Dad's night IN. N OUT night for Mom

"Why do you always make good things when I go out?" - Erinn

First off, Erinn hasn't had many (any?) nights out since Simon made his entrance almost a year ago, so when she did get an opportunity to go do something, I encouraged it - especially because it usually means I get to wrap bacon around something before I grill it.

Tonight I went for something different. An homage to the tastiest fast food burger in California, the Double-Double Animal Style from In-N-Out. It's almost made as many appearances on the blog as Callie has, so readers of this blog shouldn't be unfamiliar with it.

The official description from In-N-Out's website says:

"Burger of your choice with hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, American cheese, a mustard cooked beef patty; add pickle, extra spread, with grilled onions."

Seemed simple enough.


Grilled onions: Check


Hand-leafed lettuce: check
Tomato: check
Two slices of American cheese: check
Pickles: check (I went with the Chic-Fil-A approach of just two pickle slices)
Extra spread: check (I recreated the spread with relish and Thousand Island dressing)


Two mustard grilled patties: Indeed. (Actually, I had no idea what this meant in the description. So I just grilled the patty over a squeeze of yellow mustard.)


Oh look, steam! That's how you know it's working.



The facsimile was a little taller than the original. I ate it anyway.

Easter

We had a whirlwind, tiring Easter starting with the ol' sunrise mass at 7:30am. While poopy diapers and rain slowed us a little, we still got there early enough to find a seat. Fortunately, most people aren't crazy enough to go that early.

After Mass, we headed over to Paw Paw and Mimi's where Simon got to play with bubbles, wind-up chickadees and Aunt Kelly.

We had lunch with Aunt Jennifer, Pop and that lady who hasn't quite figured out a name for herself.

After the peas, Simon went to town on the honey. He loved it!

Don't worry, I'm kidding... I'd never let him eat peas.

Pop and Simon compare Easter hats.

Simon in real time

Note the time this was posted.

At the lake

Always a few days behind.... Here's some pics from Ski Shores on Lake Austin from last weekend with Katie and Ben.

Nothing like a Cheerio right off a weathered two-by-four.

Simon goes to UT

I played hooky on Tuesday and we all went to the Blanton Museum over on the UT campus. Skipping work for museums? Don't think I would've done that ten years ago (or even four). We went to the "Birth of the Cool" exhibit that looked at California culture at the midcentury. Dug it, man.

Before we got to the museum, there was a giant piece that you could walk through. I had a hankering for spaghetti afterward though.

While there was no photography inside the exhibit, the interior of the Blanton had some good colors to shoot around.

Simon's favorite activity: eating.

As you can see, Simon enjoyed his day out.

come east young man (and woman)

Our friends from Ben and Katie are visiting from California. You might remember Ben and Katie from such blog posts as "Karaoke in Korea Town" or "Moustache Party '07". After we picked them up at the airport, we drove down to Lockhart for some Kreuz's.

No forks. No problem. No Big Red? I've got another couple of days to fix that.

Simon actually had a little brisket. Unfortunately, it's all downhill for him from here on out. I will say that Kreuz's seemed a little off their game today. Even still, they're number one in my book.

Simon shows off his present from Ben and Katie. It's a "Goodnight Los Angeles" board book with all the L.A. hotspots that he remembers from his first two months there.

No time for blog, Dr. Jones!

You'd think that by waking up at 4:45 every morning, we'd have more time for blogging and posting pictures. For some reason it's the opposite.

Another reason for the lack of time is that I'm coaching a 7th and 8th grade lacrosse team with Mark (Henry's dad). So I'm spending more time outdoors and away from the computer.

We had our first win this past weekend. One of the kid's dads has been taking pictures at the game, but for some reason the lens hasn't really found its way to Mark or me yet.


Halftime is about orange slices and ripping into them for all the things that went wrong, right? Mark and I have perfected the arms-crossed "I'm not pleased" look (even though we were because they played a near flawless first quarter.)



We promised them if they won the game, we could all go to the Animal Shelter afterwards and pick out a puppy.

Simon's first celeb sighting

Tyler Florence (from the Food Network) was at Cenral Market promoting his new baby food line, Sprout. We met a few baby friends there this morning. You can tell Simon was thrilled!

P.S. You can see the board book that he signed for Simon in my hand.

Spring time, swing time

Now that the weather's finally perfect, Simon's getting out in his swing daily. Won't be long before he imagines it as an airplane, race car or an X-Wing.

I just nerded up the place with that last option, didn't I?

red five standing by