Last night’s good time in The Village…
Last evening, around 5:00, we walked to the Sonrisa Grill, the Mexican restaurant located down the one flight of steps to The Village, a five-minute walk.
More people were walking in the Village than we’ve seen since New Year’s Eve around the time of the fireworks display on the lake. We suspected many of the people we spotted were family members or friends of the San Francisco 49ers staying at the nearby Hilton Lake Las Vegas.
Our goal was to go to the bar at the restaurant and, around 6:00 pm, get a table in the dining room. As soon as we entered the restaurant, it was evident we needed to get a table right away.
With only two available tables in the good-sized restaurant, Tom suggested we get a table right away, or there could be a long wait later. I agreed, and a friendly host escorted us to a table for four instead of the tiny table for two.
We seldom choose one of those tiny tables for two. They feel cramped, and we would like more elbow room.
Once situated in the now fully packed restaurant, we ordered our drinks. Tom had a blended margarita, and I had a glass of my favorite William Hill Cabernet Sauvignon. The vast menu offered many exciting options, which we perused for quite a while.
We both ended up ordering taco salads, Tom’s in the giant shell with roast beef and mine, without the shell but with grilled salmon instead of beef. The salads were good but not great.
They brought unlimited tortilla chips to the table, which were hard for me to resist. I limited myself to five chips and stuck to it. Those five chips were 10 grams of carbohydrates, half of my daily allotment, but they tasted good.
We each ended up having a second drink, which I rarely do. When the wine glass with a stem was so small and only half filled, I thought I could enjoy another since I hadn’t seen that vintage since we were in Florida last summer.
That was a big mistake. Having a little more than my usual 5 ounces caused me to sleep poorly last night. I learned my lesson and won’t do that again. Tom enjoyed his two blended margaritas.
Our bill for the food, drinks, tax, and tip was $107, which is a lot for a Mexican restaurant. But we had a great time and enjoyed our night out. Plus, it was fun to see some of the player’s wives, girlfriends, and kids.
Back at the condo around 8:00, we watched a few more episodes of Feud, an entertaining TV series from FX on Amazon Prime (no extra fees). By midnight, we were both in bed but, as mentioned, struggled to get to sleep. My Fitbit showed I’d slept seven hours, but it didn’t feel like that much. Tonight’s another night, and it will hopefully be better.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, February 4, 2014:
No photos were posted ten years ago when my laptop screen was broken, and I had to go to Nelspruit for a new computer. See the text here.
Our friends, Lea Ann and Chuck, are enjoying their nine month world cruise…Would we do that?…
When our friends, Lea Ann and Chuck, whom we met on a cruise in 2017 sailing from Sydney to Seattle, came to visit us while we were staying in The Villages in Florida, they were excited to share their enthusiasm about booking Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas Ultimate World Cruise.
Our mouths were agape when we heard they’d decided to embark on the nine-month cruise. We asked them endless questions while wondering if we’d ever want to commit to such an extended period on a cruise ship.
Although we revel in their enthusiasm, after they left, we talked, and both agreed we’d never be interested in such a long cruise. Nine months is a huge commitment, and for the following reasons, we wouldn’t be interested now or in the future:
- Cruising for so long could easily diminish our enthusiasm for cruising in the future. We love the anticipation of booking a cruise and the days and months before sailing when the excitement is at the forefront of our minds. For us, it would take away the mystery and magic of cruising.
- Living in such tight quarters for so long would not be easy for us. No, we don’t always use all the space available in a holiday home, usually only spending time in the bedroom, kitchen, and living room. But, being able to move around with ease and enjoying spaciousness is a huge part of our enjoyment. Cruise cabin space, even the balcony we always book, is limited and confining.
- Many of the ports world cruises visit are ports we’ve visited in the past. After all, we’ve been on 33 cruises, most with new and unfamiliar ports of call, many of which we wouldn’t be interested in visiting again.
- The food can become tedious and repetitious, besides often being fattening and unhealthy.
