(outing) cinco de mayo fun

Last Wednesday, 2 May, was rain-checked until Saturday so we could celebrate Cinco de Mayo together. The group finally got vague plans settled by the early-ish (eh . . .) evening on Saturday, but the fates had slightly different ideas in mind.

“Let’s go to Uncle Julio’s,” said Anthony. “It’s close and I liked the food when we went [another] time.”

“I’ll call and see if we’re allowed to make reservations,” I said. I did, and got a busy signal. That was a great sign.

“Thanks for calling Uncle Julio’s Hh-acienda,” said the hostess once I finally got through. “How can I help you?”

(I hate “Hh-acienda”! It’s hacienda . . . like horchata . . . and hola . . .)

The wait time was TWO AND A HALF HOURS TO THREE HOURS.

Time to try calling the other folks. Other choices? Fat Rosie’s, Casa Margarita, Cozymel’s.

Well, Fat Rosie’s was closed. As in, forever. (Because why would you discontinue your phone number in time for Cinco de Mayo?)

Casa Margarita had a wait time of only ten minutes, and Cozymel with a half hour.

Since Charlie was the one who had suggested all of the above, I consulted him for a preference. “Cozy. The food’s better and it’s closer.”

Cozymel’s it was. (But when I called back, they refused to let us put down our name.) I canceled our name from Uncle Julio’s, and since Anthony and I still had a random guinea pig errand to run, we arranged for whoever (of us and Charlie) arrived first to hold the table for the rest of us: Sarah and Ezra were still in the city finishing up another philosophy assignment before they could join us, and there had been no word from Tony.

After the phone debacle, I returned to the family room to find Anthony sitting on the hardwood floor with Ernie on his lap. (Ernie is one of our guineas, in case you got the wrong idea.)

Ernie booboo!

“Do you want to go to Hobby Lobby?” I asked Ernie, and put him in his little travel pouch.

Off we went, and we returned with two yards of green fleece for the boys’ “waste pads” (which we have yet to make, of course), and a pooped out guinea who had not enjoyed the heat inside his fleece-lined pouch.

Anthony changed into party-time attire, and we took off for Cozymel — when Charlie announced both that his girlfriend Sam was meeting us later and that he was getting “Ritas” delivered to him while he waited.

. . . Ritas? It being a text, I didn’t know if he meant Rita’s, as in food from a bar he loathes (but Sam loves), or what.

He meant margaritas.

Upon arrival, we spotted Charlie through the window and Anthony flashed him his nipples.

The place was packed. I tried to order a virgin piña colada (to Charlie’s dismay), but he peer pressured me into getting it with some Malibu (seriously, regular rum ruins the cocktail for me), and Anthony got a Mexican beer (Dos Equis?).

We heartily enjoyed tortilla chips and medium salsa before Cha-lie ordered a guac “a tu mesa,” which a waiter threw together with some amazing fresh ingredients (serrano pepper, tomato, red onion, an orange, limes, astonishingly perfect avocado slices). Nom nom nom.

Totally want more.

Sarah and Ezra arrived at long last, which meant it was time for Sarah to create a blended masterpiece out of the blue and yellow crayons she got from the host.

Impressive for having only two colors, innit?
Well, actually, we managed to steal a few shades of brown for her later ;)

And it was also time for me to order burritos! Charlie and Sam ordered some grub, as well, and more noms were had by all.

Anthony and I took turns with each other’s mojitos (mine mango, his raspberry).

mango mojito

Apparently both Charlie and Sam were popular enough to get invites to different parties, so after the restaurant, Sarah, Ezra, Anthony, and I headed back to mine (with Tony finally on the way).

. . . and we discovered yet another amazing mystery show on Netflix kudos to Sarah:

I’ve been bugging Anthony ever since to watch the second episode with me.

Oh, and we got to introduce everyone to our new African dwarf frogs, Bilbo and Frodo!


(photo to come)