Gossamer's Travels

Gossamer on The Daily Show

2011-07-20T23:33:00.001-05:00

One of our life goals is to appear on either The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report:

The Daily Show - Horrible Bosses
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Close enough! (Gossamer appears roughly at the one 1:19 mark).

While we are giddy over this, the scandal discussed is a serious matter...But *omg,* did you see Gossy!?!

Oh, Argentina!

2011-07-12T20:55:00.002-05:00

Well this is embarrassing. We went on an amazing trip to Argentina but have hardly any pictures to show off. We know it's not important but it's a fun project for us.

What happened was we were on the bus towards our school and it happened to be extremely crowded. We were dumb-dumbs and had our camera in the back pocket of Steffie's backpack. We got off the bus and a friend noticed a pocket was open. Of course, it was the pocket with the camera in it.

So yeah, it got stolen. Awesome.

Regardless, it was an amazing trip!

The objective of this trip was to study Spanish. We can safely say we really didn't accomplish much of this. Don't get us wrong, we learned a lot. The problem was we were learning two versions of the language. First, we were learning the classroom version. It's all about grammar and spelling. Then there's the social version. Argentinian Spanish is a bit different from Mexican Spanish (which we're quite used to). We had to figure out the slang and different pronunciations. In the end, our brains were mush.

The important thing was we passed the class and had a fantastic trip!

For the most part, we stayed in Cordoba. The second largest city in Argentina with a huge college scene. So much partying... (After we finished studying of course...) The whole club and bar scene really isn't our favorite but we adjusted well enough!

Our favorite bar there was the Don't Worry Bar (Av. Rafael Nuñez 5824). It was so fun there and the owner was beyond nice to us and our classmates. It has a cool, 60's vibe and cheap drinks.

We also had a four day trip to Buenos Aires. Now that is an amazing city. We instantly fell in love with Chifa's Peruvian-Chinese restaurant. Argentina is surprisingly lacking in spicy foods and Chifa was a perfect remedy for that.

Buenos Aires had such a strange and fascinating vibe to it. People watching at cafes were our favorite pastime while there. Tip: Try a Submarino! It was chocolatey goodness!

Before our camera was stolen (along with two weeks worth of photos) we did manage to upload some pictures we took on the first couple of days. For example, this fine gem of a lemon pie with meringue:

There was hardly a dessert we didn't try. Dulce de leche was our friend as well as our enemy. If our blood could be replaced with anything else, we would vote for dulce de leche.

As for drinks, we have to discuss what keeps Argentina ticking: mate. Now, when we first saw mate, our thoughts were "our school is taking out to take drugs?"

Mate may look like something our hippie friends would drink but it's basically just tea and yummy tea at that. We're addicted to sugar so we always add a little before drinking it.

When it comes to booze, it's all about Fernet. We loved Fernet... and were one of the few Americans who did. It is best to mix it with soda considering how strong and bitter it is.

All in all, five weeks was not enough time to truly explore the city. We had to make due with exploring when we didn't have class. It was an interesting experience though and we made so many friends. Next time we return, it will not be as students.

Damn Good Tacos

2011-04-16T22:47:00.001-05:00

Never in our lives did we EVER think we would willingly spend over $3 for a taco. It just seemed so silly! Oh, how things have changed...

Torchy's Tacos is a devilishly awesome business here in Austin, TX. It also just happens to be located down the street from where we work. We were skeptical at first. We only tried it because our boss ended up buying some Torchy's for a co-worker's birthday. We took a bite of The Democrat taco and that's all it took.

Our world changed.

Once we were so naive about spending over $3 on tacos. Now we wonder if they are willing to take payment in the form of our first born child.

Yes, they are that good.

Over the past few months we have been trying random tacos from their menu. We were given gift cards so we didn't mind going crazy with ordering.

We have two favorites:

The Democrat: Shredded beef barbacoa topped with fresh avocado, queso fresco, cilantro, onions and a wedge of lime.

Mr. Pink: Guajillo seared Ahi tuna, cabbage fresca, cilnatro, queso fresco, lime wedige, and served with Chipotle Sauce.

We're drooling just thinking about it. Torchy's has seriously become one of our favorite places. Beware of trying to park in some locations though. For some reason, Austin parking lots seem to defy logic... but that's another story.

