Guest bathroom reno - demo!

I'm sure you've been wondering what we've been up to as far as home DIY projects. Well, DH had off from work on Friday and this is what I came home to.

DH had a lot of demo time that day. Saturday morning, we finished the demo. Yes, even the ceiling came out. DH was cutting the tape around the edge and since we were going to scrape the popcorn ceiling off, move the light and add a vent, we just decided to tear it down and start the whole thing from scratch.

In case you didn't catch our before, here it is in it's dated glory.

The only things that are staying are the toilet which is new anyway and hopefully part of the vanity which I've been trying to stain to match an espresso piece that's going in there. The mirror will go in our master bath for now.

Next blog I'll show you the new soaking tub that's on order along with some of the new pieces and colors! Untill then, here's why you should wear eye and nose/mouth protection while doing demo - DUST everywhere!

Weekend recap - dinner and movies

Friday we watched Gran Torino. This movie had great reviews and acclaim from critics, which from my experience, when critics like a movie and it gets a lot of awards, I usually don't like it. I'm usually watching a movie for entertainment, not life lessons or learning. Gran Torino did have life lessons and while I thought it was ok for the most part, we didn't like the ending.

Saturday we had dinner plans at Angell and Phelps Cafe. Most have heard about Angell and Phelps chocolate, which is divine, but not too many know about their restaurant. We had been there before for lunch and enjoyed it, but had a $25 restaurant.com gift cert to use so that's why we decided to try it out for dinner.Most of you that know me, know I usually don't comment on our dining experiences unless they're really good or really bad. We got there around 6pm. Got front row parking (there was only 1 other table of people in the place). Ok, it's early I thought. They sat us at a 2 seater table right next to the entrance. Neither of us like being stared at, which is usually what happens when someone walks in the door and there's a table right there, so we asked to move. The server was hesitant about it for a sec, but moved us anywhere we wanted. We just moved 1 table over, but it was a 4 seater. Maybe they wanted to be prepared for the big rush. Joking.

The menu on Restaurant.com and restaurant's website were much different than at the actual restaurant menu. I asked if we had pages missing (as there were actually blank pages through the menu), the waitress said many people make that comment to her, but no, that was what they offered. She asked if there was something particular I had seen on their website and she said they should be able to make it if I wanted, but I couldn't remember exactly what was on that menu, so we stuck with what was on the menu in front of us. There were only 6 entrees on actual menu: filet, salmon, chicken picatta, catch of the day, greek stuffed chicken, crab cakes, plus 1 special and a few sandwich options. Website had 15 entrees plus sandwiches (yes, I counted). Soup or salad with the meal were $2-$3 additional. The websites said salad or soup were included with meal. Usually I don't mind paying extra if I want a salad, but it's the point that we chose to go here based on their menu and gift cert offering ad on restaurant.com and their website. We both thought the waitress did not seem to be interested in being there. I would have probably been a little cranky had I been working and it was that slow. Maybe she had things going on, I understand, no judgement there.

Looking past all the initial issues, maybe the food is soo good they just need a few items and maybe people eat later than 6pm. No, the food was just not good, mine tasted like frozen prepared food (I had greek chicken and DH had catch of the day, mahi mahi). The fish was overcooked, rice tasted like instant Uncle Ben's, and my mashed potatoes were pasty. (yes, maybe I've been watching too many cooking shows, I do pick up on pasty potatoes - means they were either over cooked or over worked).

I usually don't complain, but this was not even worth staying for. Definitely not worth the price. Music (recorded, playing on a speaker right above our head) was loud, even though there were only 2 other tables when we got there, and I usually don't mind the music at restaurants. I do not want to be one of those people that gets annoyed at the music level in a restaurant, maybe I just noticed it because everything else was so not good, I was trying to think of a positive. The only high point was the chocolate that came with the bill. It was delicious cream mint. I love Angell and Phelps chocolate, as overpriced as it may be. 1 or 2 pieces just work for me. While we're on positive notes, the bread before the meal was ok also. At the end, we had no problems using Restaurant.com certificate, but we will not eat at Angell and Phelps again.

We've still got credit for restaurant.com, so we're going to try 2 other places. Hopefully that goes better.

