Maria's TacoExpress

Yes. We finally went. FINALLY. Its been on our "places to go" list for months!
So my dad was in town and he was going to take me out to eat, and Ryan and I had been planning on eating at Maria's since forever and we felt like today was the day..soo.. I was like...lets go with my dad. And we went.

It was not that crowded, surprisingly. Which we were kinda weirded out by since its a saturday night! But maybe...people were at the game? i dont know. Anyway, we ordered a whole bunch of tacos. And to tell you the truth, I wasn't impressed. My family and family friends make better tacos. They were good. Just good.

 But not good enough to make Ryan finish his second taco. ;P (he was full, for the most part lol) So yeah. They look better than they taste. hahah.. I'll let Ryan share his opinion later...

BYE.. Today is homework day, so we're going to the library....
Oh and we finally cleaned Ryan's apartment. Feels much better now... MUCH. MUCH. Except for the fact that there is no A/c or anything so it gets really hot in here. :/

BYE again

Just for fun...

Ryan thinks its creepy. I don't blame him. but he can suck it! ;P Wish it were of me anyway, but Nooo..Cause Ryan never takes the pictures..... Clearly pictures (read: i'm) not important to him...

ANYWAY

And because my job isn't done yet...lets creep him out somemore..

RYAN RYAN RYAN RYAN RYAN RYAN RYAN

ALESSANDRA AND RYAN

ALESSANDRA AND RYAN

RYAN AND ALESSANDRA

OMG I LOVE RYAN

RYAN AND ALESSANDRA AND BABIES

HAPPY Ryan?

>)

Well, luckily i take pictures of myself occasionally...

ignore the scared chicken look ;P

When hunger STRIKES!

Went to my one class. Ryan went to his three. (sucks for him ;P) did some laundry, and boy did i work up an appetite!! That peanutbutter sandwich did not suffice! So Ryan then picked me up and since he was hungry too we went straight to cooking!

And yes, it was his idea. And yes, we were supposed to have it last night, but my gumbo quesadilla kept us quite full! ;P

So here it is people! Chicken and Mushroom Pasta! With lots of butter, and lots of love...

MORE PICTURES!! : ) ...

Me, finishing RYAN'S last bite... LOL

YUMMY : )

We both really liked it! Must make it again..
Oh and Ryan really liked the glass of milk he had with it. It was from the little market we went to yesterday. Organic milk i believe... Really Creamy, and Really Delicious :P

Now back to homework... Yeah, I know, It's friday. But..it's US.

Yay! Something new!

We just got back from a cute little market that sells local ingredients and foods. It was pretty cool. And they had like 6 different types of homemade peanutbutter! But i had to control myself. After all, i still have two containers to finish up...  :P
Ryan was embarrassed by all my picture taking. Yeah. He didn't want people thinking we were like tourists or something. But i told him, Look, its for our blog, man! It is our DUTY to take these pictures!
I rest my case. Your welcome.
It was a good lil trip. We went to HEB afterward just cause it didn't have everything we needed. $12 chicken? I'll pass.
Hey but at least we were able to find parking!!
Well, today was a little weird actually. HEB wasn't as crowded as usual.. Something must be going on.

Ryan was scratching his back. Didn't know i was taking a picture. You should've seen his "wtf" look :)

 Everything there was really just picture-perfect. I woulda taken more pictures, especially of the peanutbutter, spice, and grain selection (no bags of flour or rice here! buy it by the pound!) , but i didn't for Ryan's sake. ; P Also because there were employees everywhere. Didn't want to embarrass myself.  I imagine they would think to themselves, "is she seriously taking pictures inside of a grocery store? who does that?"

Anyway. Dinner tonight: Garlic Chicken and Mushrooms over Angel Hair Pasta
Oh and for snack, we had leftover gumbo in a Quesadilla. It was actually pretty tasty! I made homemade tortillas for it since we didnt have any. : ) Being a foodie comes in handy, I tell ya.

So, should've mentioned this a few days back, but ... WE NEED TO CELEBRATE!! Why? Because Ryan is eating a lot more! and i loveee it. Makes me feel like less of a fatass, too.  :)

Nothing Too Adventurous Lately

Just ALEKS (on ryan's part, boy was he douchy during it too) (i love you babe!)
Homework
Sleeping
Eating
The usual.
So this morning in my piano class i almost fell over from my bench. And had two kids laugh at me. You know what i call that? I call it normal. That's my life. pretty much.
We had meatloaf for dinner. It was delicious. I forgot my camera though. The ketchup topping was rockin' as always.
And, other than that, nothin' much lately.

