Cupcake Schmupcake

There is a cupcake place here in Jupiter that David and I have been eyeing since our arrival. I mean, I love a good cupcake and a whole shop devoted to them is my dream come true. We have been drooling over their website but since we're on a "no-eating-out" plan, we have been waiting. And waiting.

So yesterday, after a brutal morning of job hunting we decided that we deserved cupcakes and headed over to DD's Cupcake Shoppe. Though the website features hundreds of flavors, the teeny little cupcake store only had a few available. We tried 2 of our all-time favorite flavors (Red Velvet and German Chocolate) and some Mandarin orange flavor that isn't on the website.

After much anticipation in the car ride home, the moment came and we chowed down.

The verdict? Gross. These cupcakes were all dry and brittle. The cream cheese icing on the Red Velvet was its saving grace, but the German Chocolate had no hope whatsoever. And orange was decent (because it was filled with a curd, which gave it a little moisture, I guess) but it wasn't anywhere close to the creamsicle deliciousness I was hoping for.

At $3 per cupcake, I give DD's Cupcake Shoppe a big fat F. Really, how is it even possible to make a bad cupcake?! I'm so sad :(

Luckily, David is not only a fabulous cook but also a champion dessert maker and has been cranking out delicious ice cream creations lately. Who needs DD and her crappy cupcakes?! Not me!

Mmm Mmm Good

Living in a building full of old people has really started to make us act like them. We sleep in and then either spend our day at the pool or the beach (today was the pool, and we attempted to play tennis first, but that's rare), then make lunch, take a nap or watch tv (cops!) read (I'm currently on "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom), eat an early dinner, play a rousing game of yahtzee (I'm not kidding), eat ice cream and fall asleep in front of the TV. It's so boring and so fabulous. We need friends or jobs.

Anyways, one of the things that we have really enjoyed doing since we've been here (besides becoming ping pong champs) is cooking and our current favorite is "1 Bag, 5 Dinners." The recipes are put together by Kraft and they are awesome. We actually tried this a few times in college, but it is much easier now that we have our own kitchen with working appliances (usually) and no roommates to share with.

Basically, the premise is that you choose a weekly menu and then you can fit all of the ingredients for the whole week in 1 bag. Of course, they recommend that you buy all Kraft products (shocking) and Friday is always pizza but we just get whatever's on sale at the store. None of the recipes take more than about 30 minutes to make (...because time is a huge issue for us...) and since all of the recipes are for 4 people, we have lots of leftovers so we actually have a lot more than 5 dinners.

This week we did one of the Chicken & Beef bags, but our days are all backwards so tomorrow night we will finish it off with Bruschetta Chicken Bake, which we are pretty pumped about because everything else has been soooooo good.

We're turning into little chefs. A la cuisine!

Turtles

One of the especially cool things about living on our stretch of beach this time of year is all of the sea turtle nests. In fact, our little area of beach is such a sea turtle hotspot that we can't turn on our balcony lights at night from March through October.

I tried to take some pictures of the nests a few nights ago, but they're much easier to see in the morning before little human feet trample all over the sand.

This is the clearest picture I got - you can see where the mama turtle waddled up the beach, laid her eggs and waddled right back to the ocean. I really want to catch one in action!

I love the beach :)

Jupiter

The move went well and we now officially live in Jupiter. Hooray! The beach life is incredible and we have taken advantage of it every day that we have been here. I'm pretty sure that I am going to end up being one of those leathery, wrinkly old women but I just can't stay away from the beautiful ocean and pool!

Just to make you jealous, here are some pictures of our new home :)

The view from our bedroom...




A shadowy view from the front door (except David's golf clubs don't usually live in the dining room...)

And...our beautiful back yard!



And, even though we were exhaused on our first night, we couldn't resist the urge to finally cook for just the 2 of us, so we made awesome spaghetti and meatballs. This is the life!

Freebies & Goodbyes

This week has been a week of...my favorite...free things!

