galveston + depeche mode = happy bells

we had a weekend filled to overflowing with good times. we scored a deal on tickets to Schlitterbahn Galveston a few months ago and had been looking forward to stealing away to check it out. thanks to my frequent Super 8 hotel stays in the metroplex I'd accumulated a free night at any hotels.com participating hotel, so we decided to make it an overnighter and got online to book a room at the historic Hotel Galvez. it was really nice and a lot of fun (and even nicer to have gotten such a sweet deal). when we got there Friday afternoon, we took a little tour around the place and then crashed on the luxurious bed and turned off our brains for awhile. we had dinner reservations at Guido's Seafood Restaurant, which was wonderful, and then went back to the hotel to relax in their outdoor hot tub and watch lightning periodically light up the coastal sky. special thanks to the Bells for generously keeping our animals so we could go away and play this weekend.






that last shot somehow came out all hazy and dreamy like that... I like the old-fashioned vibe of it.


on Saturday, we headed over to Schlitterbahn. there's still so much of Galveston to be healed/re-built/developed, but I have to say when we drive around I can't help but notice all of the wonderful older houses and how much it reminds me of New Orleans... I hope what's there is able to be renovated and preserved, rather than torn down. the water park was super fun... a great size, plus it wasn't too hot or crowded. we liked a lot of the slides, tube, and raft attractions, but our favorite thing might have been the Torrent River. like the Lazy River, except not so Lazy. they smartly built the park so that there's a heated indoor season through December and then picking up again in March, and we'd definitely like to go back with friends/family.






we were back for church Sunday morning, then, last night, we drove up to the Woodlands to see Depeche Mode. my husband loves this band, and spent the afternoon eagerly preparing for and anticipating this long-awaited show. observe:





I offered him contributing writer space here to share a bit of his feelings about DM, so we'll see if that pans out. he didn't actually wear the above ensemble to the concert.

I can say that I enjoyed the show a lot - we staked out a central green space on the hill and Peter Bjorn & John opened. Depeche Mode had a sincerely awesome technical show... no joke, it was so flipping cool and really made the concert a totally different, visual experience. the best part, though, was seeing my husband completely enjoying himself. that's his good friend S.C. in the photos... this was their fourth or fifth DM show together. and I'm wearing an old DM concert t-shirt that Michael got from some chick back in the day. :)







here are some fun video snippets, to give you an idea of how cool the screens were. RAD. you can probably hear my husband happily singing along in the background.













that dude waving the cig was very nice, but I confess to gagging a little on his second-hand smoke.


since videos take awhile to upload, I wandered into the kitchen to figure out what we're going to eat tonight. we're not 'out' of food, but the vittles are thinned out enough that, outside of opening a can of soup or popping the last of my frozen waffles in the toaster, putting things together requires a bit more imagination and effort. at times like these, I tend to gravitate toward one of my favorite concoctions: the 'kitchen sink' soup. i.e., soup made of everything but the kitchen sink, or whatever it is you have on hand that needs to be eaten. today's version contains olive oil, a frozen onion/carrot/celery soup starter, an extra half an onion, two zucchini, one small red potato, 2 big cloves of garlic, half a head of cabbage, and chicken broth. it looks mostly green, pretty, and sort of Asian - aside from the little bits of potato - so along with salt and pepper I threw in some chili oil and a dash of soy sauce. I do love to make soup.

oooh, while I'm on the subject of cabbage and potatoes, I made this recipe for Ethiopian cabbage last week. it was incredibly easy and very tasty - the husband gave it his stamp of approval and went back for seconds. the ingredients are all common except for the spice 'turmeric', which I bought and vowed to use in other dishes (we've all been there, haven't we?). I didn't have any carrots in the house and was hoping to find a local option at the store (since I'm on that kick and the internet says carrots are 'in season' year-round in Texas), but all of the pretty carrots I saw were native Californians. so, I left and was resigned to substituting one of the garnet sweet potatoes we already had at the house. on the way home, I happened to think to stop by Kim Hung, a Chinese market on St. Emmanuel over here in the East End, and sure enough there were squat, fat local carrots. not nearly as pretty as the ones from California - I've been told that in this area they'll go bad if you leave them in the ground to grow long - but totally worthy of our Ethiopian cabbage dish. I bought two of them for 42 cents and felt really good about it.

I need to go stir the soup, remove the Nascar coffee cup from my hand (don't like Nascar, love this coffee cup), and clean some house. I'm dragging butt today. we got in a little after midnight from the concert and I boneheadedly stayed up way too late watching 'Dance School: Juilliard'. the cat had to be at the vet for her (hopefully) last checkup/sutures removed/etc. this morning, so I'm operating on less-than optimal energy. but whatever. it was a great weekend and I'm glad for today.

- m.y.

*edit* I'm sorry, but I'm loving this product so much I logged in just to say it.



EO Rose Geranium & Citrus hand soap. thanks, Marshall's, for letting me purchase it in a most cost-effective manner.