Wednesday (14th) we had planned on leaving Sugar Land around 11am, however, Col’s meeting ran late, so we didn’t leave til a little later.

To keep up the ‘eating out’ momentum, for lunch, we decided to stop at Cheddars casual cafe.  I’ve mentioned it a couple times before, we happened upon this place by accident, it’s always jam-packed, it’s ‘cheap as chips’, tasty and we’ve never had bad service.

Today didn’t disappoint, for real – yes, I said for real!

We had Maurice again as a server (we’ve had him once or twice before) and our dining experience was smooth as silk (ok, I may be exaggerating a little, but these days good service isn’t something to be sniffed at!).

The portions were huge (as always!), the service was so good Helena even mentioned to Maurice that it was the best dining experience she’s had since she got to Houston (he was much obliged at the compliment!) and from there, it was off to the Outlets in San Marcos!

We arrived in the Outlets around 4.15pm, where we shopped til 9pm, we pretty much hit pay-dirt.  We don’t normally buy stuff for ourselves, however, our boot was full by 9pm!

Helena’s main hits were Timberland, Hollister, Abercrombie and Tommy Hilfiger we picked up some things from The Childrens Place, I spent my Christmas money from my parents in the Le Creuset store (see my goodies below), I bought some clothes for myself in Tommy Hilfiger and Lane Bryant, Col hit up Eddie Bauer.

Let me take a quick moment to blabber on about Le Creuset… I have fallen head over heals in love, I have a few pieces by Le Creuset, a utensil crock, a basting brush a couple of their new spoon/spatula type things, a pot stand, I also have a mish-mash of a few bakeware dishes (not in cobalt blue, one is a red colour and 2 are lilac) but I’ve never owned a piece of ‘proper’ Le Creuset and have only recently decided that my ‘colour’ is going to be their Cobalt Blue range (in spite of the fact I LOVE their dark purple and may just embibe on occasion just cause it’s so beautiful!).

I’ve always lusted from afar, I *do* have a Martha Stewart dutch oven that we got for a wedding gift, but I swear, Le Creuset is allllllll over my wishlist – honest!

I know a lot of people don’t ‘get’ spending so much on a pot, or a piece of cookware or whatever, but, to me, Le Creuset is the next person’s Coach or Hollister.  As a big cooking fan, I only ever want the best tools and equipment to use in my kitchen and every time I see a Le Creuset shop, I drool on the footpath outside and leave dirty paw prints on the windows!

Here in the states, Le Creuset is a little more expensive than at home, but I had a little ‘wad’ of cash to spend from my parents for Christmas so I decided to treat myself! Originally I wanted to buy a lot of little things, the spoon rest, the butter crock, a whisk etc but Col quickly stopped me in my tracks, informing me that this was, pretty much, my big chance to score a ‘proper’ piece of Le Creuset stuff.

I had to agree with him, so, after to-ing  fro-ing and about an hour in the shop, I finally settled on my two pieces.  I picked up a 3.5Qt braiser (which a lot of people use as a frying pan as well as a casserole-type pot as you can cook in it on the hob and then put straight in the oven!), the other piece that caught my eye, was in the clearance section.  They have brought out new ‘tea kettles’ kind of shaped like a bell, which means the ‘old’ ones are ‘out of date’ but it was on clearance for a good price (and will work GREAT if we ever get a gas stove again!)

They also had a spend $100 or more, get 25% off – so it was pretty much win, win (plus it was cheaper than I could have gotten it at home, so bonus!)  I did, however, spend the evening singing, ‘I got a poooooooooooooot! I got a poooooot!’

Helena also treated me to the spoon rest, cause she saw how attached to it I was LOL!!!!

By 9pm, we were totally exhausted, but we were also STARVING, so we drove an exit further and set up camp for dinner in Texas Roadhouse.  This place rocks! For starters, you get to chuck peanut shells on the ground, yes, I know that sounds like a crazy thing to like about a place, but I kinda like the fact that you can be a slob, in public, and not be judged for it! haha!!

The food was delicious, we ‘just’ had a main course, but by American standards, that’s often more than enough!  I had the pork chop (it’s becoming my go-to for whenever we eat in there as it’s delicious!) Helena had a steak and Col had ribs – we were all VERY happy and way too full by the time we’d finished.

From there it was off to find a still-open Target, as I’d sprung about half a dozen cold sores (no, that’s not an exaggeration, I looked liked I was hideously deformed!!) and was in dire need of cold-sore cream and then it was back to the hotel to hit the sack.  The hotel wasn’t too bad at all, Hampton Inn Suites, (I think it was called) free parking, free internet, complimentary (aka also free) buffet breakfast, two queen beds, pretty big bathroom…

It was all great, with one *medium sized* complaint, the room wouldn’t cool down enough.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I like my heat, in fact, Col often calls me cold blooded – I’m always chilly (she says as she puts Col’s hoody on!) but the place was boiling, WAY too hot.  Which is strange, cause Texas gets pretty hot during the year, so you’d think their AC units would be designed to handle warm temps!