Links:
- Torchy's Tacos

New Years Traveling Disaster

2011-01-09T19:43:00.001-06:00

We love traveling. We love it so much, we have dedicated this blog to it. The world is full of adventures and we just want to write about s few of ours. Unfortunately, not all of our adventures are fun and amazing.

Our most recent trip was not for pleasure but to see a sick family member who is passing away. This journey was going to be difficult but we were optimistic.

The trip began easy enough. We love airplanes and airports despite all the fear, security, and drama concerning the TSA. People are fascinating to watch and we've always adore the Austin, Texas Airport. It can get busy and stressful during the check-ins and security lines but we've grown accustomed to it. While waiting for our plane, we usually get to hear live music to keep our spirits up. Plane rides are amazing too. We little humans and monsters are traveling roughly 500 mph at 36,000 feet in the air. It's fantastic!

We decided to save a little money and fly with Southwest Airlines to Buffalo, NY. Southwest has always been a quick and cheap way to get anywhere we needed on a bind. We have not had many problems with them... until now. After flying all day, we were ready to hit the road and see our family. The drive to see our family was going to take a little over an hour so we wanted to leave quick. To our delight, our first two bags came out quickly. I should mention we were traveling with some other people. Anyways, we waited...

...and waited.

...and waited.

Our other bag never appeared.

Nothing. The last bag never came out. Of course, this was the bag full of clothes and all the essentials we needed. We reported the bag missing and had no other choice but to leave.

It's about 11 PM at this point and we needed clothes and a few supplies. The only store open was Wal-Mart. We usually avoid that store like the plague but we had no choice.

It was 1:30 AM by the time we reached our family's home.

It was difficult to get up in the morning but it had to be done. We spent the day mingling and visiting family and friends. We eventually got the glorious phone call that our bag was found and that they'll deliver it by the end of the day.

Crisis adverted but the story is not over yet.

Visiting the family was emotionally and physically draining. Our grandfather is not doing well and we tried to spend as much time with him as possible. We also had the duty of keeping our seven cousins entertained, all who are younger than 13. All that running and emotion overload was a lot to take in.

After a few days, it was time to leave. At the airport, a horrible announcement was made. The flight to Baltimore was going to be delayed. In order to get back to Austin, we had to take a connecting to Baltimore. A few minutes later, another announcement listed several cities. If your connecting flight was to any of those cities, you would have to rebook your flight. Our stomach lurched when we heard Austin on that list. We would have to wait another day before we got home.

We could stay in Buffalo or fly to Baltimore and stay there for the night. We choose Baltimore and after seven hours of waiting, we were on a plane again. The strange thing is that the Southwest employee would not help anyone get any other flights. He simply refused to talk to anyone and no one could change plans until it was too late. We knew there was a flight to Dallas that we would have taken instead but we were never allowed to discuss that option. The guy was just so rude and the least helpful human being we have come across. He simply shooed anyone away who tried to adjust their plans.

We were sent to the Westin Hotel once in Baltimore. We have to admit, it was a nice place. Huge comfy beds with blankets that just nicely melted onto the body. It was a nice sanctuary even though it only lasted a few hours.

We didn't have our luggage with us. To speed things up the following morning, we didn't request them. We were told that they would be in Austin before us. We woke up about 4:30am and got picked up by the most wonderful shuttle bus driver. He was just the right amount of sweetness which was refreshing.

The security line was quick enough and we made it a point not to get in the line with the X-Ray machine. Those things freak us out a bit. Once past that, we ran into the first gift shop we saw. It was full of the most tackiest shirts we've ever seen, but we were desperate. The moment we land in Austin, we would have to go straight to work. We looked like disgruntled tourist. Fun.

We went to our gate only to find out that our tickets were incorrect and had to go to the other side of the airport. Our first flight sent us to Nashville. It was short and sweet and we slept most of the way.

As I wrote the first draft to this, we were FINALLY landing in Austin. We were tired, angry, and ready to strangle the kid who wouldn't behave but we were home!

Our luggage wasn't there when we landed. They eventually found our luggage and delivered it to our home.

This horrible adventure was finally over.

Thanks for nothing Southwest Airlines.

Dallas StarTrek FanDays

2010-11-03T09:23:00.001-05:00

Every so often we volunteer for a friend at the Dallas Sci-Fi Expos and FanDays. This year, we helped them out with the StarTrek themed show and it was pretty fun.

