Palm Fronds & Nom Noms

  It is Sunday so, per our routine, Adam and I are happily nestled into the couch enjoying coffee and the quiet of morning.  Yahoo News is a default news feed on both of our laptops so it is common for us to unknowingly read the same articles.  I'm convinced that our computers, and everything else digital in our proximity, "talk" to each other so this is really no surprise.  Paranoia about digital privacy aside, this morning's common feed prompted some "serious" conversation.   Danielle: So I was reading about somebody who retired to an island where everyone gets around using golf carts. Adam:  Was it the "live there on $50,000 a year article?" Danielle: You saw it too?  I've looked up that island before, it seems pretty great.  The only downside I can see is that there is limited medical care, so if we need anything major we would need to be medivac'd to the mainland for emergencies or come back to the states for anything non-emergent. Ada...

  Since we have been married, Adam and I have almost always known when and where our next trip would be.  Committing to travel as often as we could reasonably afford was a pre-nuptial pinkie swear that we made good one.  It was easy to see that these trips offered some great bonding time that supported the health of our marriage.  A little more surprising though was the positive mental health benefit of simply having something exciting to look forward too.  To say that 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic put a crimp in our routine would be an understatement.   The last time we participated in anything travel related was March 6, 2020 when we flew home from a week at Disney World.  We had been booked for a June week in the Azores with Youngest Stepson but travel restrictions were in full force by then and everything was cancelled.  Instead, we spent a week at our camp.   Our accommodations were lovely, but the week was far from a restful retreat......

  In the kitchen, as in life, there are times when paying a little more for higher quality items really influences the overall value and pleasure it brings.    20-ish years ago I was visiting a friend in Chicago.  While wandering through stores that I would have never considered "affordable" I found the perfect pair of jeans; but how could I ever justify spending $80 on a single piece of clothing?  My friend imparted an invaluable perspective: "would you rather spend $80 on one pair of jeans that make your ass look incredible, and you will wear nearly every day until you finally have to retire them with a funeral because you love them so much OR, would you rather have 4 pairs of crappy $20 jeans that you dread putting on because you feel frumpy and cheap every time you even look at them?"  Fair point.  My oracle then offered a barometer by which to judge all future purchases: "If you wore them just twice a week for a year that would be around $0.75 per...

Maybe it was because I finally started watching The Great British Bake Off.   Maybe the general miasma of 2020 pushed me to find some joy in a hidden corner.     Maybe it is that I want to spoil youngest stepson a little when he is home from college - where he has somehow lost weight rather than even flirting with the stereotypical " Freshman 15 ". Maybe it's that oldest stepson, who's notoriously picky childhood eating habits reduced me to tears more than once, will now try about anything I put in front of him and and is openly appreciative of fresh baked goods.   I'm sure it's some combination of things, but regardless of the reason, my kitchen joy is making a comeback!   Sure in the last 10 years of being married with stepchildren I have done a TON of cooking.  But cooking to sustain life and avert all out wars at the dinner table can become a demoralizing chore in a hurry.  For years we had the kids with us 4 days on/4 days off.  The 4 days on...

  Waking up this Saturday morning I shared with Adam that I had dreamed we were given the chance to become vampires and we said that we needed to talk about it before making a decision.  Adam laughed and I continued to explain that while being together for all time (without worrying about his family cardiac history) sounded pretty great, we were concerned with how to finance our new immortality.  The second concern was that, if we were going to live forever, we had to start hitting the gym because we could not be this fat for all time.  For the record, Adam disagreed with the latter.  "If we are going to live forever anyway we don't have to worry about being fat!"  We then decided that since we've never really seen a chubby vampire depiction, all vampires must look young, svelte and sexy so we would just assume that came as part of the package...  Danielle:  What a great excuse to live all over the place.  We'd have to move every 10 years or...

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic we've fared pretty well at our house.  Being introverts all around and preferring our own company to others anyway, social distancing was a bonus.  We missed out on a graduation celebration for oldest child's Associates Degree, which he greatly preferred anyway.  Youngest child's high school graduation was a simplified affair that still let us all at least go through the motions.  He too felt in hindsight that was much better than sitting for hours in a hot gym in a cap and gown. Adam and I were supposed to start our summer vacation on 6/19/2020.  Originally, we were taking youngest child and heading to the Azores for a celebratory graduation trip.  Then the pandemic happened and we couldn't go even if we wanted to as flights were cancelled.  Honestly, cancelling the trip we had been looking forward too since last fall was the first pandemic related disappointment/inconvenience that we experienced. ...

So my hospital department got quarantined.  We had 4 positive COVID-19 tests in our 18 person office/40 person department in a 48 hour period.  On Saturday April 11 we got word that it was enough to warrant quarantining our entire staff.  I very suddenly had a paid, two week vacation with no where to go and nothing to do.  Fortunately, I could still order supplies online from Home Depot and have Adam pick them up!  We had been wanting to update our beat up kitchen cabinets for a while, and quarantine meant that there was TRULY no time like the present! This is what our kitchen looked like in 2011 when we moved in.  The cabinets were solid, but in MUCH rougher shape than the picture suggests.  (The green laminate counter top was no prize either.)  I had refinished cabinets in my first home with the tedious process of sanding, priming, and two coats of INSL-X Cabinet Coat.  They came out great!  However, I also had not moved into th...

There are people who have visited Walt Disney World, and then there are “Disney People”.  Those who have visited a Disney park or who have not done their homework (resulting in poorly planned days and/or unrealistic expectations) typically fall into the first category.  These vacationers may use "Disney" as shorthand for a broader Orlando based experience.  For example, “yeah we went to Disney, the Harry Potter stuff was my favorite!”  Others may tout inaccurate perceptions.  For example, mistakenly believing that the Magic Kingdom IS Disney World, or that Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are more akin to Fantasyland and Adventureland.   At best, these types of comments make Disney People cringe.  At worst, wild shouts of “no, No, NO!” may precede a monologue correcting such grossly imprecise statements. The reason I make the distinction is that I believe it is non-Disney People who write travel review complaining about perceived...

Yesterday I got word that my hospital department is shutting down completely for two weeks because we had four staff test positive for COVID-19.  Today is Easter Sunday and Quarantine Day 1, this morning's conversation over coffee went something like this: Adam:  So I read a thing online that asked "if you had to be quarantined to just one country in EPCOT's World Showcase which one would it be?" Danielle:  Ooh, interesting... Adam:  Yeah, some idiot posted that they would pick "Ireland" that's not even one of the options! Danielle:  I assume they meant Great Britain... Adam:  Still!  Who the hell would pick that? The conversation got serious from there, not quite spreadsheets serious, but close.   If we are hypothesizing about weeks in quarantine, the country's ride, movie, or gallery would likely lose any appeal after a week and aesthetic considerations would be fairly neutral.  That would leave any decision resting heavi...

I remember when Disney first introduced their dining plans.  I also remember scoffing at the idea thinking that it would limit my options.  There were a couple more family trips taken before we decided to test it out.  The "test run" happened 1) because my then-new-husband had done it before with good success, and 2) Disney was savvily incentivizing the Dining Plan option by noticeably increasing menu prices all around. On that "test run" trip we had the middle of the road plan allowing each person 1 counter service meal/1 table service meal/1 snack per night of our stay, and a Rapid Refill mug.  The inclusions for each level of the plan have stayed fairly consistent, though now each level of the plan includes 2 snacks daily and the options of either an alcoholic beverage or specialty drink (e.g., milkshake, smoothie) with each meal.  I would argue that the increase to 2 snacks was a game changer planning wise, though the alcoholic drink option definitely he...