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Update on the Move

July 7, 2009 By 3 Comments

On Friday, we were supposed to meet our prospective landlord and give him a deposit.  He never called Friday, or Saturday and finally on Sunday I called him.  I left a message and about three hours later he finally called me back.  He told me that he hadn’t called me because he had hit a snag with his plans and wouldn’t be moving till September or October.  I knew there was something up with this guy and although I was disappointed, I’m a firm believer in the following the path of least resistance and this path was getting to be a bit of a pain.  I called Jim at work and told him the news and he wasn’t surprised either.  We planned that when he got home, we’d go look at a couple of addresses that I knew were available and take it from there. 

The first house was in a really beautiful neighborhood, but the property backed up to a quarry and there was no fence on one side, so we couldn’t let the dogs loose in the yard.  The house was very, very small and more than a bit shabby.  The pool area was gorgeous, but the pool was also very small.  The house just wasn’t for us.

The second house was very cute, but I don’t love the neighborhood, so we passed on that one too.

At this point I was becoming a little apprehensive, as we’re running out of time and I really didn’t want to settle on a house that didn’t have a pool.  We were driving around town, lamenting our issue, when Jim took a right turn on a lark, into a subdivision that a friend of Jim’s lives in, but that we’d never really looked at.  Driving down the street, I saw a “For Rent” sign and pulled up in front of the most adorable house.  It was white with red accents and a red brick driveway and walkways.  There was a lovely little island in the middle of the yard with some lovely palm trees and a yellow, flowering cactus by the garage door.  We called the number on the sign and spoke to a very nice man who offered to come show us the house right away.  He assured me that he didn’t live far and it wasn’t an imposition and he and his wife were there within 20 minutes. 

The house is adorable. Slightly bigger than the one we thought we were going to move into, with a living room and a den, nice size bedrooms, a wood burning fireplace and the most spectacular pool area I have ever seen in a rental… ever!
I loved the homeowners, I loved the house and I went back yesterday and gave them a deposit. It looks like we’ll be moving July 30th. Now if I could just get this packing under control.



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Opa! Greek Pasta Salad

July 4, 2009 By 5 Comments

If you’ve ever been to my house, I have probably served you pasta salad, in one form or another.  I find that it’s a great option when you’ll be serving a lot of people and you need food that will be as good when the party starts, as it is when you’re standing over the sink with a quick bowl after everyone has left.  It’s incredibly versatile and you can make it with whatever you have on hand!  We’ve been sort of obsessed with the Southwest Pasta Salad with Chipotle Ranch Dressing lately, but I think we’ve had enough of that for a while and was ready to move on to something else.

As I was compiling this week’s menu and shopping list, I saw that Publix had crumbled feta cheese on sale, BOGO.  I love a good bogo y’all.  So I decided that Greek Pasta salad was on the menu.  The great thing about Greek food, is the same thing I love about Italian food; simple, fresh ingredients, signature flavors, lots of tart vinegar and savory olives with tangy feta cheese.  Yum.

grksal 300x183 Opa! Greek Pasta Salad

2 lbs. Farfalle (bowtie) pasta
2 med. cucumbers, peeled and chunked
4 med. tomatoes chunked
1 med red onion sliced super fine
2 hearts romaine lettuce, chopped
kalamata olives (our market didn’t have any in the olive bar, so I bought a jar, pitted) rough chopped
8 oz. feta cheese (this is not the time to splurge on the good stuff, the supermarket brand, crumbled, is just fine)
red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, assemble all the other other ingredients (except oil and vinegar) in a very large bowl (or plastic storage container).
Drain the pasta and run cool water over it, tossing gently until cooled.
Allow the water to drain from the pasta, again tossing gently.
When all the excess water has drained, toss pasta in with salad.

In a small jar, (I used the empty olive jar), combine 1 part vinegar to two parts oil, cover and shake well to combine.

grksaldress 300x209 Opa! Greek Pasta Salad

Pour over pasta, toss and refrigerate to allow the flavors to combine.




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Filed Under: All, Easy Dinner, Healthy, Party Food, Pasta, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , ,

Ick!

July 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I haven’t really announced it here, but guess what folks! We’re moving again. Our lease is up July 31, and we’re not renewing it. This has been a very interesting house to live in and I’m glad we did it, but the house needs so much work and the home owner is either unwilling or unable to take care of it.

So, I get a phone call from the homeowner that he has someone who wants to see the house and since he lives 3 hours away, he’s going to ask his sister in law, who lives next door, to show the house. Ok, I say… Just give me 24 hours notice and I’ll make sure everything looks good and that I have a bra on and the toilets are relatively clean. We make an appointment for Thursday at 7PM, but he swears he’ll call me between 5 and 6 to confirm that they’re coming. At ten minutes to seven, there’s a man I don’t know waiting at the gate (the property is gated) and he’s pacing to and fro on the road in front of the house. I call the landlord who says, “Dang! I fergot to call you. They’ll be there.” I say “Well, he’s already here and your sister in law isn’t.” He says, “Oh she’ll be there.” At ten after seven, I feel bad for the guy and I tell the kids to go open the gate and invite him onto the property. I try to make small talk and he’s a nice guy, so I offer to show him the house. He gratefully accepts and I have the kids stay outside with the dogs on leash. I show him the down stairs, going through all the rooms, making sure to keep my mouth shut about everything that’s wrong with the house and as we’re on our way upstairs, the sister in law barges into my house without knocking, wearing a towel. Yep, a towel. By the way, they don’t have a pool. She barrels through me and I do my best to be cordial, but her soaking wet hair, her mumu towel and her missing tooth are making me cringe a little. Mind you, I have lived here for a year and she lives next door and this is the first time she has ever spoken to me. She starts flicking switches that obviously she’s not familiar with (she turned on one of the exhaust fans which I didn’t realize till hours later) and I do my best to transition the authority to her, although she’s so obsessed with it, that she comes off looking like an ass.

In her effort to seem knowledgeable, she starts to talk about how long she’s owned her house (she doesn’t own it, I’ve checked the public records and I found her rap sheet, just so you know) and how she found this house for her sister and how her brother in law lost his job and her sister had to get a job three hours away and how she really misses her.  I must tell you, I can’t wait to repeat this to the landlord, I’ve been really restraining myself, waiting for him to call me so that I don’t seem as petty as I really am.  She unlocked doors and windows, while I wasn’t looking and I had to go through the whole house relocking them after she left.  We had a couple of words when she wanted to leave the bedroom doors wide open (there aren’t screens and we’re lousy with wasps, not to mention mosquitos, beetles, flies, etc – Hello?  It’s Florida), I closed the door, she said, “leave it open”, I said, “no, it’s dusk, I prefer to avoid bugs in the bedroom “, she said, “there are no bugs”.  Ok, whatever.   I ignored her and closed the door as I didn’t want to discuss, in front of the prospective tenant, how I was still paying rent and therefore this was my house and she had no say here. You know, cause I don’t want fight.

At one point, she started to grill me about where we’re moving and I told her we were staying in town.  She pried, trying to find out where and I’m sure she was trying to get information for her sister, but I’d be happy to tell them.  There’s just no way I’m giving this idiot any information…  Just because, at this point, I was hoping to annoy her. She made some ridiculous overture of shaking my hand and thanking me and after I wiped the residue off my hand,  I locked up and went to buy my new phone.  After that ordeal, I deserved it.

Thumbnail image thanks to: Eagle693
mumu Ick!



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