Since we were working at the show, we really did not have a lot of time to actually go to any of the panels or Q&As with the attending actors. We did get to meet a lot of really awesome people, including Tom Felton! Unfortunately, we couldn't get a picture with him, but alas the memory of it all is pretty nifty.

Who DID we takes pictures with though? Let us show you:

This is Lil' Chewbacca! His owner couldn't make the show so he was taking pictures of all the nifty things and folks he saw. (Like us!)

That's Grego of Bean Pot Toiz. He's cuddly!!

This is artist Matthew Warlick.

And this is another artist, Halo Seraphim! She drew a picture of Lil' Gossamer for us!

And finally, the greatest discovery at the show:

We found Waldo!!!

Links
+ Dallas FanDays
+ Bean Pot Toiz
+ Matthew Warlick
+ Where's Waldo

Fantastic Arcade

2010-10-03T14:25:00.000-05:00

In Austin, Texas there is an amazing film festival called Fantastic Fest! We didn't go to that. Lil' Gossamer and I headed over to it's videogame offspring known as Fantastic Arcade. We even spoiled ourselves by getting the $60 VIP pass! We regret that decision.

Fantastic Arcade is brand new and still in it's experimental phase. That may have been the main reason why it was so hard to get information on the shows over at the Alamo Drafthouse. We even had to go through an hour-long shuffle act with the volunteers, all who were trying to figure out if we needed a ticket or not to get into the shows. One minute we did, the next we didn't, and then we did after all! The volunteers for the most part were nice. Sadly, we kept dealing with the rude ones who were beyond not helpful. We even missed a panel because we were given bad information.

Over at The Highball, things were different. We made lots of friends like Tien!

Vintage arcade games mixed with unreleased games! There was a private area for badge holders to compete in game tournaments, play some independent games, and kill some zombies. At night, we enjoyed dance parties until closing. It was all so amazing... the first day. By the final day, we've played all the games, beat a few (we totally kicked Shredders butt in the Ninja Turtle game), and already slayed a lifetime worth of zombies.

The $60 we spent were not worth it. If we do go back to Fantastic Arcade, we'll just get a day pass or one of the other cheaper options. Don't get us wrong, we did enjoy ourselves. There was just a lot that could have been improved on. Fantastic Arcade is still growing and we look forward to see what future events have to offer!

Best Stuff We Saw or Played
- Super Meat Boy
- Canabalt
- Alamo Drafthouse campaign map in Left 4 Dead
- Red VS Blue Season 8
- Machinarium

Interview with William the Bloody

2010-08-31T01:19:00.002-05:00

Over at William's Bloody Hell, there is a sweet idea called an Interview Swap. We have been reading William's blog for the past few months are finally decided to take the time and ask him a few questions. Here is what he had to say!
---

Gossamer's Travels (GT): Where is your favorite place in the world?
William the Bloody (WB): I know this is going to sound like a cliche, but right now my favourite place is New Hampshire, my home. I love the mountains, the autumn leaves, the winter snow, the fact that it never really gets TOO hot... I will have to admit that I am not really very well traveled, so that may have some bearing on this answer.

GT: What is one thing you never leave the home without? Why?
WB: My keys? Because then I wouldn't be able to get back in

GT: What is one goal you wish to accomplish?
WB: Oooh, this one is a toughie, innit? There are many "reach for the stars" type of lofty goals I would love to do such as meeting some of my idols or going into space, etc... but realistically? I think I would love to have collected the entire The Cure discography on vinyl. I love music and The Cure is my absolute favourite and there is nothing like hearing their stuff on a record. I'm about half way there!

GT: If you could go on a road trip with any person, dead or alive, who would it be and where would you go?
WB: After considering many dead musicians (Joe Strummer! Ian Curtis!) I do believe traveling with writer Neil Gaiman would be fantastic. I would have him take me on a driving tour of the USA, where we would visit all of the stops in his book American Gods.

GT: What is one thing you wish people knew about you?
WB: I don't know! How about that online, I'm actually very approachable? I may be "goth"-ish, but I'm a pretty friendly guy. I love getting random e-mails from people I don't even know and answering them! I also enjoy drawing, but sometimes don't know what to draw, so people writing requests to me is a very welcome thing! If you write to me, I WILL write back, and if you make a request there is a 90% chance I'll comply out of sheer boredom. Does that count as two things? Oh well.

