We are back in the (literally) frozen tundra of KC.  After 3 days of 60 – 70 degree weather, constantly listening to whines of “Why did you move me back to KC??!!!??” you can imagine my consternation when the plane landed and it was dumping snow at a frightful rate.  What luck.  Anyway, after the two-hour crawl from the airport, we’re back home.

We flew to Dallas on Friday evening to visit our friends David & Jill, and to celebrate Donette’s birthday.  It wasn’t quite as big as our celebration last year in Playa, but we didn’t need passports and still stayed at an all-inclusive resort (their house) so it was close enough.  We got to their house around 12:00 at night, which is generally about 3 hours past my bedtime.  But, there was a lot of catching up to do and we ended up staying awake until the rather unholy hour of 2:00.  Quite possibly the first time I’ve seen 2:00 in the morning that I wasn’t either in college or working.

Saturday was the “official” birthday, so we kicked it off at the crack of 10:00 with some omelets.  After breakfast, we loitered in the hot tub for a few hours, burned a few stogies, did some napping, listened  to some music…  Kind of generally enjoyed the afternoon.  Later in the day we headed over to their daughter Casey’s place for a somewhat impromptu wine-tasting, then headed down the street to her haunt of choice, the Knox-Henderson district.  It’s a cool Westport-ish little place;  Which is to say, too expensive and too young for the likes of me.  But, you know, “when in Dallas” and all that.  We started off strong with two enormous bowls of steamed mussels at Vickery Park.  I don’t think I’ve ever tried steamed mussels, but you can bet I’ll be dragging everybody back for more next time we’re in town.  They were awesome.  I thought about dropping a few in my pocket and trying to duplicate them at home, but I was afraid they wouldn’t travel well.  Immensely pleased with the beginning of the evening, we headed to Victor Tango’s next.  Now this place was definitely more “Power & Light District” than “Westport.”  They mostly featured “Scratch Cocktails,” described on the menu as “the precise rendering of vintage and modern cocktails using freshly squeezed juices, local herbs and fresh vegetables.”  I tried reading a few of them and then panicked and said “Uhhhhh, you got any draft beer?”  Dang Kansas Citians, what can ya’ do.  It was a lot of fun watching the bartenders though, they were some artists.  Last on the list, we hit Cuba Libre for some dinner.  Everybody went with an assortment of their tacos, which were quite possibly even better than the tacos back home at Jalapenos.  (That last statement is roughly on a par with saying “The steak at Capitol Grille is quite possibly even better than the steak at The Brooksider.”)  David had picked up a few fine CAO cigars to round out the evening, but towards the end of dinner Casey got mysteriously fatigued, so we headed back to the house and enjoyed them on the back deck.

Sunday brought still more food and hot-tubbing.  Hey, it’s what we like to do when we go out of town.  We finished off the left-over tacos from the night before, then headed out to Rio Mambo for some lunch.  We do like the Tex-Mex.  Bellies stuffed once again, we drove around and checked out the new Dallas football stadium, then it was off to my favorite shopping destination; Costco.  I picked up some rechargable batteries and some DVD burning software.  They looked remarkably similar to the ones at the Costco 5 miles from my house, but I’m pretty sure these were cooler since we were in Dallas and all.  David, meanwhile, picked up a few pounds of beef tenderloin and some cilantro-lime shrimp for the next round of gluttony.  (And a Christmas tree, but frankly I was only interested in the beef and shrimp.)  Thusly armed, we headed back to the house, fired up the grill, and…  See the end of the last few paragraphs for details on the rest of the evening.

OK I’m tired of typing, much as you may be tired of reading.  Monday we rounded out the feed-a-thon with oysters and gumbo at Pappadeaux.  After that, the girls went shopping while I snuck back to the house to read a book.  Spent the rest of the day hot-tubbing, snacking, and smoking cigars.  Some things I just don’t get tired of I guess.