- The risk of getting sick when a captive audience for such an extended period is an issue for us. On at least half of our cruises, at least one of us, if not both, picked up a cold or virus, many lingering for weeks. Now, with COVID-19 and all its variants, we’d hesitate to embark on such a large ship for so many months. Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas, with a passenger capacity of 2476 plus 832 crew, is a breeding ground for many illnesses, especially when new passengers embark for the next leg of the journey at some ports, disembarking at the end of that leg. Plus, passengers can pick up an illness when they get off the ship for activities at various ports of call. When we were on the small boat in August 2023, Azamara Journey, with only a capacity of 702 passengers and a crew of 408, neither of us became ill.
- Cost: One would pay well over $117,599 (per person) for a balcony cabin. We wouldn’t be interested in an interior cabin with no windows, and those prices start at $59,900 (per person). Based on the above five points, it wouldn’t be worth paying such a sum for a long-term cruise.
Here’s an article from the New York Post about the cruise Lea Ann and Chuck are on right now, focusing on how many Gen Z passengers are participating:
“It’s been three years, and Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise has finally set sail.
The epic nine-month-long holiday is a first-of-its-kind for the cruise liner, and they’re not surprised it’s gone viral on TikTok despite having hit the shores just over a week ago. (Related: Best cruise lines review).
“Many guests booked their tickets over two to three years ago during the pandemic, and we are thrilled to be hosting a range of guests from young solo travelers to couples and families,” Dave Humphreys, director of sales at Royal Caribbean International AUNZ, told news.com.au.
“We have an impressive number of Gen Z and millennial cruisers, with a significant number of guests between the ages of 18-30 joining us on various legs of this cruise.”
As the name suggests, it’s a pretty ‘ultimate’ experience, with the cruise traveling to more than 60 countries and 11 world wonders in 274 days.
The cruise is broken into four segments — Ultimate Americas Cruise, Ultimate Asia Pacific Cruise, Ultimate Middle East & Med Cruise, and Ultimate Europe & Beyond Cruise.
Depending on the destination and room you choose, prices can vary from $19,895 to $37,268 (per person)
But, if you want to do nine months, the price tag is much heftier. The cheapest is $88,000 for an interior stateroom and up to $1.2 million per person for a Royal Suite.
“Each guest who has booked the Ultimate World Cruise Package received business class airfare, premium transportation, and a pre-cruise hotel in their package up to $5892 per person,” Mr Humphreys said.
“The business class airfare applies to specific getaway cities. The package includes a beverage package, laundry services, inclusive gratuities, and a VOOM Surf and Stream package.”
TikTok has become inundated with passengers sharing their experiences, from the meals they’re eating, restaurants they’re visiting, and gym classes to glimpses of what their rooms look like and the entertainment and performances they’re attending.
“I am LIVING for your videos. Please, pretty, please don’t stop. Greedily. I will beg you to post more,” one viewer commented on a passenger’s ‘sea day in my life’ clip.
Mr. Humpreys said they also can’t wait to join some of these guests virtually along with the wider TikTok community.
“There will be 27,000 passengers on the various legs, of which over 600 are sailing for the full nine months,” he told news.com.au.
“We have almost 2,000 Australians joining us along the way, including 30 Aussies doing the full nine-month world cruise.”
He said guests were offered the flexibility to book one or more of the four expedition packages.
Mr. Humphreys described it as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience where guests can traverse the globe in one incredible journey.”It’s going to be epic.”
It’s fascinating to read about this and see Lea Ann and Chuck’s blog, which may be found here. We continue to see their updates and the sheer joy they are experiencing on this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, February 3, 2014:
“It’s always somethin, Jane!”…Happy groundhog day”…to those who celebrate!…
So, I was trying to get my start date for my Medicare Supplement, Plan G with Aflac, to March 1, when my enrollment for Medicare Part B hadn’t come through yet. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, after finally hearing from Railroad Retirement that it may take up to eight weeks to be in effect, I decided I wanted to change the supplement start date to March 1.
Why should I pay the $157 supplement when I wouldn’t have Part B in effect? It was as simple as signing a form, which the insurance agency explained I could do online, and sending it back to them by email. Easy peasy? Not so much.
