Birthdays & Rainy Days

Yesterday was my birthday. That sentence doesn't have an exclamation point at the end because although I had a lovely day, turning 48 years old takes some of the joy out of it. That much closer to 50....but it sure beats the alternative! (Note that sentence DOES have an exclamation point at the end.) We celebrated with a very nice lunch at Square Grouper, easily my favorite restaurant here. (I will do an entire blog on that one....I promise.) John and I picked the girls up at noon, since Wednesday is our school's early-out day. They were beyond excited! They told the hostess and the server that it was my birthday....very cute. And Mari wore her Square Grouper t-shirt for the occasion.

One of the things I love about the restaurant is the 'small plates' section on the menu. Yesterday I had the calamari, plus a new item, mushroom ravioli in onion-Gruyere sauce.

As you can see by the photo the calamari was far from small....a huge portion! And done exactly how I love them, fried crisp with pepperoncini. Instead of a cake this year, the girls and I went to Key West Cakes on White Sheet and selected some lovely cupcakes. Mari had Chocolate Chip, Josie 'Sweet Brown' (chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate), and I got two Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Icing for the grown-ups. A little singing after dinner and an early bed time....honestly, just what I wanted!

I knew I was facing two very busy days, and at my age, you've got to get your rest, ya know? So this morning me and some of our wonderful PTO volunteers set up a lovely table with the new school t-shirts and nice signage, only to have a truly tropical down pour arrive around lunch time and soak the whole thing! I drove through some major water to come home and change out of my wet clothes. It is still pouring out there, and now people are enjoying a favorite Key West pastime....posting pictures of the rising water on Facebook. Always cracks me up. So I am going to give it a bit longer then head back out, pouring or not, because I need to sort out 300 damp t-shirts. But first I'm going to eat that other Red Velvet cupcake. :)