It's always hot in Florida, apparently
It's almost 5 a.m. and I'm still awake, so I figure I may as well do some writing.
Vacation thus far has been relatively good. I say "relatively" because one of the first things I did was catch a cold. I spent last weekend being, well, miserable, and had to cancel apple picking. Neither made me very happy. On Monday, I finally went to the clinic in Michigan, where the nice doctor told me that I could fly to Florida the next day provided that I did something to keep my ears from exploding. (She also gave me a number of prescriptions of various levels of usefulness, including, for reasons I have yet to determine, an allergy treatment that takes 2 weeks to reach full effectiveness. Naturally, I only figured that out after purchasing the $100 medication.) This was followed by a trip to the pharmacy that was both interesting and disturbing. See, my mother had a matching blocked ear, so she got the same sheaf of prescriptions. We have different insurance plans. Some of her meds cost twice what mine did (under the $15 mark regardless), but that $100 Nasonex cost her $46. Ridiculous.
So now we're in Florida. The flight down was largely uneventful, except for a brief interlude of unstoppable coughing instigated by a fairly harmless (or so I thought) yawn. Not fun. I was out of water, and Mom didn't have any. Had I been able to speak, I would have advocated asking the flight attendant for some. Fortunately, the girl sitting next to Mom offered me a Werthers and I was ultimately able to keep breathing.
It's hot down here--a taste of summer, finally! Today we mostly slept and ate. With the hurricane shutters down, it can be pitch black all day long. Consequently, I slept until 1 p.m. We had no food in the house, so we went to Publix and ran other various errands before heading to the Early Bird Special at Island Way. When in Rome...
Everything was delicious. The highlight was the (included) dessert: two plastic shotglasses of what I first thought was a peanut butter mousse topped with Oreo crumbs. But that wasn't right--it was silky and sweet with just a hint of tanginess, and it was denser than a mousse. I finally concluded it was cheesecake. Ingenious--I would never have thought to serve cheesecake like that. Once I reached that conclusion, my mother, who hates peanut butter, tasted it and loved it, too. To me the best part was the peanut butter flavor (well, there were several best parts...like all of it), but she barely tasted it. Both of us practically licked the cups clean. (There! I realized recently that I've been avoiding describing food to get around the pressures of being a Food Writer.™ Silly, really.)
After dinner was the homeowners' association meeting that brought us down here. Interesting stuff, but I think progress was made. I sat in the kitchen working on various things, including my kimono sweater, which is coming along beautifully. I have about 6 inches of the complex cable work done, and I'm loving it. We've also been talking a lot about Thanksgiving, because that's the next time I'll be down here, and we picked up an ice cream maker today so I can make that Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream from David Liebovitz's site to go with apple pie. (Mom now owns three of this model of ice cream machine. I think Cuisinart should send her flowers or something. Or maybe a fourth--so I can have one, too!)
After the meeting, Mom and I went to the cookie place on the Beach. On the way back, we noticed some really cool heat lightning a ways off, so we pulled over and walked up the bridge to watch the storm. It was really amazing: almost constant flashes of lightning illuminating different parts of the thunderhead. I've never seen anything like it. (Turns out the storm was about 25 minutes by car from us, but it looked like it was just across the Intercoastal!)
Tomorrow, my aunt and uncle come home from Ireland. We're going to pick them up from the airport. Mom and some of the neighbors are going to meet with a contractor at some point in the afternoon. And at this rate, I will sleep until nightfall. We leave on Friday, and I think I should probably spend Friday night at my apartment. That's where my darling kitties are while we're away, and it doesn't make much sense to move them when we get home. Plus, I'm having a knitting shindig at my place the next day, and I'll need to bake. I think I'm going to make those citrus cookies I made for the open house--they were really delicious. And several pots of tea, of course!
Vacation thus far has been relatively good. I say "relatively" because one of the first things I did was catch a cold. I spent last weekend being, well, miserable, and had to cancel apple picking. Neither made me very happy. On Monday, I finally went to the clinic in Michigan, where the nice doctor told me that I could fly to Florida the next day provided that I did something to keep my ears from exploding. (She also gave me a number of prescriptions of various levels of usefulness, including, for reasons I have yet to determine, an allergy treatment that takes 2 weeks to reach full effectiveness. Naturally, I only figured that out after purchasing the $100 medication.) This was followed by a trip to the pharmacy that was both interesting and disturbing. See, my mother had a matching blocked ear, so she got the same sheaf of prescriptions. We have different insurance plans. Some of her meds cost twice what mine did (under the $15 mark regardless), but that $100 Nasonex cost her $46. Ridiculous.
So now we're in Florida. The flight down was largely uneventful, except for a brief interlude of unstoppable coughing instigated by a fairly harmless (or so I thought) yawn. Not fun. I was out of water, and Mom didn't have any. Had I been able to speak, I would have advocated asking the flight attendant for some. Fortunately, the girl sitting next to Mom offered me a Werthers and I was ultimately able to keep breathing.
It's hot down here--a taste of summer, finally! Today we mostly slept and ate. With the hurricane shutters down, it can be pitch black all day long. Consequently, I slept until 1 p.m. We had no food in the house, so we went to Publix and ran other various errands before heading to the Early Bird Special at Island Way. When in Rome...
Everything was delicious. The highlight was the (included) dessert: two plastic shotglasses of what I first thought was a peanut butter mousse topped with Oreo crumbs. But that wasn't right--it was silky and sweet with just a hint of tanginess, and it was denser than a mousse. I finally concluded it was cheesecake. Ingenious--I would never have thought to serve cheesecake like that. Once I reached that conclusion, my mother, who hates peanut butter, tasted it and loved it, too. To me the best part was the peanut butter flavor (well, there were several best parts...like all of it), but she barely tasted it. Both of us practically licked the cups clean. (There! I realized recently that I've been avoiding describing food to get around the pressures of being a Food Writer.™ Silly, really.)
After dinner was the homeowners' association meeting that brought us down here. Interesting stuff, but I think progress was made. I sat in the kitchen working on various things, including my kimono sweater, which is coming along beautifully. I have about 6 inches of the complex cable work done, and I'm loving it. We've also been talking a lot about Thanksgiving, because that's the next time I'll be down here, and we picked up an ice cream maker today so I can make that Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream from David Liebovitz's site to go with apple pie. (Mom now owns three of this model of ice cream machine. I think Cuisinart should send her flowers or something. Or maybe a fourth--so I can have one, too!)
After the meeting, Mom and I went to the cookie place on the Beach. On the way back, we noticed some really cool heat lightning a ways off, so we pulled over and walked up the bridge to watch the storm. It was really amazing: almost constant flashes of lightning illuminating different parts of the thunderhead. I've never seen anything like it. (Turns out the storm was about 25 minutes by car from us, but it looked like it was just across the Intercoastal!)
Tomorrow, my aunt and uncle come home from Ireland. We're going to pick them up from the airport. Mom and some of the neighbors are going to meet with a contractor at some point in the afternoon. And at this rate, I will sleep until nightfall. We leave on Friday, and I think I should probably spend Friday night at my apartment. That's where my darling kitties are while we're away, and it doesn't make much sense to move them when we get home. Plus, I'm having a knitting shindig at my place the next day, and I'll need to bake. I think I'm going to make those citrus cookies I made for the open house--they were really delicious. And several pots of tea, of course!