Red Mango!

Red Mango has been open for almost a week now and I have already gotten my "Club Mango" loyalty card. I was a customer on both days over the weekend and got the same thing. They offer a good amount of flavors and you can try them and mix and match flavors. Pricing is by the ounce and so you can get as much or as little as you want. You have a few choices of how you want the yogurt served. You can make your own multi-layered parfait, order a smoothie, or do the tried and true yogurt bowl with toppings. They offer a few other options as well such as Hot Chocolate Chillers and probiotic iced teas. It feels to me like they waited to open until the weather was warmer. Very smart! I can see yogurt and cupcakes in my future. The two stores are back to back!

It's time to hit up the gym more...

Celebrity Visit

I spotted a celebrity today in CityCentre! I was actually in the middle of a serious, work-related discussion when it all went down. A frantic coworker ran by and gestured out the window. "You gotta see this!" he said. I didn't know what I was about to see, but I wasn't disappointed. Today, CityCentre was visited by yellow Mario from The Mario Brothers!

For those of you who are part of the "pix or it didn't happen" camp...

~Do do do, do do do do...(Mario theme song...)

Ranting On and On

Ladies and gents, I have come to the conclusion that the residents of CityCentre mean absolutely nothing to whomever plans maintenance activities and I feel like no one cares. Many of us signed waivers that indicate we understood and accepted the sounds and smells that came with living in a mixed-use area. I have no qualms with the music coming from restaurants, or the people screaming at night, or even the cars revving by at night. I still feel that the quarterly grease pump truck is a stretch. I mean, WE GET ABSOLUTELY NO WARNING of when this truck will be here. At least I can put some earplugs in that night if I knew it was coming right? Maybe it should be posted in a public place so prospective residents are aware of it.

Why am I revisiting this topic that I touched on in a previous post? Well, I suffered a mandatory 2 hours of not being able to sleep last night because someone thought it was a smart idea to pressure wash the sidewalks at 12:30AM. The truck with the pressure motor was right outside my window. Does someone really consider this as incidental to mixed-use living? Let me reiterate, GIVE US SOME WARNING SO WE CAN PLAN ACCORDINGLY. I could have had an excuse to hold an all-night poker party or something like that if we were given some warning. That would have been fun instead of excruciating like last night was.

I would like to write something positive about CityCentre, really I do. Tonight is the grand opening of Free People, a store that I have absolutely no interest in. When Sweet or Red Mango open, that will be a different story! There are cigarette butts everywhere now even though I wrote something warning of that a while back. No one took heed. I walk by people smoking everyday right outside of building entrances and wonder why no one does anything about it. People, it is against the Houston City Ordinances! At the same time, I see pink parking citations everywhere. I understand, this is a place of business. I just wish I didn't feel so small here. Seriously, I was all ready to write a post about the malfunctioning drainage situation on Thursday, but I thought better of it. I'm not here on a smear campaign; I am here on a truth campaign. The truth is, we the residents, don't matter. It's quite a sad truth. :'(

Training Ride #1 Finished

I woke up this morning and made my way to the parking garage with road bike and gear in hand. The place was kind of eerie without a soul in sight. The first ride of the season for me was the 9th Annual Frost Bike 50 in support of the Jersey Village High School drill team. I wanted to take it easy so I rode the 45 mile route. My official time was around 3 hours with two rest stops. Lifetime Fitness better get their bikes ready for me because I'll be hitting them hard. It seems like I start my MS 150 training later and later every year. Maybe it is out of laziness, but I like to think it is because I am well conditioned... ;)

It's now time to rest up the region of my body that was pressed against a rock hard road bike seat for hours. I won't go into detail, but I'm sure you can guess what I'm talking about. Other parts of your body will hurt before your legs on these long bike rides, for reals.

Before I end this post, I wanted to share something that happened to me today after the ride. It is smart to get some protein into your body after a workout like the one I had today so I went to a restaurant for some chicken fajitas. The interesting part is that I forgot to bring a change of clothes so I walked in wearing my bike gear, including my bike shorts. Now, for those of you who have never seen bike shorts, they're tight and have padding where you would sit on the bike seat. The restaurant had just opened and so all the employees were lined up near the front and I definitely got some interesting glances. I shuffled over to the table that they took me to waaaaaaaaaaay in the back and sat down. I wanted to order before I went to wash my hands so I did and made my way to the restroom on the other side of the restaurant. I briskly walked down the hall and tried not to draw attention to myself, tight, padded pants and all. I felt so embarassed, but I was hungry so whatever. The worst part happened upon exit of the restaurant. I ran into an older, nicely dressed couple at the door and immediately realized that I had been walking past people who had just come from church. :X

I am bringing jeans and a shirt to the next ride...

Bumper Cars

The other day I was driving back from the grocery store when I saw a large pickup blocking the garage. I also heard the car alarm of the vehicle behind it. Guess what happened? Yeah, I didn't realize what was going on until after the pickup made its Austin Powers golf cart-like getaway. I froze and I felt bad about it. I left a small descriptive note saying what type of car and the color, but I couldn't be of anymore help. I glanced over for damage as I was passing by and I didn't see anything major so I can kind of sleep at night. Some of these garages are really way too small for large trucks.

Seriously, not much has been going on around here. The dancing under the stars is gone and the Thursday markets are gone. The website says that they'll be back soon and I look forward to it!

This past weekend has been rainy and overall dreary. Hopefully next weekend is fairer weather.

I found out last Wednesday that Straits doesn't actually have reverse happy hour during their karaoke. I don't know what changed from their original fliers, but a group of us went after work and sang a few songs. When the tab came, we asked why it wasn't happy hour prices and we were pretty much told that the fliers were wrong. Isn't that false advertising?! I hope Wayne Dulcefino doesn't catch wind of this...lol he's probably hot on the trail of something a lot more important.

I'm still waiting for Red Mango to open up. It feels like they've been building it for an eternity! Oh, and how about that candy store? Come on already!