American – Page 18

Babies, Events, and Christmas

December 27, 2016 by Mellie Dee Leave a Comment

It’s been a long while since I’ve last updated. Life took hold yet again and I don’t regret it at all! Sometimes you just gotta live so here are some highlights of the past couple months.

I had two blogging opportunities that I keep forgetting to recap. The Tasting Room at City Centre (with Apurva) and Diamonds & Desserts (with Sissy).

I had fun at both and found my promise ring, engagement ring, and wedding ring at Robbins Brothers. Just kidding, I am not the type of girl that fantasized over getting married and I highly doubt these will be the ones. Nonetheless, it was fun to try them on and spend time with Sissy.

Broseph and SIL finally announced to the world about their pregnancy and Sissy and I threw a family baby shower. I will be Auntie to a little baby girl in February!

Mallory and John welcomed their bundle of joy this year. Look at that face!! I cannot wait to see him grow up!

Speaking of babies, Wacko and Monica’s little Emma is to be born any day now! Eeep! So excited. So many babies!!

Bombay Grill
1852 FM 359 Rd
Richmond, Texas 77406
(832) 595-9400
http://bombaygrilltx.com

I tried Indian food for the first time since I last almost threw up and … I survived and even ended up liking it more than I thought I would. It takes a while for the food to make but it’s worth it and we’ve been back a second time since then.

I’ve never truly made Scruffy a full meal since other people were always around and I was afraid of the critique. I found an opportunity one week and voila! He told me it tasted really good so … I’ll take his word for it.

Scruffy’s favourite band, Rebelution, played at the White Oak Music Hall which was a whole new experience for me. You could definitely feel the love of music that night.

Scruffy, Jamie, and Ashy accompanied me to Via Colori. Artwork was done with chalk on a sidewalk. It has always been on my list of things to check out so I’m happy that I was able to finally go. These people are hella talented!

I was able to attend Scruffy’s work Christmas party at Backstreet Cafe. This has always been on Apurva and I’s list of places to hit but never had a chance to. The food is pretty good but it’s not a place that I will crave to go back to.

Christmas this year was super busy. On the 23rd, Scruffy’s intermediate family met up for food, white elephant, and saran wrap ball game. On the 24th, we drove up to Dallas for my immediate family for some all you can eat Korean BBQ, gift opening, games, dinner, and baby room reveal before driving back down. On the 25th, Scruffy’s immediate family had breakfast and gift opening in the morning, and at night, my intermediate family had dinner and gift opening. We are both all Christmas’d out!

We also went to Colorado for a weekend getaway but I’ll do a recap in the next post.

When San Antonians Visit Houston

September 8, 2016 by Mellie Dee Leave a Comment

Friday, August 12th

Patricia, Amy, and Travis drove down after work from San Antonio to Houston to visit me that weekend. When they arrived, Scruffy and I met them at BJs for a few drinks before heading to our reservations at

Uncle Julio’s
20526 Katy Fwy
Katy, Texas 77450
(832) 464-8930
https://www.unclejulios.com/locations/katy/

Scruffy and I shared a taco plate since we ate previously. The food wasn’t that great but we weren’t really there for the food. We’ve seen a video passed around on Facebook about a dessert so we decided to try it out.

Uncle Julio's | Katy, Texas | Patricia & Chocolate Pinata

Patricia pre-pinata batting

The famous Chocolate Pinata [filled with homemade mini churros, fresh fruit and berries, served with raspberry, chocolate and caramel sauces and house-made whipped cream] | $25.

The best dessert I’ve had in forever. So freaking good. The churros were still crispy even though it was mixed with the fruit inside the pinata. And I never knew I could love tempered chocolate so much.

We said our farewells while they headed to their hotel to check in while Scruffy and I hung out for a little while back at my house before calling it a night.

Saturday, August 13th

I woke up bright and early and made my way to their hotel. I hung out with the girls for a bit before waking up Travis and headed to our $20 Houston Restaurant Week lunch reservations at

The Grove
1611 Lamar Street
Houston, Texas 77010
(713) 337-7321
http://thegrovehouston.com

Once we sat down, we were presented Salted Peanuts | free. They were pretty good and I wish we had more.

