Wherefore art thou frosty, Spring?

I had to scrape frost off my car's windshield this morning. Frost in May? What's up with that, Spring?

Our single beautiful weekend in April gave way to a meh May, whose early days featured something like 10 straight days of rain. April showers bring...May showers? Not quite as exciting as May flowers, though we have seen some of those. Last summer, we cut off the worst-looking part of an ailing shrub in front of our house before giving up on it for good, and it turned out to be a lilac...tree? bush? Since my gardening skills are limited to hacking off dead parts, I can't be expected to know.

The chipmunks that live under our porch, surely promising signs of more warmth to come, are back. The chipmunks and we have reached an uneasy peace agreement. They ignore that we don't want them around while eating our bird seed and our neighbors' tomatoes, and we try to forget that they're rodents. I continue to feel guilty for the war that we waged on them a couple summers back and am grateful that chipmunks aren't as vindictive as crows. Live and let live is my new motto for fauna.

The makeover for our back porch is complete, for this summer, anyway. The makeover, which we dreamed up while eating a late lunch at a Florentine cafe, brings a little more green into our outdoor living. We had the pleasure of enjoying an al fresco breakfast this weekend amid our greenery and I was pleasantly reminded of how much I enjoy our deck. I keep meaning to take pictures but am waiting for the perfect conditions, including having grass in our backyard. It's been dug up and replanted so many times that we're wary that this planting will stick, but apparently it's under warranty. Who knew that grass seed had warranties?

It's been a typical unimpressive spring in New England, but there is hope. Summer unofficially starts this weekend with Memorial Day. Meteorological summer's start is soon afterwards, on June 1, and global-positioning (whatever, you know what I mean) summer starts on June 21. Whenever she decides to arrive, summer will be welcome in our house.

Not settling for just awesome

I have a tendency to book a vacation with a particular itinerary in mind and then, after further research, change my mind. It's not that I don't perform my due diligence before booking; but sometimes my initial plan, while awesome, could be awesomer. And why settle for awesome when you can have awesomer?

Take our Italy itin. Originally, I planned for us to spend 3 nights in Florence, 4 in Cinque Terre, and 3 in Venice. The plan was good but had faults and involved long, complicated train journeys with large pieces of luggage--not exactly relaxing. We cut CT from the itin and spent 5 nights each in Florence and Venice. While I'm sad that I haven't yet been to CT, I am so grateful that we had 5 nights in each of those Italian cities. First of all, I didn't even like Florence until the third day, and how sad to leave after you've finally become acclimated. And second, Venice is, well, Venice--amazing. Three days would not have been sufficient. Cinque Terre was meant to be saved for another trip.

What I'm getting to (in my usual rambling way) is that I've been thinking a lot about the PR itin and have been reading and rereading my guidebook and have realized that 4 nights in Old San Juan, even if we take a day trip to the rainforest for part of a day, might be a little too much. It's a smallish part of the city, and while it has a fair number of attractions, I don't think that we'll visit all of them. I tend to hit my museum limit fairly quickly when I'm not that interested in the subjects, and only a couple of the OSJ museums pique my interest.

So what are the other island options? I'm sure there are many, but if we stick to the more touristed areas, we have to venture just a few miles outside of Old San Juan to find beaches, resorts, casinos, and over-the-top swimming pools.

Venturing east from Old San Juan, you find five neighborhoods that are popular with tourists and offer a broad selection of hotels:

• Puerta de Tierra: The home of the capital and primo resorts but not the best place to be after dark.
• Condado: Fashionable district with high-end boutiques; similar to Miami's South Beach.
• Ocean Park and Punta Las Marias: Great beach but less pomp than Condado.
• Isla Verde (technically part of Carolina, not San Juan): Resort lifestyle to the extreme - beaches, sand, and trendy tourists, but minimal shopping.

I suspect I know what you're thinking--she wants to stay in Condado. You are somewhat correct. I considered it. The extensive shopping options are appealing. However, in the end, we decided upon Isla Verde. We found a good-enough deal on a hotel (marginally cheaper than the hotel that we booked in Old San Juan for the same time period, go us), and B is somewhat familiar with the area because he stayed at the El San Juan Hotel & Casino for a bachelor party a few years ago (though he didn't leave the hotel much, so the PR experience will still be new for him).

The reason I was able to justify not staying in Condado is that we're taking a tour to El Yunque (the rainforest), and it departs from a hotel in Condado. The tour gets back in the middle of the afternoon, and we'll have the rest of the day to explore the Condado neighborhood before heading back to Isla Verde (either by cab or public bus, depending on how adventurous/tired we're feeling that day).

Our revised PR itin now features 2 nights in Isla Verde, 2 nights in Old San Juan, and 3 nights in Vieques, and I am satisfied that we'll have sufficient activities in each place so that we won't get bored. The Vieques leg is going to be significantly lower-key than most of the vacations that we've had, and I hope that I don't get bored with the beach, but if I do, there is a hammock and a pool just waiting for me back at our B&B.