First, I couldn’t open the form they sent me. It was in a format my computer didn’t recognize, nor could I convert it to an editable PDF using Adobe or any other apps I have. I went back and forth with the representative over several hours while she worked on sending it to me in an editable format—no such luck.
After about three hours of working on this, I asked the rep to investigate further with someone else in her company and devise a resolution. The end result? She explained I had to PRINT and SIGN the form and couldn’t do it all online. Her original plan was inaccurate.
With modern technology and the countless apps that allow signing legal documents online, I couldn’t believe I’d have to go to the UPS store, have them print the form for me to sign, and then…the most unthinkable…fax it to them. Who uses faxes anymore?
However, it was fun chatting with the two employees in the store. Looking out the window from their store, we could see the Hilton Lake Las Vegas, where the football team, the San Francisco 49ers, will be staying with their family members. Apparently, from what we heard, the players won’t be allowed to leave the hotel other than to go to practice at one of two locations. They will not be allowed to go to the Las Vegas Strip and casinos. Security will be extensive.
Even in South Africa, with many situations requiring documents for visa extensions and other matters, I never had to go through such hoopla to send a signed document.
It had been raining for the past two days (unusual for Las Vegas), and without a rental car, we’d have to walk in the rain (no umbrella, rarely needed in this desert climate) to the UPS store located in the Village, a decent walk from the “one flight of stairs.”
Nonetheless, we put on jackets this morning and headed down the stairs to walk to the USP store, a very nice modern facility. The UPS rep explained they’ve been having WiFI problems and informed me that their fax machine wasn’t working yesterday. I asked that rep to please try to get it going. He did. Thank goodness. Finally, this two-paragraph form with my signature was sent to Aflac. Now, I won’t have to spend $157 for February’s premium pointlessly.
I always say, “You can run, but you can’t hide.” Our nomadic lifestyle is by no means an escape from dealing with the everyday issues that pop up in most of our lives. We are certainly not exempt from dealing with such situations.
Then, this morning, our groceries were delivered but were missing the grass-fed ground beef I’d ordered. It wasn’t on the receipt, but I verified it was in my order. I needed the meat for Sunday when I planned to make Baretta mozzarella-stuffed meatballs with homemade mushroom Italian red sauce. (No pasta is included in this recipe).
I planned to make enough meatballs to last for three nights, saving some for the freezer for a future meal. Thus, I placed another order for the meat this morning but had to spend $35 to avoid paying a delivery fee. I managed to order a few more items, and by tomorrow, I’ll receive the newest order. All is good.
Stuff happens, but neither of us complains loudly, not even to each other. Regardless of how frustrating it may be, we go through the necessary processes and move on. We didn’t get too wet this morning, even though it rained the entire time on the walk.
Today is Groundhog Day. It would be fun to believe this had some significance in our lives, but from our realistic viewpoint, it does not. However, there’s humor associated with this, which most people rely upon when they hear and see attention applied to February 2 each year. Thus, if you find this a particular day, please enjoy it!
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, February 2, 2014:
Both football teams, Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, are staying in our neighborhood for the Super Bowl…
As it turns out, the two teams playing in the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, will be staying in hotels in Lake Las Vegas, the Westin Lake Las Vegas, and the Hilton Lake Las Vegas, only .6 miles from us. The NFL doesn’t want the players gambling in the casinos on the Lake Vegas Strip. These two hotels don’t have casinos.
According to reports, they’ll likely stay in Lake Las Vegas for Super Bowl week as they practice and prepare for the upcoming game on February 11. I doubt we’ll see any team members unless they decide to walk through and shop in the Village, down one flight of stairs from us. Of course, while they are here, we’ll head down there to see if we can see any team members and take some photos without being too intrusive.
We won’t be heading to either of the hotels since they will be heavily guarded and careful about who they let in. It wouldn’t be us. But the excitement in this area is palpable. Many restaurant and shop owners hope for increased sales during the week.
