Starting off on the wrong foot

The weekend didn’t start off on the right foot.

Let’s start with my experience at Gizzi’s Coffee Shop  during my lunch break on Friday.

I passed by this place a few times while working the past week and decided to stop in for a mid day pick me up.  They have a varied selection of coffees and teas and when I saw Vanilla Soy Latte-I knew that’s what I wanted. I ordered it and on the menu it said $3.24. The barista/cashier  continued to charge me $.50 extra for the soy although the price was listed on the menu for a vanilla soy latte.

Me: Why is it $4 even when it says $3.24 on the menu?
Barista: Because of the tax
Me: So you’re trying to tell me that it is $.76 tax on a $3.24 drink? That seems a little ridiculous
Barista: That’s what it’s telling me—– I guess “it” was the cash register and not the creepy clown.

Hmmmmm….something about that seems fishy.
Yeah it may be only $.50 but it’s the principle of it. You all have to understand I am part Polish, I am all about pinching my pennies. I finally got my latte and hunkered down by the fireplace where they have books and magazines to read. I am down for any place in South FL that has a fireplace! They have the most comfy leather chairs I have sat my tush in in a while and after sitting in a hard, cold chair at work, it was most welcomed.

The latte was good-not horrible, not orgasmic, just good. I am still a little annoyed about the $.50 but what can you do? Hopefully this wasn’t a prelude to what my weekend was going to be like.

When I got home from work, I was beat. Beat from sitting at a desk all day and scouring the Internet. Even when I was working full time, I never liked Friday nights. I was always so tired by the end of the week all I wanted to do was cook a nice meal and hang out for the night at home and maybe sneak a gym session in. So I decided that was exactly what I would do on my last day of work.

I bought this Gardein Beefless Tips a couple of weeks ago and have been curious about them but also, a little scared to try them. Beefless tips just sounds dirty and as much as I like a meat-free alternative every now and then, something about fake beef skeeves me out.

I chopped up some red onions, mushrooms and let cook along with some of the beefless tips (I really can’t help saying the phrase beefless tips over and over again) along with some red pepper flakes and minced garlic.

I added in some frozen edamame and soy sauce to the mix and let all cook together so I guess I was going the stir fry route?

I despise cooking rice because I always mess it somehow-under cooked or overcooked and sticking to the pan. I would buy a rice cooker but I’m doing the whole saving money thing and don’t eat enough rice to justify buying it. Steamfresh has been my favorite, lazy way to go with “making” rice as of late, just pop it in the microwave for five minutes and done!

Notice that the beefless tips aren’t in the finished product? Yeah, I took one taste of them and spit it out after a few seconds. I can’t put into words how nasty the beefless tips tasted. I imagine a homeless persons shoe that has been soaked for a few days tasted the same as it. It was spongy and tasted like something that could kill me. When it was done cooked, I picked all of them out of the pan and threw them away along with the package. I’ll be sticking with Morningstar from now on.

Ient to the gym shortly after than made my way to Winn Dixie to stock up on some snacks for the weekend

Chobani was sale for $1 but looks like other people were as excited as I was about it being so cheap. Another sign that the weekend wasn’t going to turn out well.

I managed to get a few in my basket and finally tried the Mango flavor. Which is? Awesomness is in a cup. I think it is my new favorite flavor from Chobani! n another note, look at how gross and dingy Winn Dixie’s dairy shelves are. NASTY.

Saturday things finally started to look up. It started with eggs and Al Fresco chicken sausage

The plan was to make an egg scramble of sorts but while cooking, I saw that it has more potential than that. What once was scramble, soon turned omelet!

I am way too excited and proud about this but omelets aren’t my specialty. So when it happens, I want to tell the world.

Yes sir.

My mom declared it a morning of cleaning and once she started Gettysburg the movie blaring on her mini tv in the kitchen, I knew I had to get out. I made my way over to the beach to go do something…..anything. I thought it would be the perfect time to break in my new shoes and get some exercise in early on. I headed over to Deerfield Beach to walk and get some sun. For 9am in the off-season the beach and boardwalk (really a sidewalk but boardwalk sounds more beach-y) was packed. I love how they have a set place to keep track of your mileage when running and walking and it’s always been a preferred spot for me whether it be going to the beach for the day or hanging out on the boardwalk. I put a good two miles in and as soon as I was done, got out of there since the parking prices at the meters are pretty steep.

Scenes like these make me want to never, ever leave Florida.

Elton John was wrong, Saturday night wasn’t meant for fighting, it was meant for Groupon!

