Best Dishes

*I am still in shock over my Magic's heartbreaking losses over the past 2 games. I think the entire city is dazed over last night, especially*

I buy books faster than I can read them. I just can't "do" library books. I need to be able to mark it up, keep it for future reference, or loan it (cautiously) to someone I think will appreciate it as I did.

Today I ordered Paula Deen's latest, It Ain't All About The Cookin', from half.com (no brand new cover price for this frugal freak, "very good condition" and $5.76 shipped is more like it!)



Yay, Paula! I think this book will immediately jump the other 54 or so on my "to read" list. It makes me a little sad, because my mom always bought me Paula's new stuff when it came out, that was our little tradition. "I've got some new Paula for you!", she'd say. So this is the first book I've had to pick up myself. I hope I haven't missed any! If I have, darn, I'll just have to buy them....oh no. Ha.

(Oh, and I think we've settled on taking our original road trip this summer. It turns out my Annapolis family will be out of the country the week we're able to travel. So it all works out in the end! Either way: Paula, here we come!)

Decisions

Little Miss Indecisive needs to make up her mind about what to do for our June vacation (I know, poor me, right?)

I'd mentioned that we were planning a road trip up through GA, SC, NC, across TN and back down. But I got an email from one of my aunts last night with an invite up to visit the family (dad's side) in Annapolis. So now I need to pick.

On one hand, a solo getaway for Hubby and me would be nice (though we are going on a cruise in September, so it's not like we're missing our only chance). Sometimes vacationing with family is not really a vacation, ya know (and means I will "owe" Hubby a trip to visit some of his crazy family).

On the other, it'd be nice to get to spend some time with family that I never see. I don't know them as well as I'd like, but they're great people. I absolutely love Annapolis, and I know my aunt would be the Queen of All Tour Guides (she is the perfect Southern hostess and a major Type A personality, I'm envious sometimes). Plus my cousin, her husband and their little girl are there too. Mom's only sister (who is not speaking to us after mom's death, but that's a whole other pot of drama I've yet to figure out) lives nearby and we might be able to attempt a visit. And...I could see my beloved Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yard. (Plus we would stay at my aunt and uncle's house, which is much cheaper than hotels...)

Hmm....sounds like I have my mind made up, huh? Hubby said he'd be happy to go anywhere, so long as he's with me (awww). Tennessee will always be there for us to go see, right?

(And just so everyone knows, the path to both destinations takes us through Savannah, so visiting The Lady & Sons is a sure thing no matter what).

Mother's Day

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day and shows their mom just how much she means.

This is my first Mother's Day without my mom, and I miss her so much.

I know it's trite, but you never know how long you have with someone. Never take anything for granted, and never pass up an opportunity to tell people what they mean to you. You just never know what the future holds, so never let there be any doubt.

The Lady & Sons

Hubby and I have decided to spend a week or so this summer road tripping through the South. My main goal was to visit Memphis, my mother's birthplace. We'll take a round-a-bout route of getting there, but I will in fact get my pork BBQ and blues experience. As we head out of Florida, we are also planning a stop in one of America's most beautiful cities....Savannah!

We'll leave out of Orlando early Monday morning and hopefully roll into Savannah by late morning. We were thinking of walking the streets and seeing the gardens and homes, as well as having lunch before heading up toward the mountains of western NC and eastern TN.

Well, as you can guess from this entry's title I am a HUGE Paula Deen fan. Seriously, I adore her. She reminds me of my mom in many ways. Eating at her restaurant (The Lady & Sons) would be the experience of a lifetime for me.

From what I know, people start lining up to get on the reservation list well before they begin taking them at 9:30am. Getting into town at 11 won't work. Plus (despite the fact the waiting is for what just has to be amazing food) I'm not sure how hot Hubby will be on waiting so long. We could always do our "walking tour" while we wait, right?

But who knows? My sister and her husband stopped in last fall on their way back from Charleston and were seated in less than 10 minutes. Could we get that lucky too? I am trying to convince myself that the wait will be shorter on a weekday, but with how popular Miss Paula is....?

Has anyone been there lately to tell me if it's "worth" the wait? I know "worth it" is a very personal thing, but for someone who loves Paula but is also a practical person, is this going to be a stressful way to start our trip? Are there better/similar places to get some fantastic Southern food?



Another "Go Magic" P.S.! We'll practically be in the rafters, but we'll be in the O-rena to cheer on our team!

