So, while I dig me some fresh margaritas, and I love me some tequila, I do encourage you to go out online and find out what the day is supposed to be about instead of just thinking it's about lime in a beer day.
And, remember next St. Patrick's day that in Ireland, Catholics abstain from drinking alcohol, no one parades in the street, and everyone goes to church. Quite a different picture than what you get here in the states.
And always remember my friends... celebrate any holiday the way you feel it should be celebrated. Make your own traditions... and be careful out there!
 | Another sunshiny gorgeous day out in the (a)musings world. The weather has been splendid the past few days. I love this time of year... Saturday brought us a visitor -- Aaron came without his Michelle (it's so weird to have A and no M or G with us... sigh) as he was en route to his parents to help out with things after his dad's major crazy spine surgery last week. So we ate pizza and drank beer Saturday night and rented "Spirited Away," which I'd heard good things about but in the long run I couldn't recommend it unless you're a die-hard Japanimation fan. |
It's just too weird, and while the animation at times is breathtaking, the story and plot and characters just leave you feeling kind of confused. In the end, it was okay. But I feel like I want 2 hours of my life back. Doug said he enjoyed it more than The Royal Tenenbaums. I don't know that I'd go that far.
Great thing about the IMDB site is I now know that the girl who does the English version lead voice is Oliver Beene's best friend in the TV series, and she was Lilo in "Lilo & Stitch." She's a cutie, and I love her in Oliver Beene.
I could spend way way TOO much time in IMDB if I let myself. I follow links and read this and go here and next thing I know hours have passed. So I just go there to get the link and I get the hell out.
We all got up nice and early on Sunday and hit the trails. We knew Aaron had to hit the road before five, so we wanted to get some caches in. It was a gorgeous day, hot and sunny... and the leaves aren't out yet so there wasn't a good deal of shade, which made this hike hot and at times (for some, like Jessica) miserable. We did two caches in the Stoneham / Melrose area in an area known as the Middlesex Fells. The two caches provided awesome views of the city of Boston, and great ideas for places to picnic. We had a wonderful time.
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| I found the first of the two caches, all by myself. Thank you very much! | Aaron took the GPS and went ahead of us, and scored the second one. He was SO into it! As if you can't tell. |
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| Little boy, Big city view, very grumpy face. | Jessie with her 'lelephant from the first cache, before the whining began... |
After caching we went out to Kowloon (bwong) in Saugus, where we haven't been since our February trip to the zoo in 2002. We all ate like kings and queens but the service was atrocious. The waitress virtually ignored us, and at one point after Doug had taken Geoff out to the bathroom and to the truck, Jessica went to the bathroom, and we were still sitting there waiting for our check. Aaron and I were sorely tempted to just plop down $35 bucks and walk away. We had no idea how much the meal was, and did some math in our heads to say that it was perhaps $40 bucks.
I've never once in my life done what is lovingly referred to as the "chew and screw" or the "gulp and blow." Perhaps it has a nice colloquial nickname in your neck of the woods as well, where you eat and run. And I can say that at age 36 I'm not going to start. But I was pretty tempted to just leave some amount of money on the table and get the hell out of Dodge. I had to hunt down a waitress who wasn't even our waitress to tell her to get our waitress or we'd just have to guess at the price and leave.
We always underestimate what stuff costs. It came to about $50 bucks. And I left her a very small tip. And I didn't feel badly doing it.
The problem with the place was, as I see it, yesterday was first communion Sunday in the area Catholic churches, so everyone and their kid and extended family were having a party... many of them were ... at the Kowloon.
There was a party of at least 30 in our room with us. And our waitress was the function waitress. So she's hustling for the function and leaving her four tables pretty much to rot. She's hoping to score the big tip from the soon to be drunken mom of the little girl who just stepped into the fellowship of holy communion, so she's all over there and helping them and doing the function thing. As is her prerogative. But dude -- throw me the check wouldya? Just because I didn't bring 89 of my closest friends and relatives here doesn't mean I should be blown off. And I'm notoriously a generous tipper... so for me to leave about 10% on the table and walk away says a lot.
I hope the big party was big money for her. Goodness knows she was working for them.
Aaron had to hit the road so he split and we spent the rest of the afternoon chilling with the dogs.
The work week started today with a bang -- Doug drove out of the driveway as I'm jumping up and down in my towel on the front porch yelling "YOU'VE GOT THE BLUE CAR KEYS!!! COME BACK!!! COME BACK WITH THE KEEEEEEYYYYYYYS!!!!!"
He didn't hear me.
And my towel didn't fall off, thank all the principalities, beings in the heavens and the saints that preserve us. The kids at the bus stop would possibly have been blinded for life.
I called his office and left a message, and then called my boss' voice mail to tell her I'd be late and why.
Doug returned at the time I should have been dropping Geoff off at school, looking sheepish. He took Geoff for me so I could get to work on time.
Whatta man, whatta man, whatta mighty good man.
I was only 10 minutes late, after thinking I'd be about 45 minutes late. My boss told me she doesn't care what time I come in or go, or when my lunch is, as long as at the end of the day Thursday I haven't exceeded 28 hours. Because that's all she can pay me. So I shortened my lunch and stayed a few extra minutes to even everything out for the day.
But we so need to get another set of keys.
I've gone twice to get keys made since December when we got the car. And each time I've gone it's "Uh, sorry. We don't have blanks for that style key. We should have some tomorrow. Why don't you come back then."
The I forget to go, of course, and ... you know how it is.
I am going to sign off and go watch the remainder of Spongebob with my son. Tomorrow at work I get to read training manuals for the online benefits enrollment system. Oh joy! I started today... and I fell asleep at my desk. No lie. Fell A Sleep. So tomorrow I'll drink extra coffee and start reading before lunch, and hope I don't nod off.
Benefits is boring enough. Training manuals on how to enroll online and enter stuff... that's double boring. Better stop for a Frappucino on my way in!
Have a gorgeous night, if you're reading this in the evening -- and if you're reading me Tuesday, have a gorgeous day
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