Texas Travels: Sherman, Texas

I spent the last two weeks in Sherman, TX. Sherman is about 80 miles north of Dallas off Highway 75.  It's not too far from home, but far enough that it requires staying out. This was my fourth time to stay in Sherman and just when I thought I knew everything about this small town, one of the bankers told us about a taco bus. An old school bus turned into a restaurant? We had to check it out. We were told that it was about 10 miles north of the bank we were at, in the parking lot of a liquor store. Classy. When we found it, it was just as we expected. A school bus. Turned into a restaurant.

Taco Hondumex is run by a husband and wife. There is actually seating inside the bus, but there's also a few picnic tables set up outside. They have tacos, burritos, sopes, tamales, etc. And it's super cheap! I got a pork sopes and a soda and my lunch was only $5.50 including tax! What a deal! This is pretty authentic Mexican food, and it was pretty tasty! So if you're ever in the area, go find the taco bus!

Taco Hondumex
2301 Highway 691
Denison, TX

Cowboys Game ... the VIP way

Last Sunday, we went to the Cowboys v. Titans game. At the Texans game a few weeks ago, we met a guy in the parking lot after the game and gave him and his friends a few of our beers.  After chatting for a bit, we found out he worked in the Cowboys ticket office! He offered to get us into the Cowboys tunnel the next time we were at the stadium, as a thank you for the beers. I put his number in my phone, and only half expected him to respond to my text message on Sunday. Well, he did respond and he followed through on his promise and got us into the tunnel!! It was so cool! Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, since the only people allowed in the tunnel are those who are willing to pay an arm and a leg for their seat license. We were only willing to pay an arm for ours. :)

We saw the players run through the tunnel from the locker room to the field (there's Tony!)...

And then Jerry Jones walked through and even stopped to chat and sign some autographs!

David, with his long arms, was able to get his ticket stub out there and Jerry signed it!! Guess he didn't notice the small size of the ticket (if you really belong in the tunnel, your ticket is about twice the size of ours)!

The tunnel is actually part of a bar that's on field level. There's a little "patio" area where you can stand along the railing and you're basically *THISCLOSE* to the players. It was pretty neat! The only thing that sucked is that since you're pretty much on the field, we weren't able to see much. But we were about 10 feet from the Cowboys bench!

When the players are being introduced, they have a Cowboys star that shoots out fire, and boy was it HOT!!

 

We also got to see where the post-game interviews are held.

Just before the end of the second quarter, we made our way up a level to the other bar. The view of the field was much better from here!

The Cowboys didn't win (we were 0-2 on games for the weekend...boo), but we had fun watching the game from where the aristocracy sits! haha! 

ALDS Game 3

Last Saturday, we went to the ALDS game 3 at the Ranger's Ballpark! We were so hoping to watch them sweep the Rays...but, alas...it wasn't in the cards for the Rangers all weekend. Nevertheless, we had a blast!  

We ran into the Rangers t-shirt girls posing with a Rangers super-fan. He was decked out in antlers, a cowboy hat, rally towels, and even chaps!

The energy inside the ballpark was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Everyone was so excited!!

We would have loved to have seen a sweep, but at least the Rangers pulled through in Game 5. Now that we're done with the Rays, it's time to take on the Yankees!! GO RANGERS!!!

Date Night No. 1

October is a crazy month for us. I'm out of town for two weeks, and then David is out of town for the other two weeks. We haven't had to travel very much this year, so now that we're starting to again, I'm remembering how much it sucks sometimes. I especially hate it when our out-of-towns are opposite - I'm out of town when he's in town and he's out of town when I'm in town. Oh well...it's part of our job. 

We recently decided that since we're only getting to spend weekends together this month, and part of next, we needed to set aside some time to spend together! So last Friday was our first official date night. We plan on alternating who plans the date each week, so last week was David's turn. We went to have dinner and drinks at Piranha at the Arlington Highlands. YUM! I was too busy eating to remember to take a picture! I actually forgot to take any pictures at all the whole night...oops!

After dinner, we went to see The Town at Studio Movie Grill. 

I had zero interest in seeing this movie. We work as bank regulators and we're almost always in a bank. So why feed my already ridiculously high paranoia level with watching a movie about bank robbers?!? But for the sake of date night, I sucked it up and went. And it turned out to be pretty good! I don't really like movies that have you cheering for the bad guy, but David says that's the sign of a good movie.

All in all, I'd say that Date Night #1 was a success!! Now it's my turn to plan our Date Night for this weekend...what to do, what to do...!