Thank you so much William for taking the time writing back! If you would you like to read more about William the Bloody (and his rants), check out his site WilliamsBloodyHell.com

Updates William has just updated his site with my interview! Yet another reason why you should read his site. Go now. Like, right now.

And we're not stalking his site... more like, creepily observing it. Oh, that means the same thing doesn't it? So yea, we're stalking his site.

:)

Notes on Notebooks

2010-08-29T00:54:00.001-05:00

Before websites, Twitter, and Facebook, we have always written our thoughts down in journals and notebooks. To this day, we always have a notebook somewhere within reach.

Top Row, Left to Right:
Flowery Red, Blue, and Cream Journal from Barnes & Nobles: This journal was a gift to Steffie... from Steffie. She thought she deserved something pretty for herself when she turned 23. Right now it is full of random notes purely about books. Whenever she buys or finishes reading a book, she writes notes about it in there. Weird? Yes, but it works for her.

Little Nemo Journals by Eeboo: These are three 5.25 x 7 notebooks with illustrations of Little Nemo in Slumberland. These are used for EVERYTHING. We always have one of these little guys near by. Here's a better look at some of the designs:

We bought the one with the band recently at Half-Priced Books in Round Rock, Texas for only $2.95. We thought it was cute to begin with and thought the art looked vaguely familiar. Once we realized it was Little Nemo, we bought it on the spot. Then we looked online if there were anymore available. There was but for $7.95. Yea, we weren't spending that much. The next day we went to the Half-Priced Book in Austin, Texas (on Palmer) and found the other two. Ever since we've bought them, every note, idea, obscure thought goes into them. The only thing we did not like about them is that they were not lined. We usually don't draw in our journals and rely heavily on lines to keep things neat. We did a find a solution though! We drew our own lines with all the color pencils we could find.

Composition Notebooks: We have roughly 8 of these. These are used for when we start insane projects or for school. Mostly the insane projects.

Union Jack Journal: We got this during our trip in London for a very specific reason. We are quite lazy but also very creative. For our family and friends who want to see the pictures of our trip, we are making a book about it. That way, we don't have to constantly explain all the pictures. It has more personal details than what we allow on this site. Silly things like rude comments about people we didn't like, drawings of events about those people we didn't like, the numbers of all the dudes who hit on Steffie and she said she would call but never did, and drunk pictures of Steffie and Lil' Gossamer in pubs.

Bottom Row, Left to Right:

Butterfly Journal from Barnes & Noble: This was the journal we used while in London. It has notes from classes, badly drawn comics of our adventures, and rants about the tours we were forced to take. The picture below has drawings of horses by all the people in our little Study Abroad group.

Basic 1-Subject Notebooks: We are pretty sure we have over a gazillion of these. We mostly use these for school since they are so cheap. They don't last long and usually fall apart because of all the stuff we put them through.

Big Flowery Journal: We don't really like this journal. It's too big for taking around and a bit awkward to write in sometimes. Right now it is mostly filled with obscure NaNoWriMo ideas.

It is safe to say we have a bit of a notebook/journal obsession.

:)

London Love - Pt. 2

2010-08-06T23:08:00.004-05:00

Shakespeare was a constant theme throughout our trip whether we liked it or not.

Our favorite Shakespeare spot, without a doubt, was the Globe Theatre. This picture was taken just across from the theatre at a fancy little restaurant called The Swan. We usually love showing off what we eat at places but this happened to be our last day of having any money for the next few days. All we had was a tomato an onion salad.

Yea, that is totally Gossamer on the Globe Theatre stage. He was allowed on it. His faithful human best friend who feeds and takes care of him, was not. (*sigh*)

There was no way we could continue on without at least seeing one play at the famous theatre! We were lucky enough to see an AMAZING showing of Macbeth. It was seriously the best version we had ever seen. The groundling area (the cheapest tickets where you stand throughout the play) was covered in a weird, black rubber thing. The audience members could poke their heads out of the black thingy as they watched the play. They just had to be careful of the witches and random dead bodies poking them.

Some time later we had a bit of fun being escorted out of a tube station by some fireman. This is basically what happens when a "Mysterious Package" is delivered.

