Houston Rodeo and Japanese dollar store bling

Caution: Just viewing pictures from post may cause your arteries to spontaneously combust. Ugh. :( I promised myself this is the last food 'splurge' for a very very long time. Seriously bad for me.

**SUPER Pic heavy**

The Houston Rodeo is a yearly event with big headlining country, non-country, and teen sensation type musical acts (Black Eyed Peas, Lady Antebellum, The Jonas Bros, Mary J. Blige, etc.), a carnival, crazy amounts of artery-clogging food, and of course, real-life Rodeo events (horse/pig/cattle show & auction, roping, bull riding, barrel-racing, mutton-busting etc.)

We got down to business immediately! FOOD!!!

Here is a list of the sampled goods:

• Deep fried OREOS
• Deep fried Cookie dough
• Deep fried Tiramisu
• Deep fried Moon Pie
• Chicken fried bacon (you heard that right!)
  
• Alligator on a stick (tasted like chicken)
• Deep fried frog legs (tasted like chicken)
• Deep fried bloomin' onion
• Sausage on a stick
• Funnel cake
• Turkey leg
• Roasted corn with butter & cayenne pepper
  

Chicken Fried Bacon

A selection of fried goodies

Fried Oreos


My thoughts exactly

Funnel Cake

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I guess it is what you would call a semi-risky experience? (at least to me, this is what qualifies as 'risky') I'll probably never do this again though. Made me all types of sick afterwards. :(

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The petting zoo was kind of lame compared to last year. I have a strange fascination with petting zoos, probably because I never was allowed to have a pet as a child. As my sister described it, all my pictures are of me 'excitedly petting seemingly indifferent animals' LOL! Truth. These are last year's pics just b/c it was so crazy crowded and I didn't want to wait in line this year.

This goat was interested in the leaf-shaped tassles on my purse

This chick looked like she had some major eyelashes going on


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My favorite part of the Rodeo was not the food, but the ambiance - all the bright, cheerful colors and pretty lights (please ignore my dorkiness :P)

My BF thinks that these stuffed carnival toys are impregnated with bug eggs








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Finally, there is a relatively new store in the Bellaire area of Houston that stocks tons of cute Japanese products for reasonable prices! (It's called FIT - they have an online store too with products ranging from $2-$10 (soooo many cute Bento boxes!), discount code 5555 for 5% off your order! ^_^)

I picked up a few things to bling out my gear:

I ♥ Stitch!!!



Very Spring-ish ~ Flowers & hearts


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XoXo to Carmen, My-My (she's super artistic!), samebrightsky, Kimmi, KayCee, lanenatraviesa2, pdlauj, Shelly-Ann, and Charlotte! ♥

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Valentines dinner/Jury Duty/Giveaway!

*Super pic heavy!*



Back to the mall for Day 2 of Valentines Day Weekend

My bf took me to the Dallas version of The Oceanaire (there is also a restaurant in the Houston Galleria - we went there for our 1 year anniversary!)

It's a kind of fancy "seafood room" which supports *sustainable* seafood, which is nice :)







They had a special 4-course Valentines Day meal! Time to get my NOM on!



Appetizer - "I love you Foie ever!" I have NEVER tried foie gras before. Duck/Goose liver seems a little intimidating, but it was actually REALLY GOOD. It is mildly flavored and creamy. If I wasn't any the wiser, I might have mistook it for CHEESE...and I love cheese. Soooo good with the balsamic "caviar", toast points (why does fancy food have to have crazy names?) pistachio butter, and grapes!



Appetizer #2 - Hawaiian style Ahi poke on nori/wakame crips w/ seaweed salad. Fresh, delicious, tuna - but SAD, they failed to mention this dish contained CILANTRO. I HATE cilantro. I swear it tastes like dish soap! Whhhhyyyy???


Soup/Salad - "Strawberry Fields Forever" - Mmmmm...who can resist goat cheese, fresh sweet strawberries, spring mix salad & champagne vinagrette? Light & tangy! A+++++



Entre - They had all types of cute names on the menu for all the dishes -- this one was called "Oh Honey" and was delicious black cod doused in honey soy & lemon ginger butter! It was sooooo soft and buttery -- and there was so freaking much of it!!! I never have gotten so full off of tasty fancy food, the portions are usually miniscule!!!



Dessert - Chunky munky Creme brulee, Puff pastry w/ Strawberries & Grand Marnier, and a rich chocolate truffle cake with raspberry creme anglaise. It sounded soooo good, but it was actually a little disappointing. My boyfriend thought the Raspberry creme anglaise around the chocolate cake looked like a large intestine - How am I supposed to eat after that??? >:(

After dinner, we had to 'walk things off' -- the mall was closed, but it was still so fun to wander around! Felt like we had the whole mall to ourselves...Earlier that day, Darren was scoping things out and noticed all these bodyguards outside of Footlocker so I'm guessing there were some NBA 'celebrities' here after all!

Louis Vuitton had a small tribute to "NBA All Star Weekend!"




I ♥ Juicy Couture -- but good to honest, their stuff is rather overpriced...but everything is super girly and pink and sparkly... *sigh*



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Today I went to the imposing courthouse above for JURY DUTY. Reported at 8:30am to do my civic duty - they were scaring us with reports that some of the trials could involve the Death Penalty (Texas!!!) or cases involving billions! O_O It must be my lucky day because my name wasn't called & I was let out early!!!! *big sigh of relief* No more worries for the next 3 years!!!

** -- Hope my luck continues -- **

Nikki is sponsoring a B.B. Cream Giveaway! I've actually been curious about this Korean BB cream craze, I've heard a lot about it from my co-workers & now here in blogworld!


Check it out & Good luck!

*Hello* to new PRINCE & Princesses - Katarzyna (such a cool name!), LovelyViolet5, Jefferson (I love his letters from around the world page!), Jimin, & Sugarmizbunni