Clap On, Clapton

So weekly updates are difficult. Life is hard. We have to do church and chores and Alison's grading and...

Well if Cosby doesn't have the patience for my complaining I guess y'all don't. Well, we've had a couple of fun adventures over the past couple of weeks.

First, as part of my cultural education, I was requested to attend The Man of La Mancha, which was playing downtown at the Hobby Center. I had guessed it was some sort of love story based on Don Quixote. Boy was I wrong! Like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expects it...

Instead, he will sing about how he's not worthy of love. Or something.

 I got this killer deal on tickets through Travelzoo (seriously, you should check them out--more interesting deals than Groupon), so we were sitting pretty close to the stage. Closer than I ever had before.

A perfect view of a grey head and Statler/Waldorf wannabes

The original intent was to go with Alison's mom, but she bailed on us and we took another Allison instead. We ate at a nice little Italian restaurant called Perbacco and enjoyed the show. It was pretty incredible. I never had heard the music, although I think I heard the Mission Impossible Dream song before. The actress playing Aldonza was excellent: very emotional and believable. The lead, naturally, was also very good. So far my opinion is that all new musicals (Catch Me if You Can) are weak but strongly attended, while the classics are classics for a reason...but only a small crowd of old people attend.

Not bad

Later on, we did another house "peeping" trip. I call it peeping because I'm not quite ready to make the leap just yet. We checked out one builder that was making a pretty hard sell, and then went to a Plantation Home which seemed miles above in terms of quality. The sales guy there wasn't as pushy, because the features of the home seemed to sell themselves. They were touting some pretty impressive features, especially w.r.t. energy efficiency, which I'm finding is one of my prime concerns. The price they were asking was almost unbelievably low, and when I asked my realtor, she kind of gave me the runaround. She said that Plantation is a good builder, but the "neighborhood wasn't her top choice" for us. Something about "lack of amenities." Honestly not sure what one would expect or need...I don't even use the pool and tennis courts in my current townhouse community, so why would I start in a home community?

Every 3.14 is Pi Day. If that's not useful enough, you guys can wait until 6.28 and have your Tau Day. But good luck taking advantage of the word play, because you can't get super tasty desserts to rhyme with tau. How? Cow? Chairman Mao?

Chocolate Satin, Cherry, Pear, and Grapefruit

We had a couple of couples from the ward participate in the festivities with us. We made a shepherd's pie for the main course. Alison seems intent on making a host out of me. Maybe by the time I'm old I'll get the hang of it...

After a long grading session, this last Saturday we headed downtown. I've always loved downtown areas of major cities, and Houston does not disappoint...I just went a little crazy with my phone in the parking lot.

But the main reason we went downtown was not just to ooh and ah at the skyscrapers, but to find a cool restaurant to eat at! Oops...all full. Murphy's Deli it is, a little sandwich shop tucked away on the corner of Lamar and Fannin of the One City Centre building. The manager there had a bit of personality--he asked me if I wanted a beef or pork chicken pesto panini. Hahaha...

OK, the real main reason we went downtown was to sit in the Toyota Center.

Look at all those empty seats!

We went to The Wallflowers concert! It's too bad I didn't know any of their songs besides "One Headlight." Plus the band's singer seems to have busted his voice, because it wasn't quite gelling. The band's musicians seemed talented enough, but we got a nice bonus after the concert was over: my phone died and I could take no more pictures.

And Eric Clapton came on stage.

If electric guitar is your Norse religion, seeing this man in concert is probably Valhalla. This guy makes his solos and riffs look like an afterthought. Well, after 40 years or so of playing, it probably is to Slowhand. In short, it was incredible. It was nice that Alison humored me on my little rock-and-roll pilgrimage.

Until the next update!