Yes, I am an adult.

No, I do not have children.

Yes, I own a number of Build a Bears.

I want this lobster.

His shell is a backpack.

What more do I need to say?

Can We Get a Second Opinion?

Seriously.

Can someone ask the groundhog to check his shadow again?

I need spring NOW.

Falafel Love

We found a wonderful local place that serves fantastic mediterranean food and I am in love with falafel!

Falafel are balls made from chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and spices and if you get it in a sandwich, it's served on top of a greek salad inside a pita. MMM.. and healthy! yum!

Sushi!

I'm a vegetarian so that means I choose not to eat any animals - not even fish. My husband loves sushi and was kinda disappointed that I wouldn't join him even tho they had vegetarian choices. My reason? I don't like the smell or taste of Nori (seaweed) that it's wrapped in. It has a fishy scent/flavor that I am not into.

Imagine my excitement and delight when I discovered that our favorite sushi bar has SOY WRAPS to use in place of the Nori! Who knew?

Yay! Happy day! Hubby and I can eat sushi together. We need to learn to make it!

Now, if you like rice and veggies.. you'll like the vegetarian sushi. I get one roll (about 8 pieces) with cucumber, avocado and cream cheese and the other roll is made with tempura fried veggies! Yum!

and by the way... not all sushi is raw fish so stop screwing up your face at the mention of it! They have lots of cooked choices. Some rolls are made with tempura battered shrimp or fish, beef, cooked egg and more!

Live a little. Go crazy! Find a friend who knows sushi and go sometime. You only live once!

Road Trip to Madison: Gail Ambrosius

AH, there is nothing like good friends and great chocolate! I recently road tripped up to Madison with a friend to meet another friend of ours who lives in Madison, for lunch, oil sniffing and chocolate.

Gail Ambrosius has a delightful little shop on Atwood that is filled with the most amazing candy this side of Mount Olympus - truly nectar of the gods! (that's even what her last name means!)

Her hand made (one at a time!) dark chocolate creations are fabulous, unexpected and downright delicious! Plus, dark chocolate is good for you so you can indulge and wallow in the knowledge that it does a body good!

My faves are the caramels sprinkled with grey sea salt, shown here. If you haven't had salted chocolate, you haven't lived! Of course, Gail doesn't stop there .... she has some hot to trot cinnamon/cayenne truffles, rich travel inspired candies that contain curry, saffron, cardamom and more, liqueur inspired and even tea inspired delicacies! Each delicate goodie is dusted or topped with things like cacao nibs, lavender buds, chocolate shavings, candied ginger or nuts.

The french-trained Gail ships her candy but if you are within a couple hours drive, I recommend making the trek. You can have a great meal at Monty's Diner (across the street from Gails) and make a day of it!

Try her hot chocolate too. Bliss in a cup!

I Can See Clearly Now!

I needed new glasses and in my quest to always find the best bargain I learned that LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Target Optical, JCPenney Optical, Sears Optical and EyeMed Vision Care are all owned by the same parent company!

So... instead of paying $400 at Pearle, I paid $200 at Sears for the same glasses. I'll have them in a week. I'm excited! They have sunglass magnet clips! (I'm easy to impress)

Go forth... buy new glasses and be proud of the deal you got!