The Weather's Cuban, Try the Food

We got to go to the grand opening of a Barnes & Noble yesterday, because our friend Kris invited us. She works there and was the photographer for the night's festivities. It's in a really nice new shopping plaza called the Edgewood Shopping District with a Target and all the other categories of stores that you usually see - grocery, computer, pets, linens, etc. Everything is brick, and it melds into the industrial area there very well. We sat down for some Cheesecake Factory cheesecake and espresso in the cafe and also had cookies and a scone from folks walking around the bookstore with platters. Gabriel played with a train set in the children's section, and we found an awesome pop-up book about dinosaurs. It even has a tab you can pull that makes the dinosaur tear the flesh off of a victim! How cool is that?!

If one is so inclined, a prayer or two for the successful closing of our new house would be appreciated. Not only by us, but by the guy who needs to sell it so he can move into his new house, the agents who will be getting commission, the mortgage brokers, the movers, and whomever will be putting a roof over our homeless heads if this doesn't close next Friday. But mostly us, ha ha. We trust that all will go smoothly, especially since we feel that it is Providence that brought us to that house, but we can't help but be a little nervous anyway.

We also trust that our pork loin hasn't spoiled in the fridge, because we're going to barbeque it tonight. Not that Patty will be hungry any time soon - she and Gabriel walked over to Papi's for some Cuban food for lunch. It's about a mile walk, so it was fun to get out. As soon as they stepped out the door, it started pouring, so they came back in for about 5 minutes until the rain passed, and the rest of the day has been beautiful. Anyway, lunch was pan con bistec, which is a pressed sandwich of steak, potatoes, onions, and swiss cheese on Cuban bread, and maduros, which are fried plantains. All had a healthy half-bottle of salsa verde poured all over. The bread was soaked. Yum. After lunch, the duo sat outside and watched traffic go by as Mommy drank a Cuban coffee, which is like 6 ounces of espresso with a good tablespoon or two of granulated sugar at the bottom. No wonder they put a stirrer in the cup - the sugar was a surprise at the end! Check out Papi's's (?) web site. It's a really good site, which is a surprise since the place is so tiny. The story behind the restaurant is really, really interesting.

Next door, there is a resale shop called The Lucky Exchange that we've never visited, so a visit was in order. There was a great bowling shirt (stitched with the name Curtis) for Matt, but at $20, there wouldn't be enough use for it. There was also a Betsey Johnson dress, which Patty spotted from across the room practically, but alas, it was size small. The medium Karen Miller dress didn't look quite right, either, but it was a fun shopping trip anyway.

Gabriel sent out his birthday invitations this morning, so if you have planned to be at the party, you will get one in a couple of days. We also sent some to a few people just as souvenirs, like his Great-Grandparents and Uncle Jack. They turned out really great, and we are super happy with the way our printer worked printing envelopes last night. It's an HP PSC 1600, and we love it. It scans, copies, and prints, and the only thing we haven't been able to figure out is how to copy or print in black and white, even if the original is in color. For example, our Mapquest map doesn't have to have the color logo for us to get where we're going. So we still have some kinks to work out, but that's what the manual is for.

We're starting to wonder when these hurricanes will take a break. It's supposed to keep raining for the next week! Gosh! It's making it really hard for us to find dry boxes in the recycling area. We might even have to buy some...