March 3rd, 2010
I’ve never tried Pinkberry. Or Red Mango. Or the zillion other yogurt joints that seem to be required to put some combination of a fruit and a color in their name. Most frozen yogurt, honestly, kind of grosses me out. It always just tastes…fake. Good old dairy-aisle yogurt, on the other hand, I love. I grew up mixing honey, wheat germ and bananas into plain Dannon. Our fridge almost always has at least one container of Fage. I will try almost any yogurt that I can get my hands on.
I finally got a taste of the tart froyo after we moved here at a shop with erratic hours called Organic Yogurt. Later, I tried Allegria in Coconut Creek. In an attempt to corner the market on food trends of the past ten years, the store also sells cupcakes: a genius combination, as far as I’m concerned. Unfortunately, the cupcakes suck. The frozen yogurt, though, is dandy.
Over the weekend, a tart yogurt craving hit. We tried Organic Yogurt, only to discover a For Rent sign in the window. I fell asleep thinking about the creamy treat. The next day, out running errands, I figured I’d get my fix at Forty Carrots, the café inside Bloomingdale’s. It’s been a while since I’ve lived near a Bloomingdale’s, but I used to love getting a cup of yogurt and walking around the beauty floor. Forty Carrots, sadly, was out of the plain flavor and wasn’t sure when it would be back.
I picked up my phone and started googling. We drove out to a place that supposedly exists in West Boca and were met with another For Rent sign.
Today nothing was getting in my yogurt way. I found Lutz Delight (a hike, yes, but I was feeling adventurous). And? It was awesome. Yogurt nirvana: achieved. Now, how to convince the owners to open a shop in Boca?
March 2nd, 2010
This occurred to me in the parking lot of my (much-loved) YMCA: remember a million years ago how you would sometimes see non-convertible cars with cloth tops?
Youngsters, I’m talking about these:

Sweet, right? Frankly, I’d kind of forgotten they existed at some point. I seem to remember them as part of “special edition” packages, those cars (for some reason, Buick did this a lot) with scrolly type and a name on the side. A quick tumble through Craigslist confirms this, as there seem to plenty of Buick Le Sabre Palm Beach Editions out there, if anyone’s looking…
Back to my point: I see these tops on cars all the damn time down here. My sources say these became increasingly rare in the past ten years, with Lincoln making one of the last ones in 2002. This can only mean one thing: people are taking perfectly good cars and having these roofs added to them.
Awesome.
February 23rd, 2010
If you are not already reading Housemartin, the supremely inspiring blog of a shopowner/florist, may I suggest that you add it to your RSS feeds stat? When I was planning our wedding, every photo she posted of a bridal bouquet made me hope that she would suddenly abandon Portland for KC so I could carry one of those beauts down the aisle. Her store is on (my very, very long) list of Portland to-dos.

And I can’t stop re-reading this post because it perfectly captures what I’d love our home to look like: bohemian, beachy, chic and comfortable. (Photo by Lisa Warninger for ink & peat.)
February 19th, 2010
There are a lot of things I miss about Kansas City, but a big one is definitely food. (Mr. TRF elucidates here.)
I miss KC’s emphasis on locally sourced ingredients, and the ability to buy local milk and eggs at almost every grocery store. For the amount of food that can be grown in Florida, it’s hard to find these items without a little digging. (Actually, I’m still searching for local eggs and/or milk. Despite rumors that they exist, I haven’t turned them up.)
Last year we joined a CSA and suddenly, we were free from Whole Foods’ oft-uneven offerings, Publix’s weird shrink-wrapped produce and the disappointment that is the local greenmarket scene (I’m looking at you, Delray Beach). Behold our food delivery one day from last year:

Last weekend, we bundled up (it was around 60 and windy, we’ve gone soft) to tour our farm. Walking up and down rows of assorted greens, herbs and tomatoes, I found myself squealing in recognition as if spotting a long-forgotten celeb. “I know those beets!”
I guess you can take the girl out of farm country, but you can’t take the farm country out of the girl.
February 15th, 2010
I caved at Publix and bought the newest People magazine a few days ago. It’s the one with Celine Dion discussing her fertility struggles and going through IVF. Her husband tells People that they’re “not really” considering adoption.
Without getting into a discussion about her age (41), her husband’s age (68) or fertility angst, let’s instead wonder why they’re “not really” considering adoption. I summarized this all for my husband (because that is the kind of good wife I am, keeping him up on celebrity gossip), and he came up with a good one. Mr. Celine Dion (oh fine, he has a name: René Angélil) needs a baby with some genetic ties to him so that he can remain alive.
Looks like a guy who would eat his bébé, right?

The good news is that, additions to la famille or not, there is likely ample room in their 9,825-square-foot home in Jupiter Island which perhaps they will consider renting to the Reluctant Floridians.
There are two pools. I’m sure they’ll let us have one.
February 12th, 2010
You know how when you’re looking for love, you go on a string of crappy dates, but when you’re all “I am dating myself” you meet someone great? (Disclaimer: This has not actually happened to me, but I hear it has happened to others.) That is sort of my new (as of today) feeling about the house hunt. I am not going to date my rental (because that would be weird), but I am going to chill out and let the house come to me. In the meantime, I am going to decorate the house in my mind, because that always makes me feel better.
Since Mr. TRF and I have a hate-hate relationship with all of the sofas in our house, we’ll have to get new ones.
This hot piece of cushiness ain’t cheap, but hey, it’s not the bazillion dollar version from George Smith, ($12K for a sofa? Who does that?) so in my mind it’s a bargain.
I’d like to acknowledge our beachy location without force-feeding you starfish, so maybe a few coral pillows to scatter about? Yup.

Only one hundo per pillow? Rad. Let’s get four!
When I say I love surfing, what I really mean is “I enjoy sitting on my tush and watching documentaries about surfing.” Therefore, a little Leroy Grannis is in order.
How about a complete overhaul of our bedding, starting with a bunch of Kerry Cassill loveliness?
Maybe mix in a little John Robshaw for good measure?
YES.
OK, I’m tired from all that fake shopping. Time for something I can afford: a latte.
February 11th, 2010
From a casual glance at the news, the real estate situation in Florida comes off as fairly dire. Four in ten South Florida mortgage holders are underwater; The tri-county area was ranked tenth in the nation for foreclosure filings last year; gloom; doom; etc.
So someone tell me why the house that was listed on Monday, that I looked at 24 hours later, on Tuesday afternoon, was under contract that night.
February 10th, 2010
Just when I find myself using Yelp to choose anything and everything, I stumble across a review of Miami Girls [sic] Butts and I question its usefulness.
March 27th, 2008
No hate for SATC from moi, but maybe your personality is, in fact, linked to your favorite Sleater-Kinney member. Like, if you’re a Corin, you’re the bad-ass activist one. Or something. I haven’t really fully fleshed this out.
Moving on: who doesn’t have a girl crush on Carrie Brownstein? She has the greatest NPR BLOG. Could there be anything better? This post in particular made me nod in agreement on all points. Also? I hate twee fans too, even though I once considered myself one.