The Chocolate Bar

As promised, I bring you ...

THE CHOCOLATE BAR!!

This is not just ANY chocolate bar. No. This is THE chocolate bar.

As in capitalized: The Chocolate Bar.

It is a place.

With a logo and everything:

It is only in Houston.

It is totally bizarre and beyond words (thus the bazillion photos to follow ...).

I am not sure if there is any thing like it in the entire world.

I think Willy Wonka lives there.

I had no idea it existed until two weeks ago.

It has been featured on The Food Network. Thus the reason I know about it. Apparently my brother-in-law saw a special about it on The Food Network and really wanted to go see it.

Seriously ... who watches The Food Network?

I guess everybody except me since when he started discussing it, Ryan and Ale piped up and said they had seen the same special and would like to see it too. So after heading to the George R. Brown Convention Center for my brother-in-law to register, we turned around and headed for home, with a stop at The Rice Village in search of The Chocolate Bar.

Before I inundate you with photos, a weird side note. We went in and were amazed, but we were hungry and decided that being in a candy store starving was not the best idea in the world, so we decided to go get lunch and then come back to take photos and shop. We were discussing where to eat when Steve, my brother-in-law, said he had asked the guy working there where was a good place to eat and he pointed out a place that he said people came from all over to eat at. We decided that was a good enough endorsement and left the store. Steve pointed the restaurant out for us.

What?

It was Jason's Deli.

Jason's Deli? Sure the food is good, but there is one near our house and we eat there every now and then. They have to-die-for broccoli cheese soup and the best Muffuletta you will find anywhere. (A muffuletta is a New Orleans sandwich made with Sicilian bread with an marinated olive salad and layers of meats - it is huge. You only make the mistake of getting a whole one once - I usually get 1/4th a sandwich - and the fact that they sell a fourth of a sandwich should tell you something ...)

We were confused. It was as if he had said that people come from far and wide to go to McDonald's across the street to eat. Those that live in the Houston area, I am assuming know the restaurant. I guess it is not everywhere as we thought it was.

Go figure.

We ate lunch then crossed back over the street to The Chocolate Bar.

The 'main' area:

Here is a bizarre little nook that contains every candy from your childhood that you can think of. It was weird and a trip down memory lane. They even had candy cigarettes - a DESPICABLE candy! I can't believe they are still being made.

Then I just began to wander and take photos of the grundle of chocolate products for sale.

Jen - here is your 'chocolate bar':

Everything looked perfect - especially the berries:
Tasty:
More perfect berries:

More lovely chocolate:
Pretty, pretty little chocolates:

And then ...


... I saw these. Being full of lunch, I wanted to barf! Seriously - who dips twinkies in chocolate? It's like chocolate and ....


... dirt.

Here are just the prettiest cakes on the planet. And BIG! They are $75.00 a piece, so I didn't get a whole one, but since Fathers Day was the following day, I selected 3 slices of a variety of cakes and we had it for dessert the following day.

The verdict? Not so great. Just tasted like ...


... cake.

And then I just went to town photographing everything that I thought was cute, funny or unique. I realized that was EVERYTHING and I probably wasn't going to be able to photograph every item in the store ... but I made a pretty big dent! I pared it down, but still a bundle of chocolate photos to follow.

Cute little baking set:

Sorry, all my photos have a sheen since the chocolate was all packaged in cellophane (of course ...).

Since we are in Texas:

A chocolate CD! I am assuming this is for adults - come to think of it - who would give any of this to a kid? I just got a flash of what your CD player would look like if your little one decided to listen to it ...

The CUTEST computer:
For the Fireman or arsonist in your life:
Guitar:
A Christmas present for your hairdresser:

I could give this to Gary ... but he doesn't really eat chocolate (I KNOW! He doesn't like strawberries or raspberries either ... something is wrong in his brain):

For the policeman in your life ... or someone really kinky ... Kidding, but - hey - who wouldn't want a pair of chocolate handcuffs? A truly one-of-a-kind gift:

A Piano might be a bit safer:

And, here we are again ...

I mean - WHO wouldn't want a chocolate PMS pill? I sure it works!! Really! Especially since you can't gauge size in this photo - it is about six inches in diameter and thick - a TON of chocolate!

