Is it wrong to want to live at Trader Joe's?

Have you ever been to Trader Joe's? OHMYGOD! It's magical.  *EVERYTHING* is good. And inexpensive. And...good. Sadly we don't have one in Miami, but there are several near the in-laws' house.

Two of the most popular items are seasonal and sell out quickly - but I got them! Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joes and the Dark Chocolate Coated Peppermint Cookie - amazing! Look at them!

and

And I also got the Peppermint Joe-Joe Ice Cream!

We got a bunch of other non-Joe-Joe related stuff...cheese, wines, soups, bread, sausage...YUMMY!


If you have one near you run don't walk!

Sightseeing

We went driving around sightseeing today. Look at all the cool stuff we saw all within an hour's drive from inlaws' house!


The picture above is just a pretty road. In this area you can drive for 15 minutes turn off a main road for about a mile and you get ruraler and ruraler as you go.

More prettiness...

Downtown New Hope, Pennsylvania...

While driving around New Hope I saw this sign

And of course I made David pull over...and bought one of each of the beef and game jerky! I haven't tried them yet...

Here's the Delaware River...

The Bridge over the river from New Hope into Lambertville, New Jersey

Lambertville prettiness...

We had a great time and a nice easy day...I love just driving around going up and down random streets. You never know what you'll find!

Vacation Styles

Some of you may know that Hubby and I met online back in 1995 before it was a "thing", we met in an AOL chat room. He lived in PA and I lived in Miami, so our entire "courtship" occurred by telephone back when there were way fewer cell phones and no free long distance plans - so you can imagine the cost!

Despite the soaring phone bills really all we had was talking, so for over 2 years we talked at least once, often twice a day. So, we had a lot of time to talk about all the stuff you *should* talk about before getting married - such as politics, views on child rearing, views on family, how we'd handle finances, etc. So much so that when we took our pre-wedding retreat (a Catholic thing) we had already talked about literally *every issue* they told us we should discuss before we got married.

You know one that the retreat people didn't mention and we didn't discuss? Vacation Styles. Do you view out of town vacations as an opportunity to relax, if visiting family just hanging out with them at home watching TV, sleeping in late every day, etc.? Or, do you view them as opportunities to go out with or without an agenda) and explore places you don't know or return to favorite places, do some sightseeing, just walk around and soak in the place?

Someone should have suggested that we discuss it. So I am hereby advising any and all people who are planning to get married to discuss it. It doesn't have to be a deal breaker if you have differing styles, but at least everyone will know how to set expectations. We've been married 14 years and I'm still struggling with it.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm the second style described above. David...not so much. So what usually happens is as follows:

I want to go somewhere - anywhere really - and I tell him. He tells me he doesn't want to go. I try to convince him to go. He still doesn't want to go. I get all passive-aggressive. He gets pissed and says something like "FINE! We'll go, let's just go!", clearly not wanting to go. I get pissed and tell him to forget it, I don't want to go if he doesn't want to go because then it wouldn't be any fun.

WOO HOO Vacation fun!

Everything had been fine until now because with the holiday hoo-ha and his brother and family in from Texas it was reasonable to want to stay in. They flew back home today. So, we went through this exercise earlier tonight. We wound up going to dinner nearby *but* to a restaurant to which we'd never been...a compromise of sorts.

Tomorrow we're mostly staying in so he can watch football with hometown friends and I'm perfectly fine with that. It'll be fun.

Then there's Monday...(sigh)

What's your vacation style? Is it compatible with your SO's?

Roanoke Rapids - Here We Come!

Saturday was a great driving day! We even got to Kingsland a but ahead of schedule.

The weather was great and there was no traffic. And the drive went quickly because David and I spent a lot of the time chatting about all sorts of things. You know how when you live together you find yourself more often than not talking about "logistics" and quotidian stuff? Well, yesterday we told stories about our teenage years, we talked about our proms, etc. It was really really nice!

Hopefully today's drive will be as nice or better!

Bah! I have a cold!

Really? Seriously? Four days before I take off on a road trip to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving I get a cold? A road trip when you're feeling like crap sucks - and I love road trips!

Having a cold and staying home sick was so much better when we were kids! Of course at the time I felt awful but looking back now it was great!

