Easter weekend

We had a nice trip to Alabama visiting family and friends over Easter weekend. Our Civic also rolled over 50,000 miles, ironically just outside of Talladega. On our drive over Friday night, we made a quick stop for dinner in Birmingham specifically to visit an old GT favorite that has now moved to Vestavia Hills, Kool Korner Sandwiches. Kool Korner was an old Tech standby on 14th Street for the best pressed Cuban sandwiches in town, until a few years ago when Mr. Ramirez was convinced by his son to move to Birmingham and retire with his family. Well, that lasted 2 weeks. When we walked into the store, Mr. Ramirez had just left, but his son was there and called him to tell him that 2 visitors from Atlanta were there. Well, he turned around and came back just to visit with us, and that was very touching. There also turned out to be a late dinner rush, so he hopped back behind the counter to help out after visiting with us for a few minutes. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal, along with a new guava turnover that we were treated to, and I intend to make it part of our trip to Alabama whenever possible!

The new Kool Korner storefront in Vestavia Hills:

DH enjoys his first bites, including plantain chips, of course:

Enjoying my Cuban:

Mr. Ramirez behind the counter:

DH and I also celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this Tuesday, 4/2/10. Happy Anniversary, Honey! I love you!

March Madness, part 2

Well, I actually won third place in the March Madness office pool! Whoda thunk? My $14 of winnings will at least pay me back for playing ($5), and my sister is claiming the rest, since she influenced me to put her Heels going all the way. First place went to a co-worker's teenaged son, who is probably going to spend his winnings on a video game or two. Second went to another co-worker, who paid himself back $5 for playing, then donated the rest to the beer fund.

DH and I celebrated 7 years of marriage on Monday with a nice dinner at La Grotta, a very nice and long-standing Italian restaurant in Buckhead. They are offering a prix fixe "Stimulus Menu," which was very tasty - a glass of wine, appetizer, and entree for $21.95! (There's also another location at Ravinia - theirs is called the "Bailout Menu.") Normally their entrees probably start at that price! The special is running through the end of the month, so if you're looking for a new place to try, we highly recommend it. For Starters, we tried the Golden Beet salad and Risotto del Giorno - both were excellent, but the Risotto was absolutely delicious (chicken and zucchini) and could have been a meal in itself. For Entrees, we tried the pork tenderloin scaloppini and the grilled marinated hangar steak - also equally delicious, but I really liked the hangar steak. I may have to go back for my birthday at the end of the month...hmmm... We had dinner here after our wedding 7 years ago, so it was a very nice evening of memories. Of course, we had to splurge a little - we got tiramisu AND creme brulee for dessert. Yum!