For the TV lover in your life:
For the sharp dresser:
For the shopaholic:
And finally, a set for my type of guy ... the weird non-chocolate-eater:

It was fun! Other than some cinnamon jelly beans and the cake slices, I didn't buy any of this delicious stuff ...


Later I wondered why ...

My friend Bonne called me today. She had seen that I was going to blog about The Chocolate Bar and she had written on her Facebook page a few days ago that she had visited there while waiting for her husband who was having surgery and wanted to know if I had seen her post. I said that I had - and yet again, was the only person in Houston that did not know about this place.

She mentioned the ice cream was divine, and I thought ice cream? Then I remembered, oh yeah - there was a ice cream section I had paid no attention to. She then told me that since she had time to kill and there were no customers she asked the employee a ton of questions. Come to find out, it started out as an ice cream shop. Weird, I would have assumed that it had started out as a chocolate store and just got really, really, REALLY out of control ...


So there you have it:

The Chocolate Bar ... as promised.

*****

ADDENDUM:

Like this post wasn't long enough ...

Some things are much better left forgotten, but Cherri, my sister-in-law reminded me in the comments of one of their purchases at The Chocolate Bar. It was a mix of pretzels and Frito's. Covered in chocolate.


Yes: Frito's



COVERED IN CHOCOLATE.


They could not convince me to try it. It seemed as natural as chocolate covered broccoli. They said at the store that it was a Texas thing - that Frito's were a HUGE deal in Texas.

I did not know that.

Really.

This is news to me. I did not know that I had to be crazy for Frito's to live here ...

Every time they offered a taste to someone and they bravely tried it - they declared that it was tasty - sort of salty and sweet at the same time. And every time I wanted to gag as the smell of Frito's wafted unnaturally through the air ...

Ugh ...

I Lied ...

Sorry Jen ...

You would THINK that I would have remembered that it was my daughters 23rd birthday 'today' (things went slowly so it has clocked over to the day after, but for the sake of my sanity ... we are going to pretend it hasn't). In my last blog I promised to blog the next day about 'The Chocolate Bar' which is not going to happen - thus the lie.

I shall be blogging about my girls b-day instead. Maybe tomorrow ... er ... today I will get around to 'The Chocolate Bar'.

~~~~~

Gary picked Jessie up on his way home from work and she stormed in the house at full tilt. Right up there with Christmas in making my oldest childs head explode is her birthday.

Why?

PRESENTS!!

Jessie has a thing for presents. Well ... she has a thing about OPENING them. She opens one, barely glances at it, chucks it aside and on to the next one. She is a machine that won't stop ripping wrapping paper, tossing tissue paper about and generally running amok until all the presents have been opened. She isn't even particular if they are hers, so on her birthday things are all above board and proper. No stealing others gifts and ripping them open ...

A few minutes after arriving, yelling, tormenting the dog and just generally bursting with joy at the fact that she was yet another year older she received a phone call from my parents.

She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to speak with Grandma and Grandpa, and was sufficiently thrilled:

UNTIL she spied our guests arriving! Then it was all shove the phone at me without a 'goodbye' or 'see you later' to either of them.

Why?


Because she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it when the Randall's visit ...

... and THEY BROUGHT LITTLE ONES!!!

Apparently Charlie was in the Birthday Spirit and would not calm down, knocking wee tots down, barking and generally making a HUGE pest of herself, so we all trooped outside to throw a tennis ball for her and see if we could get her so exhausted that she would stop knocking children down ... And then it was time!!

PRESENTS!!!

Well, some of them. Me, being SO on the ball had all of her gifts arriving from Amazon ON THE DAY OF HER BIRTHDAY. I sort of forgot about the stupid holiday. FedEx had arrived, but UPS - with the bulk of her presents - had not arrived yet.

Not that she noticed or cared. My parents had sent multiple gifts as did the Randalls - all of them knowing that it was the opening that was important ...

A good time was had by all, and soon she had opened everything.

So .... time for the cake! Yes, I baked it and decorated it myself. (not)

Everyone sang:

And then, before my dang camera would recharge its flash, she had blown out the candles. She was a good sport though and when I asked her to pretend to blow out her candles again so I could get a photo - she looked at me as if I were crazy (go figure) and blew:

Gary was a sport and directed traffic, dished up the goodies and in general did everything while I stood around snapping photos: Everyone seemed to enjoy the delicious Kroger's cake:

We got a bit of a breather and had a good time visiting:


We had started to wonder where Ryan was, since we had told him he needed to make an appearance and he was a half an hour late. But eventually he and Alessandra arrived thrilling Jessie even more.

We forced cake on them even though they were headed out to dinner: And then the doorbell rang.

I said: "Oh, that must be the rest of Jessie's presents"

IN FRONT OF JESSIE.

Not a wise move since everyone was still eating cake. She immediately wanted to open them, but was rather patient (for Jessie) and waited ... a bit.

I am sure she did not get the proper 'present opening high' from the rest of her gifts as Gary opened up boxes and handed her stuff right out of the box. I didn't seem right, but hey, I wasn't going to sneak off and wrap them just so she could unwrap them seconds later.

She seemed excited none the less.

Ariel is a sure bet to excite her, and she INSISTED on putting her Ariel shirt on right then. She looked ...

eclectic ...

and a bit kooky ... Then it was time to play with her bounty. She did an excellent job of sharing and everyone had a good time:

Jessie had so much fun playing with all the visitors! She couldn't have asked for a better birthday.

Soon, she said it was time to go back, everyone was tired and we trooped en mass out to the cars.

It was a fun day. Generally Jessie's birthday consists of Jessie, Gary and I and if we are lucky Ryan (actually he is very good with Jessie and probably has not missed a birthday). So having a house full of people - a bunch of them play mates was just what was needed to make Jessie's day.

So, that was our evening.

I am sure Jessie is asleep with her Disney Princess laptop and her other laptop (I couldn't decide on the two)stashed somewhere in her pretty little bedroom. They both make a bunch of noise - but, hey, I wasn't going to be hearing it now was I?