On to better things - saw Julie and Julia with some friends Saturday night - Loved it! Didn't love paying $9.50 for 1 person for 1 movie (plus $4 something for a SMALL cherry coke), but oh well. Theatre movies cannot be fully enjoyed for me without a cherry coke. Brings me back to my childhood. Let me tell you that when we got to the movie, it was packed. We turned the corner to look at the statium seating for 4 seats and we saw a sea of gray. I really think we were the youngest people in there! I'm thinking most of those people watched Julia Child on tv, so were seeing the movie because of her. The girls I went with on the other hand, were not familiar with Julia Child at all. I guess the movie did a great job at bringing different ages together to enjoy a wonderful light-hearted movie. The previews were not light-hearted at all - they were about a serial killer (The Lovely Bones, which is also a novel), a crazy step dad (The Stepfather) and some other similarly creepy storyline. I probably won't be seeing those, but what I will be seeing again is Julie and Julia. But with the price of movie tickets, I'll likely wait for the rental. Until then, I've added the book to my list.

Weekend recap 1

Friday DH and I stayed in and relaxed. We had Tijuana Flats for dinner, stopped by Andy's for the newest beer release and rented Transporter 3 from Redbox. Most times I prefer Tijuana Flats over Moe's, mostly due to their seasoned chicken and hot sauce selection, even though Moe's is more convenient to our house. I had a chicken quesadilla and DH had a beef hard taco and a steak soft taco. Of course we also had queso and churros. I love their churros! I love their variety of hot sauces, usually more than 10 on the bar, and they change them out frequently. They also sell a million types of hot sauces in case you fall in love with one. Against Andy's suggestion, we tried out the new Sam Adams this weekend. Don't get me wrong, Andy has great taste and has never steered us wrong, and he loves Sam Adams, but he does not like fruited beers (exception, orange slice in his Blue Moon). Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier was voted the 2008 Samuel Adams Beer Lover's Choice winner and was just released January 2009. It was just ok, not too fruity, but bold like most Sam Adams. It actually smelled better than it tasted. A traditional witbier with orange peel and coriander, with an added hint of blackberry. We also tried Shock Top. We usually like to go with micro-breweries, but I've wanted to try Shock Top for a while. Glad I got over that one. It's ok, pretty thick for a light beer, but tasted similar to Michelob's other offerings. Not too good.We've ended our Blockbuster through the mail subscription. It was about $16/month and we would only watch a movie or 2 on the weekend. Now that Blockbuster has changed it's rental rates to $2/day and Redbox has come to our area, we just didn't see where we got $16 worth of movies per month. We rented from Redbox and it was easy, and just $1.07! It would be a little more convenient if the Redbox kiosk was somewhere other than Walmart, maybe McDonalds or Walgreens as in other cities (the photo above is from a McDonalds), but can't beat $1/night for a new movie!
Transporter 3 was ok - typical Jasan Statham, action packed. Saturday night we rented the newest James Bond (#22!), Quantum of Solace. I still don't know what that title had to do with the movie. They said Quantam 1x, referring to some organization, but I don't understand fully what it was. Oh well. That was a typical James Bond/Daniel Craig movie, but too choppy on the editing for the action sequences.

Saturday was cleanup at G-mom and Poppop's. We cleaned their bathrooms and cleaned out the furniture in 2 of the upstairs apartments to get it ready to get estimates for repair and reno work. The weather cooperated and it was a nice day. This guy below greeted my dad and I when we left around 3pm.

Robellini plant bed

Here's what I started with Saturday morning, a clean slate. DH was called into work, so I went out to the nursery

And picked up a few plants - here's a large agapanthus (lily of the nile), 2 smaller agapanthus, and 3 aztec grass to start. Oh, and there's 2 small golden dew in the back. They're ok in shade and get pretty big, so I didn't want them to hide the others in the front.
Then I went to Lowes and Home Depot. Lowe's had flax lily and society garlic 3 for $10 - a 1 gal flax lily was $7 at our local nursery and society garlic was about $4 there too. So, I picked up 3 flax lily and 2 society garlic. I also wanted some form of yucca that could take the sun for the right corner. I found this at Target for $10 - good deal! It's a 3 cane yucca, resistant to 0 deg F, likes full sun and can do good on frequent waterings.
So far, this is what we've got - I counted, I planted about 21 plants this weekend! We went with yucca cane on the right corner, agapanthus, aztec grass, society garlic, flax lily, golden dew and canna - but many many of each.

