2009 Jan 11 | Chili cook-off


White coat ceremony.



Making chili for the cook-off at school. I figured I wouldn't have the best, but I could at least try to make the hottest.



I absolutely love this chopper thing. I think dicing food with a knife is actually kind of fun, but I've always been bad at it. I'm slow and the food ends up shooting all over the place, whereas this is so fast and easy. The only scary part it is that the only reason I ever thought to buy a chopper is because I saw a commercial for one by the Sham Wow guy.



I like to have ice cubes just in case, but I practically never use them, so they end up evaporating. The powdery yellow stains left behind remind just how wonderful Houston's water is.



It's just one vehicle hauling another, but it's kind of scary to look up and see a giant truck facing towards you on the highway, especially when a car is blocking the view of the truck doing the hauling. For a split second you think of evasive action to take to avoid a head-on collision.



Hans Mongolian BBQ was near the movie theater we went to and it got amazing reviews, so we decided to try it. It was good, but not nearly worth all the hype. Maybe Houstonians just aren't used to restaurants like this.



Maybe I won't get candy; the movie will be over before I get to the front of the line. Actually, that's one benefit of eating right before a movie. You don't have the same need to snack on something.



There was a ton of traffic getting from the theater into Houston, which surprised me because it was around 4pm going into the city, not a time or direction I thought would be busy. This looks like a pretty well-worn path where other people got sick of the slow-moving feeder road and went cross-country to get onto the highway early.



Lots of people were driving beside the lane, too. Grr, cheaters. Wait your turn like the rest of us.



Chili time. Will didn't make chili, but he did make some really great cornbread, including a batch with jalapeņos and bacon.



About eight people brought chili, so if you wanted to try them all, you couldn't eat too much of one.



Brandon made sweet chili, which was easily the best one there. I won hottest.



Playing flip cup after eating.



Celebrating a win.



One thing I've always liked about Wal-Mart is they let you park in their lots for extended periods, but this looked like an RV convention or something.



A shortcut I like to take to avoid waiting at the red light. Just have to be on the watch for other people driving through the parking lots at 90mph.



And another one. If you don't drive on the right spot, though, it's a really big bump, and I'm not sure if a car would even have the clearance to make it.



A cop was slowing down and checking out vehicles going through the U-turn under the highway. First time I've ever seen that happen.



Farther up the road there were a ton of cops at a bank or something. I wonder if the two were connected?



Neon orange on top of camouflage is about as opposite in purpose as you can get for clothing, although the camo isn't really designed for the city.



A new Jeep at our apartment complex parked right beside mine. Because it's purple and they appear to like to park in the same spots I do, I'm sure I'll sit there trying to unlock it for a bit some night when it's dark.