Week in Review Wrap-Up

As my husband and I have been busy busy - I haven't been blogging! Shame! Never fear - I'll share with you all that we've been up to.

The most exciting thing of the last week or so was our outing last Saturday. My in-laws took us to see "Spamalot" at the Bass Concert Hall on the UT campus. It was a very fun and silly show. I was glad they brought in the most memorable lines and situations from the movie (killer rabbit, French insults, "the curtains?!," and the flesh wound) and twisted all that in with great musical numbers. I really loved the Lady of the Lake - what a great role to ham up! One other treat of the afternoon was that Richard Chamberlain (yes, the one who was naked in "The Thorn Birds") played King Arthur. His acting and timing were right on, but ol' Richie looks like his aging a little bit in the ol' body. I wouldn't really say he danced, but he moved around some, so that was kind of sad. Another fun thing were the references to other Monty Python works - John Cleese was the voice of God, one song made reference to "suspenders and a bra" and the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was used. In fact, during the bows at the end, the cast led the audience in a sing-along to that song. They also slipped in a location-wise song - during the Knights Who Say Ni bit, when the knights change their name, the end of the name was the entire "Eyes of Texas" (followed by a Patriot Act joke). I was pretty impressed that he sang the whole thing - and audiences love that crap. My one main criticism was that the second act seemed really unfocused and disjointed and then it just kind of ended with a bow on top. It was still a ton of fun, but I was kind of like, "what?" and then it was over. Next month we're seeing "Avenue Q."

After the show we drove out to Steiner Ranch Steakhouse for an early dinner. The unfortunate thing about the Steakhouse is that in Austin people only know of it because a disgruntled employee shot and killed a manager at the restaurant last year. Please, people, don't let this deter you. The food is excellent and reasonably priced (for a high-end steakhouse). We also had dinner at the Steakhouse after we saw "Legally Blonde:The Musical" last month, but I wasn't feeling well. This time, I felt better. The main drawback of this dining experience was our waiter. He was this squeaky guy in his 20's who was just kind of doing his job - no banter or anything like that. Our waiter the previous time was very distinguished, knowledgeable about the menu and wine list, and was very friendly and personable and let us take our time. Daniel - I miss you. Let me tell you about what we ate! Our appetizer was a special of asian lettuce wraps with ground sirloin. Pretty good. Last time we ordered 2 appetizers, one of them involving elk and the other was a spinach-artichoke-sort of hot dish served in a bread bowl. All good. I have ordered the same entree both times - the Pasta Light, grilled shrimp on fettucine in a garlic butter sauce. I really am more of an adventurous eater than that, but I ordered this last time because my stomach hurt, but it was so good I ordered it again. My husband and in-laws have all ordered steak something or others each time and really seemed to be pleased with those. I finished my husband's mashed potatoes and they were delicious. This time we saved room for dessert! I had an apple tart in a fried philo shell with a butter and pomegranate sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream - all very very good. The only drawback was that the tart was deconstructed so it was hard to build that perfect bite of all of the flavors. My mother-in-law ordered white chocolate mousse, smartly served in a martini glass. She let me have a bite and I really liked it. It had the consistency of a good mousse, but with the lightness of flavor that white chocolate provides. My father-in-law ordered the cheesecake and it had a blueberry-Grand Marnier sauce. The portion was huge, but it was gone quickly - I didn't get to try it. My mother-in-law pointed out that the sauce was balanced perfectly between the two flavors. No booze this time, but some good iced tea. I'm sure we'll go back.

Quick thought on "House" this week - this portion will be all about spoilers. House's patient, a nurse at a nursing home, fakes all these symptoms and ailments to be his patient because a cat sat on her desk. This cat is a pet of the nursing home (named Debbie) and if Debbie sleeps on your bed - you die. This had happened with 10 patients - and actually, this story is straight out of the news. The nurse turns out to actually have cancer, so good thing House treated her, right?! This episode addressed a little bit of my frustration from last week, as well as a divine aspect. At one point later in the episode (right around the time House should be making some realization and solving the case), Debbie the cat meanders into House's office and lies down on his laptop. He realizes that the cat is just looking for something warm. The patients all had heating pads - she's not a harbinger of death. The nurse had cancer (apparently cancer heats you). The nurse is glad for the diagnosis and House kind of comes in to gloat, I suppose. The nurse maintains that all of this has happened for a reason, and of course, House is incredulous and dismissive. She states something along the lines of, "don't you find it interesting that Debbie chose to lie on your computer at that exact moment?" That is how I feel each episode - isn't it fortunate that Wilson said something while they were in the city visiting Wilson's mentally ill brother? and so on and so forth. Is the show implying that God has a hand in House's work? Probably not. BUT it was interesting to me!

That's it for now. There may not be a new post until next week - it's going to be a great and busy weekend!