Andrew comes to Tampa

Andrew arrived in Tampa on Wednesday evening and spent two nights visiting us here before we all trekked across the state for a fun long weekend with extended family.

With Andrew visiting, we had to order pizza on his first night in town. Eric and I hadn't really done our homework in the pizza department but we had driven by a place called Paci's many times and decided we would give it a try. I ordered one large cheese pizza and one large pepperoni.

My mother offered to do the pick-up (there's a weird absence of pizza delivery in Tampa. Too sprawling?) and returned carrying the two largest pizza boxes I have ever seen. Ever. Apparently a "large" for Paci's is 18" and even without calculating the area (it involves pi and squaring something) I can tell you that two of these is significantly more pizza than four people can or should eat outside of maybe those disgusting eating competitions that are always won by tiny Asian people.

Andrew stayed at the local HoJo while in town. He likes to have his own space and apparently enjoys sleeping past 5am, which can be hard to do in our small apartment here. The last time he stayed at a HoJo while visiting us was when he came to SF for our wedding almost two years ago. That HoJo had a special on perma-damp carpeting along one wall that we were thankful this local one didn't offer. Eric had recently learned that due to over-enrollment this year, the University of Tampa is using a HoJo as overflow space for freshmen: all but one floor is occupied by students.* I think Andrew was a little disappointed that he was not staying at HoJo Dorm, but just a regular HoJo with crabby management.

Thursday night we went to Miguel's, a Mexican restaurant we keep going to even though, as Eric said on the way home "I keep ordering different things trying to find something that's good." I think the margaritas help compensate, though I'll have to take their word for it.

Gail left for a wedding on Thursday night so Andrew had to look after Emerson while I did one work phone call on Friday. They had a great time kicking Emerson's various balls around inside and then Andrew took Emerson out to kick a ball around the parking lot. Emerson adored Andrew from the moment he arrived and was happy as a clam to get to spend so much time with him one of one. Andrew actually worked his charm all over the condo complex: after being here for about 36 hours he had made friends with several people walking their dogs and got free Girl Scout Cookies from an army guy from the local base. I guess we could learn a thing or two from him about how much we really need to be settled to be open to meeting people.


*I can see that being a bummer on the one hand (not being on campus, and it's a HoJo) but there are some nice perks as well (maid service! free cable TV! private bathroom!).