A happy hump day

Wednesday, I and Shannon, a stitching buddy, went down to Houston to 3 Stitches, a cross stitching shop and went wild.  Okay, not really, but we did have a lot of fun and enjoyed ourselves immensely. 

Shannon ended up driving and she has a GPS unit.  I must say that I thought it was the coolest gadget I've seen in awhile.  She typed the address into the unit and it showed a little map with arrows that told her when to turn and where.  It calculated the best and fasted way to get there.  (All you gadget people stop rolling your eyes and thinking I'm old-fashioned and behind the times.)

Yes, I've known about GPS units for years.  No, DH and I don't have one for three reasons: 1) we know how to Google for maps of places that we don't currently know how to get to, 2) both of us have superior map-reading skills, and 3) we're tightwads and won't buy a gadget unless we know we will use it extensively (so that it essentially pays for itself).  We wouldn't use a GPS unit all that often.  But I must say that I was drooling over Shannon's GPS unit and thought it was very fun and convenient!

We spent a lot of time in 3 Stitches.  I could spend days in there.  Pam, the owner, is branching out a bit with needlepoint, so she's added a lot of new and interesting fibers.  I could be a fiber floozy if I let myself.  Pam also carries a lot of fabric that she will custom cut if you need her to.  I did a lot of fiber and fabric fondling.  Pam has tons of shop models and I enjoyed looking at all of them.  There is a nice stitching area in her shop and there were a bunch of "crazy stitching ladies" there stitching away and bantering back and forth.  (Yes, it was fun to eavesdrop!)

Shannon ended up with a nice pile of patriotic patterns and floss.  I ended up with a nice pile of EZ-Bobs (I store my specialty floss on these), some NPI silk floss, and a patriotic pattern.  There was some mutual enabling going on as Shannon ended up with a skein of silk floss and I ended up with a patriotic pattern; neither of us had these items on our respective lists.  ;-)

Spending money and acquiring stash made us hungry, so we got in the car and "asked" the GPS unit for nearby restaurants.  We were in the mood for Mexican food so we scrolled through the GPS-provided list until we found one we liked.  Los Cucos is more California-style Tex-Mex to me, but I like that they have more salad-oriented dishes which is what I was in the mood for.  For example, I ordered chalupas which traditionally is a tostada with beans, beef, lettuce and tomatoes piled on top.  Los Cucos chalupas have shredded chicken cooked in a traditional Mexican tomato sauce with shredded cabbage, goat cheese, and avocado and tomato slices piled on the tostada.
  
All in all, it was a fun day!

LoneStar