Meal #1: French Onion Soup with Salad

I don't like onions but I love a good French Onion Soup. What other soup can you get top with French bread and a handful of cheese? By the time the spoon dips into the brothy wonderfulness, the onions are merely an afterthought.


For such a simple soup the French sure do top it off with a fine cheese that is both pricey and hard to find in the grocery store.

So I chopped, grated, caramelized, stirred, boiled and broiled and one and a half hour later I had soup and a man home from work. Mike sat down to a serving of soup and a heaping plate of salad and said, “So what’s for dinner after these appetizers?”

Two things I would change:
1. Order a pizza for Mike
2. Buy single serving oven safe bowls in order to broil the cheese and bread.

For a first try at French Onion soup I’d give myself a B-.
And an A+ for not setting the house ablaze.

Getting sent home from the airport

On Sunday I was sent home from the airport. I don't believe I've ever been sent "home" due to a delayed flight. This delayed flight would cause a lengthy sleepover in Atlanta so the friendly AirTran representative put me on the next flight to Milwaukee, which wasn't going to leave for another 24 hours. Another day at the beach - what a bummer! Here are some highlights from my time in Florida.

1. Nothing beats a falling asleep to a good book in the sun on the deck.
2. The surf and turf dinner followed by key lime pie at the beach house so yummy.
3. Hour-long storytelling from Grandpa.
4. Trying to make my straight leg touch my nose, just like the 77 year-old instructor during beach yoga at 7am.
5. Christmas Tree Bob extended the yard to include a sand pit for bean bag games. Bags tournament rained out - giving me one more year of practice.
6. Can-Can Dancing with Danielle while the Frank Sinatra impersonator sings New York, New York.
7. Finding out Grandma's ONE shared New Year’s resolution is: Try not to get pregnant.
8. Drowning my sorrows in Malibu pineapples at the Holiday Inn happy hour after being sent home from the airport.
9. Debating to get a credit from AirTran and book a Midwest flight while receiving peer pressure from family & grandma's exclaiming, "I'm going to be very mad at you if you don't push purchase NOW!" I say, "Grandma, I haven't even reached that point - we're on dial-up!"
10. During round two to airport step-mom can't find her id and national security is called.