Shopping Fun

I wasn't exaggerating when I said that our trip to Ft. Lauderdale is one of our favorite weekends of the year. And on top of the conversation and the relaxation and the gluttony is the shopping.

Oh, Ft. Lauderdale shopping, how I love thee!

Sawgrass Mills plus IKEA = a Mandy who smiles from ear to ear.

I was trying to be on good behavior with spending money, and I found some great deals. My favorite purchase was these curtains from IKEA, the Stockholm Blad. (IKEA names always make me chuckle.) I was ogling them in the store when I realized that they were $60, more money than I was willing to pay for curtains that are wildly fun, but possibly obnoxious. So I pulled out some sour grapes coping strategy and decided that they were ugly.

But later, when I found them in the as-is bin for $10/panel, I retracted my insults. I was back to true love. And at a third of the price, the curtains quickly jumped from the obnoxious column to the awesome and beautiful must have column. Score! They're awesome in our room, too. I'll get some before and after pictures for you soon.

But back to the shopping.

I didn't get too much else while we were there. The usual: v-neck shirts in a variety of colors from Gap, a great spoon/spatula thing, bigger s-hooks for hanging pots and pans in our kitchen, an umbrella (which got put to good use during today's monsoon), and some hilarious Billy Goats Gruff-looking fabric that I plan to turn into a kitchen curtain (I, too, will believe it when I see it).

BUT. . .

There was gambling. Texas Hold 'Em, $1/2 no limit. And there were douche bags, many of whom were from Yonkers (yawnkahs?), people who, while constantly reminding us of their New Yorkerness, also passed money our way. Oh, Yawnkahs. Thank you, Yawnkahs!

Matt and I save our change all year, and go turn it in right before our annual Florida trip. The money we get from the change becomes our gambling fund. This year we had decided that any winnings would then go to our new computer fund. So, $180 of our dimes and quarters plus $300 donated to us by the lovely citizens of New York put us that much closer to this:

. . .our new sassy laptop. After working on a clunky 5-year old desktop, it's like heaven. Heaven I tell you!

Now maybe I'll actually post more since I can sit here on the couch with the dog and not in our uncomfortable office chair in the coldest corner of our house. Hell, I could even blog from bed.

Hello, Florida.

The two weeks of winter was too much for me and Matt, so we decided to escape to Fort Lauderdale.

Now, to be fair, it had been just as cold in Ft. Lauderdale as it had been in Savannah. And Miami even had snow flurries for Christ's sake! (Oh, Miami gets snow but Savannah doesn't? That's fucked up if you ask me.)

But as we drove farther and farther south, it got warmer and warmer. (Fortunately our trip coincided with the departure of the arctic blasts.) By the time we arrived at Matt's godfather's house, it was tropical and breezy and, well, perfect.

Plus, there were oranges on the trees. That's like an exclamation point on perfect.


The Godfather, Gary, has made of his home a tropical escape, a place where people to go escape the stresses of daily life. Oh, and he makes you eat about 200 brownies a day. I agreed. (Knowing what was awaiting me in Florida, I put off those New Year's "I'm going to eat healthy and stop being such a fatass" resolutions until after MLK weekend.

Even the coconuts at Gary's look like they want to eat.

One of the cool things about visiting Gary and Bill (Matt's godfather and my soulmate) is that we stay in the guest house. The guest house isn't fancy or anything, but it's got a bed, TV, bathroom, refrigerator, and a mirror on the ceiling, so we're set.

We went to the beach, and enjoyed the warm weather.

And we enjoyed a full weekend of quality time with Matt's parents. This is actually one of my favorite things about our annual weekend in Ft. Lauderdale. When we visit them during the holidays, it's always hard to get in a full conversation that's not cluttered with talk of wrapping and gifts and cookies and interruptions. But during that Florida weekend, we can talk, enjoy each other, laugh, drink margaritas, gamble, and just have fun.

Matt's parents aren't wild about having their pictures taken, so I'll just put this one up from when they were younger. Glamorous, huh?

But the best part about the Ft. Lauderdale weekend (it really is our favorite part of the year)?

Soulmate, a.k.a., Bill. Bill pretends that he hates me and I pretend that he's pretending.

I decided, years ago, that we are soulmates and then proceeded to harass him for years. He's a good sport. Most of the time, anyway.

Oh, Soulmate. You and your funny gestures.

(Other awesome things about our weekend: we won $300 playing poker, I scored at Ikea, and I ate so much that I puked my guts out. Well, that last one isn't awesome so much, but it did motivate me to to start eating healthy and exercising. For a couple days at least. Oh, and I saw my best good friend Tanya. She and I are like peas and carrots, or, to translate to our language, cake and icing. Just stay tuned for more exciting details.)