adventures

we had the MOST amazing time last night. our fair city has a few really great ethnic restaurants. there is an expensive, but amazing indian joint, a lovely hole-in-the-wall mediterranean restaurant, and a smattering of thai. oh, and my festive el salvadorean papusa restaurant. papusas = love, you know.

so, my brother is gluten intolerant. and we need to get him corn tortillas for my parent's 50th anniversary. he suggested that we find a place that makes them fresh, and gave us an address of a place we should check out. when i called, they couldn't find anyone who spoke english. good sign, eh? best place ever. EVER. leon was in chorizo heaven, and my bean and cheese tacos were fab. u. lous. 'course they don't sell them, they're only used in the restaurant. poor brother.

i'm brushing up on my spanish for the next time that we visit. i'm pretty sure that i can do it without sounding like too much of a jackass. i had this problem when i was in germany (my only trip out of the country, unless you count canada. but we all know that canada doesn't count. it is a faux foreign country, for sure). i was so nervous about sounding like an idjit that i hardly ever spoke. that didn't really help with the whole german immersion experience.

across from the restaurant is an aguamercado. water market? *snort* there is also a pastry shop, and another restaurant. there may be a slight bit of price gouging at the market., taking advantage of the non-english speaking population, but they have great stuff. and lots of things are cheaper than their english speaking counterparts. tamale corn husks in bulk!

i'm so going back. when they say queso fresco. they mean it. i found this great site about hispanic cheeses http://www.specialcheese.com/queso.htm so i'm going to broaden my sites a bit. whoopee!

the pastry shop? i hope that's what heaven is like. huge cookies with a hint of orange, and so many different kinds of pastry...well, i can't describe them all. oh, and they charged us too much...and so they let us pick out a couple more things. how's that for integrity. they could have totally charged us and not said anything. there wasn't a single thing labeled with a price in the entire place. i didn't eat everything in site. which was quite difficult.

who knew that this little enclave existed? there are other shops in town, but none of them provide this other universe experience. we're so lucky to have found it!

afterwards? the drive-in movie. if, by drive-in movie, you mean listening to a crunching sound before falling...and spending the night in the emergency room. we hit the small hospital in the town where the drive-in is located, rather than drive back. good call. they had me x-rayed and out of there in about an hour. it ain't broken, but it is a pretty bad sprain. i can't put ANY pressure on the sucker for a week. talk about a gymtastic momentum killer. the upside? the cutest crutches in the universe. i can't use them for shit, but they are just adorable. i am totally shorter than i think i am.

so, i'll try to catch up with my knitting gals this morning, because drive-in part deux will be happening tonight. my kids are such dollfaces. the little guys were such troopers about missing the movie. i can't tell you how excited they were about the drive-in. h was just delighted. spontaneous hugs and kisses like you wouldn't believe (he told me that it's okay to kiss him lots when he's not at work). plus? i really want to see cars.

that's it for now. who knows what the rest of the weekend will bring?!