When we decided to stay in Lake Las Vegas, we chose this location because it is quiet and remote from the strip, where we seldom go when visiting the area. On occasion, in past years, we’ve seen a few shows, but many of those same shows are still playing. Prices for entertainment have increased tremendously over the years, and we’re not interested in spending $500 or more for a night out.
Richard is making fun plans for my birthday later this month. We’ll share details later.
As for today, we’re doing laundry, prepping for a nice dinner, and hanging out as usual. I’ve already done the banking and credit card pay-offs for the month.
I haven’t heard anything about my enrollment for Part B Medicare. Finally, I received a return response from the Railroad Retirement Board that my application was received on January 3, 2024. I won’t be processed for six to eight weeks, which could take me to the end of the month with my benefits to start on March 1 since today is already February 1. I’d hope this would all be processed by February 1, but it’s taking much longer than anticipated.
Here’s a recommendation for a fantastic Netflix show, especially for history buffs…”Alexander, The Making of a God.” It’s a docu-drama since it requires explaining what transpired when there’s too much information to be included in a regular drama. It’s a limited series of six episodes. Usually, we don’t care for the docu-drama format, but it’s been exciting and entertaining in this case.
We only watch shows in the evenings after dinner but go through many series when binge-watching movies and series we find interesting.
That’s it for today, folks. We hope you have an excellent day and evening doing what you enjoy!
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, February 1, 2014:
Nuances of dining out that remain with us years later…
We probably dine out in restaurants more than the average couple. Like some other couples, we’ll occasionally order food delivered or buy a meal at such locations as Costco, which only require oven or microwave heating. For the purpose of today’s post, we are focusing on dining in restaurants, memories of which have stayed with us many years later.
For easy recall, we’ll only refer to restaurants since we began traveling the world. In our old lives, we seldom dined out, most often when we planned to get together with friends. When it came to family, they often came to our home for Sunday brunch, dinner, or holiday celebrations.
Although dining out for lunch with my friends was reasonably frequent while I was still working and later, after I retired. When we visit Minnesota since we began traveling the world, I often go to lunch with friends and, most often, my son Greg. In our old lives, while I was still working, Greg and I often got together for lunch at a favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Kindhu, which closed during the pandemic, which was the case for many favorite restaurants throughout the world.
But, as mentioned above, today’s post is regarding dining experiences since 2012, when we began traveling the world. Except for the time we spent in Marloth Park, we dined out an average of once per week. Per the online app, “Date to Date Calculator,” I calculated how many weeks we’ve dined out in the past 11 years and three months, discounting the many times in Marloth Park where we dined out at Jabula twice a week, especially during the last year.
On average, it was 587 times we dined out. Could we remember all of those restaurants, all of those weeks? Of course not. And keeping in mind that we are the type of people who will often return to a restaurant we particularly love. Thus, if we narrow it down from there, let’s say for the sake of illustration, we’ve dined at 300 different restaurants in 11-plus years, including dining on cruise ships after 33 cruises since 2012.
So, to finally get to the point, what features stand out most in our minds after all those experiences? Of course, the first considerations were the food quality and the service. If we had to list those two factors, we could still recall every restaurant.
But other nuances left a good or bad taste in our mouths (no pun intended) that we can easily recall all these years later, and here’s our list, not necessarily in order of importance.
- Food
- Service: friendliness of staff and knowledge of food on the menu
- Ambiance, decor, and pleasing environment
- Choice of menu selections, including options for my way of eating and Tom’s picky tastebuds. (There’s never been a restaurant where I couldn’t find anything to eat, except one local “dive” in Kenya in 2013 and the awful offal restaurant in Buenos Aires in 2018. (See, we do remember!)
- Cleanliness of restrooms, restaurant, and food prep
- Noise level
- Accepts credit cards
- Convenient location
- Scenery (if dining outdoors)
- Comfortable seating: Availability of booths (which we prefer) or appealing seating in pleasing locations within the venue. We prefer not to sit in the middle of the room or close to a service area with high staff traffic.