~~~~~

So, twenty three years ago yesterday I became a mom.

Where has the time gone?

I still remember that day and the days to follow filled with sorrow, fear and guilt. Feelings that were so strong and so new to me that I felt like I had been swept into a sea of emotions by a huge tidal wave and wasn't sure if I was going to keep my head above the water. I often felt as if I were drowning in emotions. Unfamiliar emotions.

But I, survived - some days just treading water, but things got ...

not easier ...

more familiar, I guess.

And I kept treading water, and dealing with new challenges as they came up.

And every day, Jessie grew older. And every day Jessie was filled with joy and was happy. She was ALWAYS happy and a wonderful child.

Then one day I turned around and realized that my little girl had grown into a beautiful young woman:

And now she is off on her own.

I believe she is enjoying it.

I KNOW it is what she needs.

I have to guess how her days go.

And I miss her all the time.


When she left, she took a spirit of joy with her that leaves the house just a little bit empty. But the walls still echo her laughter, and I see her every Sunday, so I cannot miss her too much. And, joy of joys - I am getting my fears about her well being under control!

Life is good.

Love you baby girl ...

A Chair is a Chair is a Chair ...

Well, Gary was in Woodworking Heaven all day today. Comfortably ensconced in his air-conditioned shop (ie our garage ...) he made a ton of progress. He will soon be done with the chairs and on to ... something - we will figure it out, or we will take an axe to something old and make us some kindling ...

So - I took photos - BIG surprise. And, I know -

A chair is a chair is a chair ...

... but I wanted to play with some photos - thus 5 photos of the same two chairs.

Exciting, yes?

We are almost on to the Sewing Adventure of the chair making process. My old Viking sewing machine that I had since before I was married would have stitched through this fake pigskin leather stuff without a hitch. In fact, I am POSITIVE since one day during college, I came home to find that Gary had set up my machine and was sewing some VERY thick canvas lengths together. He needed to line the bottom of a water pond he was making. He worked for ... some group up at the university and he did stuff with ponds, lakes and the likes ... apparently I did not pay much attention. I worked in a Physics lab which was in the Engineering building, and I saw him haunting the halls every now and then - so it really was something for I believe the Civil Engineering Department but what it was eludes me now. Except for the part where he was making a ginormous pond down on 'The Island' and had to line the bottom with very thick canvas. Thus my youngish Viking machine was broken in very quickly and did a superb job.

Ah ... sorry about the digression ...

