the final word!

ladies and gentlemen, i am reporting to you live as the final presidential debate takes place between mr. donald trump and mrs. hillary clinton.  i have once again found myself out of town for this entertaining and informative viewing, this time coming to you direct from west palm beach!  i will admit that splitting my attention between blogging and listening is a bit of a task, but i will do my best.

in response to my previous post about the second presidential debate, my lovely friend courtney replied that i should enjoy the final presidential debate by enjoying chips and guacamole while listening to some billy joel.  well, ask and you shall receive!  as things at my client site wound down, i asked them for a good mexican restaurant recommendation nearby.  after a little mumbling and collaborating, torero’s authentic mexican cuisine was suggested.  only about ten minutes from the office, it was rightly a no-brainer for me.  with google map’s turn-by-turn directions in the background, i let billy joel serenade me along the way.  give me more of that “uptown girl”, i beg you!

anyway!  the breezy atlantic winds were blowing strongly this evening, so i requested a seat outside on the patio.  although the food was delicious (and i’ll get to all of it shortly), the service left much to be desired.  after seating me at my table, i wasn’t waited on for about 15 minutes.  eh, not the best way to start the dinner.  however, i caught up on all my social media feeds and e-mail inboxes so i wasn’t too ruffled about the delay.

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it had been quite a day at the office, and with two more days on-site, i knew it was going to be a busy end of the week.  chips, salsa, and the large house margarita sounded like a bet i couldn’t lose, so that’s just what i started out with for my meal.

i took my time sipping on my beverage and snacking on some chips and eventually ordered, per courtney’s request, some guacamole.  i’ll be honest, the guacamole was less impressive than the salsa.  it’s not that it was bad; i ate the entire plate.  however, it wasn’t anything particularly special.  now, i don’t like to discriminate when it comes to guacamole because, let’s all be real, there’s not much better than avocados really any day of the week so i ate my dip contently.

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as i finished up my appetizers, i asked for an order of the fish tacos because, you know, i was in florida and fish tacos sounded like a good idea.  unfortunately, after taking my order the waitress returned to tell me, much to my dismay, that they did not have fish that night.  well, alrighty then…since i was still in the mood for tacos, i ordered a chorizo taco and, per the waitress’ recommendation, a steak taco.  well, i’ll say that these tacos were the highlight of the meal.  the chorizo wasn’t too spicy but was quite flavorful and the steak taco wasn’t overly filling.  i’d absolutely order these two tacos again, but with so much else on the menu, i’m sure i’d try something else if i were to return here to dine.

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so, with the end of this meal and this campaign on the horizon (and i know many of you are awaiting its close), i want to kindly thank everyone for participating in my campaign and debate journey in good fun.  i also want to say how impressed i am with the attention my peers are giving to this election, knowing that the outcome will affect our very near future very soon.  if you’re registered to vote, i encourage you to exercise your american right to make your voice heard.  let’s start the show!

#debates2016 – part deux

for those of you who are not connected with me on good ‘ole facebook, let me catch you up:  a few weeks ago before the first presidential debate, i posted “what do you think presidential candidates do before a debate?  do you think they eat their favorite foods and listen to their favorite music?  i hope so, and if it were me, it’d be raining #cheezits and #beyonce would be on full blast.”  that was part one, and part one was a hoot!  a bunch of my friends responded to this prompt and i decided to take action.  this evening i gathered all the suggested snacks and enjoyed them in the comforts of my hotel room.  cheez-its?  check.  kit-kats?  check.  cheetos?  check.  the only one i wasn’t able to get specifically were the dunkaroos suggested by courtney.  the hotel airport shops seem to not carry them!  so, in their place i had the on-the-go nutella/breadstick combo.  quite tasty, if i do say so myself!

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now, i had every intention of eating these things while actually watching the second presidential debate; however, my flight from lax to sacramento was wildly delayed.  as such, i spent those couple of hours on the plane, sipping chardonnay in first class.  i mean, if you’re going to be delayed, i suppose being delayed in first class is doable.  #freeupgrade!

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anyway.  in addition to the favorite foods part of this question, i also put together a special #debates2016 playlist on spotify.  per the suggestions of my amigos, it is a delightful mash-up of beyonce, britney spears, rihanna, marc broussard, miley cyrus, and girl talk.  girl talk was a new group to me, and i very much enjoyed their hip hop remixes in between marc’s touchy feely ballads, especially his Christmas album.  give me more of that “holy night”, marc!

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now, with one more presidential debate scheduled for wednesday, october 19th, i want to get the people involved.  i want you all to give me more of your snack and song favorites that i will happily consume and listen to in a couple weeks.  this menu is going to be of the people and for the people, just how it should be!  so, please be part of the fun and see how it all turns out!

p.s.  if anyone feels like recommending a jimmy john’s #9, i’d be just fine with that.  😀

girl, put your records on

vinyl

last month was phillip’s birthday month and i insisted we celebrate in style and together.  we both took off that wednesday and started with a lovely breakfast at buttermilk kitchen, did a little afternoon napping, got soothing massages, and topped the evening off with an italian dinner at marcello’s with kyle and kari (we highly recommend the lasagna).  as we munched on cookies’n’cream cake from piece of cake down the road later at home, we broke in phillip’s birthday gift:  a record player!  i’ve used album art as wall art in my homes for years now, and it only seemed appropriate that we finally put those records to use!

phillip and i had been throwing around the idea of getting a record player ever since he moved in but just hadn’t gotten around to it.  his eyes lit up and his smile grew from ear to ear as he unwrapped the package – i couldn’t help but squeak in joy myself!  and as all men do, he insisted we set it up right then and there.

after some trial and error (and instruction manual referencing), the player was hooked up to the amp and we had legend frank sinatra singing “strangers in the night” to us from days past.  it’s funny how old things become new again, and i’d be lying if i said i wasn’t enamored with the vintage idea of playing records.  there’s just something about that vinyl spinning around that soothes you!  we always have it on when we eat dinner at the table together and i try to even put something on in the mornings as we’re getting ready.  fleetwood mac’s rumours record has been my favorite as of late.

if you’re on the fence about getting one yourself, i highly recommend you do so.  and while you’re at it, raid your parents’ vinyl collection and get some of those oldies but goodies going!  🙂