It is no secret museums are not our favorite places to visit. On one our class tours, we had to visit the Tate Modern. This picture shows Gossamer at his favorite spot at the museum: outside the museum. We separated from the main group and hid on the balcony for a while. We eventually had to go back inside and that's where we discovered a wonderful new game!

We had just passed a sculpture that literally looked like poo and noticed the scene above from a window. Gossamer wanted to pose in front of the window, but we couldn't get a decent shot. Instead, he asked me just to take a picture of all the people having fun outside. As I was doing this, Gossamer noticed something strange: people were staring at us. Not just us though, they were trying to see what we were taking pictures of. We pretended not to notice and continued taking tons of photos of the outside. A nice little group started forming behind us. When we finished we walked away mumbling, "Amazing... I can't believe I got the shot." People went to the window, unsure of what had just happened.

We had to post SOME pictures of food. We are not exactly sure what this is or where we got but we do remember it was very yummy. We downed the whole plate and wanted seconds.

On one of our days off, we took a trip to Canary Wharf. It was pretty quiet since it was Sunday, but still a nice trip. We went to some parks, got lost, picked a random destination on the tube station, got lost, found some more parks, and went back through Canary Wharf.

At the end of the day we wanted to see Big Ben at night and explore the area.

Our biggest regret was not remembering the name of where we got this cupcake. We are huge cupcake fans. It was just a basic red velvet cupcake with cream cheese buttercream frosting and it was amazing.

On our last day we had a few major stops. The first was The Crypt. I thought it would be a creepy, grotesque cafe. It was actually very pretty and looked just like the cafe in several museums we visited. I did not care how it looked though because we bought some delicious strawberries with whipped cream and some tea. It was pretty awesome. The second was Buckingham Palace. We didn't get to really see it the first time and wanted to get a good look. It is actually really pretty up close than trying to sneak a peak from a distance.

We also went to the National Portrait Gallery. We do not have any photos because we managed to escape from that tour. We were looking up information on the Blind Traveler, James Holman while we waited. We couldn't find the drawing we wanted so I asked for help. Long story short, a lady helped us set up a meeting with a man who could take us into the National Portrait Gallery Archives. He showed us the original drawings and pictures of James Holman and gave me information I needed to get into other places. Unfortunately, I will not be able to use that information until I go back to London.

For our last meal of the trip, we went to the King's Cross station and did some people watching! (It's like bird watching... but with people). We meant to show a picture of our chocolate croissant before we ate it but forgot... We remembered right before we finished it! Just for the record, it was very tasty.

Two and half weeks had passed and it was time to go home. The trip was over. We said our Goodbyes and made the voyage back home to Texas.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

2010-07-20T22:29:00.008-05:00

Our trip led us to Startford-Upon-Avon for a few days. The train ride there was roughly an hour long.

We were beyond surprised how wonderful it was. It was such a change from the hustle of London. It was a bit odd that there was not that much excitement anywhere. It was just so quiet. We actually were able to sleep!! No 2am drunk singers here!

Anyways, after some strolling, we did make some good friends. First, we meet some nice Swans.

There was also a giant bear. He dreams of being a Shakespearean actor someday. For now, he guards a toy store.

We spent most of our nights at the Courtyard Theatre. First to see Cleopatra & Anthony and then to see Morte d'Arthur.

The major theme of this little trip was definitely Shakespeare! Considering it's his hometown, we can see why. Here's even a picture of Lil' Gossy in front of Shakespeare's home.

There was also a weird, little museum that we had to explore. It was cheesy.

We couldn't help but laugh at all the "information". We'll give you a few examples of something of the comments we kept hearing.

"And here, we have a ring that probably belonged to William Shakespeare."

"In this display is a book he may have read. This is not the actual copy, but one from the school we believe he went to."

"None of this was around in Shakespeare's time. This was later added on in-"

So yea, we got a kick out of it but for all the wrong reasons. Oh, they also had pictures of famous people who performed in any of Shakespeare's play. A Shakespeare museum is not complete unless there are pictures of hunky heart throbs there to show you how really cool it all actually is. *dreamy sigh* Oh Leo...

Outside of the Shakespeare-ness, the town is beautiful! We were surrounded by parks, gardens, and cute little houses!