Tips for successful summer parties

While I am hardly a pro in the entertaining world, I have thrown a few parties in my day (and was once even paid to plan, organize, and host social events) and have learned a few tips that might be useful to others.

First of all, if you've never thrown a dinner party (or lunch party, or brunch, or any event that involves a meal), summer is a great time to host your first event. For a summer meal, the most refreshing side dishes are chilled dishes, which you can prepare ahead of time. Each component of the meal that you prepare in advance translates into less stress before the meal and more time with your guests. Plus you can taste any dish that you make in advance, and if it doesn't turn out quite as expected, you have time for plan B.

Speaking of plan B, it's a good idea to have one for dishes that you can't prepare ahead of time but which you aren't sure how they'll turn out. For instance, if you are mostly confident in your ability to pull off a 12-layer cake, go for it--but maybe keep some ice cream in the freezer, just in case. No one is going to complain if your dinner party features 2 desserts.

The morning of your event, take out the silverware, dishes, glasses, and any other necessities (napkins, wine glass charms, soup bowls, or dessert forks/spoons and plates, to name a few options) for your guests and set the table or place them in the buffet area. You don't want to be scrambling around for a final fork as your guests are waiting to eat. And don't worry if all of your plates, glasses, and silverware don't match--cleanliness matters much more than matchy-matchiness.

A little over an hour before your guests arrive--or however long a dishwashing cycle takes--load up and run through your dishwasher, and make sure you put the dryer on. From the moment the dishwasher starts, you should hand wash every dish, pot, or bowl that you dirty, dry it immediately, and put it away to minimize the mess. Make it a goal to not leave a single dirty dish in the kitchen when you're sending food out to the table or buffet. After the meal, you won't have room in the dishwasher, since the space will be occupied by the dishes, silverware, and glasses from the meal, and the prospect of returning to a disastrous kitchen is not going to make for a restful dining experience.

If you are unable to prepare everything ahead of time--a likely scenario if your summer meal involves grilling--it's helpful to have a partner. One of you can cook, and the other can assemble the food in serving dishes, empty the dishwasher when the cycle finishes, and wash and dry dirty dishes. I'm always astounded by the number of items that we dirty in the last 10 minutes before a meal goes to the table, but washing as you dirty helps to minimize the chaos.

The washing person can also check in with guests periodically to make sure everyone is comfortable and has a drink. You've probably noticed that as the host(ess) of a dinner party, you're not able to spend a lot of time with your guests. It's a limitation that you should be aware of before you decide to host. If you want to spend most of your time mingling with your guests, drastically trim your menu, outsource the cooking and cleanup, or host an evening party that features only appetizers that you can cook ahead of time.

Before you sit down, identify the containers that will hold your leftovers; you can even take them out. When you clear the table after the meal, you can drop your food into the containers, wash the bowls, load the plates and silverware into the dishwasher (make sure everyone keeps their glasses until at least the dessert course!), and then rejoin your party. If you return to a clean kitchen after your meal, your post-meal cleanup will be a breeze.

Happy entertaining!

Adventures in bowling

Last night, B and I went bowling with a group of friends. The bowling alley, which also featured several bars, a restaurant, pool tables, video games, and at least one bachelorette party (conveniently placed in the two lanes next to us; they didn't do much bowling but they were very good at making their pitchers of Budweiser disappear).

I don't have much experience with traditional bowling; here in New England, candlepin bowling, which features little balls and tall, straight pins, is much more popular. There is added appeal in that you get 3, rather than 2, chances to knock all of your pins down. I think that I've done the "regular" kind of bowling only once, and I scored a pathetic 27. Now in defense of myself and my bowling skills (ha, ha), I have to blame my poor performance on my thumbs. You see, all of the balls that I could comfortably lift had such small finger holes that my thumb didn't fit. I was stuck bowling with the 18-pounders, which I could barely lift. I went home that night with sore wrists and a deflated ego.

Luckily, the bowling alley that we visited last night offered better options, and our lane had two 10-pounders that worked well for me. I'm not saying that I brought my bowling A-game (or rather, I'm not sure that I possess a bowling A-game), but I beat my previous all-time record and had a lot of fun.

An interesting note - we were a party of 4 girls and 4 guys, and at the start of the game, the girls were *smoking* the guys - it was pretty funny. It wasn't that we were that much awesomer; it was that we went for the lightweight balls and used technique rather than muscle to knock over pins. On the other hand, the guys went for the heaviest balls they could find and flung them down the lane as hard as they could. Sometimes that worked out for them; sometimes it didn't. But after a few rounds, they realized that the lightweight balls weren't just for girls after all.

All growed up!