FIRST COURSE

I gobbled up the Deviled Eggs [smoked salmon, picked corn & chilies, rooftop dill, pickle juice vinagirette] in seconds. I wish there was more of this as well. I’ve never really been a big fan of deviled eggs since it’s ususally just mayo but this changed my outlook. Deviled eggs do not need to have mayo!

SECOND COURSE

I only ate the inside of the Crispy Chicken Sandwich [Tabasco honey, slaw, pickles, mayonnaise, seasoned fries] and it was delicious. Plus nothing can ever go wrong with fries!

Discovery Green | Houston, Texas | Photoshoot

Top: Patricia, Me, Amy Bottom: Patricia, Travis, Me, Amy

We walked around Discovery Green and took some pictures in front of the colorful buildings.

We were mostly walking around Discovery Green to catch Pokemon as was everyone else in the world. Travis and Patricia were very into it and we ran into this billboard with rules for Discovery Green. Too funny and a little sad.

We ran into this gorgeous piece of art. I’m in love and wish I can have something like this up on my wall one day. Sigh … someone make me one?

We then went to drop off Patricia’s car at Sissy’s to save money since I planned to stay over at the hotel. Afterward we stopped for a coffee break at

Tout Suite
2001 Commerce Street
Houston, Texas 77002
(713) 227-8688
http://toutsuite.co

Trying to be artsy with Amy’s espresso and the macarons Patricia bought for the girls. Since she didn’t get Travis one, I gave mine to him instead.

Tout Suite | Houston, Texas | Mellie Dee & Travis

Me & Travis

Amy got this picture of me while I was taking pictures of the food while Travis ignored the girls being girls talking about random crap.

We planned to go to the brewery but realized it was going to close in a few minutes so I took Amy and Travis back to the hotel so that they could take a nap. Then Patricia and I went to the Galleria since she needed to get another shirt. Someone didn’t pack enough clothes. haha

Me, Amy, Patricia

Along the way plans changed and I went to drop Patricia back off at her car while she drove back to the hotel and I went to go pick up Sammy up before heading to the hotel as well. We all pregame while getting ready before heading to our reservations for dinner at

Arcodoro
5000 Westheimer Road
Houston, Texas 77056
(713) 621-6888
http://arcodoro.com

They had a Houston Restaurant Week menu but we weren’t a big fan of it at all so we all ordered off the menu a la carte.

Bread | free was very dry even with the olive oil. I wasn’t a big fan.

Scruffy and I shared the Carpaccio di Manzo al Tartufo [paper-thin slices of raw beef filet mignon topped with creamy black truffle dressing & micro greens] | $15 which was so freaking good. I wish we ordered more of these and just kept eating it until we were full.

Arcodoro | Houston, Texas | Travis, Amy, Patricia, Mellie Dee, Scruffy

Group Picture: Travis, Amy, Patricia, Me, Scruffy

Mum texted asking for a picture of the group. She’s met everyone but Amy and wanted to see how much the other two has changed since she last saw them.

We also shared the Paella Sardinian Style [Fregula simmered with saffron lobster stock & a medley of scampi, shrimp, mussels, clams, calamari & sea bream fillet] | $42 which wasn’t as great as the one Scruffy and I had at Fernando’s. We were pretty disappointed especially with how much it cost.

Arcodoro | Houston, Texas | Mellie Dee & Scruffy Selfies

Me & Scruffy being sillies

I know he’s not a big fan of pictures so I’m always delighted when he gives in and takes any kind of picture with me.

The fellas wanted to go to a piano bar and since we wanted to stay close by, Scruffy found

Caps Piano Bar
2610 Briar Ridge Drive
Houston, Texas 77057
(713) 784-0024
http://capspianobar.com

Online, it states it’s an older crowd and well … they weren’t lying. The crowd was over the hill and the drinks were very expensive. I asked for water and all they had was bottled water for five dollars. Scruffy didn’t know what to do so he still got it for me and the rest of the night, we made fun of the expensive Ozarka water. I guess it wasn’t too bad since we did receive two bowls of popcorn. Mmm … I love popcorn.

