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Moe's!

A little piece of Heaven - battered and deep fried

To celebrate mine and my mother's birthdays we went down to St. Augustine this morning to meet my folks for lunch at Heaven's caterer - O'Steen's:

They open at 11 a.m. and we arrived around 10:45 a.m. to find the below line already formed and stretching out into the parking lot:

But no worries, we got one of the last open tables when the doors opened so we didn't have to wait to be seated. Erin ordered her usual hamburger steak:

The requisite yummy hush puppies:

And of course, the piece de resistance, fried shrimp (and sweet potato cassarolle and pickled cucumbers):

And on our way home leaving St. Augustine we saw this at a gas station and just had to quickly grab the camera to snap a photo before the light we were stopped at changed:

Thank God for free birthday meals/coupons

One of my favorite birthday items: coupons for free food! So in order to make use of them, we started our Friday evening with yummy pizza from Seven Bridges and followed up ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery.

Here is one of the Coldstone guys making Erin's ice cream - flipping it up in the air with his scoops. This was after the second guy who scooped it out of the cooler flipped it across to him through the air and this guy caught it on his scoopers. They were quite the showmen. Never seen anything like it in an ice cream shop. It was great. :)

This is my pile of strawberry ice cream, graham cracker crust pieces, strawberries, caramel, and whipped cream prior to being mixed together:

The final products - My Strawberry Blonde for me and Cake Batter ice cream with Oreo's for Erin:

The Coldstone guys goofing off once more, posing with one of the posters. We told them we would put them in our blog so they could be world famous. (Assuming, of course, that the world in this case means the 7 or 8 people who potentially read our blog...)

Construction Update # 2

The previously walled up door is gone, as are all the walls, and the framing on for the ceiling is nearly done. Electrician was out of town this week so we have to wait until Monday so he can rewire the room and move the ceiling wires for a ceiling fan into the center of the room, then it's time for sheetrock and drywall. Tile guys are schedule for the 19th, so hopefully we'll be all wrapped up with everything by the 22nd. :)

In memory of Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti, the great Italian tenor, died today of cancer. In his memory, we present here his final public performance, from the opening ceremonies of the Turin Olympics in 2006, where he performed the aria "Nessun Dorma" from the Puccini opera "Turandot". (It also happens to be my favorite opera aria.)

For a little background on this opera and how this aria fits into the grand, poetic scheme of things, here is a nice, short rundown: http://home.earthlink.net/~markdlew/comm/turandot.htm

NESSUN DORMA:

ITALIAN:
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che tremano d'amore
e di speranza.

Ma’il mio mistero e chiuso in me,
il no me mio nessun sapra!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diro
quando la luce splendera!

Ed il mio bacio sciogliera il silenzio
che ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun sapra!...
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincero!
vincero, vincero!

ENGLISH:
None must sleep! None must sleep!
And you, too, Princess,
in your cold room,
gaze at the stars
which tremble with love
and hope!

But my mystery is locked within me,
no-one shall know my name!
No, no, I shall say it as my mouth
meets yours when the dawn is breaking!

And my kiss will break the silence
which makes you mine!

(No-one shall know his name,
and we, alas, shall die!)

Vanish, o night!
Fade, stars!
At dawn I shall win

Under construction #1

This is our family room:

This is our family room on drugs:

Any questions?

And yes... when the previous owners that converted the carport into a room did the work, they just drywalled over the old side door...

So 3 months and two days since the pipe burst and flooded the room, we finally have progress! The walls and ceiling are down, and the new ceiling and walls should start going up tomorow and hopefully be done in a few days. We can then have the tile work done and get our lives back to normal - after I put together the 4,000 pieces that make up the new entertainment center and computer desk from Sauder to replace the ones that were destroyed by the water...

Beach reflections after the rain