Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Life Since Texas: an Overview

In Texas today it is 24 degrees and here in Calgary it is -24 degrees. It's a good thing we have such wonderful friends and family to come back to otherwise we might have just stayed in Houston. Speaking of Houston, I never did post about our drive home or anything that has happened since so here are some highlights:

1) On our drive to Calgary we stopped at this crazy restaurant in Amarillo called the Big Texan Steak Ranch where they are famous purveyors of the "Free 72 oz Steak." I think "free" is a bit of a misnomer in that the steak is only free IF you can finish it along with a baked potato and salad in one hour. If not, you have to pay a dollar for every ounce (i.e. $72). I had no interest in eating a 4 pound hunk of meat so we steered clear of that vomit inducing entree; however, apparently there were/are some people out there who find this activity appealing, including a 69 year old grandmother (the oldest person to finish the meal) and 11 year old boy (who was the youngest to finish). The current champ happens to be a World Hot Dog Eating record breaker, who downed the vegetarian's nightmare in just under 9 minutes. Gross! Russell did look really cute in their complementary hat though and the reasonably portioned steak we ate was delicious.

The windmills that we drove by in Wyoming (at least I think it was Wyoming) were gorgeous. Yay for alternative energy!
2) We arrived safely in Calgary and started figuring out Halloween costumes. Russell already had a spider costume from last year so Ken and I made spider-web shirts and a web pumpkin to match.
3) Then came winter. Russell loves it...we do not! I didn't think I would complain about the cold since it was so incredibly hot in Houston but it is SO COLD!! And I reserve the right to complain about it as much as I desire. Brrrrr!
And that pretty much brings this nutshell up to date. Glad to be back.

Happy winter driving!

-J