Last addition to come soon will be a Mandevilla (formerly Dipladenia). There are many different colors - white ‘Summer Snow’, yellow, pink, red. For now, I'm set on 'Sun Parasol Crimson' aka Red Riding Hood, because I've heard that is most resistant to bugs. I'm going to try to train to climb the small part of the fence shown at the left, it's about 6ft high and 3 ft wide before the swing gate. It's a flowering vine, sometimes called Brazilian Jasmine that is great trellised in containers or in hanging baskets. This will be the only plant out front that's not rated to withstand freezing weather.

But I also like the other colors. The pink may go better with our lavander azaleas. We'll see.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Today is St. Patrick's Day and yes, I'm wearing green! I've had corned beef and cabbage cooking all day in the crockpot and we may even go out for a green beer. I'm not even a hint of Irish, but I think DH is a little, so for tradition's sake, we're Irish for the day.

In other green news, we picked up and planted our 4 trunk robellini this weekend. It looks great! I've been having to hand water the azaleas due to the recent heat and drought, and they're looking good too. We had some rain last night, but don't expect any more for at least another week, so more hand watering until they're established. What do you think? And notice the new fence on that side of the house. We're extending it to be flush with the house
Sunday night was the last night launch for the shuttle. It was perfect - so clear we could see everything. Here is Discovery on it's way to space around 7:30pm. The reflection of the sun setting made the smoke look like a rainbow. More photos as viewed from our front lawn on flickr

Weekend recap - Gatornationals!

Friday DH and I went up to Gainesville Raceway for the 2009 NHRA Gatornationals. We left Port Orange around 8am, took I-95 to Bunnell and after 2 wrong turns and just over 2 hours, we were there. The day was perfect - perfect weather, not too big of a crowd, great day of racing. We had never been to a professional drag racing event, but we came prepared and I'm so glad we did! They generate 120 dB of noise (I've even seen 1 report say 170 dB) enough to cause some peoples' eardrums physical pain, and equivalent to a Boeing 747 jet airliner at take-off power. Here we are with our earmuffs :) A Top Fuel dragster accelerates from 0 to 100 mph (160 km/h) in as little as .8 seconds. The cars can reach up to 325 mph in a quarter mile. And that's just Top Fuel dragsters. We also saw funny car, pro-stock, motorcycles, pro-mod, top alcohol dragster and funnycar and a few others. Here's top fuel dragsters Antron Brown (blue) and Brandon Bernstein (red). Antron was leading the points on Friday when we were there.

And no drag racing event is complete without funny man (and funny car driver/owner) John Force. First, John racing next to Tony Pedregon (Quaker State). And after is John hanging out watching his other cars race (red and gold firesuit and black hat). One of his daughters, Ashley Force Hood, also races in the NHRA.We mostly stayed in the stands for the races but checked out the pit area afterward. We saw Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta hanging out near their pits. Here's Doug's top fuel dragster getting loaded into the truck.

After a long day at the track, we headed over to our room at the Sleep Inn and were happily surprised with a jet tub in our room. We ordered pizza from Pizza Vito and stayed in. The pizza was just ok, their garlic knots were delish though! Next time, if we've got more energy, we've got to try a highly recommended place Satchels Pizza.

For more photos of our day in Gainesville, check out my flickr site

Weekend recap

Quick post today - I love that it's lighter later now - DH and I just got back in from gardening. Pics and details on that later, let's get you caught up on some of this past weekend.

Friday night was pretty quiet. I think we watched some race on TV, which means I went to bed early :)
Saturday early morning DH and I went and picked up my MIL and one of her pups Clancy and went down to the ribbon cutting ceremony for the New Smyrna Beach boardwalk. The event was sponsored by Southeast Volusia County Humane Society, Friends of Smyrna Dunes Park, the Obedience Club, Chris' Critter Sitters , and others. This officially opened the boardwalk back up to dogs (leashed dogs that is). Aside from the ribbon cutting, there were demonstrations of obedience and pet first aid. DH and I are interested in the 6-8 hour Pet Tech First Aid class - it covers a lot of good information.

