Having the Time of Our Lives

Laundry day is the best.

You want to know why laundry day is the best? Clean sheets. I just love the feel of fresh, clean sheets. For my entire adult life I've been washing clothes once a week, whether we had six in the house, or just the two of us. I know some folks wait for more clothes to pile up, or only change the sheets every two weeks, but not this girl. While putting the crisp, cool sheets on the bed, invariably, as in maybe 90% of the time, I start off wrong with my corners on the bottom sheet. Does this happen to you? You'd think by now I'd know how to do it correctly!

Before I go any further let me just say that in my last post I mentioned my friend Karen Howard--she of loving clouds and flowers fame. Sadly, later, the same day I wrote that, her husband Jim suffered a serious stroke and had to be airlifted to Atlanta from their small North Carolina city. If you are the praying kind, those prayers would be most appreciated by the Howard family. As an aside, you know how you are always reading about risk factors for every disease imaginable? Well, he had none of them for a stroke, proving, in my mind anyway, that mostly those lists are worthless.

So, knowing that anything can happen to anyone at any time--let's go out and have some fun! Which is what we did this weekend, beginning with a trip to the hair salon for Bruce. Sound exciting yet? Before we go there, I must mention this very tasty dish I made for our lunch on Friday. Here's how it looks,

and here is how you fix it:

Combine cooked and cooled orzo with chopped bacon, julienned basil, cubed mozzarella, and cut up fresh peaches. Make a light dressing with oil and white wine vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste. Because this recipe is from Rachel Ray magazine she uses EVOO, however, I decided to use the bacon grease instead. Sound weird? It was not. Delicious, or maybe Rachel would say--Yum, Yum!

So now we go to the salon where I pass the time scanning a Vogue magazine, one of my old favorites. Some of the ads, as in a current Prada one, boggle my mind, what with the trend of making the models look just plain horrible. Furthermore, this little article was so silly, I had to show you because you might not believe it if I just tried to describe it.

Please note that Gwyneth Paltrow swears by it. You too can trim your waist if only you sign up for six months of biweekly $495 sessions. Am I the last to know about this "current craze?"

Monica, as is her custom was running late, so by the time we left it was Happy Hour. As such, we stopped into a new place, cashing in on the current craze for craft beer, near the Fresh Market. Appropriately named, The Brass Tap.

If you decide to try it for yourself, I cannot stress enough that you not fall for the Buffalo Chicken dip. Earlier in the day, while Bruce was talking to his boss, Steve mentioned that one of Earls recipes contains 37 ingredients. 37!! (If you've forgotten Earls is the name of the restaurant chain B is now working for) Anyway, I'm fairly confidant the aforementioned dip contained three--melted Velveeta, canned chicken, and some hot sauce. Not so good.

Next stop was a visit to Cheyle's space at FAVO, which is a much more pleasant place then when I was there. Having an air conditioner will do that. The weather, although hot, was dry, making for a lively scene. After visiting with folks we know at FAVO, we returned to Santiago Bodega where I might have some real food. Talk about a lively scene--bustling with diners! Walking back to our car, we had a super cool experience watching folks blow glass in the newly opened firing space behind Atlantis Art Glass Studio.

We watched as they made a vase, and in the above photo they are adding the lip in white glass. You may not know how much I love glass. Everyone was very friendly and seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.

They offer classes which sounds mighty tempting. Can you imagine how hot they must be?

While we were at FAVO, our son David called to offer us his tickets for Saturday night's Orlando City game, including premium parking. Who would be fool enough to say no to that? He also mentioned how people tailgate before the game which sounded like a plan to me. Except, I made all the food at home beforehand, as we were unsure if the weather would cooperate. Cooperate it did--actually really pleasant which was welcome indeed.

That would be a pork tenderloin, old fashioned potatoes and bacon in foil, a grilled corn and Vidalia onion salad with chipotles, and a fresh fruit salad. Isn't this just the best time for that? Cherries, nectarines, blueberries, raspberries--oh my! Because the Citrus Bowl is so close to home, we used one cooler for the drinks, and one for the hot stuff. Starting the night off just fine.

Although we'd been hearing how fun the games were, we'd not tried it before. All that we'd heard was true. People of all ages flooded in...

David's seats are amazing, as was the parking. Sitting just eight rows from the pitch, not to mention in the center, we had a great view of everything. The games begin with a bang!

The subtleties of soccer are lost on me, but that did not matter.

The star of the show, Kaka, above with the ball, is a fan favorite. I'm pretty impressed with the refs who must train nearly as hard as the players to run back and forth like they do!

Then there is the Ruckus. What's that you ask? The section filled with crazed fans who chant, drum, sing, wave flags, and in general create a ruckus throughout the game, and I do mean throughout!

Unlike in Texas where the flag is revered, the Florida flag is rarely to be seen, which is why I was so surprised to see it being waved proudly. (bottom right for those unfamiliar with our flag and there are many living here who would fall into that category)

The teams played to a draw which is weird to fans of most sports, but apparently in soccer it is okay. So, a super fun night with our friends along with 25,000 others. Adding to the perfect night was an incredibly easy drive home--maybe 15 minutes tops? Going out a side gate, we missed every bit of the usual traffic jams associated with a big gathering. ORLANDO CITY!

The weather forecast for Sunday was, as is often the case, all over the map. We went. No rain. We sold 15 pieces, and it was hot. That pretty much sums up the market. Once home, unpacked, and after gaining our second wind, we met with our friends at Lisa and Oren's home where the drink of the night was Adult Root Beer floats. According to this, alcoholic root beer is the latest craze in the brewing industry.  Who knew? Although I only had a sip, I am here to report that it is delicious, and probably very dangerous!

And you didn't think we were trendy at our age! Never count a person over 60 out!

Finally, and this has not one thing to do with anything above, reading an obituary story for a woman of 111 years of age, it mentioned that she mowed her own yard into her 90's!!! How incredible is that? Then too, and I promise this is the last thing I'll write, a woman had her arm bitten off in the Wekiwa River this last weekend. She was, clearly, not having the time of her life!

Keeping it fresh,

Gail

p.s. Believe it or not, after writing my last post on bees, I was stung by one on the inside of my foot later in the day while floating in the pool with my novel! Boy did it hurt.