Always a sucker for a deal, I bought this Groupon for Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ. But then I second guessed my purchase, you see, Lucille and I have some history.When I was a teen, I had a bit of an attitude problem (that unfortunately still holds true to this day) I went through a slew of jobs such as working at Walgreens, Papa John’s, Supercuts and our girl, Lucille’s I worked there for a very long two months as a hostess but got canned and I *may* be a little bitter about that still. All I remember is them saying something about how I had an attitude and never smiled therefore, they wanted me out. I guess I didn’t fit the ambience of a bbq joint and haven’t stepped foot in since. However, you give me a 50% off deal and you can bet your butt I’ll be there.

The place looked exactly the same as I remembered it and I was still one of the youngest people in there thanks to the early bird, senior citizens crowd. Some things never change I guess.

I ordered the beef brisket  sandwich, which has sweet relish and chopped onions mixed in and a sweet potato on the side.

 

As you can see, the beef brisket was nothing short of amazing—it was succulent and the relish and onion mixed in gave it a little extra something I wasn’t expecting. I love that you can get a side other than fries there and even though the sweet potato was drenched in butter, I was happy with it. The beach and the bbq were signs that maybe the weekend wasn’t going to be so crappy after all.

Add some free $20 play from Calder Casino in and it turned out to be a pretty swell weekend.

Don’t mock the penny slots, I won $3 off this baby! It’s all slots at this place and I really struggled to find a slot that wasn’t a penny one. I would have killed to have found a nickel slot but they were few and far between. But I did notice a Sex and The City slot machine—when did that happen? I didn’t get a good look at it since the voo doo woman playing it was giving me the stink eye and I didn’t want her to turn me into a chicken. I wonder if the symbols on it are flirtini’s and Jimmy Choo’s?

Have you ever been underwhelmed with a product like I was with Gardein?

Beach or mountains?

Almost a free day

I’ve been getting into my normal routine of running around with entering crisis mode from moving.

On Thursday I went to Dilworth Coffee since I had a $15 Groupon to blow through. However, there was a catch, the Dilworth Coffee location was in Concord whereas I thought it was the one a few blocks away from me. Since Concord is about a 20 minute drive, I decided to make a day trip out of it (can you tell I don’t like to travel too far when I am in Charlotte?)

I started there and ordered 12 oz of their cinnamon hazelnut coffee. I Usually get their Morehead Estate ground coffee but wanted to try something different since it would be super cheap to. The barista there was awesome and took the time to ask me what I like and what the difference is between the different roasts they have. Since I was mixing it up already, I followed with my drink. I got an iced skim chai latte and it was delish and dare I say, the best I’ve ever had?

I brought my laptop so I could work on some internship stuff and parked it for about two hours. It was just the right level of volume since it was mid morning and no kids or hipsters were there, yay.

What I liked about this location was that it had a true coffeehouse feel to it. What is a true coffeehouse you ask? I’m not sure but if I were to think of one in my mind, it would be spacious with comfy seats, eclectic décor, local artwork, chill music with a variety of brews. And that was indeed Dilworth Coffee in Concord.

I saw some interesting sights on the road shortly after while heading to the next stop of the day:

What the hell is this, the Bob Marley Express?

And I love that the Charlotte Fire Department digs Shrek but what about Donkey?

The next stop was The Last Word, a used book/cd/dvd store that’s opened this past year. I have a bunch of books that I am giving away to the thrift stores but I thought I would check with them first to see if they would buy any back.

If someone could tell me why there is a Christmas tree in the bathroom,I  would love to know the story.

After what seemed like forever, my name finally appeared on the monitor. They put it on the screen when your order is ready instead of the traditional calling your name over the loudspeaker. I was about to reach my boiling point because the guy told me it would be about 30 minutes and when mine was finally ready it was over an hour. I’m very impatient, it’s one of my “flaws” (who are we kidding, it’s the only flaw I have!) however if you give me a realistic time frame, I can schedule accordingly and go somewhere else or go grab lunch. I went back to the counter and they only bought a few dvd’s and books from me which came to $19 in store credit or $9 cash. I found a couple of cd’s and a book so I took the credit and I still had some leftover for my next visit.

When that was settled, I went to Thai House for lunch. They have lunch specials for $7-$10 and I am always down for some chicken pad thai.

It was a huge portion for only $7 and with that you get a spring roll and soup. However it helps when the server greets you on their own free will and remembers the soup. Definitely not the best pad thai I’ve had in Charlotte but it did the job.

Do you go to used bookstores to sell or buy books? Do you have a Kindle/Nook or prefer old school books? 

I like to go to used bookstores to sell my books (and cd’s and dvds if they buy them) because most of the time they are locally owned businesses. I am old school all the way, I don’t think I could do the whole electronic book thing…or could I?