They chugged their drinks and we headed to a place where it was more our age.

Richmond Arms Pub
5920 Richmond Ave
Houston, Texas 77057
(713) 784-7722
http://richmondarmsonline.com

We played trivia and had some random conversations which is pretty much all I ask for when I hang out with my friends. After a while, Patricia ordered a Basket of Chips [aka fries] | $4.50 and Scruffy ordered Fried Mozzarella [6 fried cheese sticks served with marinara] | $7.50 for everyone at the table which was perfect since our dinner wasn’t all the best.

Richmond Arms Pub | Houston, Texas | Mellie Dee & Scruffy Selfies

Me & Scruffy

We headed back to the hotel and hung out a little longer playing Never Have I Ever which sparked a lot of questions. haha Soon after, Scruffy and I headed home. Having Scruffy interact and fit in with my friends makes my heart so happy.

Sunday, August 14th

After a great night’s sleep, I woke up and drove back to Katy to meet the fellas for brunch at Dish Society.

Kickin’ Kombucha Grapefruit | $5.50 and Quinoa Stuffed Avocado [a whole avocado topped with citrus quinoa relish on organic greens] | $9

After sharing our weekend adventure story recaps, we said our goodbyes. They headed back to San Antonio and I headed back to Scruffy’s house where we brewed our own beer.

I always want to move back to San Antonio whenever I hang out with anyone from San Antonio which makes me start debating if I should look for jobs there. Sigh … decisions.

2016 Summer Getaway | Day 1

August 9, 2016 by Mellie Dee 4 Comments

On Tuesday, the 26th, Scruffy came to my house for dinner and to pick me up so I can sleep over since our flight was at 7:30 AM and his house was closer. The rain kept pouring down so we were worried about delays.

We woke up ~~bright and~~ early and tried our best to keep the noise down since everyone was still asleep. New place, new adventures, new memories. We were tired but excited about what’s to come.

He says that every time he flies early, he gets a taco from Pappasito’s so once we got through security, breakfast was served.

Two barbacoa, egg and cheese tacos, please.

Since rules state to come two hours before liftoff, we had a bit of waiting to do. Luckily, nature worked with us and made sure our departure was on time.

Me & Scruffy on our aircraft

While on the aircraft we tried to sleep, plan dinner, and got frustrated that we could not stream any of the shows we wanted to watch after paying eight dollars for WiFi. Ugh, waste. Thank goodness for previously loaded games on my iPad while Scruffy watched live telly on his iPhone.

We finally saw Mount Rainer (?) out of our window which meant we have arrived in Seattle!

Snow-capped mountains, I want to climb you.

Once we landed and retrieved our luggage, we called for an Uber. Uber at the Seattle airport is on point. Organized with designated places for pick up and drop off!

Our Uber driver dropped us off at our AirBnB, a super old building which made us felt as if we’d fall through the ground. They even have an old elevator system where it uses a hinged door and gate – creepy.

Our windows were all nailed shut from the outside which makes me wonder what happens during an emergency. One of our windows had a crack with a tube coming out for air conditioning.

We ran into a weed shop, Herban Legend, on the way to Pike Place Market. It still boggles my mind that weed is legal in some states.

Pike Place Market was filled with people. We totally forgot it was touristy, summer time which meant long lines everywhere.

We went to look at the ocean view and it was surprising how many people were just sitting there enjoying the sun.

A man stole bottles of Jack Daniel’s under his jacket, dropping them all to the floor when the cops caught him while another kid was sitting smoking pot.

As we searched for the famous chowder place, we got stuck inside the Public Market. There were little shops where artists sell their work on one end like jewlery and paintings.

On the other end were little food stands and the seafood market. The seafood was huge! I am jealous of everyone who gets this goodness all day, every day.