Small Victories

As I mentioned earlier, I survived our first (and hopefully last) garage sale. I hate garage sales terribly. Hubby is a natural businessman, so I let him run things. Truth be told, he did an excellent job and got us a pretty penny for our junk. We also got the vast majority of the Great Garage Abyss sorted and found out exactly what was out there. (Do you own 3 turkey basters? We do.) Best of all, there is now room for my car in the garage!

The other good news is that the guest room is cleared out and I can now start decorating. The bad news is the guest room is cleared out and I can now start decorating, haha.

My "craft room" is officially overwhelmed with stuff. What kind of stuff? Well, nearly all of my clothes. My purses, accessories, and jewelry. The overflow of my book and cookbook collection (we need more shelving). My makeup. My nail polish collection. All of the stuff I took from mom and dad's before the renovation project started (all stuff I cannot dream of parting with). An old wobbly entertainment stand. Oh yeah, and my (massive stash of) art/craft supplies.

I thought the garage being messy was overwhelming, but now I'm ready to pull my hair out all over again! The super-overwhelming part is knowing that getting the room organized is only the first thing to conquer. Our house has 4 bedrooms (yes, and I'm about to whine that we don't have enough room): the master, the "office", the "guest room", and my "craft room". Guess which one will be converted to the "nursery" when the time comes? Yup. Where is all that stuff going to go? (The office bedroom is really small, otherwise I'd tell Hubby to move over and make some room for me) We need one of those HGTV makeover/organization shows to swoop in!

Umm....we don't really need a guest room, do we? That just encourages bad things, like guests, right? :)

Monday Mishmash

...because it's that kind of Monday. :-p

A good weekend it was! We had a garage sale on Saturday and managed to unload a ton of crap gently loved belongings on our neighbors. Let it clutter your garage! I'd had visions of doing a great Derby Party this year, but somehow the first Saturday in May totally snuck up on me. Ooops. Further proof I am not Martha. Hubby and I still made mint juleps. Growing all that mint wasn't for nothing (plus, we have a summer full of pool parties and mojitos to look forward to).

Sunday was our cousin's graduation, and it went extremely well. Gainesville was just as I knew it to be as soon as May 1 rolls around: searingly hot. Roughly 20 family members assembled to watch the ceremony and go out to eat afterward and, to my knowledge, no blood was shed. I had my token "why did my son marry this crazy liberal hippie?" moment from my Mother in Law when I did not immediately and enthusiastically chime in with her to agree that sex ed should not be taught in middle schools. Oh, and again when I had to defend myself for not pledging a Sorority. (PSA: there is no satisfactory answer for a woman who was president of her sorority in college, so don't even bother trying to explain.)

My sister is holding a birthday BBQ for her hubby the weekend after next, so I am already planning what to bring. Parties of any sort are an excuse for me to bake cupcakes. I think I'm going to go with these:


Tie Dye Cupcakes



Aren't those fun?! I think my brother-in-law and the other guests will love them. They even look fun to make. It'll be a shame to frost them!



PS: Go Magic! Round 2 starts tonight, beat those Celtics!

Graduation Day

This will be a great weekend for our family, on Sunday I'll have a cousin who is not just awesome, but a college grad as well!

She is actually Hubby's cousin, but I love her enough to claim her as my own, haha. She'll be getting her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the greatest university on earth (me, biased? no way...), the University of Florida. We are the only Gators in a family full of 'Noles, so we must stick together. She's worked really hard and has totally earned this degree. I'm really proud of her.

I just love graduation. When ever I hear "Pomp and Circumstance", I get a bit teary eyed. I'm a sap! I'm very excited to be back at my alma mater to see a new class of Gators enter the "real world". It will be especially cool to me because my cousin's graduation ceremony will take place six years to the very hour after I graduated myself. Wow, six years. How can that seem like both yesterday and eons ago? I've come a long way, baby.

Hopefully she'll have had the chance to go Gator Stompin' (a UF tradition: basically a bar crawl for seniors) and do all the other things a Gator should do before leaving Gainesville. I remember my "...one lasts" and how bittersweet it all was.

Now all I have to do is decide once and for all which dress to wear (a very important decision indeed) and figure out how to keep flowers fresh through a 2 hour car ride and 2 hour ceremony!

University of Florida Alma Mater

Florida, our Alma Mater,
thy glorious name we praise.
All thy loyal sons and daughters,
a joyous song shall raise.
Where palm and pine are blowing,
where southern seas are flowing,
Shine forth thy noble gothic walls,
thy lovely vine clad halls.
Neath the orange and blue victorious,
our love shall never fail.
There's no other name so glorious,
all hail, Florida, hail!