It’s been a slightly out-of-the-ordinary weekend for us, in that we’ve spent a ridiculous amount of money on entertaining ourselves, had some lovely meals, and enjoyed the company of people we don’t usually spend much time with. Oh, and Ray’s going to Hell (but we knew that already).

Friday night
Ray and I went out to dinner, which we tend to do on Fridays. This time, however, was a little different because we went somewhere nice, which we usually don’t have the money, time, or inclination to do. It was also a little spur-of-the-moment: we were both in our work clothes still and we had a coupon from Restaurant.com for one of the nicer places in Round Rock, a Cajun place called Gumbo’s. Usually, we look at our collection of coupons and decide we’re not in the mood and end up at Taco Bell, but this time we stuck to our original thought and went off to Gumbo’s, even when we arrived to find that the wait was over an hour for a table.

After a couple of margaritas on the terrace listening to live zydeco and watching the sun set (and, for once, not getting devoured alive by the inevitable post-deluge mosquito population), we were finally seated inside for a lovely … and I do mean lovely … meal.

Dinner on Friday:
To start:
Goat Cheese Salad (Chris): spinach tossed in a smoky bacon vinaigrette, topped with slivered tomatoes and pear slices sprinkled with cajun spice, finished off with goat cheese covered in toasted almonds.

Chicken and jalapeño gumbo (Ray)

Main course:
Chicken Dixie (Ray): blackened chicken breast topped with creamed spinach, bacon, and crab meat over cajun cream sauce, side of dirty rice

Off menu fish special (Chris): tortilla-and-cajun-crusted fillet of red fish topped with blackened prawns over chipotle cream sauce, side of dirty rice

The above was served by a waiter who was about half a degree on the right side of ‘thug.’ Not sure I’d have wanted to meet him in a dark alley … unless, of course, he asked nicely

By the time we finished it was well past ten o’clock, so we skipped on dessert, despite seeing something tall and chocolate covered delivered to a neighboring table. (We’re dieting – I’m already down four pounds this week!)

We proceeded home, where I started reading and fell asleep — which I have no recollection of doing — and I woke up to discover Ray well into his newly-acquired copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I had been sleeping so hard I didn’t even hear him announce he was going to leave the house.

Saturday
Ray and I did our usual monthly run to Costco, which invariably gets combined with a soup-and-salad stop at the Jason’s Deli around the corner. We really need to learn to start going to Costco on some random weeknight because the place is, invariably, packed on Saturdays and parking is a nightmare.

This Saturday was no exception: Ray (who drives a large pickup) got into a game of parking-spot-chicken with a smaller car, and won. Let me preface the following by pointing out that immediately after, the losing car got a better spot about twenty feet down the aisle.

We get out of the car, only to hear immediately this shrill, hysterical “You’re going to Hell” from the driver of the losing car. (We did sort of see this coming, since she’d leaned on her horn after Ray took the spot.)
Ray: “OK, fine, I’ll go to Hell.”
Woman: “I can’t believe you did that!”
Ray: “What are you complaining about? You got a better spot! And you didn’t even have to wait for it!”
Woman “I have a baby in here!” (Of course, it wasn’t until much later that both of us wondered a) how we were supposed to know that, and b) what that had to do with anything.)
Ray: (walking away) “Have a nice day, lady.”
Woman: “I feel sorry for you!”
Now, I’m rather of the opinion that if you’re going to use profanity, you don’t get to play the baby card, but what do I know?

Needless to say, we finished our shopping there as quickly as we could, since both of us were convinced that she had more pearls of wisdom to deliver — and probably would if she ran into us inside. I secretly wondered if she had left us any additional thoughts on our eventual Destination, maybe keyed into the paint on Ray’s truck or written on the windshield in lipstick, but alas, it was not to be. Apparently she’d realized that leaving the baby in the car on a hot day while taking a moment to yell at someone else wasn’t the wisest idea…

I had been trying to make plans with Michael, my now ex-coworker, for Ray and I to meet up with him and his boyfriend Danny for a couple of weeks, and we finally did so on Saturday night at a little place in Hyde Park called Vino Vino. Ray and I have been trying to make more gay friends, and I thought it would be fun to hang out with another gay couple who still actually seem to like each other, unlike the other gay couple in our circle of friends.

Vino Vino is a little wine bar that has a lot of wine, and is run by a guy who seems to be personally acquainted with every bottle he sells. Not the worst job in the world, if you ask me. I was a little surprised to walk in there at 7 pm on a Saturday afternoon to find that, other than the owner and his yummy bartender, Michael and Danny were the only people there. Then I got a look at the menu prices, which explained a lot — there’s another wine bar in downtown Austin that I’ll direct the boys to for our next outing, as the prices are a little more reasonable.

We had a lovely time, that is, after Danny and Ray forcibly redirected the conversation away from Michael and I commiserating about my current/his former place of work.

Dinner on Saturday:
Prosciutto, roasted tomatoes, arugala & pecorino toscana on ciabatta with a red pepper-garlic aioli (Ray, Michael, and Danny)

Carpaccio, shaved pecorino, capers, and picked onions (Chris)

Cheese plate – selected daily with seasonal fruit (shared, after we all realized that the above wasn’t that filling … and wayyy overpriced)

Dark chocolate mousse with blackberries (Michael and Danny share; Ray)

Anise crème brulee (Chris)

Sunday

So far, Sunday’s been fairly relaxing. We met up with Ray’s coworker Rachel and her husband Sumit at a local bowling alley that’s gone upscale (seriously …).

Lunch on Sunday:
Veggieburger with ‘diet fries’* (Chris, Ray)

Supreme pizza with all of the veggies on one side and the meat on the other (carnivore Rachel and her vegetarian husband)

* diet fries do not exist, but our other option was coleslaw which, given the condition of the lettuce that went on the veggie burgers, we’re both happy not to have seen.

And now I’m sitting here watching some awful program on TV icing my thumb. I don’t really want to go back to work tomorrow, but it is a four-day week for me, so there will be a little less pain and suffering … in my world anyway.

Hope you had a good weekend!

Tags: Austin, bowling, food, friends, khowaga-provides-a-sense-of-direction-and-order-in-the-, restaurants, weekends