The chowder place was packed with a full line so we ended up at

Rub With Love Shack
2010 Western Ave
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 436-0390
http://rubwithloveshack.com

Braised Pork Sandwich [pork rub, slow-cooked pork, roasted garlic aioli, swiss, pickled red oinion, romaine lettuce] | $10.50

We’re from Texas and should have known better and knew it was a mistake right when we saw it. We shared it and couldn’t even finish it since it was making us feel sick.

We walked around for a bit and somehow ended up at

The Fishermans Restaurant and Bar
1301 Alaskan Way
Seattle, Washington 98101
(206) 623-3500
http://thefishermansrestaurant.com

Scruffy ordered a beer and was given free Bread and Butter. Sourdough is his least favourite so he tried his best to eat a bit of it.

I ended up getting a Clam Chowder [Northwest recipe featuring hearty clams, tender vegetables, and sweet cream] | $6/cup

Clam chowder is one of my favourite soups in the world so I was in heaven.

Seattle Great Wheel
1301 Alaskan Way
Seattle, Washington 98101
(206) 623-8607
http://seattlegreatwheel.com

Since the Ferris wheel was right next to us, we decided to ride it for $14.90/person.

We were told we would go around three times but it ended up being a good six or so turns.

We didn’t complain though since we were able to snap some great pictures.

Look at this cool guy.

We walked around some stores before Scruffy saw the penny machine and got super excited. We ended up making a Space Needle one. Speaking of which, I still have and need to give it to him.

As we were walking, we saw this beautiful sight. I wouldn’t mind seeing this every day. Sigh. Take me back, please.

Ashy loves antiques so we walked into one to check it out. I was surprised to find vintage Playboys on sale! The ladies look like they were drawn.

We walked back to our AirBnb, changed for a fancy night, called an uber, and ended up at the

Ballard Beer Company
2050 NW Market St.
Seattle, Washington 98107
(206) 783-0179
http://ballardbeercompany.com

Scruffy & I with THE best grapefruit beer EVER

I got the Postdoc Grapefruit Kolsch and he got the Burdick IPA.

The grapefruit beer reminds me of grapefruit juice and I surprisingly loved it! I wish I could ship some back home. So light and refreshing.

We decided to hop to a bar that had appetizers since we were both hungry and ended up at

Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub
2026 NW Market St.
Seattle, Washington 98107
(206) 297-0507
http://kangarooandkiwi.com

I thought it was pretty cool that it’s from an old public library but sad that it means libraries are going out of style.

He ordered a beer and we both shared an Uluru Nachos [corn tortilla chips, melted cheese, black beans, jalapenos, guacamole, sour cream, & salsa fresca] | $5

We made them Aussie Style [top nachos with authentic Aussie-style seasoned ground beef] | $3.

We finally called an uber to take us to our dinner reservations at

Ray’s Boathouse
6049 Seaview Ave NW
Seattle, Washington 98107
(206) 789-3770
http://rays.com

Bread and Butter | free

Scruffy finished it all up. Him and his love for bread …

Puget Sound Mediterranean Mussels [smoked onion butter, herbs, red pepper] | $15

It was a Thai curry type sauce. Mmm … This was easily our favourite dish out of everything we ate at the restaurant. Scruffy even dipped his bread in the sauce because it was just that good.

Seafood Fregola Sarda Pasta [toasted pasta, Penn Cove mussels, Manila clams, Uli’s chorizo, salmon, whitefish, light cream, marinara sauce] | $26

We were both not a fan of this dish. Scruffy’s description is that it tasted like dog food. It was a big let down because fregola isn’t the type of pasta I thought it’ll be. And I agreed it didn’t taste well. I made sure to eat all the seafood though.

Dungeness Crab Cakes [summer squash + zucchini, jasmine rice, herbed lemon yogurt, red pepper coulis] | half $16

He ordered the half which was just right for him since we had nachos and appetizers beforehand and had already decided for light snacking later in the night. He liked his dish enough to finish the crab cakes.

After dinner, we took in the wonderful view while we waited for our Uber. Sigh, perfection … even though dinner wasn’t exactly perfect.

This place, though fancy, didn’t meet my expectations and since then, he and I decided to jump around restaurants and pick something small from each one to try out.