The food was decent. You just have to take a chance and order something random. We forgot what this thing was called, but it was pretty good!

We LOVE street performers. We had got to watch some folks perform random scenes from Shakespeare's plays by request. On the creepier side of performers, we saw living statues!

Along the way we managed to complete a life goal we did not expect to do on this trip: Help in an Archeology dig! There is a site where some famous house used to be at. For the past few months, people have been digging up the area. Shakespeare does have a connection with the site along with other notable people... whose names we have forgotten.

It really is a silly and random goal to accomplish! We are still giddy they let us help out. Sorry, no pictures of that though. We were having too much fun getting our hands dirty!

Overall, Strarford-Upon-Avaon was a wonderful little town to visit. A sweet break from London but enough quirkiness to keep you entertained!

London Love - Pt. 1

2010-07-12T21:42:00.013-05:00

We've been back in the United States for a good couple of weeks now... and already miss London. We had so much fun but did not get to see everything we wanted. It was a Study Abroad class so our options were a bit limiting. Here are some highlights though:

We had a bit of a money problem half way through our trip. Basically, we had money, just no way of accessing it. All we had for about a week was just the cash we had on is... which was not a lot. We discovered that margherita pizzas were amazingly cheap and pretty filling. Oh... and so yummy!

Advice: Have at least two money back-up plans in case the first one fails... Trust me.

Anyways, did we mention the food we had was amazing?

We later found The Sherlock Holmes. It's a pub. Literary nerdiness and drinking all combined into one. We were in love!

While at the British Museum, Gossamer was misbehaving so I tried feeding him to one of the stone cats.

For the first week, there were elephants EVERYWHERE. We just realized Gossamer did not take a picture with any. I think he was scared they might come to life and trample him. A totally reasonable fear.

We tried to go to Hogwarts. We couldn't get through because we're monsters and muggles. Someday we'll make it... Someday...

Here's a man. He's in a cow suit.

We got to go inside a Beetle House. Gossamer felt right at home!

Yea... more Sherlock Holmes stops. We couldn't help ourselves.

Then we decided to literally stop and smell the roses.

While at the London Zoo, we made friends with a goat and family of Meerkats.

The Number One thing we learned about London: They have a REALLY bad history with fire. Seriously. This picture is Gossamer in front of the monument dedicated to the Great Fire of 1666. I think maybe a total of 2 places we visited were not burned down at one point or another...

To finish off for the day, we give you this:

A Baby Tardis! If you don't know how insanely awesome that is, then we feel really bad for you.

We'll have at least two other post soon. One more about London and one about Stratford-Upon-Avon. Stay tuned and Toodle-Loo!

Howdy, London!

2010-06-17T18:35:00.005-05:00

We really want to update more but we leave the dorms early and get back late. Our schedule is INSANE! Our feet have never known such pain. We are having a fantastic time though! Here's just a little update of what's been going on.

The plane rides were not as bad as we thought they were going to be. The first one was only 45 minutes. The second one was roughly 8 to 9 hours long. Sleeping on the plane is highly recommended, unfortunately, it's not really comfortable. It didn't help there was only a total of 4 hours of darkness outside. We did manage a few minutes of sleep. Considering the gorgeous view we had, the lack of sleep did not bother us at all:

We haven't had a lot of time since getting here in London. Everyday is a new tour or play. So far we have seen Welcome to Thebes at the National Theatre and Sucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre. Our tours have taken us all over the place.

We've decided if we moved here, we'll just invest more into our bicycle. It seems easier than walking everywhere. Anyways, since we are taking tours, we mostly see tourist focused sights like:

Buckingham Palace (Which was crowded like hell!)-

The Tower of London (Also quite crowded)-

And of course Big Ben (Crowded plus crazy traffic)-

All the sights were wonderful of all, but it was so insane! People were running everywhere, tourist trying to get the perfects shots (us included), and it was just so busy, busy, busy, busy!

What was our favorite part then? This:

Just relaxing at Hyde Park. We just finished another tour and we were exhausted. We found some shade and just let the stress go. We didn't have to run anywhere to be on time, not too many loud noises, and not a lot of rushing. It was peaceful and we could really just take in what we have accomplished in the last few days. Of course that ended when we had to quickly make it to the Royal Court theatre to see Sucker Punch.

