I Don’t Like Manicures

I decided something today.

I do not like manicures.

Sure I think the end result is pretty, but I inevitably smudge at least one nail on the way home which frustrates me way too much.

Today I had an appointment for a manicure and the entire process took almost two hours.

I even made a point to ask how long a manicure would take when I made my appointment because Ryan’s mom and her boyfriend were coming into town and I wanted to be done by the time they arrived. The woman assured me it would take no longer than 25 minutes. I waited 40 minutes before the manicure even began.

What is this? A doctor’s office?

(Okay, I know I sound like a mega-brat right now, but I was really frustrated!)

The long wait gave me ample time to choose my nail polish color.

I actually flip-flopped back and forth between three different colors since I had so much time to think about it, but inevitably I chose OPI’s Pinking of You.

 

One hour and 45 minutes later, my flippin’ fingers were painted and I was super irritated. I’m not lying when I say I had three nails that were only pained 3/4 of the way down. It looked like I let a six-year-old paint my nails.

I left the salon, smudged a nail when I was trying to start my car and arrived back at our apartment in a huff. I felt like some uppity version of Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde complaining to Ryan about my experience but luckily he didn’t think I was too ridiculous. 🙂

Dinner

Fortunately I had some good company in Ryan, his mom and her boyfriend to make me forget about my not-so-fun manicure experience almost immediately.

They’re in town for the weekend because Ryan’s mom will be joining me for my bridal shower tomorrow. (YAY!)

The four of us had plans to enjoy dinner and headed to Maitland to eat at Antonio’s, a nice Italian cafe and deli.

The inside of Antonio’s is really neat. The restaurant is essentially located in the middle of a gourmet deli and you enjoy your meal surrounded by jars of olives and marinara sauce and packages of pasta.

To begin, we were served fresh bread.

 

I had three slices. It was warm, crusty and delicious.

For my entree, I ordered a create-your-own-pizza topped with loads of veggies.

I ate all but two slices… and then ate one more when we got home. 😉

Dessert

Even though we were all feeling fairly full, we still had room for dessert and headed to Jeremiah’s Italian Ice for a cold treat.

 

Ryan and I split a medium cookies ‘n’ cream gelati with vanilla soft serve.

It was fantastic, as always. Jeremiah’s is the jam.

Ryan’s mom and her boyfriend shared a strawberry gelati with vanilla soft serve and gave it good reviews as well.

I’m pretty pooped and hope to get into bed a little early tonight. I know tomorrow will be a big day with my bridal shower kicking off at 11 a.m.!

Hope you’re having a good weekend! 😀

Three Desserts

Put me and Ryan together and you get one deadly dessert duo.

Sweet Teeth

Date night started out innocently enough.

We headed to Park Avenue in Winter Park for dinner at 310 Park South.

Park Avenue

R + J

(Yes, I’m actually wearing shorts! Eek.)

After this morning’s crampy run, I was determined to keep myself hydrated today, and ordered water to drink immediately when we sat down.

Water with Cucumber

The addition of the cucumber slice to my ice water was so neat. Drinking a lot of water is actually pretty hard for me, but I think sprucing it up with cucumber, lemon, lime or orange slices might make it more appealing.

For my entree I ordered a vegetable sandwich with fresh mozzarella on a whole wheat kaiser roll.

My Entree

310 Park South Vegetable Sandwich

I ordered my sandwich strictly for the fresh mozzarella and it didn’t disappoint.

Ryan opted for the New York strip steak, which came with purple mashed potatoes!

Ryan's Entree

We both cleared our plates. We’re tough like that. 😉

Dessert

After dinner, our dessert extravaganza began.

At 310 Park South, we ordered Tollhouse pie, which was essentially a chocolate chip cookie pie with Haagen-Daz vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and a ribbon of fudge.

Dessert Numero Uno

I need to replicate this chocolate chip cookie pie! So good.

For dessert number two, we headed to Jeremiah’s Italian Ice.

