Houston!

Since the beginning of summer, I've been looking forward to the next time I could head down to Houston -- I missed everyone, and I wanted a chance to fix my Mexican food craving before I flee the country.  It was a fantastic couple of days, and even though not everyone could make it, I loved hanging out with everyone who could.

To keep this short and sweet, my trip in bullet points:

 - Stayed at Katie, Danielle and Tess's apartment, which was amazingly close to everything we wanted to visit.

 - Got to see plenty of wonderful people, gave most of them self-addressed envelopes so that they will have to write me.  Devious, huh?

 - Took care of my most pressing cravings: pho at Pho Saigon, actually good tacos at La Tapatia, frozen yogurt at Swirll, and sharp white cheddar from Kroger.  Yum.

 - Watched the Spain-Germany game at La Tapatia with Alex.  We were the only two girls there and the only two Spain supporters, and we cheered like crazy when Spain won. : )  She's going to hate this picture, by the way.

 - Made a sort of fancy-shmancy dinner with Alex and Tara, and Andrew and Tess came to eat with us.  The menu was delicious: pork tenderloin with apples, onions and spicy mustard (see post below), Alex's mashed potatoes (mmmm!), sauteed zucchini and squash.  And then, because that wasn't enough food, we made apple pie and peach cobbler a la mode.  We almost killed Andrew with too much food... but he   deserved a little indulgence, I think, since Teach for America seems to be working him pretty hard.

 - Thanks, everyone, for such a great trip!  I'll miss you!  Now only two days before departure... Ahhhhh!  Begin frantic packing session.

Tara and Andrew after our dinner, and a shot of Houston's post-thunderstorm sky from the top of the apartment building.