- Cost: We are happy to pay more if the food, service, and ambiance are in accordance with the price
- Wine glasses* – see below
What prompted this story was an article Tom sent me this morning regarding how the wine glass impacts the flavor and enjoyment of the wine. See the article here.
For the first few years of our world, I didn’t drink any alcohol. It wasn’t until 2016 that I began to drink red wine once again after a 20-year hiatus. I didn’t quit drinking due to any alcohol-related addiction or problem. I quit due to a lack of taste for it. But on that cruise in 2016, I tried a glass of cabernet sauvignon and again fell in love with red wine.
Now, I only drink one glass at any time, whether staying in or out to dinner. I must admit that the wine glass I’m served in a restaurant is a significant factor in my enjoyment of the wine. I can recall every glass I was served since 2016. Recently, we dined at the restaurant at the bottom of the steps here, and they served me a regular glass instead of a stemmed wine glass.
I asked for a stemmed glass; all they had was a champagne glass, which I accepted. I didn’t enjoy my one glass of Merlot, not because of the wine itself but because of the glass. If we dine there again, I will bring a lovely stemmed glass I’ve been using in the condo, which is the perfect wine glass. There are only two such glasses here, so I will be extra careful not to break it, as I’ve been when I have wine when we stay in.
I won’t do this, but I remember every restaurant since 2016 where I was given a short, stubby glass filled with wine with no other options available.
Of course, all of this and the other points are subjective. We all have personal preferences. It might be fun to list your preferences, which will make you more aware the next time you dine out. In any case, enjoy!
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, January 31, 2014:
The 2024 Super Bowl LVIII will take place in Las Vegas…Interesting information about Allegiant Stadium…
Based on a busy day today, I thought I’d share a story I stumbled upon this morning. What is making me busy? One, I awoke late just in time for an extra delivery from Smith’s Market when they were out of a few items I needed for today’s special recipe, which I am sharing below.
Today’s most time-consuming task is making the recipe, enough for at least three nights, much of which I’ll freeze for future use, plus a big salad with tonight’s dinner. The meal requires considerable chopping and dicing. I must be extra careful with the ultra-sharp knives here, which I appreciate, but it makes chopping a little slower; paying extra attention to avoid cutting myself since I am taking a blood thinner.
Next, I have two loads of laundry I did yesterday that dried on the rack and must be put away. Next, it’s time to do the bedding again, and I will go back and forth to the laundry room to dry it in the big dryer, using the app on my phone. Then, I planned to organize the remaining items in our luggage that we never unpacked and need to arrange for a Goodwill pick up at some point while at the condo.
On another note, we are not interested in the Super Bowl. If the Minnesota Vikings were playing, we might feel differently, but we’ll be content to watch from here in the condo using Tom’s app, DAZN (formerly NFL Game Pass), since we don’t have any local channels or ESPN here.
As a result of my busy day, I decided to add this exciting article about where the Super Bowl will be played in Las Vegas on Sunday, February 11, 2024. See below:
“Welcome to the ‘Death Star’: Everything to know about Las Vegas’ state-of-the-art Allegiant Stadium hosting Super Bowl LVIII…
We’ll be back tomorrow with more of our own content. Have a lovely day and evening.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, January 30, 2014:
It was an exciting football day for me…For Tom? Not so much…Multi-tasking…
Besides the Minnesota Vikings, my favorite NFL team, the Kansas City Chiefs, won yesterday’s exciting game. Tom’s favorite team, besides the Minnesota Vikings, the Detroit Lions, lost. Having our teams in the Super Bowl would be fun, but it’s not to be. However, he will root for the San Francisco 49ers. So, we’ll have fun watching the game together on Sunday, February 11.
I wonder what Tom will do to entertain himself on the quiet days and nights when the football season is officially over. He’s not necessarily a fan of other sports. We shall see how that rolls out.
Every morning, we listen to a few podcasts we both enjoy. One is Garage Logic, on which Tom is mentioned on their five-day-a-week broadcast when he sends in “On This Day in Minnesota History” to Joe Soucheray, who mentions us at the end of each episode as “the Traveling Lymans,” which may be found at this link.