Jeremiah's

We were both relatively full by this point, but since we were out near Jeremiah’s which is a bit of a drive from our apartment, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop by for a cold treat.

We shared a small cookies ‘n’ cream + scoop froggy frog (aka mint chocolate chip) gelati.

Jeremiah's Gelati

On our way back to our apartment, we saw that Raphsodic Cooperative Company, a local vegan bakery, was open.

According to their website, all of Raphsodic’s products “are rigorously researched to be guaranteed vegan and cruelty and animal testing free.”

When we stepped inside, we were greeted by friendly faces and the most amazing smell of cinnamon and freshly baked cookies. We stopped in just to check the place out and didn’t intend to buy anything, but that completely changed when we saw the “cookie sammies,” which were to cookies sandwiched together with creamy icing.

Ryan selected a kitchen sink cookie sammie for us to share.

Raphsodic Vegan Kitchen Sink Cookie

This cookie sandwich was demolished before we pulled into our driveway! 🙂

1 date night + 2 people + 3 desserts = 2 veeeery full bellies

We’re finishing up date night with a movie and cuddle time with Miss Sadie.

See ya in the morning!

Two Pounds of Ravioli for Three People

Two pounds of delicious ravioli for only three people? Sounds good to me!

Ryan’s cousin Daniel came over to our apartment to hang out after their soccer game this afternoon and stayed to watch the Magic game and enjoy dinner, courtesy of Monterey Pasta Company and the free ravioli they sent to me.

5 Cheese Ravioli

I cooked two pounds of five cheese ravioli for the three of us, which you’d think would be more than enough, but we only had four little ravioli poofs leftover!

The boys stuck to plain ravioli and marinara sauce while I added steamed broccoli to my bowl for a pop of color and extra nutrients.

Broc + Rav

My Bowl

We all agreed the five cheese ravioli was fantastic. It was one of the cheesiest ravioli varieties I’ve ever had, which is a very good thing if you’re a cheese lover like me.

Dessert

Once the Magic game was over (they lost 😦 ), we piled in Ryan’s car and headed to Jeremiah’s Italian Ice for gelati (soft serve + gelato).

Ryan and I split a cookies ‘n’ cream gelati.

Passin' Back the Goods

Why is it that the minute I finish a gelati from Jeremiah’s, I immediately want another one?

Ice cream really is my favorite food in the whole-wide-world.

Time to read the second Percy Jackson book before my eyes get too sleepy. See ya in the mornin’!

Change in Plans

Last night our dinner plans for a double date to Season’s 52 changed when our friends Ryan and Jenessa decided to head over to our apartment a little early to hang out.

We originally planned to meet them half way between their house and ours, but since they drove to visit with us in downtown Orlando, they wanted to eat at a local Orlando restaurant. Since Ryan and I have been meaning to try Antonio’s, a nice Italian restaurant in Maitland, we decided to give it a go! (Warning: All pictures are extremely dark due to restaurant lighting. Please don’t hate me.)

Antonio's Ristorante

Antonio’s Ristorante is located directly above Antonio’s Cafe and Deli, a more casual restaurant in the middle of a gourmet Italian shop. The atmosphere downstairs was louder and seemed really fun, but the wait was a good 45 minutes, so we opted for the upstairs fine-dining restaurant.

The first thing we commented on was the attentive service. Very impressive! Our waiter greeted us and took our drink orders immediately and brought us a big basket of freshly baked bread which was delicious!

Warm Bread

I somehow enjoyed only one piece… I think I was too busy chatting away and by the time I went for another, the boys had already polished off the goods. 🙂

For my entree I ordered a big bowl of Antonio’s soup of the day: chicken with lentils and vegetables. This soup was unbelievable. Ryan also had a bite and thought so as well.

Chicken Soup with Lentils and Vegetables

I also enjoyed a side of asparagus because I was determined to get some veggies in my body after a  holiday hiatus.

Asparagus

I ate a lot of Ryan’s dinner as well since it was so huge and delicious.