I would get to sleep in and watch TV all day. Depending on the time frame there were the game shows - $25,000/$100,00 Pyramid, Let's Make a Deal, Match Game, Joker's Wild, Concentration, The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, Hollywood Squares and so many more.

Then there were the soaps - never mind most of the time I was too young to understand what was really going on. Again, depending on the year there was Love of Life (raise your hand if you remember that one!), Ryan's Hope, Dark Shadows, All My Children and General Hospital - this was before VCRs, so it was the only way to catch up on your "story" until Christmas and Summer vacations. Oh and remember the talk shows? The Merv Griffin Show and The Mike Douglas Show were my favorites!

My grandmother would make me comfort food...of course, depending on what was wrong with me the food varied. If it was my stomach she'd make chicken soup with angel hair pasta, potatoes, malanga, etc. It was very close to this recipe in fact.

But if it was a cold, well then she had to feed me so I could get my strength back to fight the cold - which meant - lots of food! There was still the chicken soup, or sometimes she would make "potaje" which is kind of a soupy stew made with vegetables and meat run through a blender. I might even get my ultimate comfort food fried eggs and white rice!

And later when they got home from work, my parents might bring me a comic book or some other inexpensive trinket to distract me. Sleep, TV, good food and a toy! Such a deal!

But guess what! I stayed home sick yesterday. I slept in, watched TV and Hubby warmed up some left over take out Wonton soup and made me fried eggs and white rice for lunch! I didn't get an Archies comic book, but that's OK!

14 Years Ago Today...

David and I got married!

We're still here and going strong.

Later on we'll do our anniversary ritual. Our song, Beautiful in My Eyes gets more true with each passing year...

David...I love you Baby!

I Just Want To Be Mad

image source

This song by Terri Clark has been around for a while, and the other day in the midst of a full Lola shuffle (that's where I shuffle all the songs on my iPod and listen to everything) it came up and I was reminded how fantastic a song this is.

I think every woman who loves someone feels like this every now and then. You definitely love your partner - there's no question about that. You know this person is without a doubt the person you want to be with - but damnitalltohell they can pizz you off!

Most of the time it's just a quick kerfuffle, everybody yells, stay away from each other for a bit and then carry on normally. But other times, you don't get over it right away, your angry and frustrated and don't want to deal with your beloved - you just wanna be mad for a while. So, when your partner comes around and tries to be normal, or extra nice you're just not ready yet and sometimes it lasts for more than a day.

This song captures that emotional state brilliantly and in a way validates it. Like, it's OK if you're still angry when the other person is over it - it doesn't mean you don't love them it just means you're still pissed!

Here are the lyrics - seriously how perfect are they?

I Just Want To Be Mad

Terri Clark

Last night we went to bed not talkin',

'Cause we'd already said too much.

I faced the wall, you faced the window

bound and determined not to touch.

We've been married seven years now,

Some days it feels like 21.

I'm still mad at you this mornin'.

Coffee's ready if you want some.

I've been up since five, thinkin' bout me and you.

And I've got to tell you the conclusion I've come to.

I'll never leave, I'll never stray.

My love for you will never change,

but I ain't ready to make up, we'll get around to that.

I think I'm right, I think you're wrong.

I'll prob'ly give in before long.

Please don't make me smile.

I just wanna be mad for a while.

Well, now you might as well forget it.

Don't run your fingers through my hair.

Yeah, that's right, I'm bein' stubborn.

No, I don't wanna go back upstairs.

I'm gonna leave for work without a goodbye kiss.

But as I'm drivin' off, just remember this.

I'll never leave, I'll never stray.
My love for you will never change,
but I ain't ready to make up, we'll get around to that.
I think I'm right, I think you're wrong.
I'll prob'ly give in before long.
Please don't make me smile.
I just wanna be mad for a while.

I'll never leave, I'll never stray.
My love for you will never change,
but I ain't ready to make up, we'll get around to that.
I think I'm right, I think you're wrong.
I'll prob'ly give in before long.
Please don't make me smile.
I just wanna be mad for a while.

I just wanna be mad for a while.
I just wanna be mad for a while.
I just wanna be mad for a while.

The Lola Shuffle - The "Good and Bad Day" Edition

Above are pictures of two of the people I've loved most in my life - my husband and my mother. Today I'm thinking about both of them more than usual.