We were dropped off at our AirBnb to change into comfy clothes and pulled up Pokemon Go. Seattle is PokeStop city, guys!

As Scruffy looked up some bars around us with happy hour oysters we noticed that Yelp! had added a filter for “PokeStop Nearby.” All I can say is, wow …

Queen City Grill
2201 1st Ave
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 443-0975
http://queencitygrill.com

This place showed up on Yelp! for happy hour oysters. It did disturb me a bit that there wasn’t much people around but we proceeded to order.

He ordered a Hefeweizen while I ordered a Bellini [peach puree married with bubbles] | $8

Six Oysters on the Half Shell | $2.25 each

We could taste the shell on some of them so he wasn’t a big fan of it.

Prawn Cocktail [chilled prawns with a classic cocktail sauce] | $7

Prawn is a different meaning up here, I guess, since it was more like little shrimp. Nothing too special.

We jumped ship to

Rabbit Hole
2222 2nd Ave
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 956-4653
http://rabbitholeseattle.com

where he ordered a beer and we played two rounds of skeeball where we both won once and called it quits and moved over to

Wakefield Bar
2318 2nd Ave
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 770-7824
http://wakefieldbar.com

They didn’t have any food though so we quickly left and oddly bumped into my old college friend, Patrick, on the street. He lived a few buildings down! Small world. I hadn’t seen him in over four years.

Rocco’s
2228 2nd Ave
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 448-2625
http://roccosseattle.com

We stopped here for to-go orders of pizza slices and headed back to his apartment for a quick catch up.

Pizza is always the best late night drunk food regardless of where you live.

Scruffy got a regular pepperoni while I opted for the veggie one. His definetly tasted better than mine but I enjoyed mine nonetheless. I wanted another slice the next night and I don’t even love pizza!

I’ve never tried watermelon wheat beer until that day. It tasted like a light watermelon juice.

After catching up, Scruffy and I bid our farewells and headed back to our AirBnB to recharge for the next day.

Pretty eventful first day if I do say so myself.

Frosty Paws

July 12, 2016 by Mellie Dee 2 Comments

Last week was hella crazy and stressful. Long story short, I ended up with over nine hours of overtime in less than two days for work. Luckily, I finished everything early last Friday and got to leave early.

I went over to The Joint where the chiropractor was shocked by how badly I was aligned. ALL because of work. I felt so much better after.

I went over to Scruffy’s hoping for a nap but ended up going to Wal-Mart, Cici’s Pizza, and Dairy Queen. Cici’s quality is going way down, not that it was ever up to begin with. But their food is all starting to taste the same and the only way you can tell a difference is if they used tomato sauce or Alfredo sauce for the pizza. Thankfully, Dairy Queen made up for it. We both got ice cream cones and I had mine dipped in chocolate. We both only ate the bulb of our ice cream before throwing it out.

That night was also Kenson’s birthday celebration at Crazy Cat Escape Room, the dining room edition then MKT Bar for dinner.

The dining room version was a better-executed room than the one we did during July fourth weekend. All the clues went with one another and made more sense. If we had ten minutes more (or the missing two), we would have escaped with the will in time!

I’m not a big fan of MKT Bar. Overpriced with bad service pretty much every time I come here. I really wish I could love this place.

Rizzo & Rocky

I got the pups some Frosty Paws, peanut butter flavor. Look at their tounges. They shared one and enjoyed it the whole entire time. I’m thinking of making my own since they are expensive.

Rocky

Then this happened. Too cute. Too funny.

Whiskey Cake | San Antonio, Texas

March 7, 2016 by Mellie Dee Leave a Comment

FRIDAY | After a super long drive due to so many accidents on the way, I arrived at Hinee Gourmet Coffee shop drained. I loved seeing this, though. You can put a book down and get a new one to read. After about an hour, Patricia got off work and I headed over to her house where we caught up about life while she got ready.

