Lucy Jane

the BIG 33!

Well yesterday was my 33rd birthday.  I seriously can't understand what happened to ages 24-32.  I remember being 23 after that it's all a big blur.  Ugh, I suppose that's what 100 proof vodka does to ya.

I had a great birthday other than the fact that I had to work.  My birthday event actually started on Tuesday night with my first birthday surprise it went a little like this:
On instant messenger with "C"

"C" Hey honey what time do you think you'll be home?
"Me" After I get thru with job #2 I'll be home.  I should be there between 8:15 and 8:30 no earlier that's for sure."C" Whatever you do DON'T come home early, because I have a surprise for you and if you come home early it won't be ready.
"Me" What won't be ready?
"C"  Your surprise!
"Me" What is it?
"C" I can't tell you, then it won't be a surprise"
"Me" UGH!

Anyway, I got home and he had baked me a 4 layer chocolate/chocolate chip cake.  He did that all by himself.  I couldn't believe he baked me a birthday cake, how awesome is that?  He's such an awesome guy!  He loves to bake and I love to cook so together we are a hell of a meal!

So for my birthday dinner I had to choose the place.  I didn't want to go to a chain restaurant or one of our usual places, so I decided to go to a new place called "The Wine Exchange" in Old Hyde Park Village (an uppity rich people place in Tampa, definitely not my crowd!) but the restaurant had "WINE" in it's title so it HAD to be good right?

It took me 45 minutes to find Old Hyde Park like I said, it's not my crowd, not my place "C" had been there for 30 minutes waiting for me to get there I had no idea Lucy Jane was lost!  Finally I found it, parked in the parking garage on Swann & Dakota where he said he parked.  I had to park on the TOP level and walk down 4 flights of concrete stairs.  Then I looked for him turns out there are 2 parking garages on Swann & Dakota and and he was parked in the other garage looking for me.  I found him and we walked to the restaurant.

We got there and decided to sit outside, the place is small probably only 25-30 tables.  Outside seemed better because it was not too cold and more intimate.  I order a glass of pinot grigio off of their "specials" menu for $3.95 a glass, and it was AWESOME too bad I didn't get the name of it.  Our server greeted us with a plate full of hummus and pita YUM, and I ordered the appetizer of Brie, toast, apple slices, and grapes the brie had cherries, raspberries and sugared pecans in it and was quite good!  For my entree I ordered a lunch portion pasta primavera with a Caesar salad and "C" ordered a dinner portion salmon Florentine with a cup of red bean and rice soup with andouille sausage.  His soup was good as was my salad the Caesar dressing had the right mixture of anchovy YUM!  I wish we could rave about our entrees.  Mine was bland.  I never use a saltshaker unless I am eating french fries or making a baked potato, but I seriously molested this salt shaker.  The artichokes and sun dried tomatoes added some flavor to the cappelini but not nearly enough.  "C" didn't hate his dinner but he found his to be a bit on the bland side as well.  One cool thing was they made mine a dinner portion but charged me for a lunch.  Unless the lunch portion was supposed to be bland then DANG!

After dinner, we wandered around the shops I finally went into Anthropologie what a GREAT little store that is!  Most of the stores were closed but we did get to look in Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, and some store called Storefront Furniture.  Then we went home.  I took my "route" "C" took his usual route and I beat him home! HA! mine is quicker, I knew it!  Ugly but quicker!

When we got home I was whining about wanting some more of that awesome chocolate cake, but "C" insisted that I go upstairs, so I fussed but went upstairs.  He led me to my reading room and there was my birthday present!  I thought the cake and the dinner were my presents.  But instead I got the chaise lounge that I wanted!

Isn't it awesome?  The website had it in Red or White, so I said I wanted the red, it's actually more or less a melon-pinky hue.  I love it.  LOVE IT!  I can't wait to buy some books with my Borders gift card and read in my lovely chaise lounge in my reading room!

Am I with a wonderful man or what?  How did I get so lucky?

One Cajun Bird!

Christmas was great this year.  It was just me and "C" and the kitties.  I was lucky enough to get out of work at 2:45pm on Thursday the 23rd it is soo unusual for me to leave work before 6:30 that I actually saw my night commute in broad daylight, and boy is it ugly!  My morning commute is so beautiful, I get over a bridge in the Tampa Bay area called the Sunshine Skyway Bridge  I have to say it's an inspirational view.  Now the trip home is much shorter but so ugly.

Anyway we went to dinner Thursday night at a little Mom & Pop Italian restaurant, we had a coupon so we tried it.  Now the food was wonderful, except that part of "C"s chicken wasn't cooked all the way which can happen so we didn't freak.  The thing is that we told our server, and she told us to hold on and took another table's order.  So we saw the manager and told her about the raw food/salmonella deal, and she fixed it ASAP.  I really did like my food, I just didn't like the fact it was a strip mall kind of place to eat with about 10 tables, 2 servers, 1 cook, 1 manager, and 1 owner.  Our server was not good.  We decided that we would call in the order next time and pick it up and take it home.