Can't wait for a new cooking project!
The apple cake I made got a little stiff....
{edit 1/28/2011: Here's a pic of it. Didn't have my camera at the time of the blog

So i need to make something else...I love zee kitchen!  ;P

Lovely

My mormon past haunts me. But not in a super negative way or anything. It's quite odd. A couple years ago, I would have had more legit reasons to be angry. I was forced to go to an early morning seminary, with undertones of sexism, homophobia and a tinge of elitism. Not to mention one fourth of my class were being pressured, like me, to go. Though theirs were more fucked up. One got her clothes burned (she had shorts that weren't appropriate you see, the logical step from there is burning). The other, was forced to come, and then teach his younger brothers what he learned, his parents knowing full well he thought the whole thing was bullshit (though he appears to be liking church a lot more now, and I dunno what to make of this). The other just came for shits (and only once, as when she asked questions she was accused of having the devil take her over). So, THEN, I was quite pissed (and justifiably so).

Now, I have less of an excuse. For all intents and purposes, the family drama of my 'falling away' is mostly past. There is no mention of it, but not in the bitter silent feud way, it just doesn't come up anymore. I suppose my parents are cool like that. The other family members (to my knowledge) haven't said anything either (though one did stalk me for a little while).

But recently its been bugging me. I dunno why either. In fact it somewhat disturbs me a tiny bit. Mormons have this saying that "those who leave the church can never leave it alone". Some what in a weird snarky, "clearly we're right, and they know it, but want to slander us".

So yeah, I dunno what do. I want to be pissed and just resign, but at the same time, I have no real justification that I do. Well thats not true, it is diet cult and all, and took 10% of my money (which admitidly wasn't a whole lot, but thats still a couple 1000 bucks that I'll never get back and never know what it was paid for). Not to mention they're really conservative.

But they leave me alone, and it doesn't make two shits of difference if I'm on their 'member list' or not. Besides, they'll just rebaptize me when I'm dead anyways (among other things)

Or maybe this is all satans work, and he's leading me away from gods true church. Probably not, but the programing runs deep man

Last night at Bridget's I saw The Shawshank Redemption (again), awesome, sad, but awesome movie.
Also saw The Family Stone. Don't really have a comment about it at the moment.
Oh and one of Bridget's relatives found her a sofa-chair at the salvation army. A freaky cool one. its for like old people i think. So what it does is it literally, with the help of a remote, helps the sitter out of the seat! The chair practically morphs into this standing wall. Idk. it was crazy cool so i took a picture. I told Ryan about it but he was like "yeah I've seen those..."  Pshh, well I haven't!

Earlier today, after leaving bridget's and getting some burritos, we went over to Academy. We both needed some athletic shoes, and he's in some work-out classes so he needed other stuff too. But i'm pretty sure "Land Sharks" weren't on the list....

"Wheeeeee!" *bumps into shelves*

"What if i rode this to get to my classes?" ; P

He looks so happy! lol

 Oh, but don't you worry, I knew better. Plus I'm pretty sure they were kinda expensive, and kinda for little kids. lol.

And now we're back at his place. It's homework time!

First weekend In atx

Made a delicious Gumbo, served on a bed of white rice.
Went apartment touring. Just by seeing the living room I knew it was better than the current one.
Fingers crossed for Ryan : )
Sleeping over at Bridget's tonight.
Also wondering when the hell Ryan is gonna post something.... !!!

Bye Bye

First Day of Spring Semester

For the both of us.
I'm pretty sure mine was less intimidating though. In my accounting class i knew around 10 of the 24 people. Which is typical of stedwards-- you'll rarely go into a class of complete strangers. at least not after the first semester. Small schools, I tell ya...

Then i went to therapy today. Which was brutal. i shouldve kept up with my at-home exercises. I broke more than a sweat and went back to my dorm almost limping, in pain. SIGH.

