friend to loyal impassioned patrons. I’ve written it praises in between 2001 and 2005 in my previous online journal to the point of one of my out of country friend insisting I take her to this Madam Mams. There was a semester in college where I would go weekly with my then boyfriend, weekly with Michael, weekly with my brother and weekly with Jon. Up to 4 times a week, I showed my face. Even after I graduated and moved further from campus, I’ve managed to average once or twice a week.

I’m that fricking loyal.

I’ve loved the pad thai at first and then alternated between the different curries and finally stayed true with the F5 flat noodle. Well, Friday before I drove an hour outside of Austin to spend the night/visit Brandi at her new home, I went with my former roommate (whom I’ve introduced to Mams) for my second (and hers as well!) trip that week and we had our usuals. Midway through our meals, we noticed that we had lipstick on our glasses and disturbed, we complained.

Now, Mams however good her food is, is not known for her service. But we expected a little bit of an acknowledgement. First they claimed that the glasses were in fact, clean because they pulled it out of the dishwasher; it must be a stain. We countered that that does not make it clean. They insisted that they cannot be held accountable for “dirty” glassware. When we asked for a small discount, (a measly 10 percent would have us believing that they at least care for their patrons). They said we were being unreasonable if we expected a discount for something wrong with our drinks. They said their policy is to only discount if something unsanitary were to happen with their food.

Naz countered that well, how do we know our plates are clean? They just shrugged. Finally, I told the manager how much I love their food and how often I come. He agreed that I come all the time. I told him I’ve been coming there longer than he had been managing. He nodded. I said the way he is dismissing us makes me not want to come back anymore.

To which, he said “That is fine. We have customers.”

That marked the end of our 6-7 year relationship. Admittedly, I’m a bit heartbroken.

I guess this means I must learn how to make their F5 just so.

Asswipes.

A couple of weeks ago I met up my friend Nam at our pho place (Pho Danh at Braker Lane) and had asked the roommate what he wanted me to bring back to him.

Humorously, he asked for a vermicelli sandwich. Those of you who know what vermicelli is (thin noodles) would laugh as well! So traditional Viet food can incorporate vermicelli BOWLS or Banh Mi’s (Vietnamese Sandwiches). I think he got confused.

Anyway, at Pho Danh, I learned that unlike a lot of pho restaurants, they ONLY have pho and no other Vietnamese dishes (vermicelli bowls or sandwiches). So after I ate with Nam, we walked down two doors and into a restaurant that had just opened called Exotic Thai. I recognized the man who gave me the menu right away. He had been a waiter at Madam Mams. I’ve had him as a waiter for a good five years.

I asked him if he had waited at Mams before and he answered in the affirmative. He left to start a new restaurant and this restaurant is his baby. Wow! I bought my roommate the Pad Thai and he sang it praises (he hates Madam Mams because of an incident he had several years ago).

I finally tried out the restaurant on my own with the perfect person to try it with. Si Nae and I share the same addiction not only to Madam Mams but also to the same exact dish. The F5 with flat noodles (Ke Mao).

So she ordered for both of us. We got the Ke Mao. Hers with beef and mine with chicken.

The guy brings it out for us and we both deducted some points for portion size (a lot smaller than Mams). Then we ate into it and after maybe the 5th bite we looked at each other horrified. It was FRICKING hot. Both of us can handle pretty spicy stuff. She’s Korean and I’m Vietnamese for goodness sake. We ended up inhaling our food so we didn’t have to taste it and 15 minutes later we booked it to Coco’s for milky bubble tea to relieve our burning mouths.

Mams wins. We’re never going back. Some photos from Exotic Thai.

Fellow Mams patron

Cute salt and pepper shakers

Ke Mao with chicken

Tomorrow? Making beer batter fried shrimp (for my first time).

I’ve been feeling domestic since the beginning of the weekend. Aside from the cooking, I did dishes, 3 loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen counters, my bathroom counter, hung up clothes and vacuumed. On Saturday I went over to a coworker’s house and spent 6 hours helping her paint her bedroom. I think it’s the nippy weather.

Anyway, I have a 7 o’clock patient tomorrow and feel like I should work out for the first time this year. Wooooo. I’m on some sort of kick here.

Peace out!

Edit 9:46pm: I’m not going to work out. I’m actually going to lay down and watch Dateline. Damn. This week! I’ll work out for the first time this year this week. Peace out for real.