Ft Worth Food Park

This past Friday was Matt's turn to plan our date and he took me to the Ft Worth Food Park! Basically it's this little grassy alleyway where several local, gourmet food trucks come and serve delicious food. 

We had both heard good things about it, so I was very excited to try it and it did not disappoint!


Disclaimer- we had nice salads for lunch to balance out this dinner. And believe me, it needed balancing out.


We split two dishes from 2 different trucks. The first was the Ralph's Reuben Brat from The Butcher's Son. Oh my goodness, y'all- this did not disappoint. It was absolutely delicious! The sausage was beer-boiled, plus delicious sauerkraut, carmelized onions, and Russian mustard-- yum! 

The second thing we ordered we were very glad we split because wow, it is a monster. It's called the Back Breaker and it's from Lee's Grilled Cheese. If you can't tell from the picture, here's what's in it: mac 'n cheese, melted cheddar cheese, & BBQ pulled pork. Yup, delicious, cheesy, and the ultimate comfort food. 

If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping at the food park! The trucks rotate regularly and the website has a calendar with what truck will be there. It's also BYOB so we are looking forward to going back with some friends and just chilling out. 

If you're not from the area, do you have anything like this? Gourmet food trucks seem to be popping up everywhere and I think I love the idea.

Why We Are Waiting

Last night Matt and I had a discussion about our future, encompassing career & family plans. 

Apparently Matt has grand plans for us that include book-writing. Good to know. He also plans on our children walking by 3 months and winning a Nobel Prize while we're still alive. 

Source

So as my creative husband said, my book topics are quite obvious with the whole criminology thing. However, I asked him what he would write about. He decided he would write a parenting book from the perspective of an engineer. 

Now, ignore the fact that neither of us have any parenting experience and are not even thinking about having children until I earned my Ph.D. With that said, he came up with some titles I wanted to run by you for your opinion.

• Child-Rearing: An Engineering Approach
• Fundamentals of Child Dynamics
• Applied Parenting Analysis
• Kids++ Primer Plus
• Children: A Kinematics and Kinetics Primer
• Parent Mission Analysis and Design

So what is your favorite? I honestly don't know if I can pick. 

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Easter Recap

This Easter was quite different for Matt & me. Neither of us were with our families for the morning & for Easter service, which was definitely a little weird. We anticipated this though and planned to make our own brunch and though we didn't make each other baskets, we may have bought a couple of the delicious Reese's peanut butter eggs! 


First in the morning, we made some cinnamon rolls. Well, we didn't really 'make' them in as much as pop open the can and bake them. But, to our defense, we didn't need a dozen cinnamon rolls. That's why we didn't make them homemade...


After the service, my brother came over and we made our own Easter brunch, complete with baked ham, nicely cooked carrots, and croissants. It was delicious! And sorry, no pictures of the food. 


Following brunch we decided it was time to dye some hard-boiled eggs. I honestly could not remember the last time I had done that and I'm so glad we bought the little kit! It was a lot of fun! The guys enjoyed it too, though I still think my eggs were prettier than their's!

The one in front is my favorite :)

Also, as a special treat, I want you to see my brother's fish. Aren't they huge??? They started out about as small as goldfish but as you can see that's no longer the case. 

Now they eat goldfish... it's quite a terrifying meal, really.

I hope all of you had a good Easter! 

This Morning

 ¹ After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

 ² There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

 ⁵ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

 ⁸ So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Matthew 28:1-10 (NIV)

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Too Much?

I'm not sure if you have heard about Google's recent endeavor, Project Glass. If not, watch this short video:

For those that didn't watch the video, basically Google is working on these glasses that you would interact with. Calendar appointments, text messages, phone calls, weather, directions, and all other things Google would be projected on your glasses at the command of your voice (and perhaps buttons on the side, not sure).


I have skimmed through some of people's reactions to this and there is definitely a mix- those who thing it is the coolest thing ever as opposed to those who think it will make our over-stimulated society even more so and really hurt the end-distracted-driving movement. 


Personally, I'm in the second camp. I think it is cool that we have this kind of technology, but should we go that far? Should we be able to see little icons right in front of our eyes, without even reaching for our phones/planners to see our appointments for the day? A few studies have shown that the overuse of the internet changes brain structure similar to changes seen in alcoholic's brains. Addiction and over-dependence on technology really does not seem like a safe place for our society to be moving. I know WALL-E is an amazing Disney/Pixar movie, but sometimes I see such real-life parallels that I get somewhat anxious about our society's reliance upon technology. 


We all know those people, you know, the one you hang out with and they cannot put down their iPhone because they're playing Words with Friends or don't want to miss a text message. We get so fixated on these little devices that we miss out on the actual interactions going on around us. Having actual glasses that we wear seems one step closer to complete immersion in this digital world, one where we communicate solely through the internet and miss out on real, in-person communication.


I know I'm not the first to have these opinions and I know there are benefits to the revolution in technology we have seen in the past 20 years. However, Google said they posted that video to start a conversation, so that's what I'm doing. 


What do you think? Would you want those glasses or are they going too far? 

A New Addition

Matt and I would like to introduce you to are newest addition to our little family, Adele.

Yes, she is a succulent. We water her weekly and turn her pot a quarter turn every other day. If we didn't turn her, she would start leaning towards the window. 


We bought her at the lovely Swedish store of all things decorative, IKEA. She is named after the singer. Why? One of her songs came on the radio when we were driving home & we thought it fit. 

We figure if we can keep Adele alive, there is hope for us yet in terms of higher-level organisms. You know, like a fern or something. Or a dog. 


{Wanted to say a special hello to Mary, who has been requesting this post :)}

A little something to brighten up your Monday

And we are faced with another Monday. Why must they keep coming? I also cannot believe it is April. Where is this year going? I know these videos helped me to put a smile on my face. They are a little different from one another, but I figure at least one of them should make you happy.

First, since I imagine most of my readers are of the female variety, here is a little cuteness: And if that doesn't quite do it for you, here is Bohemian Rhapsody like you've never heard it before: Which one did you like better? Amazingly precious polar bear cub or the highly intoxicated Queen's fan? I honestly don't know which one I would choose...