Also, we listen to a few “news-related” podcasts and the delightful “The Most Dramatic Podcast Ever with Chris Harrison,” which may be found at this link. As enthusiastic viewers of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” we were disappointed when Chris Harrison was booted from the show. When we heard he had a podcast, we were thrilled to begin listening to every fascinating and entertaining podcast, now with his new wife, Lauren Zima. The podcasts are about relationships of all ages, life, love, health and well-being.
Both of these podcasts are pretty entertaining. Tom plays them on his laptop, using our Bluetooth wireless speaker, often while I am working on the latest posts for the day. Tom always comments on how much of a multi-tasker I am; yes, I can write here and listen simultaneously.
It’s funny how I’ve observed, over the years, how many of my friends are equally good at multitasking, and few of his friends care to do more than one thing at a time. I believe it’s a matter of brain chemistry and the subsequent skills associated with how one’s brain works.
Often, I have three or four tasks in process at any given time and easily revert from one to another, never missing a beat. When Tom is engaged in one project, he doesn’t even want to hear about other tasks until he has completed the first task. For instance, if I am prepping food and the washer is done, I’ll stop chopping and dicing and hang the wet laundry on the portable rack.
During these two tasks, if my phone beeps that an Amazon package has been dropped off at the door, I’ll stop hanging laundry and get the package and even go as far as opening it, disposing of the packing material, and putting the item away where it belongs. In this case, one may say four tasks are occurring simultaneously.
In such cases, I don’t necessarily return to the first task of chopping and dicing. I may, on a whim, finish hanging the laundry. There’s no rhyme or reason as to the order in which I finish the prior tasks, not conscientiously, anyway. I suppose there is a method in the recesses of my brain, but I’ve yet to analyze it and see no reason to do so.
Fortunately, my memory is still excellent, so I rarely fail to return to one of the other tasks. I imagine many of our readers relate to this helter-skelter process and feel quite comfortable with it.
Often, all of the above tasks coincide with my preparation of the daily post, adding one more element to the process. Suppose there is a time-sensitive task, such as making a business-related call. In those cases, I find setting the timer on my phone is most helpful since it is set to go off even if I have the do-not-disturb on, which we always set when we go to bed to prevent being awoken by robocalls and app dings.
That’s it for today, dear readers. We hope you have a fantastic day, evening and week to come.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, January 29, 2014:
Rushing to finish today’s post to watch football…
We don’t get the NFL football games on TV in the condo. So today, I am rushing through this post to be done before the first of today’s two games starts. I am most interested in the Kansas City Chiefs game at noon, and Tom is more interested in the Detroit Lions game at 3:30 pm today.
We’ll most likely watch both games on the DAZN app, formerly NFL Game Pass, which changed in the past few years. Tom isn’t as happy with DAZN as with the former NFL Game Pass app. In the past, the games could be watched after the game ended without commercials. Now, they blank the screen while the commercials are playing. If it’s watched live, there is no way to bypass the blank screen while the commercials play.
The old way, the commercials would entirely be removed about three hours after the game ended, and the game would play continuously. When using the old app, NFL Game Pass, we could get through a game in about two hours after the game ends. Once the game ends, we have to scroll through the commercials, meaning Tom has to get up, get to the laptop close to the TV, and manually fast-forward through the commercials. What an inconvenience.
Plus, to watch games on DAZN, we have to use the VPN, in our case, Express VPN, showing we’re watching from another country since it won’t allow viewers in the US to watch games on the app. The app is only intended for use outside of the US.
So today, we’ll figure it out since we like to watch the games to determine the outcome rather than see the results on social media or the news. It makes the games more fun to watch when we don’t know the outcome.
There’s not much going on here today other than spending the entire afternoon watching NFL football. Last night, we enjoyed our Grubhub delivered from the Chinese restaurant, making today an easy day for me. I’m caught up on all the household tasks, including laundry, so it will be an easy day besides working out down the hall.
