Goodbye September, goodbye my love

First off, happy perfect cup of hot chocolate day! This year, we've had to postpone this ethereal holiday due to some lame dieting reasons. It's a sad fact but it's where we find ourselves.

September 2009 is on it's way out, which kinda sounds sad but really it means we're that much closer to Halloween,  not so much sad at all. Here's some random stuff we've been up to:

Right now we're listening to the newest Rancid album, "Let the Dominoes Fall." Candice is in the tub and I'm sitting on our cold, tiled floor. My keister hates me. Both of us are tapping our toes and subtly skankin' to the catchiness that is "Up to No Good."

Candice had a Thai-themed book club party.

We made Thai coconut curry, Thai spring rolls and these gyoza. The gyoza weren't really gyoza at all. The wrapper was actually an egg less cookie dough and the inside filled with either mango or coconut ice cream accompanied by a chocolate dipping sauce. I thought they turned out pretty cute.

Movies we've watched:

John Adams (miniseries)-One of the best series I've ever seen. I loved everything about the films, a must see for all Americans.

Control- The story of Ian Curtis of Joy Division, sad and cool on many levels.

I love you, man- Totally blew, didn't finish it

Valkyrie- Better than everyone told us, Tom Cruise is weird but I thought he did a good job in this film.

Waltz with Bashir- Again, we both liked it. There's something about animated documentaries that's kinda rad.

500 Days of Summer- Pretty clever all around, recommended for sure.

Ballerina- A documentary about Russian ballerinas, story was so so but Candice loved the dancing.

Dieting and Exercising a lot. It's not really paying off but I'm trying. Last weekend I was supposed to eat at least 5,000 calories in 48 hours. I accomplished this task but it was harder than I thought. Here's what I had:

Gumbos-TENDERLOIN GEORGE- Over red wine pepper sauce, topped with sautéed crabmeat & béarnaise sauce, bowl of Shrimp Gumbo

Snooze: Large fresh OJ, BBQ Pork Benny Niman Ranch pulled pork in homemade BBQ sauce, topped with poached eggs, smoked cheddar hollandaise, and diced pickles all atop homemade corn bread.

1 gallon of chocolate milk

Hacienda Colorado: 2 enchiladas, 2 deep fried Chile Rellenos, rice and beans, queso fundido large packet of cinnamon bears

Huge Bowl of Little Man Ice Cream (chocolate and orangesicle) best ice cream in the world

Tommy's Thai- Shrimp and Chicken Pad Thai

2 giant Bismarks filled with raspberry and Bavarian cream, one coconut cake with chocolate icing, 1 quart of milk

Bistro one for Brunch- Croque Madame- Jarlsberg, ham, brioche, champagne cream-large OJ

Vesta Dipping Grill-Spanish, Jalapeno Tuna, Grilled beef tenderloin, buttermilk chive mashers, wild mushroom ragout a bunch of accompanying sauces, none of which were necessary. Sticky toffee pudding with homemade ice cream for dessert.

I gained 10 lbs in those two magnificent days. I lost 7 of those pounds the following day. Crazy I know.

Sewing

Candice is working on an new apron. This isn't the exact one, same style but her fabric is cooler (although I like the one in the pic as well). We'll post a pic when she's finished.

Games I've played

Batman: Arkham Asylum-totally sweet

Call of Duty: World at War- A history lesson, albeit a bada-- history lesson.

TV Shows we use for brain rotting:

Project Runway (we both like)

Top Chef (both)

Biggest Loser (both)

Mad Men (both)

Ultimate Fighter (his)

So, You Think You Can Dance (hers)

Dancin to the Beat

No longer able to take break dancin' classes Candice has enrolled in some much needed lyrical dance classes.

I could go on about books, modeling and other sundries but this post is kinda boring already. Much luv

AUSTIN-IN TEXAS BUT NOT OF TEXAS

Austin is a superb city. We should know, we went there over Labor day. For those of you who might be inclined to think that the capitol of Texas is just another cow-town chocked full of spurs and confederate flags, you need to think again. Well, I guess it is full of cows but they are of the kobe variety and are found underneath thick slabs of foie gras and port wine reductions- which is just how I like em'.

We stayed at the KimberModern, which was delightful and yes, modern. We were lucky to stay at such a rad place because Candice got really sick and we stayed there a little more than we had planned. I actually want to post more pics of the hotel but this post is already going to be unnecessarily long.

What's with Candice posing in egg chairs all the time?

Austin has got to be the airstream capital of the world. Pretty much anywhere you look, you'll see an airstream parked by the road. I can think of no better way to beautify a city but it gets better, they all serve amazing food for cheap a-- prices. We really did see kobe burgers for $7.00 add foie for an extra 2 bones. Just plain silly.

We got some 90 minute massages, shopped until we were stupid and ate like hedonists. You can't see the cupcakes in the box above but trust me, they were there if even for a second.

One cool place we ate at was a hotel called the Driskill. It's an old (1886) cattle baron mansion converted into a fancy hotel.

The food was fabulous and surprisingly low fat.

We also checked out the bats, the experience didn't disappoint. I think the bat colony consists of 1.4 million bats that writhe around in the sky like a black snake-it's amazing.

This pic sucks but you get the idea.

Late night stop to the haberdashery. We also checked out the local music scene on 6th (Austin the live music capital of the world), we were looking for some good rockabilly but couldn't find anything good until...

The weird museum

The unofficial slogan of Austin is "keep Austin weird," the weird museum fulfills this aspiration. You've got side-show spectacles to titillate any morbid curiosities you might have. They have mummys, two headed animals (we're talking taxidermy) and other delights like shrunken heads. The above picture is of real heads that have been shrunken and were once worn around the neck of a victorious Jivaro (an indigenous tribe found around Ecuador) warrior. It's an interesting process going from full size to softball size but I don't want to gross-out our more sensitive readers.

Went to San Antonio for Seaworld with Jonny, Kaylene and baby Laila.

Funnel cakes are manna sent to us from the spiritual realm-Jonny was speechless

If Jonny weren't such a bastion of strength and manliness, I'd easily take Laila for my own, she's my girl.

Yes, I am wearing a ducky baby sling. I'm comfortable with my masculinity. I also used to wear my moms pumps as a boy, what are you gonna do?

We loved Seaworld the whales, the roller coasters but especially the company. We love you guys! Great time. We then got some food on the river walk in downtown San Antonio. The river walk is one of the most charming places I've ever been in the world. Stone arches abound along with huge trees, wrought iron and little nooks with trickling fountains. It's unexpected and I simply love it.

The Alamo, who knew the west had buildings from the 18th century?

To be frank, I was kinda pissed when I found out there is no basement at the Alamo. Liars.

There is another thing you should do while in A-town and that's barton springs. Natural spring pool that has turtles and fish in it. The water is cool and refreshing.

The pasty white thing in the middle is me-not sure if you could tell.

As everyone knows you have to follow up any water activity with ice cream or in this case root beer floats.

Cruised by the capitol

Candice couldn't get in because of her guns, gotta check those next time

Finally, if you've gotten this far, you're patient and beautiful. The whole weekend we used the prius as our trusty steed. It's got more guts than I thought and we averaged like 45 miles per gallon all weekend. The exterior styling could be cooler but the interior is passable and fun.

Next trip New Orleans for Halloween. Muahahah...