First I'll tell you about my husband - Hubby has been sick for about three weeks from what was kicked off by a recurring infection and because of the infection we've discovered that he's apparently been suffering from extreme lack of oxygenation most likely due to undiagnosed (despite two prior sleep studies) apnea. After being in the hospital since Tuesday, last night he went through a test that involved his wearing a CPAP (mask used for apnea treatment) while he slept. Before the test however, while I was there for the evening, he was completely out of it, disoriented and eventually sleep-talking (all these symptoms of apnea). By the time I left he was so asleep and unable to fully wake up that he didn't recognize me when I was saying goodnight - he looked at me like I was a stranger.

It killed me. This leads me to my mother.

Mami died a year ago today. Because she was suffering from Alzheimer's my fear had always been the day she wouldn't recognize me - thankfully that day never came, she died while still able to recognize all the people in her life.

While I *intellectually* understood that Hubby was sleep talking and not really conscious, I guess that when he didn't recognize me on the eve of the anniversary of Mami's death, it just broke me a little bit.

Thankfully my best friend picked me up at the hospital and consoled, cajoled, yelled, and at one point smacked me until I was no longer a slobbering sobbing mess. Instead I was a snotty, whimpering mess - but believe me that was better.

Oh, by the way, when you've had a night from hell on the eve of a difficult day and you're alone in your apartment because your husband is in the hospital - it's not a good idea to eat an entire box of Kraft Whole Wheat Macaroni and Cheese by yourself at 11:30 p.m. I'm just saying...

The title of today's Lola shuffle (yes it's coming, I swear) is the Good and Bad Day Edition. The good part is that just one night wearing the CPAP mask worked wonders! This morning when I went to see Hubby before coming to work he was awake, alert, sharp and wonderful - at least for now, he may slip back a bit until he's a few sessions - but I'm counting this as a good day.

Obviously the bad day is because of my mom...I miss her every day in ways I wouldn't have expected. I could have used my mom's strength (when she was healthy) during this ordeal...she was a rock.

So Lola...what are you going to shuffle for this bi-polar day?

1. If It Makes You Happy - Sheryl Crow
2. City of New Orleans - Willie Nelson
3. There's a Kind of Hush - Barry Manilow
4. Ven a Bailar - The Iguanas
5. Love Shack - The B-52s
6. Separate Ways - Journey
7. Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours - Stevie Wonder
8. Stormy Weather - Sarah Vaughn
9. La Vie en Rose - Edith Piaf (Nice touch Lola - Papi and Mami's "song")
10. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The Beatles

Good job Lola. I hope everyone has a great weekend - and don't forget to hug the people you love...

It's a beautiful day...

See the picture up there? That was today in Miami! Palm trees and a beautiful blue sky - temperatures in the mid to low 70s. I had a great Saturday. We drove out to Homestead, the agricultural area near Miami. It was Hubby, my friend Purplepassion and me.

First we went to "Knaus Berry Farm" - a farmers market run by "Dunkers" a German Baptist sect. They've been at the same location from November to May for at least 40 years. They're best known for strawberries and baked goods - particularly their cinnamon rolls - AMAZING!

Here's today's line for baked goods.

And look at the tomatoes, strawberries and veggies - YUM!

Afterwards we had lunch at one of Hubby's and my favorite Mexican restaurants. There's a large Mexican population living in Homestead, so there are a lot of very good, authentic Mexican restaurants. Later my friend and I walked around Downtown Homestead, checking out the antique shops, which I love doing.

While most of the country is enduring a horrifically cold winter, we are blessed in Miami to have days like today.

Lucky us!

Pasta de Bocaditos (Cuban Ham Spread)

My wonderful hubby - an "americano" - learned how to make one of my favorite foods in the world - "Pasta de Bocaditos" or Cuban ham spread. It's not complicated: ground ham, cream cheese, mayonnaise and pimentos - but it is happiness on bread! Actually you can have it on regular bread, on special bocadito rolls, on crackers (saltines or Ritz), or straight out of the bowl with a spoon.

It is the quintessential Cuban kids' birthday party food. In my family at least you could determine the "Cuban refugee economic status" by the bocaditos served at the parties. In the early refugee years when there wasn't much money, Mami or Abuela made the bocaditos on white bread with the crusts cut off on the morning of the party and covered them with a moist paper towel so they wouldn't dry out. When there was a little more money they would still make the paste at home but buy the rolls - the moist paper towel still an integral part of the process. Later still as things got better, they'd buy the paste and rolls at the bakery where they bought the cake (the Cuban birthday cake - worthy of a whole other post!), but would assemble them at home - still covering them with a moist paper towel. And finally when there was more money the bocaditos came ready-made from the bakery covered in cellophane - the moist paper towel finally put to rest.