And so tonight after classes were over and the sun came down, Ryan and I sat down to some dinner.
Some made-up meatballs,  (foodies like myself come up with ideas on the spot) , and leftover mormon potatoes. (well, my version of them)
Ryan and I had no internet that day. So i tried recalling the recipe from the cookbook his mother had, as well as the countless other recipes for it that I scrounged for a year ago. And Voila, it came out perfectly. No measuring cups, or side by side recipes. My only wandering from the recipe was that I added an egg. To be fair, I just couldnt remember if it had one or not. So i said, what the heck? can't hurt it. Also, we crushed up too many cornflakes and I just couldnt bring myself to throw them away. So it had a bit on.

Here are the ingredients I used:     (To my surprise, I was spot on! except for the egg lol)

Half a bag of frozen hash browns (hey, we're college kids!)
1 can of cream of chicken
1/2 cup of sour cream (maybe a little more)
1/2 cup of chopped up onions
1 cup of mild cheddar cheese 
1 egg (optional and unnecessary, but did not hurt the recipe)
Salt and Pepper (maybe a lil too much)
Crushed Cornflakes with 2tbs melted butter

Mix all ingredients together. Pour into pan. Top with Cornflakes and some extra cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 min.  (i honestly didnt even time it either, Im just guessing here)

Leftover potatoes with my mushroom meatballs

Ryan wasn't sure what to have for dinner. So i suggested ground beef. And he said "with what?"
and i was like....nothing? I don't know. And then it hit me! Add a can of cream of mushroom, a dash of paprika for flavor (and worcestershire sauce, at ryan's suggestion), and there you go, mock swedish meatballs.

Oh dear, I've turned our blog into a food post. WHOOPS :/

But in the future, I'll be glad I did this.

Eating even though he wasn't hungry. LOL. He likes to make me happy.

I'll let ryan tell you about his day later...

Alessandra

Back in ATX

So, we both have school tomorrow, and so Ryan felt it was necessary to find where his classes were.
We left his apartment at 3:50, and got back at 6:00. That's two+ hours of walking! non stop! No buses, no bikes. Pure Walking. Yeah, we're kinda tired. But pizza made it all better :)

Also, internet is back! and so is the a/c... Although im pretty sure that means the heater is still whack..but hopefully that gets fixed soon.

Austin before it becomes majorily crowded tomorrow with all the school kids!

I pretty much followed him everywhere. I have little sense of direction anyway. ;P

I guess there used to be a river flowing through. It still looks really cool though.

A turtle eating bread. Yes, BREAD! Crazy.

And now we're chilling/doing hw at his apartment before i leave to my dorm. We're both pretty anxious for tomorrow. I'm probably trembling a little as i type this.... : /
But it'll be fine.

BYE!

"If i have to go back, it'll be because something is wrong!"

The internet went bye-bye. As did the heater in Ryan's apartment.
And then I find out that my textbooks came in the mail after I left for Austin.(and there i was, waiting at the door for hours)
So.. We're back. Just for a night. We should be leaving tomorrow sometime.

But before that, other frustrating things happened.
Around 2 pm we got hungry and decided to hit up Magnolia's for a quick bite.
(ryan's internet guy was due between 8am and 9pm, the home appointment included a very "kind" 15 min notice)
I told Ryan the he should definitely give their pancakes a try. Very good pancakes. And when we get there, well, lets just say we had to squeeze through the door, and then squeeze some more through the crowd. Us and crowds just don't mix.
Next stop, Kerbey. We thought, it can't be as crowded as Magnolia's. No way.
"Table for 2 please"  "Yeah sure, it'll be a 30-35 min wait, by the way"  (umm, internet guy only gives us 15 min notice, 35 min is not happening)
So it seemed like Ryan was about to cry after this, lol, (I think he's emotionally attached to breakfast food. "I just wanted some pancakes :( " he said )
In the end we went to Red River Cafe.
Ryan had heard "things" about it. (not exactly great ones)
But the food was cheap. There was absolutely no wait. And the food was decent. Also he got 2 huge pancakes that were probably bigger than his face. Wish i took a picture....

After that, internet guy came. Gave him bad news. It was 4:30 pm and i said "fuck it, lets go home"

And here we are.

Goodnight,
Alessandra

Break is almost over

One more day for me, and less than a day for Ryan.
We're both pretty excited to go back.
It gets pretty stressful being at home. Mmmm, college freedom. I love it. : )

Anyway, i've been bugging Ryan for about a month to make empanadas, and i finally got it out of my system today. You're all good now, Ryan.
Since Cindy came over I decided I might as well have her help me out. And with the guidance of my dad, we made meat filled empanadas. They weren't entirely authentic to my disappointment. (My dad said it was too much work..so we skipped on about 5 ingredients) But they were still pretty good. Like fried arepas, if you've had arepas.

