Back for Hayden's birthday, we got tickets to see Wicked at The Straz Center in Tampa. I was excited to go, but slightly sad it fell on pretzel day- when the Auntie Anne's food truck shows up in our subdivision. I had told Hayden we could eat at Armatuer Works, or Sparkman Wharf or anywhere in Tampa, but Hayden decided to hang around for pretzel day instead. So, we had dinner at home and walked down for some cinnamon sugar pretzels for dessert. (The "kids" even came down to the park to swing, too).
Obviously Hayden is a big Hamilton fan (though, I would argue not as big as me), but they are a fan of all musicals, in general. Hayden said they'd love to go see anything, but I'd seen Wicked before on Broadway, way back in 2010 with my mom, so I knew Hayden would love it.
Our seats were the exact same as Hamilton- back row in the balcony, on the very end. Asa also came along, and actually enjoyed the whole thing more than he thought he would.
After the show, we stopped by the lobby for some souvenirs and pictures. I love the Straz Center as my home theater. It's just so warm and welcoming, for everyone.
All in all, Hayden absolutely LOVED the musical. They will talk for days (and has) about character development and lines in songs, and motives, and writing, and on and on and on. I love this about them, but I have a hard time getting that in depth. Still, I'll listen to my artsy kid about how much they love musicals anytime.
Since it was their birthday present too, I told them I'd buy them a coffee mug, but then the hoodie caught Hayden's eye. I said I would go halvsies, since that would only be a little more than the coffee mug. Hayden was happy with that deal (and to be fair, it is a sweet hoodie. Arguably cooler than the Hamilton one we both have (as does my mom, and Jake- it's a pretty popular hoodie).
And of course, I got a magnet. I usually don't love just normal rectangular magnets- but I find this one pretty striking. Asa said he liked it a lot "for a musical" and the next morning, he was inspired for our morning playlist- sort of. While Hayden is listening to the soundtrack on repeat (they even found our Elphaba and Glinda on youtube), Asa is over here listening to Broadway does Punk.
Of course, it was also March Madness- the first weekend (which is always the best with all the games going on simultaneously), so Calib had to get moving on filling otu everyones brackets. Sure, you could sign up for ESPN and do it in a couple clicks, but Calib prefers we print them out- he then writes them out for everyone (except usually me and Asa, though this year, with Asa's smooshed finger on his left hand, Calib also did his).
Olivia picked UConn as her winner, and PDQ for her winning meal.
Hayden went big with the upsets in their bracket, per the usual. They always kill it the first round and then fall apart. Enter Furman (which they picked because they believed it to be pronounced Fur- Man) and Kennesaw State. And Furman actually won their first one! They also picked Princeton (because of Hamilton), and that's severved them well so far.
Calib is still alive for a Giant Pizza, with three of his final four still intact, including Texas as his winner.
Asa went with Kansas, yet again. To be fair, he always picks Kansas- but they actually won last year. This year won't be a repeat though, because they've already been knocked out.
I picked Marquette and Xavier.
But, we also had Jasmin play this year (she sent Asa a message that said "what's a March Madness Bracket?" which I laughed out loud at while we were sitting at Wicked.) But she was happy to be included. Weirdly enough, Jasmin also picked Marquette and Xavier. But since she predicted the total crazy upset of 16 seed Dickinson over Purdue, she's going to have so many more points that me, it wouldn't have mattered even if we were both right (for the record though, we aren't. Marquette was eliminated yesterday).
We spent our usual time hanging out watching March Madness with Calib, while Asa reads a book and pretends to be interested the last two minutes of every game.
Of course we also had Saint Patricks Day this past week. Fire Teresa (we have nicknames for all the Teresa's around here since there's so many of them) was going to have a party but then had to cancel. No bigs, she's donating all the hot dogs and hamburgers for the Birthday Bash on Friday! She's nice like that. So, no party, but we did make it to Aroma Joes for our $3 Shamrock Macchiato.
And then Friday we were totally suprised by a text from T'Ola to see if we were available for breakfast on Saturday! She didn't even tell us she was coming into town, but of course we'd make sure we were free for her. Gosh, I miss her so much. It was lovely to catch up though. One of these days we're making it to New Orleans for a visit.
Since we were over at our usual First Watch breakfast place by the old house we decided to swing by their Aldis. We always go to the one by Costco, because we're over that way, but the one in the other direction has better drinks!
And we did some plant shopping. We finally found a blueberry busy AND we got our hands on a passion fruit.
Also, it's nearly spring, that means baby cranes in the neighborhood! I love seeing all the little sand hill crane families. It's my favorite time of year.
Saturday, March 18th was also our 17th(!!!!) Florida anniversary. I cannot even believe we've been here that long. But honestly, I love Florida more everyday (despite our stupid politics). It's just given me so much, a house I love, in a neighborhood I love, with neighbors I love, with a happy family and marriage- and just so many things would be different in our lives had we not moved here. Still just the best decision I've ever made.
Usually we celebrate by doing something uniquely Florida, but it was a shit weather day, and we had March Madness to watch. So, Asa grilled us wings and we went out to get a bunch of Publix sides and some Florida strawberries (Nothing is more Florida than Publix, after all).
Oh, and we even got Le Segunda bread! It's back, fresh everyday at our Publix. Yay!
Sunday (and Monday for that matter) were really cold. I'm talking record breaking morning lows- and never making it out to the 60s. Almost certainly it was our last chilly days, so I didn't mind it so much. I threw on my favorite sweatpants, bundled up, went out for soup, and even finished my book on the back patio all bundled under blankets. I will miss (some of) the chillier weather, but I'm ready to be doing the pool multiple times a week.
Ellie seems to be doing ok, I know I gave you guys all that update from the vet. Ultimately, since she seems to be doing well, everyone has decided not to do anymore scans. It's expensive, and it won't really help us much. If her growth on her liver is getting bigger to a point of it being her time, we would know it. And she's still out here living her best life. And honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to know anyway. For now, Dr. Daniels (our wonderful vet I highly recommend) says we can just keep her rolling on her meds and she'll check in with Ellie once every month or so for a wellness exam to get her refills. In the meantime, Ellie is still being spoiled. She even went down to Fire Teresa's to have a play date with Oakley. There wasn't much playing, but Ellie appreciated the sniffs, and I appreciated Teresa having us down (some people are weird about Ellie's "breed").
Monday of course was the first day of Spring. I've yet to change out the coffee mugs (this garden has been keeping me BUSY!), but I did make the annual "dirt" dessert. Everyone still gets so amped for dirt.
I leave you with pictures of Ellie going to get her pupcup this morning (she's been starting to get weary of trips in the car with so many visits to the vet, so we're trying to throw in some fun car visits too).
Next Up: You guys, we are so close to Asa's 40th Birthday Weekend Extravaganza, I can taste it! (He's not as amped about it as me, per the usual, but 40 is a big one, so I'm determined to make it awesome!)
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