Happy Monday to all! I’m sitting here at my desk with a cup of coffee and my breakfast waiting for Houston’s cold front to roll on through. It’s supposed to be cooler today – and by tomorrow, it will feel like fall. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve got lunch plans today with a friend, and I’ve got a light meeting load today, which is always a positive. We had ourselves the best little weekend, so let’s just get into it why don’t we?
Friday
Aaron and I worked hard on Friday. I ended up pulling a late night on Thursday night for a project that was on the “must-finish” list, so I knew that I was going to be able to wrap up a little early on Friday, which was perfect because I needed to get ready for our visitors. Aaron’s best friend, Richard, and Richard’s fiancé, Sarah, were coming to stay with us for the weekend.
My husband owns a dealership here in Houston, and he actually sold my car on Friday. I was so sad to se my car go – I loved that thing, but I was in a good equity position, so it was time. I’m driving around a demo until we figure out what I want my next car to be.
Here’s my cute little demo I’m driving around these days.
After we wrapped up work, I got my guest room ready. And I headed over to do a grocery pickup. I’m going to attempt some squash soup this week since it will be cold. I’ll report back.
Richard and Sarah got into town Friday evening, and we had ourselves some wine, some food and some good conversation until late in the evening.
Saturday + a little monkey bread recipe
I woke up early Saturday to get some monkey bread going for everyone. I hadn’t made this in so long, and it was absolutely delicious. Here’s how you make it.
Monkey bread ingredients:
- 30 ounces of buttermilk biscuits
- 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 stick of butter
- Grease your bundt pan. Preheat your oven to 325.
- Mix together your granulated sugar and cinnamon in a freezer bag.
- Melt your stick of butter and mix your brown sugar with the butter.
- Cut your biscuits into quarters. Roll half of them in your granulated sugar and cinnamon mixture.
- Layer your coated biscuits in your bundt pan.
- Repeat with the second half, and layer the remaining in your bundt pan.
- Pour your butter and brown sugar mixture on top.
- Pop in the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
- Let cool for a bit and enjoy!
Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit
After we ate breakfast we had tickets to the Van Gogh Immersive Exhibit. When I was in Japan, we toured Team Lab Borderless, which was one of the very first (and one of the most popular) immersive exhibits of its kind. So, I was interested to see what the Van Gogh Exhibit was like.
It actually ended up being pretty neat, but it isn’t large. You can probably see the whole thing in about an hour and a half. But I do recommend checking it out. The first part of the exhibit takes you through many of his historical paintings – and gives you the history behind his art and life. There are stations set up with short videos of his life. We spent quite a bit of time in the first part of the exhibit to read up and learn about his full background.
Part two of the exhibit was incredibly neat. You walk into this room – and everything it lit up from floor to ceiling. You are encouraged to take a seat in chairs – or benches that are set up around the room. It takes you through about a 20 minute sight and sound tour of Van Gogh’s artwork. It was so neat.
Here’s a little video of the experience.
The room was so relaxing, and it was a unique way to experience Van Gogh’s story.
The final part of the exhibit is an add-on for $5, but it’s worth it. The last part is the virtual reality experience. All four of us wanted to do it, so we opted in. I’ve done the VR thing one time before, but this was about a 15 minute VR experience, and it was neat – and worth the $5 in my opinion. It did make me a little dizzy, but they have you sitting the whole time.
All in all, it’s worth it while it’s in Houston.
We spent the rest of our Saturday catching up with Richard and Sarah – and watching the Houston Astros win – after an 18-inning (!!!!) game. Go ‘Stros!
And, on Sunday, we woke up, had some breakfast, said goodbye to our guests, cleaned up the house – and really just took it easy the rest of the day. We caught up on phone calls to parents, walks with dogs and some football!
It was a fab weekend, friends.