But you know what? This home-made "early Cuban refugee" version (sans moist paper towel) tasted a million times better than any bakery bought batch ever did. Maybe it was because it was the perfect comfort food after a week of not feeling well. Or maybe it was because my americano husband made it for me, just because he knew it would make me happy.

Happy Anniversary Baby...

11 years ago today Hubby and I got married - Saturday, November 1, 1997.

It seems surreal. In a way it's like he's always been in my life, and in others it seems like we've been married for 5 years or so.

Marrying him is definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's not always easy, but it's always worth it. Some days are better than others but, to paraphrase the song, "I love him more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow...".

Happy anniversary baby...¡te quiero!

WOO HOO!

The Phillies did it!

They won the World Series!

After a bizarre two-part game, they marched into a cold, dry field - the stands packed with fans enduring 30+ degree weather. They got the job done!

Hubby is beside himself with joy. He was on the phone with his parents when they got the final out and he kept yelling "I can't believe it!", "I can't believe it!" A friend called on my cell yelling WOO HOO!

It's a good night!

That Which Amuses My Husband

A few days ago Sari from The Geek Inside posted about her husband's sense of humor and it inspired me to post about my husband's sense of humor.

As you may know a couple of weeks ago we went on vacation to Naples, Florida where we spent a week and had a great time. Well, in our wanderings we encountered what appears on the picture below. My husband thought it was soooo funny he made me take a picture of it.

Apparently Hubby is a very tall and hairy 13 year old.

:)

Why I Would Make a Sucky Polygamist Wife (alternate title: Why Not to Eat Leftover Shrimp Pad Thai with Extra Peanut Sauce after Midnight)

[WARNING: This is going to be a "what I dreamt last night" post, so if you don't like those you should probably "walk on by-y-y-y" (shout out to my girl Dionne!). However, before you leave you might want to consider that the post will include, among other things, Jennifer Love Hewitt and jarring fruit (talk about key word search combination!), just so you know.]

[[DISCLAIMER: This is in no way meant to criticize or mock people who choose a polygamous life-style, as long as everyone is consenting I'm cool with that. It's all about me. Really.]]

So I'm sleeping, minding my own business, when my damned brain decides to make up a dream, where Hubby and I, along with a lot of other people have apparently decided to become Polygamists and live in a Compound. Not a scary, creepy compound like the one that has been in the news lately - ours is really nice and modern and I didn't notice any kids, but then again, that happens to me frequently anyway.

We come in mid-story where Hubby has taken on Jennifer Love Hewitt (JLH) as a second wife. See, JLH is one of Hubby's real-life-never gonna-happen lust objects, and frankly why wouldn't she be - she's adorable, right? So we're in our beautiful polygamist compound house and Hubby is "with" JLH while I'm in our state-of-the-art equipped kitchen attempting to jar peaches to store for, I don't know, the Apocalypse? Whatever, the point is, I of course, suck at it because HELLO!, it's *jarring fruit* - that counts as a craft in my book and I'm not frickin' frackin' crafty!

So while I'm wrestling with the jarring machine (there is a machine for that right? Well, in my dreamworld there is, it's big) and getting all sticky, my best friend Purplepassion (did I mention some of you, my Blogging buddies, are in this dream? Well you are.) walks in - ostensibly to make sure I don't kill myself or the peaches, because well, she knows me.

As she's wiping peach goo off of my super beautiful counter top, she tells me that JLH was mentioned in the Polygamist Gazette because she had sold some ridiculous amount of tickets for the Annual Polygamist raffle or carnival or something. To which I replied "Of course she did!" all snarky and bitchy and sarcastic, like you know I can be. She looked up at me and asked if I was OK, and I said no. I'm an only child - I don't *do* sharing all that well.