Ryan ordered the Risotto allo Zafferano. Confused? I was too, but it was tasty! The dish was arborio rice slowly simmered with saffron threads, white wine and chicken broth, finished with Parmesan cheese, and  topped with jumbo shrimp.

Janessa ordered the same dish and we all were raving about the creamy, cheesy flavor.

Dessert

After dinner we just had to take Ryan and Jenessa to Jeremiah’s, our favorite gelati joint.

Jeremiah's Menu

As always, Ryan and I split a big ol’ cookies ‘n’ cream gelati and enjoyed every last bite. I could eat Jeremiah’s every day!

Cookies 'n' Cream

Why-oh-why is ice cream so gosh darn delicious? Why can’t broccoli taste like this???

Today

Today I woke up and frantically changed into my gym clothes and dashed to the gym because it was freezing in our apartment and outside. Even non-Florida folk would agree that weather in the 30s is cold! Where was this chilly weather on Christmas!?

My workout was all over the place because my iPod was acting up and wouldn’t play any of my music. I really need my music when I do cardio.

Today’s cardio hodgepodge consisted of:

• 10 min. stair master
• 15 min. arc trainer
• 15 min. weird cardio machine that I don’t know the name of
• 10 min. elliptical

Not the most amazing workout, but it made me sweat a bit and did the trick.

Breakfast

As a peanut butter lover, my cravings for the nutty spread hit me hard. I wanted peanut butter for breakfast like nobody’s business!

I made a breakfast sandwich with peanut butter and fresh strawberries (on sale!) on an Arnold whole wheat sandwich thin.

Yummy PB

Tuesday's Breakfast

I also enjoyed a cup of free Barnie’s Santa’s White Christmas coffee courtesy of my gym.This is definitely my favorite flavor of all Barnie’s coffees. The combination of coconut, caramel and vanilla flavors hits my coffee spot!

You Go Girl!

I had a man say “You go girl!” to me today. 🙂

How often does that happen? Apparently he thought my Uggs were quite jazzy and complimented my boots.

Mah Uggs

When I told him they were lined with fuzzy sheep wool to keep my feet warm he busted out the “You go girl!” It made me laugh and started my morning off on the right foot.

I hope you’re all enjoying a great Tuesday so far and are staying warm! You go girl!

Sushi Saturday

After loads of shopping and two long walks with Sadie, Ryan and I were hungry for dinner. Rather than just cook something up at home, Ryan decided to make it a date night. 🙂

We headed downtown for sushi at Bento, a trendy restaurant that was conveniently playing the Florida/Alabama game. Coincidence???

Ryan was sad the Gators weren’t doin’ so hot (he went to UF for his MBA).

Oh No!

(Yes, this picture was totally staged, and yes Ryan will hate me for posting it. :D)

Though my stomach started eating itself in the amount of time it took for someone to come take our order, I was a happy camper again once I got some miso soup in mah belly.

Miso Soup

Happy Girl

I bet I slurped this whole bowl down in less than two minutes.  

When our order came out we were quite impressed with the tasty display.

Sushi

Mongolian Beef Noodle Bowl

One of the sushi rolls we ordered came without rice which was really neat. I honestly didn’t even miss it. I don’t really like white rice that much. I prefer the nutty flavor of brown rice.

We ate until we were nice and full… but not too full for dessert! We headed to Jeremiah’s for some ice cream and gelato. I ordered a small chocolate peanut butter gelati with vanilla and pumpkin pie on the top. Sounds weird, tastes great!

On our way home we also enjoyed hot cocoa with whipped cream and fudge drizzled on top. A wintery treat!

Both Ryan and I had never seen the classic holiday movie A Christmas Story. I actually won it on DVD last year at the Festival of Trees at the Orlando Museum of Art, so we figured tonight would be a great night to break it open.

A Christmas Story

We both really enjoyed the movie and thought it was a great conclusion to a nice little Saturday date night.