Thuy, Me, Patricia

FTK was having an Alumni dinner and since I haven’t seen some people in a while (January) I figured I’d show up. I was happy to see some poopies I haven’t seen in forever, one being Andrew. I haven’t seen him in almost a year. I guess having distance away from someone you use to see and talk to every single day changes your point of view of that person. Seeing him and holding a conversation with him was a little weird. But he’s happier and knowing that is comfort enough in my little heart.

Pub Run St Patty's San Antonio, Texas | Hurricanes & Patricia

Me & Patricia

A few of them headed to Top Golf while the rest of us headed over to the Pub Run. This is only my second pub run and I must say that I’m over it. Sorry, Andy, if you’re ever reading this. I’m not about that life. haha

Pub Run St Patty's San Antonio, Texas | Friends

L: Andy, Me, Patricia, Jessica, Christina, Alyssa
R: Me & Andy

But I will say I do like being active for almost five hours. Walking and constant dancing. No one in Houston is down to go dancing with me so that was the main reason I went. Patricia bought me a hurricane and it did nothing to me. And it tasted like toilet water. It wasn’t good at all. Ugh … waste of money.

We ended at Kremlin where we danced non-stop. I had to take a picture of this because it was just too pretty.

SATURDAY | I planned to head home but they wanted to do brunch before I left. So …

Whiskey Cake
15900 Via La Cantera #21200
San Antonio, Texas 78256
(210) 236-8095
http://whiskeycakesa.com

Benedict [slow roasted pulled pork, local sunny side up eggs, toasted baguette, farmhouse tomato, smoked chili hollandaise, seasonal fruit] | $11

I liked the runniness of the eggs that covered the baguette to make it soft. The flavours were, meh, for me, so although I like the ambience, I don’t think I’d come back to order this dish again.

Hand Cut Parmesan Fries | ~$3

But I will come back to order like five orders of this, though. It was that good. I wanted to order some on the drive back, but I’m sure my friends would think I’m a fat ass, if they haven’t already.

We started talking about trips again and we found some pretty cheap flights to Aruba around my birthday week so I got super excited. I don’t know if we’d actually end up going and if we do, who all is going with us but it would be pretty nice to go on a friends trip because I need one. If we don’t end up going, I’m probably going to go to Hawaii or something fancy with June. Either way, I’m going on a dang trip this year.

The drive home wasn’t too bad. I actually made it in record time.

I felt pretty bad, though. Thirty to forty minutes into my drive, Jakob texts me and tells me he’s finally free. He was willing to drive to where I was if I wasn’t too gone but I said I’ll just see him when I see him which most likely will be in April.

And on the drive, I kept getting text messages. Andy had mass texted and emailed everyone that we were wanting to go to Aruba. haha Seems like things are flowing to a yes, but we’ll see. We’ll see.

When I got home, I was so pooped. Rizzo climbed into bed with me and cuddled. We slept like that for a good hour plus. I love when he lays on me.

I knew Dad was off so I made sure to come back to have dinner with the family. They let me pick which is a dumb choice because around this time of the year, I’ll always pick crawfish. And surprisingly, they let me get it!

The rest of the night I received text messages from San Antonians to see if I was down to hang out. I forgot to tell them I had already left. I usually stay until Sunday so they were quite bummed. Next time, my loves, next time.

Then it was drinking time with Sammy because that’s all we ever do. I was surprised he asked if I wanted a beer tower. I’ve always wanted to try a beer tower. I mean, I know it’s nothing fancy, but it’s still super cool. I can finally check that off my list! Our server was probably quietly judging us because Sammy says that this is usually for three to four people.

I snapped a picture of this and I got questions on, how do you even drink that? … Because they thought you drink it like you would with a beer bong. haha

SUNDAY | I had a list of things I had to take care of but I was too lazy and tired. And by the time I realized what time it was, I had to get ready. Zuco was throwing Vero a surprise baby shower. And I was super excited for the food. I haven’t had great Mexican food in so long and I knew this was going to be the bomb dot com. (Yes people still say that.) I caught up with their family and played with Ryland and met new people.

Bruno, Kato, Rizzo

I took today off to finish my meal prepping that I started yesterday. And because I just didn’t want to deal with people after such a glorious weekend filled with my loves and cuddling with all the poopies.