I'll fill you in on the rest of the weekend tomorrow. For now, enjoy some pics from Saturday morning - as you can see, the weather was perfect. And make sure to check out flickr for more pics (and a couple videos) from the day.

Boardwalk ribbon cutting ceremony

The pretty (and long!) boardwalk

My 2 boys - DH + Rufus (in the background is Disappearing Island where DH proposed to me!)
And everyone enjoyed the water, here's Beans and Clancy
Yes, I said everyone - even Rufus!

Weekend recap

It was a lazy weekend for us. Friday we had Giuseppe's pizza and wings which was delicious! I called ahead to get takeout and thankfully I did - there was a waiting line out the door. Their food is always worth the wait though. We watched The Rocker with Rainn Wilson. It was just so so. We really enjoy Rainn as Dwight Schrute from The Office but this movie was more geared toward teeny-boppers similar to Mean Girls and other such movies.

Saturday we worked around the house - laundry, gardening, boat projects. We went to Bob's 2x on Saturday! Our boat trailer is almost brand new. Sandy and Kevin are now out on vacation until March 9, so we'll miss them next weekend. Saturday night we went out to dinner with DH's dad and step mom to a local favorite, The Chart House. The food is always top notch and my in-laws go there so often, everyone knows their names so it's like their 'Cheers'. They've got a new manager who wasn't very friendly as the previous manager, but Chef Alex was there and friendly and courteous as usual. His personal recommendation - the seasonal Cashew Crusted Sole. We had already ordered the Pu Pu platter as an app before he came out to greet us. He sent out some extra polenta fries which were superb - what can be better than fried grits?! Also on the platter: lobster spring rolls, cajun shrimp and scallops with mango salsa - yum!

And of course, I had to try Chef's recommendation. DH's dad and I both had the sole. Who could have thought cashew crust on fish? Oh it was good. Served with fingerling potatoes and grilled veggies. We all had the wonderful salad bar as well - fresh tossed caesar salad, caviar, the best salad dressing.

DH had prime rib and a HUGE Australian lobster tail and MIL had another seasonal item - hazelnut trout with shrimp, parmesan risotto and veggies. As always, we finished off dinner with a molten lava cake dessert (had to order that right when we arrived -
Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, molten center, Dreyer’s vanilla ice cream, served with warm
chocolate sauce and Heath Bar Crunch) and the best creme brulee I have ever tasted. Man that was a good dinner. DH and I were stuffed after and basically went home and went to bed.

Sunday was one of the worst days of weather we've had in a while. We couldn't get much outside work done at all. It started off with dark gray skys and then wind and sideways rain. And it was COLD, maybe no warmer than 60. I was out on the phone talking to my SIL when Rufus and I saw this:

The pool was covered in suds!! For a second it looked like snow, but then my brain set in and reminded me that while it's cold, it wasn't that cold, then I noticed the suds being wisked away by the 20 MPH gusts of wind. I ran inside to alert DH and he nonchalantly said, oh, yeah I put some treatment in there and that's normal. Nice of him to tell me and Rufus. ;) All was forgiven when he pulled out this delicious, perfectly smoked chicken a short time later.

Today is my MIL's birthday - Happy Birthday! It's freezing here so we're not going out to the monthly dog night at Ritters. Maybe next month.

Weekend recap

Friday was Uncle Nick's memorial service. It was a nice service full of good memories of times with Nick. The service was at my FIL's church Seventh Day Baptist Church of Daytona Beach. The church building has been around since the early 1900s, but the chuch itself started in Daytona in 1884! It's a beautiful little church with tons of character, from the wooden floors to the stained glass to the aged pews. After the service, Nick's ashes were released into the Halifax River near the Orange Ave. brige, one of his favorite old fishing holes. A reception was held at one of his brother's houses in South Daytona.

After the memorial, DH and I went home and watched The Mummy 3: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I'll call it entertaining. No where near as good as the first 2, but I stayed awake and that usually means something. Brendan Fraser was back as Rick O'Connell, but instead of the great Rachel Wiesz as his wife, a new lady was cast, Maria Bello, who was ok, but has done better work. Jet Li was the Emperor, and he was ok too.

