Birthday Round-up

Another Suicide Prevention Week has come and gone and it was, as usual, fantastic. (Here at SPWHQ we use the term "week" loosely.) I've already told you about one of the most fun things ever-the J.T. singalong. That would have been more than enough Birthday joy for most people. But, my friends and family are not "most people" so the action didn't stop there. Last weekend the Sr. Starks were in town and in addition to hot tubbing at their motel (hee hee) we did some high-brow activities like the Blanton Museum and Shakespeare at Winedale. On Sunday the Jr. Starks went on a movie date to Captain America and it wasn't too bad. (Mr. Stark loves a movie with Nazi bad guys) On Tuesday the Howell kids and I made some cupcakes and a yummy lasagna and then they gave me the gift of going to visit their aunt and grammy for five days :).

I know I go on and on about it but my sweet little husband is the greatest. He gave me a new camera! Your crippling hunger for cat pics can finally be satisfied:

Thanks for reading the crochet pattern for me, Hube! And as if the exact camera that I showed him at the store wasn't enough, s.l.h. also showed up with this, a GTL bouquet. Adorable.
Speaking of adorable (and things I go on and on about) the mind-bogglingly amazing Adriane made me this:
That's right, it's a Lee Chat MADE OF CUPCAKES! On my actual birthday (Wednesday) I was feeling wishy washy about what to do, so I didn't send out the Burnet Road Crawl alert text until at least noon but all of my friends showed up! Have I mentioned I have the most wonderful friends ever? Well I do. There are some pictures of the debauchery (there was planking and owling involved) on Adriane's camera, I think, but they have yet to surface because she is currently gracing the NW with her presence. Lucky NW!!

Thanks to Auntie and Grammy, I had yesterday morning off so we were able to something you can only do on Saturday morning: go to Snow's BBQ, supposedly "The #1 BBQ in Texas". Loyal readers (Aileene) will remember that a while back we went to Franklin BBQ, which I deemed the "best BBQ ever". How did the Snow's measure up? How does it look?
Here are the results of my non-scientific research study: "Snow's vs. Franklin"

• Snow's: you have to drive an hour and a half
• Franklin: you have to wait in line for at least an hour and a half, but it's in Austin
• Snow's: the guy with the mullet, 'stache, TX flag apron and permanent smoke smell-LOVE.
• Franklin: nerdy looking guy who started working at his parents' BBQ when he was nine-LOVE.
• Snow's: At the risk of losing my TX citizenship-I hate brisket. The brisket was delicious. I would be happy with a brisket-only plate. The ribs, my usual fave, not so great. Sausage? Sausagey.
• Franklin: At the risk of losing my TX citizenship-I hate brisket. The brisket was delicious. I would be happy with a brisket-only plate. The ribs? Delicious. The sausage? Good, but not as good as Luling City Market sausage.

Final Results:

Food winner: Franklin

Overall experience winner: Snow's, but the food is pretty damn good.

So if you're in Texas and you want some stupid good BBQ, here's what to do. Go stand in line at Franklin's on Thursday, hang out with me on Friday to give your stomach a rest, then get up on Saturday and drive to Lexington for yummy meat and a super fun after lunch activity-a real live small town cattle auction!!!! Sorry PETA types, I love love loved this. It was so cool to see an example of old-time culture (or should I say agri-culture, woka woka) still alive and well. Fortunately my sweet husband gave me a new camera so there are some pictures of our Saturday on the flickr. UNfortunately, when I got the new camera I put the old memory card in it to see if it worked and forgot to switch it out. The old memory card goes way back to the Galveston trip so it only had a tiny bit of space left. I wanted to get a movie of the auction, but it cut me off after only eight seconds. Luckily those eight seconds are pretty good.