My glasses definitely make this picture come together, lol

Trying not to fry my fingers

"MMM.. perrrty good" (Ok, maybe i'm pretending she said that)

So while Cindy and my family had empanadas, Ryan had whataburger. The oil content was about the same though. ; P (yes, im a health nut sometimes)  THE DIET STARTS MONDAY, I promise  (doesn't it always?, lol)

OKIE DOKE. LATER... Expect Gumbo pictures soon

Dentist Amendment

For the record, the hot dentist was only there for 5 min. Plus, my mouth was being raped by multiple spiky instruments. And yes, it was pretty awful. I dont floss enough apparently (dont we all have that problem?). So my teeth got abused by a metal spike for half an hour. Fun stuff.

Pappasitios was somewhat disappointing (but still awesome if that makes sense). But a good lunch indeed : )

What an odd day indeed.

Only one more left in Houston, then I head back to Austin to wait for my beloved...

Dentist and Pappasitos

Ryan and I went to Pappasito's today for lunch. I only paid 5 dollars since my dad had given me a giftcard that paid for the rest. Never felt so good about paying for dinner. lol.
And then-
Ryan went to the dentist today, for the first time in a long time.
I waited for an hour and half and read an entire magazine front to back.
He had his teeth violated by a presumably hot female dentist for an hour and a half.
He seems to have been quite a difficult patient with that lip of his.
We were both relieved when it was over.

The end.  : )

What a day

But tonight will be better.... Ryan and I are going clubbing for the first time !!!  Too bad his throat still hurts.
Anyway, PICTURES TO COME.
Before "Clubbing", Ryan got a haircut. I miss his hair, not gonna lie. But he still looks cute.
We also went to the mall because I wanted to get gifts, but i HATE shopping and so i was really annoyed to find out we had been there for 3 hours and hadn't bought a damned thing. And then Ryan got frustrated with me for not letting him wear a tie to clubbing because i was "confusing" him. And i was hungry. You do not want to see me hungry. I'm just not a happy camper. But i did manage to get a dress in the end. And then we went home to get ready for a wild night ;P

Ryan, not cooperating with photos as always. "I was busy!" Sure.

It was a pretty funny night, in more ways than one. First, Ryan misspelled the address (Ryan in the car: I should get credit for at least getting 80% of it right!)(yeah, for sure, i mean he DID get 4/5 letters correct), and we ended up god-knows-where. We really should have taken a picture of the place. It was an area full of warehouses, old homes, tiny roads, not to mention the "club", which looked more like a deserted convenience store, half the size of a regular one. Because it was. And so we find the "real" location, and its about 20 min away.
And then what happens? Well, it looks closed. Because it is closed. NEXT
 At around 12 i want to say (yes an hour and a half of driving) we finally get to the initial club we had planned on.
Our thoughts from inside the car, looking out of the window:

Ale: Wow, those girls looks skanky. I don't know about this...
Ryan: I don't want to wait in a line, in the cold, only to pay the bouncer an extra 20...
Daniel: I don't want to wait in line...
Cindy: It's not THAT bad, we can do this. Let's do this.

Well, we DIDN'T "do this", in fact,  we kept on driving- in silence- and partially in disappointment.
Cindy was NOT happy. I felt bad. I apologized for being a quitter. But I had about three times as much clothes on as the chicks in line, there was no way I was gonna get in without having to tip. Lol. At least i wasn't freezing my butt off.
So we went to IHOP...Which turned out to be not such a bad idea.

I think someone needs a smile coach ;P

Daniel and Cindy= A lot of fun :)

And then Ryan decided to take a video of his crotch without me knowing.  I found out when i got home as i looked through the pics. Really mature, Ryan. REALLY MATURE. This kid has no shame, I tell you.

I also ran into some middle school friends in the bathroom. Really Random. And kind of awkward. I didn't know what to do, so i made some small talk and then said "ok, i'll see ya'll later"... Am i awful? My mom thinks i should've asked for their numbers...but..would that have been weird...? It would seem almost forced. because it is kinda that way.

Anyway, whatever. Real clubbing pictures to come soon. As soon as we actually do it.