But, alas, the front door to where the bobbin lived was plastic and rotted while in storage while we were in Norway and it was so old, I could not get a replacement part, and the bobbin would not stay in without the door. Sad, I miss my Viking sewing machine.

But ... since I rarely sew anymore, I was not going to put out the big bucks for a Viking and got a cheaper brand that does the embroidery stuff. It works great for the embroidery stuff and regular sewing, but we have so far not abused it with thick cloth. I have sort of grown fond of the little guy ... I hope we don't ruin it.

This got sort of long ...


... blogging about nothing.


MY SPECIALTY!

It was going to be a two part post - but since it is so long, the rest of my catch up photos will have to wait a day.

So tomorrow: The Chocolate Bar!!!

Night All ....

Wood Wood Wood!!!

Just because my life tilted sideways and I fell off into the deep end ... life went on at the Hurst household ...

Gary has been diligently trying to put himself out of work - the woodworking type work. We have very few places for new projects to fit!

While I was 'away' from Blogger Land he finished a set of shelves and decided he wanted to try making chairs. And if one chair is going to be made, why not make two ... I mean who couldn't use another chair or two?

He is doing something unusual this time and working strictly off a set of drawings:

We are not making rocking chairs, just plain ones. We have already acquired the fake pigskin leather for the padded seat - black, of course.

Here is a cool curvy piece for the back - to make it all comfy and such:

And assembling what he has done so far:

Here is the back all put together:

Now, on to the finished product. First, the offending 'organ' (that would be the ADORABLE FOLD DOWN DESK that Gary has decided looks like an organ) had to be removed from the Guest Room / Ryan's Room:
And the shelves moved in. Alas, I have no photos where they were pristine and not defiled by ... crap.

And just because he let me snap a photo:


**********ADDENDUM**********

Gary is too quick for me and I realized that since I downloaded the plans for the chair to my computer, I didn't need to use a photo of a sketch ...

So he is getting ready to wrap it up for the night, but see how much farther along he is in just a few hours.


THIS IS MY PROBLEM!!!

He goes too fast!

Soon ... we will be out of space ... I keep telling him ...

Oh ...

Had my Urology appointment today.

Doctor: "Hello, how are you?"

Lori: "I'm confused"

Doctor: "Excuse me?"

Lori" "I'm probably the most confused 'kidney stone patient' you will ever meet."

Doctor: "Probaby not - what has you so confused?"

I proceed to tell him what has happened in the last 5 days - with me - now - having no pain and me - now - having not 'passed' a stone. I told him I was confused, had I passed the stone or not, I never felt myself peeing out a rock ...

Doctor: "You don't feel yourself 'peeing out a rock' - you probably won't feel anything."

Lori: "What!? I was told in the ER when it is time to pass it ... ie 'pee it out' that it would hurt like the dickens, but to just 'push through the pain and go for it'."

Doctor: "The ER people are idiots. They don't know everything about every little thing ... so they make crap like that up."

Lori: "Wha?"

Doctor: "Seriously, for fun. By definition 'passing a stone' is the stone moving from your kidney to your bladder in a teeny tiny tube - it hurts. Once it is in your bladder you are generally home free - the tube from your bladder ... out - is way bigger and generally you don't feel like you are passing anything. So, I think you 'passed the stone' already. Let me go look at your CT scan and I will be right back."

Lori (alone): "Whoo Hooo!" Fist Punch "IT.IS.OVER!!!"

Doctor: "I have looked at your CT scan and checked your urine. There is no sign of infection anymore, that is good, and based on the size of the stone (2mm - I KNOW! All you hard core 'Kidney Stoners' not very big ... but hurt like hell! I am a baby.) you have probably passed it like I said."

Lori: "GREAT! So I am done! This is great news - thank you - I have just been in a

waiting...
waiting...
waiting...

mode and it is no fun."

Doctor: "Well there IS another stone in the right kidney ..."

Lori: "Excuse me?"

Doctor: "Yeah, another stone ... on the other side. Have you had any pain on your right side?"

Lori: "Shi..., no."

Doctor: "Well, give us a call when it starts to pass."

Lori: "Um, OK? Thanks?"


Lori (in elevator): "Well, ... crap!"


Waiting ....


Waiting ....


Waiting ....