Saturday DH and I did some work around the house, went to lunch with his mom and step-dad and then ran some errands. Rufus had a playdate at my MIL's in the afternoon and then we stopped at the new ice cream shop Neighbors for doggy day around 6pm. Ruf approves of their ice cream, but we still prefer Ritter's for dog night as Neighbors had limited outside area for all the pups.
Sunday was the finale of Winterjam with the Volkswagon show in Port Orange around the City Center lake. DH and I went over around noon and there were already a ton of people and MANY cars and vans around the lake. The weather couldn't have been better. And get this - they had food as usual, but Hooters was there! So nice to have their wings and not have to drive across town for them. We met a big black stnd poodle named Willy and I wished I had brought Rufus. But then after walking around with all the people, I was glad he had stayed home - it would have been too much for him. Here are a few photos of the day, taken from my camera phone which has pretty good photo quality in daylight.

Valentine's Day

Saturday was Valentine's Day. As usual, it falls on a race day out at the track, so couldn't go anywhere near the speedway. We went for a haircut and then to MIL's house where our beloved Clifford had just passed away. He had been given 1 month to live about 6 months ago, so I guess he was on borrowed time. He had a serious heart condition and now he's living pain free across the Rainbow Bridge. See our tribute to dear Cliff from Saturday's post.

Then we went to Sam's to get some fixings for Valentine's dinner. We started this tradition a couple years ago after fighting the crowds for dinner out. This way, we spend time together shopping, prepping and cooking the meal and we make sure to get the best quality ingredients available. Since I don't eat red meat, we usually end up with a seafood medley. We found some great fresh shrimp and crab legs from Sam's. Can you believe the size of these shrimp? 4/8 count means 4-8 shrimp make a pound. We got 2 of the big ones and it was about 1/2 pound. Here they are in a QUART size Ziploc bag. Fresh and wild caught, they were more tasty and larger than lobster. We also got HUGE Alaskan king crab legs.

So, here it was, this year's meal - Alaskan king crab legs, HUGE 4/8 count shrimp, lobster tail, baked potato and fresh steamed asparagus. Homemade cheesecake with strawberries for dessert. We couldn't even finish all the crab, so shelled it up and made great crabcakes the next night for dinner. It was all soo delicious. Then we relaxed and watched Made of Honor, and I know DH tried to fall asleep through it, but I don't think he could. Definitely a predictable chick flick. Until next Valentine's Day! For a few more photos, check out flickr

Speedweeks

Well, the headaches are finally gone and I've got some blogging to catch up on! We've still got plenty of CA vacation photos to go through, so let's start with a weekend recap. Last week was speedweeks here in Daytona. The crowds weren't as big as in past years, most say due to the economy even though the Speedway reduced the 500 tickets to $55/pp, which, for the biggest race of the year, is usually a pretty good deal. They didn't reduce the tickets to the other races though, which would have been nice becuase DH and I enjoy going to the truck races. So Friday was the truck race, Camping World is now the sponsor I think. It was broadcast on Speed TV, which our cable providor Brighthouse still doesn't broadcast in HD (grr). As if being broadcast in 'regular' format wasn't bad enough, Speed TV's coverage is terrible. Let me tell you that probably around 1/3 to 1/2 of the laps weren't broadcast. They always go to commercial when green is on - why not when there's a caution, which there were 6 of that night. They've also got some strange new rule regarding pit stops for the truck series - it's tire or gas, not both. Yes, if the drivers need both, they must get one, do a lap and stop back and get the other. Why?? I don't know, it's just another way for Nascar to regulate the event. Todd Bodine, who doesn't have a major sponsor, won the race, the first repeat winner in the event’s 10-year history. Saturday was Valentine's day, and I'll do a seperate post about that later, but was also the Gatorade Duel races, 150-mile races, and serves as a qualifying race for the Daytona 500 . I didn't watch these races, but DH did. Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch won the Duels this year.
Sunday brought the 51st running of the Daytona 500 (200-lap, 500 miles). I didn't watch this one either, but from Wikipedia, was called on account of rain with 48 laps remaining. The leader at the time of the red flag, Matt Kenseth, was declared named the winner, his first Daytona 500 win in his ten attempts and the first win for Roush Fenway Racing. Even though the race did not run the full 200 laps, it is a full race as NASCAR rules state that any event can be ruled a complete race once the halfway point plus one lap is reached; in this case, it is 101 laps or 265.5 miles. Next year's race is on Feb. 14.