Pudge and Nico Blog

Obviously, we’re blogging less and less lately (sorry, but Instagram is just too easy). So we thought it would be fun to start a monthly series that would recap the more interesting things we did that month. Only a few weeks late, here’s May 2013!

-Celebrated Darius’s 27th birthday with dinner at Sway, which is a newish Thai fusion place in Austin. Our favorites were the “son in law” and “tiger cry”.

-Finished up my first semester of University of Minnesota’s online accounting program with a 4.0. It was way harder than I anticipated.

-Went to Jester King Brewery for the second time, this time with Grace & Joey, Adam & Jenni. All the beers were really sour/fermented this time (in a good way, but still, could have used some variety).

-Watched lots of basketball. Darius rooted for the Spurs; I was torn between Spurs and Rockets. Rockets are out, but Spurs are in the finals.

-Took a weekend trip to Port Aransas with Adam & Jenni. Stayed a few blocks away from the beach in a cute little cabin that smelled like bleach when we first arrived. Snacks and margaritas on the beach for lunches and grilled outside our cabin for dinners. One night we went into town and had really bad ice cream sundaes. Also went to Beach & Station Street Grill, which was my favorite meal of the trip–lunch was cold beers, raw oysters, fried seafood, gumbo, and french bread.

-Went to brunch at Tacos & Tequila with Grace & Joey. The buffet was pretty good and the complimentary mimosas sure didn’t hurt.

-Took Lentil to the vet for an ear infection. Giving a wiggly kitty ear drops twice per day is quite the task.

-Went to Darius’s parents’ house in Winnie, TX for his dad’s retirement party. Ate good BBQ at the party and went in on a fancy pair of binoculars as a retirement gift. Oh, and there were many cupcakes eaten…chocolate-peanut butter and salted caramel! But for me, the highlight of the weekend was taking the boat out the day after the party, pulling up alongside some wild dewberry bushes, and picking huge bowls of the little gems. We ended up making ice cream with them.

-Drove home from Winnie to discover our house had been broken into and almost all of our electronics were stolen. Thankfully Lentil was hiding under our bed and didn’t run out the wide-open, shattered back door. The last week of May was a blur of getting the door repaired, installing a security system, making a renter’s insurance claim, and waiting for things to get back to normal. People always say they feel violated after something like this, and I honestly always thought, “But it’s just STUFF.” But really, you do feel so violated, and it has nothing to do with what was stolen. My mind was especially filled with worries about them returning and about what they did to Lentil.

-Bought some popsicle fabric to start a summer dress for myself with princess seams and darts and sleeves and zippers, my most ambitious sewing project to date. Started it, but then the robbers randomly stole the pieces of the bodice that I had completed. I’m still confused as to why someone would steal them. Definitely not too happy about it, since it took me six times to get those princess seams right!

-Watched the new season of Arrested Development. We looked forward to it so much, but we were pretty underwhelmed.

-Some favorite meals of the month:

Baked falafel wrapped in collard greens

Coconut & ginger soup with spring vegetables

Baked sweet potato with greens, black beans, fontina, and a fried egg

“Wet burritos” at Casa Ole