Last night, we reached a significant milestone in the life of the Island Corolla. She turned 100,000 miles.

The event, captured for posterity on B's iPhone, took place in the parking lot at the local commuter rail. Returning home from the mall, we forgot that we had to get B's car until we had nearly arrived home. The detour meant that both B and I were in the car for the occasion.

The odometer read 99,999 miles as we reached the parking lot, so I asked B to take a couple of turns around the lot so that he'd be able to photograph the new six-number display. He obliged, and around and around we went--luckily it was close to 9 PM, so commuters were scarce--until I watched 99,999 turn into 100,000.

At nearly 7 1/2 years old, my car is no newbie to the driving world, but she has miles and miles left to run before she's ready for retirement. Long live the Island Corolla!

Funny Spain pics

While I might be violating the timeliness aspect of journalism, I couldn't close the door on our Spain pics without sharing a few of the stranger ones.

First up: New England's favorite fast-food transplant, Dunkin' Coffee, known in circles on this side of the pond as Dunkin' Donuts. While you might see some familiar items on the menu, expect to pay a premium for your European donuts, to the tune of $14/dozen. We passed on the donuts in favor of more traditional Spanish pastries. B did indulge in a coffee from this store, though. He said it was good but different from the coffee in the States. (I don't drink coffee, so I don't think I could correctly explain the difference.)


Next up: a fake European Disneyland. This place has to be ages old because the park was renamed to Disneyland Paris soon after it opened.

I've been to the real Disneyland Paris, and I can assure you that it's significantly awesomer than what you see below.


Have you ever had a conversation with your significant other that went something like this:
You: I could really go for Japanese food tonight.
S.O.: Oh, that's too bad, because I'm really in the mood for Argentine (Argentinean?) food.
You: If only there were a restaurant that combined them both...

If such a conversation has taken place, you're in luck! Head to Barcelona and check out the restaurant below, which specializes in food from two continents! And if you go, please let me know how it is--I was not in the mood for either type of food on the day that we passed by.

One more food pic. If you're wondering why-oh-why don't chip companies make meat-flavored potato chips, then you might consider making a trip to Spain. We found these jamon-flavored chips in a vending machine at a Metro station. B worked up the courage to buy them the next day at the airport, and they weren't disgusting at all, if you could get past the giant pig part on the front of the bag. They were kind of smokey, actually. If I went to Spain again, I'd definitely consider trying them again.

Ikea, you done me wrong

In general, Ikea and I are on good terms, but I had an unfortunate experience this past week and feel the need to share.

Last weekend, we bought seating to go with our Ikea patio table. As it turns out, the bargain that you think you're getting from a supah-cheap table is obliterated once you buy seating and cushions for six. But I'm not upset with Ikea about that; they set their prices and it's up to us as consumers to decide if we can accept them.

We bought four chairs and one bench. I like the idea of having a bench on one side of the table. However, the bench setup wasn't meant to be. We have never had a problem putting together Ikea furniture--the instructions are great, the parts are always complete, and everything lines up correctly.

But not with the Nordano bench, or with ours anyway. We had all of the parts, but the pieces didn't quite line up. Ben put it together as best he could, but when we sat down to test its comfort, we heard a loud crack. One of the pieces that had come bolted on had snapped loose. The bench had to go back.

Monday night, after work, we loaded the bench into the Subie and made the (not short) trek to our local store. We had to exchange the bench for two chairs and the bench cushions for chair cushions. We found the chairs all right--but the cushions were more difficult.

We had opted for red cushions because we thought they went nicely with the furniture and would "pop" on our deck. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea because we were able to find only one remaining red cushion. There were oodles of lime green cushions. Guess they weren't very popular this year.

B tracked down an information person, and he said that the green and red cushions come together in one box, and they won't receive any more until the green cushions are sold out, and we'll have to call to find out if they have any more red cushions in stock. Great.

But then I had an idea. We had grabbed the last remaining packaged red cushion, but there was one other red cushion in the store--the display model.

I marched back over to the information man and figured I had a good story. We had been to Ikea stores 3 times already to try to fill our order, and couldn't he cut me a break?

Information man was unsympathetic, and he said there was no way that he could let us take the model--store policy. He explained that the display color always sells out first, and then they have to wait until people buy the remaining color. I (logically, I thought) pointed out that they had only green cushions left, and didn't he think that the green cushions would sell faster if the green cushion was the display model?

He didn't agree. Oh, information man--how you disappointed me, hence the title of this post.

However, in fairness to Ikea, I have to point out that we have been completely satisfied with every other aspect of our transactions. Our deck transformation, courtesy of Ikea, Lowe's, Home Goods, and a whole lot of work, is nearly complete. We've even managed to find people who want to buy our old patio set, so when they arrive in an hour or so, we'll actually have a place to put this assembled furniture.