Friday was spent at the grocery store getting all of our Christmas Eve/ Christmas day fixins'.  I made little mini pizzas and "C" put out the fancy cheese & crackers we drank wine... a good time was had by all.  Oh and we watched Napoleon Dynamite it made me laugh, the kid is such a spazzzz!

We found a Tony Chachere's (Satcher-eez) injectible turkey marinade, so we decided to give it a try.  Mercy now that was one good and spicy bird.  I couldn't believe how good that stuff was, we injected the bird on Friday night and let it sit over night, and put it in the oven after "C" rubbed the bird down with Tony Chachere's Cajun Creole Seasonings and olive oil.  It was just sooo good.

I got a bikini top for my jeep, and something called a windjammer for the jeep as well.  Sadly it rained all day on Saturday and was too cold to even deal with it on Sunday.  I didn't sign up for below 40° in Florida.  I can't wait til I can try out my new top.  YAY

More later...........

Twas the day before the day before....

Well it's the day before the day before Christmas and I am at work.  I don't have much to do, so I settled into a morning of reading my favorite blogs, and worked on the redesign of mine.

My good friend Stef who also works here but lucky her, she had the day off, came by here with my Christmas present.  Her car has been in the shop for a month so her mechanic finally rented one for her (her car has been in the shop since before Thanksgiving he got a rental for her yesterday!) anyway since it was raining outside she gave me a lift to my car so I could get her present for her.  The rental car smelled like a mix of feet, ass, cigarette smoke, b.o. and egg.  She told me that it smelled but I had no idea how bad the stench was.  I told her to go BACK to the rental car place and ask for a car that doesn't smell like death warmed over.  Good Grief!  Nothing like a stank-ass for a Merry Christmas.  It still is making my skin crawl.

Rumor has it, that we'll be allowed to leave at 2:00pm, which would be perfect, so I can go home and wrap all the Christmas presents.  So "C" can actually Unwrap a present!  I'm a great catch aren't I?  I think I got most of the things on his wish list, well the small wish list not his mile long Amazon wish list even though I did get a couple of things off of that list. 

The odd thing is that he didn't even ask me what I wanted for Christmas.  If he would have I probably would have said "I don't know" because I never do, until Christmas day when it's too late.  I have 3 tall skinny boxes under the tree from him.  I can't imagine what he got me.  No Idea at all.  At first I thought they were Jeep Accessories, but now I'm not so sure.  I guess I'll find out Saturday.

I hope everyone who reads this has a great holiday (but I don't think anyone is reading this)

Weekender!

Well this weekend was interesting to say the least.  "C"s best friend from the Army came down this weekend to watch the Bucs play the Saints this weekend in the theater room upstairs. (65" HDTV)  Basically I knew that I wanted to keep to myself I like his best friend but I don't want to be that wife who won't allow her man to speak if she isn't in the room, hell he is definitely allowed his friends. 

We played a marathon game of trivial pursuit and I actually for the first time in my life got ALL the pieces of the PIE! "C" won the game but I did better than I ever have, so I was pleased. 

Saturday night I went out with a friend, and Sunday I decided to bake cookies, and drink wine without eating, and drink more wine without eating... and puking and passing out at 4pm thanks to all the wine drinking and no eating, YES I AM A GENIUS!  I don't know why I didn't eat, it was stupid and yes I know better, I am a professional drinker.

Basically yesterday I took a vacation day to catch up on my Christmas shopping, but what a hangover I had.  Bleck!

That's all for now, on to Job #2!

Amazing! New! Exciting!! First POST!

Hi Everyone...

I am Lucy Jane, and this is my first official post using TypePad.  I spend a lot of my downtime reading others blogs and it has inspired me to start my own.  Actually I started one on Blog-spot, but I didn't like their templates and the lack of all creativity.  Not that my blog right now is all creative, but I will make it that way soon enough.  I just wanted to start with PINK! 

If you have read my "About" page you'll know that I am in the process of planning my wedding which is 85 days away... yeah I know what you're thinking. BRIDEZILLA!!!  But no. Oddly enough I am really easy-going about the whole deal.  I have never been married, and never really planned on getting married.  I feel like my wedding day will not be perfect, but if we all have a good time, and no one throws up or falls overboard then it will have been a success. 

It's cool having the wedding on a lunchtime cruise, because for one it's $5,000 cheaper than having it at night, and that works for me.  Also you can actually see the scenery.  The food is good too, and it's only 3.5 hours, so no one will have ruined their whole day because the cruise is over at 3:30 and that early enough for MORE BOOZE!

Anyway enough for now it's 6:30 on a Friday night and I am sadly still at work!