Weekend outings!

Hihi! So it appears that the holidays are officially over and I'm back to working full 5 day work weeks. ARGH! I'm gonna be counting down until the next day off which is... I don't even know when. I guess all the more reason to enjoy the weekends even harder.. like this one, for instance! We explored the neighborhood and a few little spots in walking distance from our house.

Friday night we tried out a new spot,  Bitterman's Market Square Bar and Grill. We enjoyed  good, old fashioned hamburgers and cold beers while watching LSU beat the Aggies! (Hooray!) Their slogan is "It's every Texan's right to hold a burger in one hand and a beer in the other!" and I couldn't agree more.

Saturday didn't start off as I would have hoped. Ryan was going to go into work to get a few hours of OT so as we're walking to the car, we see the back windshield is shattered. Of course I start to cry because I'm A) super mad and  B) worried about how much the replacement windshield will cost. We couldn't figure out what happened! There was a small spot that looked like the point of impact, but we couldn't really find anything around the car that would have done it. It wasn't theft because the window was broken, but it hadn't fallen through yet. Were there drunks on the patio that just got a little rowdy and threw something?  Was it a freak accident i.e. a rock that hopped from the interstate or from the roof? I guess we'll never know because there are security cameras on parking garage floors 1 and 2...but not on 3. Funny. (Not funny). SO... to the internet I ran, looking for someone who would come out to my complex on a Saturday afternoon to replace it. I found Xpress Windshield, they found a used but in-perfect-condition back windshield and came out to replace it for 160$ total. (Thank goodness).

While we were waiting for the tech to come over, Ryan and I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and try another within-walking-distance place for lunch. I passed The Broken Spoke numerous times to and from work, but always thought it was a little hole-in-the-wall bar! I thought wrong because it is a fantastic Belgian restaurant that specializes in steamed mussels!! One of my favorites! We had the entire restaurant to ourselves at noon on Saturday but it was quickly filling as we were leaving. I had the mussels a la escargot (steamed mussels in a garlic butter sauce) with a glass of Blanc du Blanc champagne and Ryan had the chicken curry salad sandwich with a St. Arnold. Such a good lunch and a great way to take the sting out of the morning. Below are a few shots of Broken Spoke with it's colorfully decorated walls and ceiling murals.

 

    Sunday we woke up early to go to Trinity Downtown Lutheran church. We've been trying out different churches downtown, seeing which ones we like best. This weekend we went to Ryan's (as he's Lutheran) and next weekend we'll try out St. Joseph (I'm Catholic) downtown. Trinity and St. Joseph are across the street from each other (convenient!) so after Trinity we walked over to St. Joe to check it out and I snapped a few photos of the pretty interior.



After church we met up with Mom, Dad and Pete for a little goodbye-brunch at Mia Bella (a favorite!)  as Peter is moving to Lima, Peru on Wednesday! So exciting. I'm going to set up a blog for him so he can upload photos and stories about his adventures.

Happiest Monday!