I really need to get into the habit of taking my camera with me everywhere I go – I used to be good at it, I used to bug the crap out of people at home all the time cause I used to take pictures everywhere – I’ve gotten terrible at it over here.  D’oh!

Anyways, it’s been a while since I wrote a blog.  Partly cause I’m waiting to get my pro-pictures back to tell you about the rest of our wedding adventures and partly cause I’ve gotten so awful at taking pictures so I wait til I have a few days worth of fun to report before I write about it and finally, not to mention cause I’ve just not felt like writing *gasp*.

My mood has been somewhat somber lately and the creative juices just haven’t been flowing. However, I figure I need to document what’s been going on – soon, before my awful memory fails and I get so far behind that it’s just not even worth it to try and remember what’s happened with us over the last month or so.

Not Friday past, but the Friday before, came the long-awaited release of the newest Harry Potter movie (Part I).  Magz, Sam, Emily and Luke had all signed up to make a night of it and although Col would rather gouge his own eyeballs out than watch any of the HP movies – he agreed to come with us so I wouldn’t be a 5th wheel!

We started the night with a lovely dinner in Olive Garden, or, as I mentioned in the title ‘Bolive Marden’ – which is where Col used to say he was having lunch at work so as not to ‘upset’ me when he went out for lunch to Olive Garden without me – depriving me of those breadsticks just isn’t fair! LOL! (in joke!).  I tried something new, I had the tilapia and it was delicious! My only complaint would be that it was all very dry, no sauce, just fish and pasta – could have done with a little something else in my humble opinion – but, Magz did get me crayons to play with during the meal which was fun!

After dinner, 8 of us (2 of Magz and Sam’s Flyball friends) headed into the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to see the movie. 

I’d never heard of this place before, but I came to quickly learn that there’s a ‘no kids’ rule at this cinema – and, not only that, but they also serve you food and drink while you watch.  Yup, it was one of *those* theatres and it was good fun!

It was small, quaint and it has the BEST list of upcoming shows – EVER!!

Take this one for example, http://www.drafthouse.com/westoaks/shows.php?id=643, Ladies of the 80’s sing-a-long? Are you kidding me?! Does that not sound like the most fun you’ve had in a long time?

A Zoolander quote-a-long, free showings of Glee every Tuesday night at 7pm, Tough guy cinema viewings (December’s movie is ‘Die Hard’) and regular free showings of ‘Top Gun’ where you can text in messages that come up on the screen during the movie.

Seriously, it’s just that cool!

Not much happened during the film itself, it was somewhat disappointing, a lot of huff and puff and resulted in Magz, Emily and I agreeing to meet up again next year – whether we’ve transferred from Houston or not – to watch the conclusion.  It was a good night all the same, they’re such a great group of people and we’ve all resolved to start seeing each other as a group more often!

Saturday kick-started my romantic Houston getaway with Col.  Our friends Paul and Lynsey gave us money as a wedding gift, while they were here, I’d talked to them about what I wanted to do when everyone had left after the wedding -take Col to a nice hotel for a night or two and just have a de-compressing weekend of relaxation and fun.   They told us to the money they gave us for exactly that – and, not wanting to feel the McKee-wrath, we did just what we were told! LOL!

Col pricelined a 4* hotel, chose a restaurant for us to have dinner in, we packed a bag and headed off on our merry way once we’d gotten up and gotten organised. 

Our first stop was Ghengis Grill for lunch – a place I discovered on one of my first trips to visit Amber.  It’s a great place to eat and if you’ve not been there before, it’s a Mongolian Grill, you go, get a silver bowl, fill it with a variety of raw meats and vegetables, pick your carbs (rice for me, noodles for Col) and watch a guy cook it on a huuuuuuuuuge hot plate with bamboo sticks. 

Although Col was reticent to begin with (as he tends to be with most of my ‘I went here with Amber’ places), as you can see from the picture – he got over it fast! LOL!

When we were done with lunch, we checked in at the hotel (and while I don’t want to complain too much, 4* was definitely an overstatement!), we settled in, took a nap, watched some TV and before long it was time to head out to go eat dinner!

Col hadn’t told me before we got there where he had in mind and when we were pulling in to the carpark, I got excited!

None other than the ‘Melting Pot’, a fondue restaurant that I’ve heard a bit about from a few people.