So we took a break from the peach torturing jarring (is that the term?) to go out and sit on one of the beautiful Polygamist Compound front porches. When we get there we run into newly Polygamisted Poppymom and DixiePeach (I've never physically met them, but we've known each other virtually for years) who are sitting there knitting, and Purplepassion begins to knit too. Meanwhile I sit there, sniffling and looking at my beautiful cuticles (they have a mani-pedi service at the Polygamist Compound) because HELLO!, knitting is a craft and I'm not crafty dammit!

Poppy, who had apparently just arrived, looks at me and asks me if Hubby had taken on a second wife? I said yes, and they all came and comforted me, by giving me ice-cold Coca Cola in a frosted glass. Then Poppy told me that she had read about it, again in the Polygamist Gazette, and that now that he had a second wife Hubby was highly respected in the community. To which I responded in my dream, I swear I'm not making this up, "Well la-di-frickin-da! "

That's the last thing I remember before Hubby woke me up to start our road trip to Naples.

The morals of the story so that this doesn't happen to you:

• Don't eat leftover shrimp pad thai with extra peanut sauce after midnight


• Don't pause your TV during Jennifer Love Hewitt's bra commercial because you have to do something else for a few minutes and you don't want to miss any part of the show that comes back on right after JLH's commercial


• Continue avoiding the polygamist story on the news

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Just Loafing Around

Yep, that pretty much describes this weekend.

Hubby and I woke up at around 10 AM on Saturday, I made a new (to me at least) evil empire coffee (Starbucks) from Guatemala called Casi Cielo (Almost Heaven) and he made frozen waffles. We then began to play what wound up being pretty much a day into late night/early morning World of Warcraft (WoW) session (that's my main charcter Hildalaira up there - on my flying mount). We had a blast. We "quested" on our own. A quest is where you have to go out and perform some sort of task - gather something, kill something, do something, talk to someone, etc. We quested together, we quested with in-game friends.

At some point we stopped for Chinese food (delivered of course) and then continued playing.

At around 1 AM I got sucked into part of The Beverly Hillbillies marathon on TVLand, I watched the three episodes where Granny thought the Civil War was being re-fought.

This morning I made coffee again and we're drinking it as we watch George Stephanopolous' (my ex-boyfriend) show and I Blog. My Blogging was interrupted for Googling several foods from Hubby's childhood. Maybe someone can help - we're looking for some mention of a mayonnaise Hubby's grandmother used to buy in Philadelphia back in the day - it's something like Mrs. Schlaller's (not sure of spelling) - I can't find any reference to it.

Soon we'll order lunch and then I'll get ready for dinner with friends. In between there will probably be more WoWing.

Great, mindless weekend...how was yours?

The Lola Shuffle - "The Happy Birthday Hubby Edition"

On Wednesday 2/20, the day of my mother's funeral, Hubby turned Jack Benny's age. Yes, he turned 39! (I know! I got me a boy toy - WOO HOO!)

So Lola, go ahead and shuffle up a nice set for Hubby. This oughta be good, as Hubby and I have mostly different tastes in music, so chances are whatever Lola comes up with will make Hubby shudder, but hey Lola shuffles what she wants to shuffle and she don't care nothin' 'bout no birthdays!

1. Hold On - KT Tunstall (I love her, Hubby, not so much)
2. Feel Good Inc.- Gorillaz - (I think Hubby sorta likes them)
3. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley (I love this song)
4. Runaway -Bon Jovi (Yeah, so Hubby is sooooo not a Bon Jovi fan - he still can't get over their "hair period" in the 80s)
5. I Put a Spell on You - Nina Simone (well, Hubby put a "spell" on me, so it's appropriate)
6. Oh Boy - Buddy Holly (Hubby isn't really into oldies that are this old - he has no appreciation for musical history!)
7. New York, New York - Frank Sinatra (He likes Sinatra, so OK)
8. Home to Stay - Josh Groban (Hubby is totally underwhelmed by Groban)
9. LDN - Lily Allen (BWAHAHAHA - Hubby hates this song!)
10. Hitchin' a Ride - Vanity Fare (Yeah, uh no...)

OK, so apparently Lola decided to be ornery and not throw Hubby a bone...nary a Rush, AC/DC, Doobie Brothers or even Eagles song to be heard! They're all in there, but apparently Lola wasn't in the mood. Don't let her fool you, Lola loves him , she's just being difficult.

Happy belated birthday Baby - you are my heart! Thanks for loving me so wonderfully.

Everyone, have a great weekend...