goldie’s Neighborhood

Over the weekend, Lovey and I had the opportunity to go out to dinner as Kiddo was out doing Kiddo things. Our decisions always go a little something like this:

• Should we order in or shower and go out?
• Pasta? Sushi? Mexican? Chinese? What?
• How far do we want to drive?

We decided on go out, Mexican and not far which led us to Talavera in Coral Gables. As you may know, I LOVE Mexican food (Tex Mex also although it's not Mexican) and basically 99% of everything about Mexico. (See also, wedding there in June and lived there for a couple of years.) I even learned to love tacos off the street that I would have previously turned my nose up at. I am plotting a trip to Chicago simply so that I can visit Frontera and XOCO.

It was still relatively early (for Miami) when we arrived at about 7:45pm. While there was no wait, the restaurant was still pulling in a good crowd. They didn't reach a wait while we there, but the steady flow of business was maintained. We were warmly greeted and given our choice of several open tables.

Chips and salsa arrived promptly for us to munch on. Talavera provides two types of chips and two types of salsa. Right, I neglected to take a picture of the chips, but one looked like a flour tortilla that had been cut into smaller pieces and fried and the other was blue corn.

The salsa on the right had a slightly sweet taste to it with a kick. I honestly don't know what was in it. The salsa on the left tasted like tomatillo and cilantro and had a mild spice. Both salsas tasted better with the blue corn tortilla although I'm not sure why.

The menu has plenty of choices and we refrained from gorging ourselves on the first visit. As appetizers, we both had a cup of soup. The cups are normal sized cups with just enough soup. Lovey had the black bean which looked fantastically hearty and tasted just as well. I had the tortilla soup. I will admit that at first glance, I was put off by my soup as it just didn't look anything like I thought it should, but after the first taste, it didn't matter what it looked like. Tomatillo was certainly utilized in the tortilla soup but it gave the soup a light and refreshing quality. Each of the soups had small strips of tortilla and a sprinkling of cheese in them.

Before moving on to the main course, of course we had margaritas!! Lovey had The Original and I had The Ambitious. While I didn't try his, I had my hands full with my own. Let's just say that the bartender makes a damn good drink.

After much indecision, I finally settled on Tacos de Chilorio and Lovey had the Mexico City Beef Tacos, left and right respectively.

Wow!  Let me start with the rice.  I love when Lovey's mom makes rice.  I don't know what she does to it, but it's fantastic.  Talavera is giving her a run for her money.  Each order of Tacos de Chilorio comes with a small side of guacamole which was also quite tasty.  You would think that five tacos is an awfully large serving, but after you eat the first one, you know you'll have no problem finishing the rest.  The pork was soft and delicious.

The Mexico City Beef Tacos are just as delicious.  Although you can't see them, the tortillas are the same size as the ones you see on my plate and they're hiding in that little silver basket.  I don't know if it's the cut of meat or what they marinate it in, but the beef was just plain fantastic and I don't really care for red meat.  Lovey had no problem putting them all away.

I believe the dessert menu changes often as our server explained them to us rather than providing a menu.  The only sadness of the trip was that they didn't have the fantastic sounding churro dessert.  We instead had a chocolate souffle with a scoop of ice cream.  It surprised us with just a touch of spicy, just like it might in Mexico.

The bill came in at the regular price it does when we go out for a meal and have three courses and drinks, so I didn't find it to be overpriced, or even expensive, especially considering that 40% of our bill was liquor.  All in all, it was a lovely meal in a lovely environment and I can't wait to try it out again.

I remember when I first saw the EDS Catherder's commercial. It was 1999 and I was in my little apartment in Oceanside, with 3 cats and a large bottle of white zinfandel and a coffee table that I was supposedly putting together. I paused, with a screwdriver in one hand and a glass of the awful pink stuff in the other, and watched the whole thing, and thought to myself: there is no way managing people or projects is really that bad. Then I promptly stripped the screw in the corner of the table; it still is a bit wobbly on that end ten years later.

Fast forward 10 years and Catherding defines what I do at work, each year, from Thanksgiving to Martin Luther King Day. These holidays have nothing to do with the actual projects, that just happens to be when they fall.

I've blogged about this before:every year we get together and redefine our geography so we can redefine our productivity. This year I thought to myself that if I could just take on more of the process, I could make it work better! I could! So instead of doing just the fiscal bit, I took on the geographies as well. I made use of technology (MOSS 07, MapPoint 2010, SS2k5 and 2k8) and screenshots and time, and created a simple, logical, path for people to follow (13 people, to be precise) with plenty of lead time for them (3 weeks).

The first two weeks there were encouraging thank-yous and complements on what I had done by all. By week three (that would be the last week) there was rising panic, which I quelled by individual half-hour mentoring sessions. By the end of week three I was having to go back and re-do parts of my work because others had not decided to look at things until the very end. In one instance, I had to redo a couple of worksheets (at about an hour apiece) THREE TIMES for the SAME PERSON because he couldn't quite figure out what he really wanted.

Each year I come away with this feeling spent and wrung and awful. Each year I vow next year will not make me do this, and that I will make things smoother. What I have discovered is I'm making the process more accurate and more simple: for everyone else. In the meantime, my sanity is slowly flushing down the toilet as I process the monetary drives that run into ten (count 'em) digits. Before the decimal point.

I could do with a shiny fraction of that, methinks.

Tweet Treats =) ff.im/-cw0Ip

@captianrichie yeah by you.

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#lastfm VoxEarCandy Smoma – All I Have: www.last.fm/music/Smoma bit.ly/6LWxoJ

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Listening to: Jean Carn - Was That All It Was bit.ly/7iKYiv

From Twitter 12-06-2009 ff.im/-cxOaj

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Seth: Well, on that note, it's time for bed.  Tomorrow is Sink Fixing Day 2. (observed)

• 09:25 So tired. I keep hoping L will be ready for a nap since he woke up early. So far, no such luck. #
• 11:33 Got a nap. Feel slightly revived. #
• 17:34 Snow is in the forcast for tonight. SNOW. I'm sure it won't stick til the morning. But that's some cold weather. #
• 17:49 My toe feels like it's sprained or something. But I haven't hit it on anything in a while. #
• 18:05 @CareaBearaSara so I'm going to be like those old men that predict the weather based on their bones? Haha I think we're to young to do that! #
• 18:09 @CareaBearaSara me too. But we sound 80 haha. We should be out on a porch in a rocking chair saying "snows coming. Feel it in my bones" haha #
• 21:39 @jnjackson well that's part of the charm of winter in NY :) Though I'd like to let Liam see snow without the drive. So convenient. #
• 21:42 @CareaBearaSara that about completes the picture! Haha #
• 21:44 @fuggirls who in their right mind thought that was a good idea? #
• 22:45 Kind of anno yed I can't find my library card. Am nerd. #
• 23:29 Found my card. Materials requested. #

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Cats panting.

I didn't leave the house today.