Day 19, Slacker Season 2008

Hello! I'm back! Okay, I'm in Miami, but I'm back to taking care of my poor blog.

I learned today that one of my favorite people IN THE WORLD (Hi Lou!) reads my blog every day! That is so exciting. If I have any lurkers, show yourself sometime so I feel a little less like I'm typing just to hear myself think.

Jenny joined me on Thursday for our regular Girls Day Off and we enjoyed a manicure (me) and pedicure (Jenny) at Nadine's Salon and Day Spa and then went conveniently downstairs to the Square Grouper restaurant and had a lovely lunch. I had the black bean veggie burger again and Jenny had the Mediterranean Plate.

We shared a slice (or rather, a few bites of a slice) of Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie and then hit the road north.





I have driven the road from Miami to Key West several times, and had no idea there was an alternate to the "eighteen mile stretch". As I was about to take the left side of the road in Key Largo, Jenny informed me that there is a much more interesting route along Card Sound Road.

I agreed to try it out and stayed straight at the pertinent junction instead of veering to the left. The first portion follows along North Key Largo before there is a turn and the traveler is actually ON Card Sound Road. Both portions of the trip are quite lovely and the view on the bridge over Little Card Sound and Barnes Sound is fabulous as well.




We hit the Turnpike around 6pm and found our way to our hotel - a lovely Quality Inn in the Kendall area. After checking in and depositing our bags in the room, we checked out the pool and then drove a few blocks to a fabulous mall we had noticed en route to the motel.

The Falls is an outside mall that has waterfalls and pools throughout the center of the complex. It is quite beautiful and peaceful. We shopped until about 7:50pm and then took off heading for the airport, following signs that are supposed to lead us ultimately to the airport.

Mom's flight was supposed to land at 8pm, and by my estimation, I thought we were about 15 minutes away from the airport. The signs put us onto one parkway and then pointed to another exit, which we took. Then there were no more signs.


I really didn't want Mom to have to wait in the belly of the parking garage alone, so I was anxious to make it to the airport quickly. Every time we thought that we were maybe heading the wrong direction, we would see an airplane overhead heading in the same direction as we were, and getting closer to the ground!

Finally we saw the all-important sign again and within minutes we were at the airport and picked Mom up. We took her back to the motel to unload her stuff and then to a Benigans a few blocks away for a late dinner before going back to the motel and heading to bed for the night.

***(Yes, that gas price is $4.05 for regular. In Key West we pay $4.29)***

Kitchen Adventures

Apparently Charlotte Russe isn't just a clothing store for teens and thirty-somethings pretending to be twenty-somethings (not unlike myself from time to time). I learned this last week on Girls' Day.

Girls' Day is usually every Thursday. Jenny has Thursdays off without fail and I have most Thursdays off. Most weeks I go pick up Jenny downtown after I get off work Wednesday night and bring her back to our house, where she makes dinner and then we plot our adventures for the following day.

This past week I was having a BAD DAY AT WORK on Wednesday (more about that later - I have to figure out how to talk about it without pulling a dooce). Scott picked Jenny up when he was off work and called to tell me that Jenny was going to make dinner and I was going to LOVE it.


When I walked in the door to the kitchen, there she was, slaving away over a complex Mediterranean meal. She had everything pretty much under control but wanted my help with some chickpea-ricotta gnocchi. Surprisingly, it was easier than expected and soon it was time for dinner!


The appetizer part of the meal was pita slices and a cheese dip made from feta, cream cheese, garlic and several other spices.

The next course was toasted pitas topped with humus, caramelized red onions and kalamata olives.

We followed that with a cous-cous and english cucumber salad with lemon-yogurt dressing and fresh mint and parsley from our herb garden in the back yard.

Our entree was the gnocchi in a tomato sauce that included coconut milk, onions, curry powder, coriander and several other yummy things.

All the recipes excepting the pita pizzas were from one of Jenny's new cookbooks "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" and it was ALL fantastic.

The following day (Thursday) we slept in for a bit and then met up with our friend "Boots" for lunch at Pepe's. We all enjoyed different variants of grilled cheese sandwiches and then retired back to Boots' house to make dessert and spend some time by the pool.

Through a series of events that are totally irrelevant, Boots has acquired a massive amount of ladyfingers. The obvious choice to some would be to make Tiramisu, but Boots is not a fan of coffee.

Jenny dug into another of her new cookbooks - The Joy of Cooking and found a recipe for Charlotte Russe. Boots contributed raspberry jam and raspberry liqeur, which I then painted over ladyfingers lining a bowl.

Meanwhile Jenny hand-whipped egg yolks, sugar and gelatin over a double-boiler to make a custard. This requires about fifteen minutes of constant whipping to avoid the eggs starting to scramble.

The custard was layered over the ladyfingers and about this time I read the end of the recipe and pointed out that it has to refrigerate for 8 hours before being consumed. Gah!






Since it was clear we weren't going to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor for some time, we decided to relax by the pool.

SPF K9

For those three of you that were reading my blogitude back in December, you may remember the Chihuahua that came home with me for Christmas Day and New Year's Day.











I got to spend the afternoon with him and his parents at a pool that is open to the public.

It seems that he remembers me, he climbed right up on my chair and wanted to snuggle.

Not a bad way to spend a day off.

Expensive Time

I don't think that there is ever an increment of time in my day that could actually be termed "free".

There are merely moments in which I am choosing to do one thing (or two or three or six) instead of something else.

I have worked at the pet store the last 6 days straight. The ensuing exhaustion probably contributed to the fact that I gave a baby hamster mouth-to-mouth on Thursday and ate nothing but a Snickers bar and a LOT of iced tea today.

I have addressed about a quarter of the outer and inner envelopes for the wedding invitations, but still don't actually have any invitations made because I: A) don't have the paper I want to print them on and B) don't have ink for my printer. I can solve B by going to Office Max. But A is proving to be more difficult as Key West is not a booming metropolis of paper craft (or much else besides bars) variety.

I have this evening and the next two days off and am starting off by taking a good long nap until I wake up. Then I will likely eat something.

Tomorrow I will clean and organize and hopefully address some more envelopes, although I am already bored of that, and maybe even spend a little time at the pool. Tuesday I am being completely self-indulgent and getting my nails done.

Somewhere in the next 60 hours I hope to build a jewelry frame to hang on my bathroom wall and finish my dad's christmas gift.

Free Time? Hardly.