With our fantastic leftovers, I won’t be cooking, and all we’ll have to do for tonight’s dinner is heat up the second meal we each ordered last night from China Tango. The food was fresh and delicious. Surely, we’ll order from them again while we’re here in Lake Las Vegas.
Tom is talking to his daughter Tammy and grandson Vincent, and he left a message for his son TJ. I have been in close touch with my kids and grandkids since we arrived here since it’s easy to talk on the phone while in the US. It’s quite a convenience that we appreciate while we’re in the US.
When we left South Africa last April, we faced 14 months until we returned. Now, we’re down to only a little more than 4½ months until we return. So much has happened in the interim. We are certainly relieved to be spending this quiet time right now.
That’s it for today, folks. Soon, it will be time for the first game to start, which I am particularly anticipating since I am a big fan of Patrick Mahomes. He’s fun to watch.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, January 28, 2014:
The cost of “takeaway” or “carry out” delivered meals…
When starting my day this morning, I decided I didn’t feel like cooking tonight. And after dinner out on Wednesday night, I wasn’t quite ready to go out to dinner, nor did I think we should spend another $100 for dinner in a restaurant. Tom said he’d be fine going out again since our grocery bill has been so reasonable, and we aren’t paying for a rental car.
Maybe I wasn’t in the mood for dining out and suggested we arrange for takeaway/carry out through Grubhub, where we have a free delivery account through Amazon Prime. I was definitely in the mood for Chinese food, and when I suggested it to Tom, he enthusiastically agreed.
Usually, when we order dinner delivery in the US, we buy enough to last for two nights. We’ve found with tips and Grubhub’s service fee, it’s more economical to order for two nights as opposed to one. Since we love Chinese food, it’s a logical plan for us.
I usually order steamed vegetables with shrimp or chicken. But today, when I placed our order, I found that I was more in the mood for shrimp egg foo young. Tom wanted his usual sweet-and-sour pork and pork fried rice. We’d ordered takeaway once since we’d been here, and when I started searching through Grubhub, it was easy to find the restaurant we’d ordered from early on after we arrived.
China Tango is nearby, and using my phone in two minutes, I had our order placed, paid, and ready for delivery today. As mentioned recently, since we eat so little during the day, if at all, I requested the delivery for 5:00 pm. I usually pop my food in the microwave for a few minutes since I prefer my meal to be very hot, whereas Tom is fine if his meal has cooled down. Of course, on the second night, we both use the microwave.
Here is a preview of today’s order plus the costs:
Your order
Jan 27, 2024, time ordered 11:28 am
1. 2 Sweet and Sour Pork $32.50
2. 2 Shrimp Egg Foo Young $35.90 “No oil, please.”
3. 1 House Fried Rice $12.95 “NO CHICKEN OR SHRIMP. ONLY PORK, PLEASE
Your payment method will be charged for the amount of this order within the next 24 hours.
Items subtotal
$81.35
Service fee
$9.00$6.51
Sales tax
$7.36
Delivery fee
$7.49$0.00
Driver tip
$10.00
Total $105.22
When ordering through Grubhub or Door Dash or another such service, it’s surprising how much the tax, service fee, and tip come to; in this case, those totals were $28.87. However, if we’d had a rental car and picked up this order, we’d save $16.51 for the service fee and tip. However, it’s worth it since we aren’t paying $40 daily for a rental car. Even when we have had a rental car, the convenience of avoiding traffic and saving time makes the extra fees worthwhile.
This total of $105.22, divided by two nights, is $52.61 each night. We’d easily have spent $105.22 for one night dining out in a restaurant, let alone dining for two nights. Besides, having a meal delivered and watching a good movie is always fun, a special evening “at home.”
All the ingredients I have for the dinner I planned to make today will easily stay fresh until Monday, when the meats are frozen. The vegetables, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, and cauliflower, will remain fresh.
Since we’ll be in the US for another 4½ months until we leave for South Africa, most likely, we’ll order through Grubhub on other occasions, especially when we so much enjoy Chinese/Asian food.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, January 27, 2014:
