Today was another great day to eat out. Last night when we were deciding where to go (we ended up going to Jane's mom's restaurant) another option was to go to Chuckie's (another friend from church) family's pizzeria (Marinellas Pizzeria and Restaurant). We looked at the pizzeria on the map and found that it wasn't that close to home, so we decided to go there today after church when we would have more time to drive there and back again.

We went to the early service, so when we got out there was plenty of time to spare before the pizzeria opened for lunch. Our original intention was to use our GPS to find a mall near the pizzeria and hang out until the restaurant opened. On the way, the road started to look familiar, so we checked "Daniel" (the name of our GPS) and found that the IKEA wasn't far away. We decided to take a detour to IKEA (we need a bookshelf and had previously picked out the one we wanted, but never actually bought it). When we were near IKEA our GPS battery was dying, so Susan quickly jotted down directions from IKEA to the pizzeria and then we turned Daniel off.

We walked out of IKEA with a bookshelf, two end tables, a service tray, and a picture frame - and still had lots of time to spare - so we went to Macy's and then Target looking for clothes for Ivan (although in the end we didn't buy any). Finally, it was time for lunch and we were starving!

We made it to the pizzeria without our GPS and got there just when Chuckie was starting his shift. Ivan decided to get a grilled vegetable salad (lettuce topped with grilled eggplant, peppers, portabellos, etc with a balsamic dressing) while Susan opted for the considerably less healthy sausage, peppers, onion roll (like a calzone, minus the tomato-based sauce - see photo at right from Marinella's website - we forgot to take our camera with us again - grrr!). We also ordered an appetizer of Mozzarella Sticks (which we enjoyed tremendously). The food was fabulous and filling. After we were done the lunch crowd slowed down and we had a chance to visit with Chuckie for awhile. We also got to chat with Chuckie's dad, Anthony Sr., for awhile and he made some fabulous canoli (which Ivan washed down with espresso, which reminded me of the macchiato from Milan). Italian food at it's best (albeit a bit Americanized).

Yet another meal out that left us both completely satisfied, bordering on stuft (or is that stuffed?). We came home and put together the bookshelf that we bought (beware if you've never shopped at IKEA before: you get pretty cheap furniture that you have to put together yourself. If I was McGyver, we could have put it together with a paper clip and some chewing gum, but instead it required two screw drivers and a hammer).

Then, we had to rearrange our living room only to decide in the end that the bookshelf would be better off in our bedroom (which is huge and hardly has any furniture in it). But, Susan always enjoys spicing things up by rearranging the furniture, so now we have a new layout in the living room to make her happy.

Labels: Food, NY