Scenes from the Weekend

This weekend was semi-busy.  I think it could have been busier, but I was sporting a sinus infection so we tempered our activity with lots of napping.  Thanks to that, some Airborne and Tylenol Sinus, and lots of water I'm mostly back to normal.  On Friday night we met up with friends who live downtown and we walked over to Discovery Green next to the convention center for the French festival, which was really more of a concert and two overpriced food booths with lines a mile long.  So we headed further into the city and ate at Bombay Pizza Company (I recommend the Gateway to India pizza) and then to Flying Saucer for some beers and conversation.  We finished up our evening back by our friend's place with cornhole (aka bags) at Little Woodrows and then grilled cheese sandwiches from Golden Grill, my favorite food truck which was conveniently parked across the street (I got prosciutto, gouda, and jalepeno jam - yum!)

Saturday we slept in, snacked on some turkey bacon, swiss, and edamame omelets, and then met up with J, B, and A for my second year of Houston's Azalea Trail, where the lowly middle class get to see how the upper crust lives.  The houses were pretty awesome and included animal heads from Africa, huge wine rooms, ridiculously rare antiques, guest houses that are bigger than my normal house, and one notable mid-century modern house that I was ready to move into.  And of course, the gardens, which were beautiful.

And while the azaleas were gorgeous and in full bloom, I felt that the other varieties of flowers stole the show this year, including a gorgeous rose garden, the iconic spring blooms like tulips, daffodils, and narcissus, and an oddly large presence of beautiful, bright, and paper-thin poppies.  Oh, and we took a break about halfway through the tour to have a quick bite to eat at Craft Infusion, another yummy food truck discovery that uses craft beers in their recipes.  We tried the oxtail empenadas, pulled pork sandwich, and sweet potato fries and all were delicious.

On Sunday evening we headed back to S's neck of the woods and hung out with some friends around a fire pit on their lovely back yard deck.  It was a late night, especially with the time change, so it was a struggle to get out of bed the next morning, especially with my sinuses acting up.  So we slept in and then met up with J and his son A for a 3D viewing of Oz the Great and Powerful.  If you're a fan of the Wizard of Oz, then you must see it.

The special effects, costumes, and props were magical.  Only thing I wasn't crazy about was the evil witch's make-up.  Everything else managed to be both fanciful and realistic, but her makeup screamed "fake" to me.  It was another interesting take (I loved the story of Wicked too) on the build up to the Wizard of Oz story.

I want to find James Franco annoying, but truth is it's only his real life persona that I find so.  His acting is actually quite good.  And Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams all played the witches wonderfully.  I was a little worried going into the movie since my hopes were so high, but I must say I wasn't disappointed upon leaving and I'd definitely recommend it.

Well, that was my weekend.  Did you do anything fun on yours?

(Oz pictures from here and here)