Toro, Toro, Toro!

We finally had dinner at Toro's last night. You may recall we'd tried twice before to no avail. The first time we got there at 6 PM on a freezing cold Saturday night only to find the restaurant completely packed with a 90 minute wait. The second time, their website indicated they were open for lunch but in fact they were not.

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful here in Boston and so I suggested we try Toro's again. Usually if we eat out it's on a Monday or Tuesday night, partly to avoid crowds and partly because Kent likes that gentle start to the work week. But we are supposed to get one to three inches of snow today and yesterday it was in the upper 50s--much better walking conditions. So making that switch was easy.

The dishes are very tasty and combine ingredients in unusual ways. Here's a link to their menu (warning--PDF). We completely oinked out and had dates filled with Marcona almonds and Cabrales blue cheese wrapped in jamon serrano, yellowfin tuna with citrus and soy, and hot green peppers with sea salt to name just a few. We'd go back again (and definitely on a Sunday evening), although we'd order more moderately. Having a gift certificate meant we could entirely indulge ourselves and indulge we did. I think my favorite was the grilled corn with alioli, lime, espelette pepper and aged cheese. It's actually half ears of corn that have been fire-roasted so there are these lovely charred bits. While I have no idea what's meant by aged cheese, that stuff was amazing.

Tightening up the budget

I know I'm not the only person to be actively looking for ways to tighten up our family budget in all categories. One of the ways we've been working on saving money lately is (of course) for food and household goods. I asked a friend of mine how she defined the grocery budget because I struggle a bit with that question myself. For example, how do you classify things like light bulbs, toilet paper or laundry detergent? For me, all of that gets lumped into the grocery budget.

That's not to say I get all those items at the actual grocery store--far from it. I prefer to do some price checking and then get those things where they are cheapest. The location varies so I have to stay on top of ads, coupons and circulars, but I think the pay off is worth it.

So with that big preamble, I've added a couple of new links to my Interesting Links section in the left hand navigation panel. You'll find a link for a blog called Cheap Healthy Good--my introduction to this very well-written blog was an article called 1 Chicken, 17 Healthy Meals, $26 Bucks, No Mayo, as well as another blog called Casual Kitchen (check out that article for starting a casual and inexpensive wine tasting club). If you have other blogs that fit in this general theme of saving money while living well, feel free to suggest them in the comments section.

In keeping with our tightened budget, today we saved about $2000. We'd gotten a bid for putting in under-cabinet lighting in our very small (8'x8') kitchen. That's serious money and while we desperately need the light, we can't justify spending that kind of cash right now. But the need for light is real, so today we picked up four GE Slimline fluorescent linkable plug-in fixtures for $76. Kent's installing them even as I type. I cannot wait to have a better-lit kitchen. While I would most definitely prefer them to be hard-wired to a switch, for the amount of savings I can live with this solution.

Happy birthday, Jordan

Twenty-eight years ago Jordan was born. He was a week late, which is typical for a first pregnancy. That didn't matter to me, I just knew I was going to go early because I'd dilated two weeks before my due date. Nope, I was a week late. This picture was taken at my parents' house in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I had traveled from Germany to Missouri after leaving the Army to have Jordan. I could have stayed in Germany since Rick was still in the service but I'd had an appendectomy that resulted in a seven-inch long incision at an Army facility, and didn't want to risk similar results when I had Jordan.

Here's a recent picture of Jordan and Sophie that I borrowed from Sophie's Facebook. He and Sophie are amazing dancers and to see them perform or compete as I've been able to do is just a wonderful experience. I am not sure which competition they were at for this picture; most recently they competed in Indiana. Sophie told me the competition was quite large and they placed in the semi-finals. After having seen a competition, I'm just so impressed with how well they do. And as you can see, they are both incredibly fit from all that dancing.

The Ginger Prince

Kent has renamed Wally the Ginger Prince. The new name is reserved for when Wally is either acting lordly or is sitting in a regal way. I think these two pictures taken yesterday morning more than qualify. So without further ado, I present to you the Ginger Prince:

Snoozing kitties

Yesterday I took four pictures of the boys curled up on the top perch of the cat tree, snoozing away. Then I realized I have enough pictures of my sleeping kitties to build a slide show of them. So that's what you have on the left. I hope these pictures don't make you need a nap!

Today's weather

If you listen to NPR in the mornings, then this morning you probably heard the newscaster mention the big storm that stretches from Washington DC up past Boston. I took this picture at about 6:15 AM--yesterday morning the patio was almost entirely clear of snow and the patio table was clear. The snow is coming down pretty steadily so I'm not going anywhere except to shovel later today. Apparently most of the East Coast airports are shut down and have canceled all flights. Good thing Kent left yesterday!

Here's our weather map from NOAA. So I think it's not going to stop snowing before noon.

Cuteness to follow the grossness of yesterday

Yesterday morning Wally was a complete love bug on my lap. I got my camera to snap a couple of pictures of him, and then he started playing with the strap. So I switched to video instead and here's what I got:



Last night Eddie was insistent on getting under the covers. As you can imagine, I was a little leery but he would not take no for an answer. I think that kitty should be in sales, he was so persistent.

Kent left for London this morning (6 AM flight). He goes to Frankfort on Tuesday and then flies back home again Friday. It's going to be a long week, especially since we are supposed to get snow today, tomorrow and Tuesday. Yuck. I am ready for winter to be over and that's a first for me.