We had been looking forward to Chick-Fil-A's "Cow Appreciation Day" for awhile, so it was our bright spot in the midst of dealing with car insurance and packing, but we didn't get around to making our cow costumes until Friday mid-morning. That said, we missed free breakfast BUT we made up for it by eating free chicken for lunch and twice for dinner. If you're not familiar with Cow Appreciation Day, it's simple - you dress up like a cow and get a free combo. Hooray! On Friday, between the 2 of us we got: 20 nuggets, 5 large fries, a chicken salad sandwich, a Chick-Fil-A sandwich, a chargrilled & fruit salad, a chicken club sandwich and 6 large drinks. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of our cow costumes but we looked awesome!

Also, since last night was July 11 (or 7/11), 7-11 stores were giving away free 7.11 oz. slurpees! I don't even like slurpees but I love free stuff so I got one anyways :)

This morning, we went to church one last time and told our fabulous Sunday School class bye. We'll miss them, but consoled ourselves afterwards with one last awesome lunch. Have I mentioned before that our church's cafe makes the BEST HOMEMADE CHIPS EVER?! They do. They are awesome, crispy, seasoned planks of potato goodness and they're only $1. God bless! No kidding, the food is so good at this church that David surprised me by taking me to lunch there one day last week. But I digress...so we grabbed some chips and headed to Downtown Disney to eat at...Earl of Sandwich! If you haven't been to this jewel of a restaurant, locate one near you or book a flight to Orlando immediately. It's that good. Yum.

This ridiculously amazing meal could only be topped off by one dessert - a Cookie Bottom Sundae from Ghirardelli. So we did it. We are total fatties, but hey it's our last day in Orlando, we needed to go out with a bang.

Other than eating our way through life, everything is going well. We rented a mini-van (...which is an extra $15/day if you're under 24. Really? I can be married. I can vote. I can go to war. I can buy alcohol. I can't rent a mini-van?) and are mostly packed up and ready to move. Jupiter Island, here we come!

Boom

So just when we thought we had a plan, things changed.

We slept in this morning and then headed to Wachovia to drop a check off...in our pajamas. Of course, the day I wear my pajamas out of the house is the day we get in a major car accident. We pulled out to turn left onto a 4 lane divided highway, didn't see a car coming from our left and got completely t-boned.

David and I hit our heads together and the other driver claimed to be bruised (she was not a very credible or level-headed person though) but overall everyone is okay, which is what's important. David's car, on the other hand, is not okay and has a new permanent home in the junkyard.

So...we're still planning on heading to the beach, just in 1 car for now. We're thankful that no one was seriously injured and that a car can easily be replaced, but it has been a LONG day. On a brighter note, we all get a little sun while we waited 4 hours for the highway patrol. Some people pay a lot of money for UV rays and we got them for free. Gotta love Florida :)

PS aren't onomatopias funny? "Crash" and "boom" sure do a lousy job of describing the sound when you're sitting in the middle of it.

4th of July

The past few days have been a whirlwind of excitement. We went to Virginia to visit David's family for the weekend and had a ton of fun.

Our flight out there was seriously delayed but we ended up with exit-row seats and once we (finally) took off, the whole weekend went smoothly. Plus, the temperature was only in the 70s/80s. AMAZING! We...

• ate at a delicious side-of-the-road ice cream stand. Homestead Creamery is delicious and they have a "petting zoo" where you can touch real cows! I've never touched a cow before - this was a major accomplishment for me!
• Had a major cook out for the 4th of July
  
• (David) realized how old and out of shape he is when he played pool basketball with his brother, cousin and friend.
• Killed a snake!

• had a midnight snack at the infamous Texas Tavern

But most importantly, we made a decision about what we are going to be doing for the next few months. After much deliberation, stress, and patience we have decided to move to W. Palm to live at the beach for awhile. We'll miss Celebration and Orlando but we are really excited about having our own space and of course, living on the beach :) We have some ideas for where we'll be headed next but nothing is certain yet. We're planning to leave O-Town as early as next week, so book a plane ticket and come visit!