We walked in and asked for a table for two – the guy asked if we had a reservation, Col said ‘no’ and the staff kind of looked at him, like, ‘Are you serious?’.  He said that the wait was an hour and a half for a table and asked Col if he was there for any special occassion.  Col replied that he wasn’t – it was about here when I elbowed him in the ribs and said, ‘yes, we just got married’, and with that, the host informed us that there’d be a table available in 15 minutes.  He said it’d be a ‘noisy’ table as it was close to the kitchen, we said we didn’t care and he told us to wait in the bar – where, I discovered the joys of their cocktail menu.

I asked for a Pomegranite cosmo (above), it was absolutely fantastic – like seriously out of this world delicious! While we were waiting for our table we got to see the bartenders making just about every drink on the menu – it’s definitely a popular spot for cocktails.

I ordered a second cocktail just in time for our table becoming available – this time it was a Strawberry basil lemonade (real strawberries, basil leaf, strawberry vodka and lemonade) which was equally as divine as the first one.  We had pretty much already made our selection, so we got to ordering sharpish.

For our first course, we had the ‘Cheddar Cheese’ fondue, 2 cheeses blended together with lager and garlic – when I say blended, I mean it’s made table-side.  The server makes the fondue right under your nose! It was great!

Our dippers were a selection of breads, fresh raw veggies and granny smith apple – yes, apple.  I know, it sounds gross – but it was delicious!

Second course was a salad – which had egg and a surprisingly yummy peppercorn ranch dressing, both Col and I were impressed at how delicious the salad was – especially given how neither of us are particularly ‘salady’ people.

Course number 3 was what you’d describe as the main course,

I ordered their, ‘Pacific Rim’ which consisted of teriyaki-marinated sirloin, white shrimp, citrus-marinated pork tenderloin, breast of duck, breast of chicken and potstickers and Col ordered the ‘French Quarter’ – and for him? Filet mignon, breast of chicken and shrimp all seasoned with Cajun spices and served with Andouille sausage, it came with more veggies and some potatoes.  You pick your broth (we picked the court bullion), you spear your food and you cook it yourself while your first two courses settle.

The meat was great quality, the flavour was immense and it was fun to do!

Dessert was by far my favourite bit of the night (ok, maybe a tied first with the delicious cocktails) it was a chocolate – yes, you may have guessed it – fondue! *Drools*

We chose the ‘Chocolate Smores’, milk chocolate topped with marshmallow cream, flambéed and garnished with graham cracker pieces…the dippers this time were fresh strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, Rice Krispies Treats, marshmallows, pound cake and brownies…it was like heaven! I swear, I was full, but could have eaten that all night!

The meal took something like 3 hours, but you don’t notice the time passing.  It’s fun and quirky and the food is definitely yummy!

When dinner was home (I’ve been informed to casually leave this part out of my story), we headed home – it’s not a long drive, but our reasons for going home might amuse some of you…we forgot our lion cub Lenny! LOL! And the bottle of wine we were going to take with us, but mainly the cub – and last time we forgot him, his daddy told him it was my fault and he was picking on me for weeks! It was a nice drive though 🙂

When we got back to the hotel it was just after 11pm, Col poured us some wine, we climbed into bed in our pjs and we bought the Expendables on the hotel tv system.  It was such a fun and romantic night and the movie itself was better than both of us expected it was going to be! It was perfect!

Col did end up pacing on the balcony at 4am cause he was too hot, the AC unit wouldn’t cool below 71F and he was about to jump in the car and drive home to his cool house but that aside, it was a great night!

Sunday brought with it hockey – a ‘Bring your dog to the game’ night, I went home wanting a puppy, and had our landlady not have banned us from having pets, chances are I’d have gone home with one.  12 dogs were adopted that night…I’d have made it my lucky 13 😉

On the way home we stopped off in Panda Garden (when we eventually found it – due to my shoddy directions) with Magz and Sam for dinner, a quick hello to the doggies and home for a night of watching ‘Rescue Me’ on the sofa.

All in all I’d say that made for a pretty freakin fantastic wedding gift from the McKee’s and Col and I are both seriously grateful to them cause it was WAY too much. 

I did try and give them the money back, but Mr McKee discovered weird and wonderful ways to leave it in the house without me knowing…like putting it inside a yankee candle jar for me to discover when my ‘in use’ yankee candle ran out and then he put it on the ceiling fan blade, so the next time I turned on the fan, the money would fly all over the place like it was raining money! LOL!

We miss the McKees and are sad we didn’t have more time with them, when Col and Paul were together I saw something in Col that I’ve not seen before – and, not to mention, Paul kept Col on his toes during SingStar – which is always good! hehe!