The food is so fantastic as well! For a treat for ourselves we stopped at The Orangery, which is a bit expensive. We just got a lemonade and a gorgeous Meringue with raspberries.

We are seriously drooling just thinking about it.

So that's it for today! We're exhausted and plan to sleep well.

Good Night!

Links
- All our pictures so far
- Royal Court Theatre
- National Theatre
- The Orangery

Wowzers!

2010-05-31T03:03:00.003-05:00

It has been a crazy month! Here's a list of what's going on:

- For those who even remotely follow my work, I gave up on Gossamer 365. If you don't know what that is, don't worry. You're not missing much. We have ideas for other projects, but we probably won't complete those either. Why, you ask? That's how we roll.

- Only 13 more days until we leave for London!

- We've updated our Life and Travel goals. Before, we just had a very small list of generic things to do. Now, it's a list that has over 120 task and we plan to expand on it overtime. The list has everything from silly ideas to obscure impossibilities. If we do manage to complete anything, we'll make sure to post about it!

- Best news:

We have to thank Katie for this amazing picture she made for us! (Emptygoldeyes of DA)

Gossy and I never looked better! If allowed, we would just stare at it all day. It has so many things we adore: Awesome red armor (suck it Blues!), me looking fabulous, Gossamer looking confused (as always), and a shiny sword!! We have said this a million times by now, but THANK YOU SO MUCH!

To everyone else: Fear the mighty power of Steffie and Gossy! We will destroy your souls and steal your cookies!

His Name Is Bernard Lockwood

2010-05-11T23:32:00.009-05:00

He came to us from a distant land seeking advice on his expedition. He's a professor wanting to explore new worlds and find adventure!

His name is Bernard Lockwood.

He's the first of his kind to make such a trip and is hoping ~~it will make him rich~~ it will inspire others to do the same. We took him in and already on the first day he discovered a fascinating beast!

He has called it the Bardus Canis Houdinius. Bernard showed no fear as he approached the ferocious creature and posed in front of it.

He was even able to tame the creature with ease:

He says the the Bardus Canis Houdinius is an unpredictable creature that only responds to tummy rubs and strange bone shaped treats. They entertain themselves by chasing birds, bugs, and their own tails.

We are so happy that such a brave traveler has joined us! Welcome Professor Bernard Lockwood!

Pizza With A Promise

2010-04-27T23:46:00.009-05:00

Dear Promise Pizza,

We have to apologize to you. We admit, there were doubts that an organic, eco-friendly pizza shop would actually have any good food. We've been disappointed in the past and were worried since we love pizza so much. You proved us wrong. Very wrong. We never loved pizza so much. You guys are awesome.

-Love,
Lil' Gossamer and Friends

Seriously though, the pizza rocked. We got the Napoli Special which is prosciutto, black olives, and topped with Italian seasonings. Olive oil and garlic was used instead of traditional pizza sauce. Ugh, it's too amazing for words!

It's at this moment we wish we took more pictures. There's an area to watch as the employees make the pizza! It's a small place, but it's nice, bright, and green. The tables are even cool looking and shiny!

The drink selection was pretty nifty as well! We really do not drink sodas besides the occasional Big Red. The thing is, ALL of their sodas are made with sugar cane and they even have Ginger Ale (YUM)! Sugar cane based sodas have such a better taste to them than high fructose corn syrup based ones. There's also a selection of teas, but didn't get a good look to see what they were. We're defiantly going back, so we'll check them out later.

Promise Pizza is located in Round Rock, Texas. If ever in the area, defiantly check them out.

Links:
- PromisePizza.Com

Galveston, Texas

2010-04-12T16:49:00.011-05:00

Over the weekend, I sent Francis to take a look at Galveston, Texas. We heard it was a beautiful place to visit and I thought he would enjoy it. He did, but was slightly disappointed. Galveston is still recovering from Hurricane Ike and the ocean wall area is juts a huge stretch of resorts and restaurants. To make matters worse it rained on one of the days he was there so it really set back a lot of the things he wanted to do.

Luckily, Francis knows how to make the best out of any situation.

Nothing cheers him up more than food. Francis decided to pig out on some lobster while at Joe's Crab Shack.

When the weather was good, he went out to the beach. Since Francis has no arms, he thought it best just to play in the sand.

