Celebrate good times come on.

Brad is home this weekend. Hooray! And tonight we sat down for a home-cooked dinner -- it's been a few weeks since we've been able to do this. Double hooray! We also had some reason to celebrate, so I even grabbed a bottle of wine for us to pop open.

I know I went to Blackstar Farms. I know I loved it. And I'm pretty sure I tried this wine there. But it was the last stop on a day-long tour. I don't really remember! :) Regardless, it's a little bitter, but it does the trick.

What's a celebration without some raw Michigan cauliflower?

We decided on fish before I headed out, and turbot was on sale. I was pretty sure I'd never had it before, but it looked nice and the fish guy said it was very similar to cod, so I went for it. I baked it for 15 minutes in just a little bit of fresh lemon juice, seasoned with some pepper and fresh basil. And what a success! This fish is beautiful! White and glistening. And it really does taste like a less meaty cod.

Shiny happy fish.

Because you can't go to Whole Foods and not get some sort of pre-made salad (at least I am a sucker for its charms every time), I grabbed a little orzo salad with spinach, olives, celery, and feta. And bread. Always bread. (Although Brad thought the mini baguette was kind of on the sucky side [I figured it's just because it was toward the end of the day].)

Brad takes celebration dinners very seriously.

Oh wait, did I forget to mention why we're celebrating...?? Silly me! :) We got a house!

Thanks, Google maps!

Now, the whole process has been a pain in the butt. But if everything we've been through with it means anything, we were definitely meant to live in this house. The inspection is later this week, and we're set to close September 15. Keep all your fingers and toes crossed that everything goes well and we can move in shortly after closing! (By the way, house here is still for sale, so please continue to pimp it out to all your house-hunting friends.)

The house was built in 1936 and is in a super cute neighborhood in downtown St. Joe. We finally get our dream downtown house! It's less than a mile walk to all the restaurants... AND the beach! Two stories, four bedrooms, two full baths, a new kitchen, a big dining room, full basement, bonus space upstairs, two-car garage, cute little yard, and a 3-season sun porch. I've already had many o' vision of myself working away on my laptop on the porch. It really is the best of everything we've always wanted.

Now it's time for dessert... Chocolate cream pie. Mmmmmm.