Ryan's Personal Best of 2010

I am somewhat odd in the sense that I feel the need to 'rank' things that I saw in the year. I'm never quite sure why, but hey why not? This might come alittle late (as most sites have their top lists done by now) but I figured now would be the time. So here you go, Ryan's top Personal Best of the Year 2010.

MUSIC

Best Discovery

These are basically people I discovered in 2010, but didn't release albums that year

King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King (1969)

The Strokes - What Ever Happened? (1990)

Nirvana - In Utero (1993)

The Kickdrums - Just a Game (2009)

Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do (2009)

... And now, the top 10

10 - Sage Francis - LI(F)E

9 - Broken Bells - Broken Bells

8 - Atmosphere - To All My Friends

7 - The Black Angels - The Phosphene Dreame

6 - Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon II: Legend of Mr. Rager

5- Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

4 - Sleigh Bells - Treats

3 - Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer (a delightfully profane R&B album from the vocal half of Gnarls Barkley, its probably impossible to hate)

2 - Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (some of the group members originated in Houston Texas, making their album about the collapse of the suburbs and how "streets seem to change" all the more relevant to me)

1- Look I tried alright? I really did. I know you wont be surprised. No one is suprised. Its topped every critics list. From Pitchfork, to Rolling Stone. Kanye West and his Dark Twisted Fantasy is quite simply amazingly good pop music. Not rap music mind you (the lyrics aren't THAT good) but the superb music and talent through out makes it the number one. I loved every song.

Top Movies

Because I having trouble ranking all of them, I will only rank the top three, with the rest shown here in list form.

Paranormal Activity 2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

Kick Ass

The Social Network

Toy Story 3


THE TOP THREE

3 - Black Swan (this isn't for everyone mind you (I get the feeling Alessandra will never want to see it again....) but it is still quite good, and is a very good mind fnck)

2 - Inception (just like Black Swan, but without the nightmare fuel. An incredibly original Film)

1 - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (I dunno why this film is not getting the praise it deserves. It barely made its money back in theaters. The Social Network tends to get all the glory regarding accurately depicting our generation, but I believe Scott Pilgrim to be the more accurate film. Mostly because we're not as big an asshole as Zuckerberg is. But in all honestly, the film is hilarious, well written and has superb characters. It deserves better than it got)

And there you go, I think I might continue this whole list thing into a monthy thing if I see/listen to enough movies and music. Until then.

From Dec 28 to Jan 2

At my house, we played a game of connect 4. Now, I could have been in one of the pictures, but sadly my matches lasted but a few seconds. I'm really good at losing, haha. Oh well.

This was a very intense game. Cindy is one tough cookie to beat.

Then later than day, out of boredom, I thought it would be funny to take a picture of Ryan covered in my stuffed animals. : P

"I'm too tired to care" Pretty sure that's what he's thinking, lol

A few days later, after movie night and all. Ryan is feeling sick. Poor Kid. So I give him TEA! With lemon and honey. It's supposed to be good for a sore throat. (or as ryan spells it, "sour" throat, lol)

But I don't think he liked it, haha. He's just not used to it. Am I a bad influence on him?

"no bueno"

 And since we were taking pictures and all, a picture of us was definitely in order. Except for my little brother LOVES being the center of attention, and so stuff like this ends up happening:

But we're used to it.

Ryan, Sans HAT.

And now we can start blogging accordingly.... :)

The reason for this Blog

So Ryan was awesome enough to get me, an amazing digital camera for Christmas 2010. And because I love him, and the camera, I decided it would be a good idea to start a blog. I mean, I don't know what else to do with pictures anymore, to be honest. We both quit facebook, and have a weird relationship with twitter (don't look at me)..so, Yeah.
Also, it's pretty fun (and funny) to look back at old stuff. And blogs are even better (and funnier) with pictures!

Alright, Here we go.

Oh P.S.
I woulda started this blog on the 1st (which were my intentions, really) but it just didn't work out as planned. But I will tell you this, we had a movie night at Ryan's parent's house, with my best friend and his best friend. So it was good fun. : )
Just to recap for the blog, we saw Kill Bill Vol. 1, some of Coyote Ugly (it was awful this time around), some of Beauty Shop, and Scott Pilgrim (still super hilarious! we should discuss this later..)


Yours truly,
Alessandra (<the girl who uses way too many parentheses when she writes)