November 17th, 2007
This year for our wedding anniversary Ella and I spent the day at Mandola’s Winery in Driftwood, TX. Central Texas has a burgeoning wine country and we selected Mandola’s because of the beautiful pictures on their web site and they have a nice outdoor Italian restaurant. The winery began only a few years ago so their stock is low and consists mostly of wine made from grapes from other nearby wineries. Eventually they intend to import wine varieties from Europe and in 5 years hope to have their own blends. We toured their wine pressing and maturing facility, learned a little about wine-making, then bought a bottle to enjoy with our meal.
The atmosphere evokes a Tuscan setting, with lots of Italian folk music and, of course, Sinatra, wafting throughout the grounds. I don’t know if it was because it’s a 40 minute drive outside of Austin or the spectacular setting, but we felt like we had flown somewhere and forgot about work and home for the day. Our dinner was wonderful, culminating in a dessert of Italian donuts with honey (Woohoo!).
November 1st, 2006
This summer Ella and I were invited to a fabulous dinner hosted by our good friends Amber and Imants. Imants is from Minneapolis, so when we met here in Austin we became instant friends, donchano. Whenever we see each other we talk about our favorite Minnesota restaurants, and of course, the Minnesota weather.
Amber and Imants were babysitting doggies that night. They had their own, Murphy, as well as a pug and small mixed breed dog. I became instantly fascinated by the pug, and as the evening wore on, I became convinced this dog was evil. I mean, look at it:
The dog knew I was aware of its evil intentions, so it mesmerized me with its bulging devil dog eyes. Behold the mesmerization:
The dog looked into my mind and after rummaging around realized their was nothing there that would be useful for its nefarious schemes. He released his hold and I snapped back awake just in time for dessert. The other small mixed breed dog was of no help, being intensly occupied by other matters:
Eventually things simmered down and we had a great time talking, eating, and keeping an eye on all the doggie activity.
May 4th, 2006
This past weekend Ella and I traveled to her parents’ home in Farmington Hills, MI. They threw a little party at Shiro in our honor where I met all the family’s friends from the Filipino medical community. The afternoon was a blur of kind faces, lots of hellos and goodbyes, dancing, and some really great food. Below are some photos from the grand event:
Shiro has an interesting haunted background. Read about it here.
We also met our newest friends in Michigan including Isabel G., daughter of Jen and Zach, and Ian C., son of Mandy and Kevin. We also visited with Katy and Mike, Kristen and Earl, Mark, Ko-ling, Kevin’s brother Cliff, Shirley and Tim. Needless to say, we put some miles on the de Leon automobile.
Other events in our five day visit included catching a show at Second City Detroit, eating pancakes at the Original Pancake House in Grosse Pointe, dim sum at Shangri-La, sipping sangria in Ann Arbor, and bocce ball in Brighton. Lots of fun!
February 4th, 2006
Thanks to Katy and Mike for the gift certificate to Fonda de San Miguel. They wanted us to re-visit the site of where we were engaged, and a year after the fact, we did! On December 17, 2005 we had a delicious dinner with a lot less stress and fanfare, but great new memories. We marveled that so much took place in one year. We also ran into Jeff the Waiter as he was getting ready to close down his tables at the end of the night. He had a worried look on his face when we approached him until we reminded him of the role he played on our big night. I learned never to address people I barely know by their first name while they’re concentrating on cleaning silverware. Enjoy the photos below of our return to one of our treasured places in Austin:
