As of Late: Four Things I’m Loving + One That I Dislike

As a continuation of my posts from June and July about things I’m loving, here’s a round-up of some things I loved in August, plus one thing that was rather annoying… with some rambling thrown in for good measure.

Things I’m Loving…

This Picture from Puerto Rico

Is there even any explanation needed?

Okay okay, I can’t help myself. There was nowhere else to showcase this photo and I was too proud of it to not publish it somewhere. I took this picture at Ocean Park Beach, the closest playa to our apartment in Santurce, San Juan. It’s hilarious. And shameless. And a great example of the selfie epidemic. I actually don’t hate it though. (I did, however, hate the the 14 year old girls in fedoras having a lengthy, way too sexy Instagram photo shoots on the wet sand.)

I personally thing that Bikini Girl Poses with Cops on Horseback showcases my developing photography skills quite well. I mean check out that use of the Rule of Thirds.

 

Stanbury, again

Despite my past ravings, I have to mention again that I really can’t get enough of Stanbury. Its local, American, super refined small plates really get me. Especially the tartare – there’s always one on the menu. We’ve now tried three different kinds here:  beef with traditional Thai flavors, beef with Ethiopian seasonings (berbere), and this last time, and lamb tartare with a quail egg, pictured above. I LOVE TARTARE.

I didn’t obnoxiously take pictures in our most recent dinner, as we were with friends, and there were a boatload of dishes to try. However, the bone marrow is fantastic (we had to get two orders) and the crispy pig head is always great. I really liked the roasted oyster mushrooms with cashews as well. They are always on point with the seasoning. This restaurant can do no wrong – a top two place to eat in Raleigh for sure.

 

The Martian by Andy Weir

After Adventurous Kate mentioned how much fun she had reading The Martian, I bought it for my Kindle and man, was I thoroughly entertained by this book. It’s the totally believable, though obviously fictional (I know humans haven’t gone to Mars yet, guys), story of a very likable and smart ass astronaut who is accidentally left behind on Mars. God, he’s funny.

Don’t be deterred by all the science talk. What’s crazy is that at the end of the novel, I learned that the author is a self-proclaimed nerd who actually calculated all of the orbits, speeds, and timing that’s mentioned in the book to make sure the math was accurate. Crazy! He originally published the book on his website and assumed that everybody who’d wanted to read it had already done so. Nope, turns out a publisher wanted to pick it up, it’s become a bestseller, and now it’s gonna be a movie with the lead character played by Matt Damon. Hell yeah.

I also read The Dinner by Herman Koch in August, but it was really, um, weird. I was very “WTF?” for most of the book. Then, as soon as I was thoroughly intrigued, it ended abruptly. But feel free to see for yourself! I was lured in by hints that it was like Gone Girl (gets me every time) but eh, not so much.

 

North Carolina Shrimp are So Plentiful Right Now

North Carolina fishermen have been having a super successful shrimping season (holy alliteration!). That translates into cheap pounds of shrimp for us! Even cheaper if you head them or peel and devein them yourself! Which is what I am doing above in my bathing suit. What? You don’t do all your shrimp peeling in your bikini?

I LOVE SHRIMP! So when we headed to the beach for a weekend in August, I made sure we had an appetizer and dinner loaded with them. The only condition was that I peel enough shrimp for everybody. More to come on this in a future food porn post…

My grandma’s freezer was loaded up with containers of these delicious crustaceans and she even gave me and Charlie a couple pounds to take home. We ended up making two more meals with them:  shrimp pasta with white wine, butter, and garlic, and later kabobs with zucchini, mushrooms, and soy sauce.

 

One Thing I’m Not Loving…

Our Boat Rarely Works

I swear our boat* breaks more than anybody’s I know. There must be 18,000 (just a guess) of the same model Carolina Skiff traveling the waters off the coast of North Carolina and they all seem to be functioning fine! As you may have seen via my Instagram, we had to get towed in on July 4th weekend. (Last year, we couldn’t even take the boat out on July 4th.) On this latest weekend at the beach, it wouldn’t even crank. I realize boats are temperamental but what the hell?

My uncle, pictured above in the floor of the boat, made a little progress (got the motor to actually make a little noise) but we had no success on the mobility front. We ended up paying to take the ferry to Bird Shoal… and it was a lovely day, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a little frustrating nonetheless. I did, however, enjoy reading and listening to music on the Dock while capturing this photo.

I think it’s a lemon. They should have a policy like Best Buy. It breaks three times and you get a new boat.

*It’s actually my grandma’s boat. Thanks grandma!

How was y’all’s August? Eat anything great? Read any good books? By the way, where did the summer go?