Later, he went on a tour of the USS Stewart Destroyer. If you click the picture, you can see he looks a little too happy on the machine gun.

He also toured the submarine Cavalla. Here he is hanging out where they fire torpedoes.

Overall, he did have lots of fun but in no hurry to go back.

Links
- All Pictures That Francis Took On The Trip
- Galveston.Com
- Joe's Crab Shack

Baking Up A Storm

2010-04-04T19:22:00.005-05:00

There's a bakery in El Paso, Texas that we just LOVE. Anytime we visit the city, we make sure to stop at Bowie Bakery first. We constantly have huge cravings for their yummy sweets but it's hard to find anything similar where we live now. Recently, it was brought to our attention that we are in fact Pastry Chefs and that we could just make the stuff ourselves. Our minds were blown!

Over the next few months, we plan to try and recreate our favorite Mexican sweets breads and cookies. First off, my personal favorite: Marranitos!!!

Marranitos are yummy pig-shaped cookies. For some reason they are also called gingerbread pigs despite not having an ounce of ginger in them. In fact, the flavor that you taste is the molasses and cinnamon.

One of the problems we came across was the fact we did not have a pig cut out. We did the one in the picture above by hand. Since it's Easter here, we decided to user our bunny and duck cutout for the rest of the batch. Needless to say, they came out really cute.

For those wanting to try it out, here's the recipe:

Ingredients

* 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
* 1/4 cup shortening
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup milk
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 cup unsulfured molasses
* 6 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream together brown sugar and shortening until smooth. Mix in 1 egg, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the baking soda, cinnamon, and molasses. Mix in flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out.
3. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into cookies using a pig shaped cookie cutter. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Brush the remaining beaten egg over the tops of the cookies.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the centers of the cookies appear dry and edges are lightly browned.

~allrecipes.com

This recipe was amazing! The cookies are delicious and pretty much how we remembered them.

Now please excuse us while we devour the adorable little cookies!

Toodles!

Red VS Blue

2010-04-02T02:32:00.011-05:00

For our first event post at our new site, we want to talk about the awesome-ness that is Red VS Blue. If you are not familiar with Red VS Blue, we feel deeply sorry for you and think you should go to the Rooster Teeth website now to see what it is.

We were lucky enough to score some tickets to see the 8th season premier at the Alamo Draft House. The Alamo is like a movie theater but only better because they serve food and beer. We love it there. If we could live at one of the Draft Houses, we would pack our bags this very second. There will seriously be at least 20 other mentions of this place during the course of this blog. Get used to it.

Normally, we would try to get amazing photos for any event we go to but that didn't quite work out. It's apparently really dark in theaters. Plus, we didn't want to be that person who constantly uses their flash.

Honestly, we are just happy that we got at least one good picture of Joel Heymen. He's all sorts of dreamy~

Um... back to the subject now.

During the event we got to see the first 4 episodes of Red VS Blue and I can't even begin to explain how amazing it was. The animation will seriously blow your mind. You'll have to wait to see what we mean because we have no idea how to describe it. The website releases a new episode every week, starting today with Chapter 1.

At the event we also got to see a different series about Grifball, some new Rooster Teeth shorts, and an episode of Red Vs Blue Animated.

The only thing we were really disappointed about was that we didn't get to see Pongo. We were SO psyched to see him but he was just stuffed into a box by Joel. So typical. Folks like us, made out of fabric and felt, just have a harder life...

Well, that's about it. Before I leave though, here's the 1st episode of the newest season!

Toodles!

Officially Official

2010-04-02T01:23:00.001-05:00

We officially decided to switch from Wordpress to Blogger. There are so many things we wanted to do but were so constricted by WP unless we paid. We have only used this site for an hour and already have everything working well.

We currently are still looking for a good layout for the site. We're debating between this one and a creepy one.

Anyways, we also plan to have a post later about our trip to the Alamo Draft House. We just want to transfer a few things before we make an Event Post.

OMG! This means we can order new Moo Cards!!! Until we finish updating, enjoy this picture of Lil' Gossy and Francis eating frozen Custard

Wow... we can even center pictures! Blogger rocks!

New Home Experiment

2010-04-02T00:16:00.000-05:00

We are beyond frustrated with Wordpress so we thought about trying blogger. This is just an experiment. If things go well, we'll completely transfer over.