2-0 on the Road

 Last weekend we went down to Houston for the Cowboys v. Texans game! It turned out that the scheduling worked out perfectly since we had to be in Galveston Monday morning for our annual staff conference! A couple guys we work with and David's friend from college, Andy, also came. We had a blast!!

We had to make something easy, since we didn't have a fridge or a kitchen to prep in, so we settled on burgers! Have you ever been to San Marcos and eaten at the Tap Room? Well if you have, then you know all about their famous queso burger.

A juicy 1/2 pound patty, smothered in homemade spicy queso and guacamole. Absolutely delicious. Well we attempted to duplicate this at the tailgate. I'd never made queso on the grill and it actually turned out pretty good! It had the smoky bbq taste to it, but it was still really good.

One of the guys we work with, Matt, was the one who requested the queso burger. I think he approves!

Tailgating is always so much fun!! We played washers...

Andy broke out the vodka and we took some shots...

Matt & Ricky (from work)

Me & David

Pretty soon, it was game time!! Go Cowboys!!!!

We really went into this game mentally prepared to lose. The Cowboys were 0-2 and we just weren't playing very well. But surprisingly, they put their game faces on and we won!!! I am very proud to say that David and I are now 2-0 on our road games. Last year, we went to the Saint's game and if you'll remember, they were undefeated. And we went into the Superdome and kicked some booty!  Needless to say, we did the same thing at Reliant! So really, all I have to say is...we're going to Green Bay in November, so the Packers better watch out!! Just sayin'!

Here's the group after the game...

A little fuzzy...but to be honest, I think we were all feeling a little fuzzy...haha!

Ricky polished off the vodka for us...

And the boys decided they needed to shotgun a beer...or two...

We had so much fun at the game! Cowboys games are always fun, but going on the road to watch the Cowboys win is even better!!

Le Cordon Bleu: Technique

Today was Todd's (coworker) birthday, so I made Pioneer Woman's delicious carrot cake cupcakes! I made these for Easter this year and they were so good, so I couldn't resist making them again! If you make them, I filled each cupcake half way with batter and baked them for 16 minutes at 350 degrees.

For lunch, Todd chose to go to the Le Cordon Bleu student-run restaurant, Technique. We're working at a bank that's basically in the same parking lot as the culinary school, so we figured it would be a quick, fun lunch.  We should have known that this wasn't going to be a quick lunch because: 1) There were 9 people in our party, 2)When we got there, we found out it was only the second day of service, and 3) There was a notice on the menu that said that if we had time constraints for lunch, we should inform our waiter. None of these raised any red flags in our minds...

We arrived at noon and were promptly seated. Then the waiter took our drink order and brought us bread. Then he brought us more bread. Then he asked if we were ready to order. It was 12:30.  Everything on the menu sounded delicious. I had a hard time deciding what to get. There were 3 appetizers to choose from - fajita pizza, margherita pizza, and fried goat cheese salad.  There was also a duck soup.  For the entree, the choices were roasted chicken with goat cheese risotto, lamb rack chop with mashed potatoes and zucchini, and pasta carbonara.  Dessert was either brown sugar cake or raspberry sorbet.  I got the fried goat cheese salad, lamb rack chop, and raspberry sorbet.  The salad was delicious. There's nothing better than fried goat cheese!  And the lamb was cooked perfectly, seared on both sides with a tasty grill crust.

The raspberry sorbet was also good, but I could have done without it. The prices were pretty reasonable, $5 for an appetizer, $8 for an entree, and $3 for dessert. I don't think there's another restaurant in Dallas where you can get lamb for $8! They also serve dinner and you can get a 3-course meal for $35. My only complaint would be...from the time we sat down to the time we left, it took TWO HOURS. Talk about S-L-O-W service!! But the food was delicious and the experience was definitely one of a kind! I'd go back. And I'd recommend you to try it sometime! But make sure you have plenty of time for lunch. Or wait and go towards the end of the semester...

Le Cordon Bleu Dallas

11830 Webb Chapel Road

Dallas, Texas

Reservations: (214) 647-8500

Casey the Water Dog

We took Casey swimming at Aaron's house this weekend. She loved it!! We've taken her once before, but I forgot my camera, so I made sure to bring it this time! She had so much fun with her friend Zoe!

Getting the hang of it...

Trying to get her tennis ball back from Zoe...

We had such a good time swimming and hanging out with the doggies. It's kind of sad that this is probably our last weekend to go to the pool, but we're so ready for the cooler fall weather!! And I'm sure Casey's hoping to see her long lost friend, "snow", this winter! :) Hope everyone had a relaxing Labor Day weekend!