30 June 2006

Happy Kinder-grad!





Well, Kindergarten has come and gone for Ms. J. It is a bittersweet time. All (3-4) of you probably know that we have decided to change to regular public school for the brownlettes, come September. So this week has been one of saying goodbye to all our Montessori schoolteachers and friends and saying goodbye to the 20/25-minute drive to school everyday. Saying goodbye to the drive was not the hard part. heh.

Montessori has served my children well and I cherish the time we spent there.

Onward and forward!

21 June 2006

cease and desist order

A direct quote from our friend Marko :

in light of recent advances in research on the canine musculoskeletal system... my advice is to cease and desist in any further debate on this topic. Thank you and good day

12 June 2006

revisiting the dog's elbows...

The dog's elbow's came up in a conversation with our beloved Marko. Marko provided this link for our information.

I would like to point out that I do not see any elbows indicated in this diagram.

Thank-you.

Your comments, as ever, are welcome. But, I'll have you know, that you can kiss me right on the pooper, because DOGS DON'T HAVE ELBOWS.

Nearly Mid-Year's Resolution

note to self: stop saying mean things just because they strike you as funny, and just because they feel like they are hanging in the air in front of you, begging to be spoken.

It is un-becoming.

11 June 2006

fantastic weekend

With Xiber having overhauled and totally fixed my desktop PC during approx. 2 gruelling hrs of remote assistance and Sunnyfreakingday passing MissDoxie's url on to me to check out, I think I have had about the best weekend on record for the past several months! Crappy day at the realty office Friday and Shitty night at the restaurant Saturday BE DAMNED!

woooHoooo!!!

Sunday rocks!

Most annoying guests at the restaurant tonight

Slow start to the night, which never bodes well, because I come to work at 5pm after a full day at home with the brownlettes and sports events and laundry etc. and, frankly, I'm already getting tired. So the best thing is to come to work and be busy right away. Otherwise...well, it makes me a little cranky.

So I finally got a table at approx. 6pm. One lady, by herself, but someone will be joining her. No problem. She orders a cocktail, I make it, take it to her, and then I wander around looking for something to keep me busy for what turns out to be at least another 20 minutes until her friend shows up.

Then, her friend has to decide on a drink. First lady offers second lady a sip of what she's having, second lady takes a taste and makes a disgusted face and says "Um, NO. I'll have a Coors Light". Great!

I get the beer.

I can see why these two are friends, because they are both very abrupt/short and basically unfriendly. Or maybe it's just that they save their warmth and bubbliness for those other than wait staff?

They finally get around to deciding on food...Well, I encouraged/prodded them to decide, since I had precious little else to do and first lady had already been there for awhile now. "Have you had enough time with the menu? Have you decided on dinner, or do you have any questions?", says the Brown in her friendly,helpful way.

they had questions.

First lady says "Well, I'm thinking about a steak. How are your steaks here?"
[not said aloud by Brown, the lovely, pleasant server, but searing into her brain as she thinks of an appropriate, professional response]: "Lady, it's a fucking STEAKHOUSE. How the FUCK do you THINK our steaks are?"

Instead, Brown replies, "Excellent!"

Second lady says, sarcastically, "As if you'd say they were bad even if they were" (which REALLY pissed me off)

So I responded,(pleasantly, with a bit of a polite chuckle) "If we didn't do them well, we wouldn't serve them"

I guess I could have said "Steaks are one of our specialties, since we are primarily a Steakhouse, so you can be sure that you'll have a great steak, if that's your choice." But I don't think anything I could say would cut through the skepticism at that table.

I despise when people question the quality of our food. It irritates me when people say things like "Well, of course you're going to say it's good, even if it's not".

The food at our restaurant is excellent. Why the hell is this so hard for people to believe?? They haven't tried it yet! And what makes you think, when you've never even met me in your life, that I would do my job without any integrity at all and LIE TO YOU?

Btw, I've NEVER had a skeptic complain after eating their meal. Each and every time, they are either satisfied, or, most times, completely impressed/wow-ed.

So anyhow. First lady orders an 8oz sirloin. Terrific. "and how would you like your steak done?"

"Medium Rare. Well, more Rare. but not Rare."

[internal eye-roll from the Brown]

"Okay, Medium Rare. Super! And what would you like this evening?" turning to second lady.

Second lady orders an 8oz sirloin Rare. Great!!

I then described their choices for the starch that accompanies the meal, i.e. the chef has prepared the rice this evening with zuccini and lemon-pepper, the chef's potato tonight is a croquette with a sundried tomato caper demi-glaze, or you can choose polenta, or a baked potato. They look at me blankly. They order baked potatoes.

Fine. super.

Anyhow, however anti-climactic that may seem, that's pretty much the end of that story. They both liked their meals and they even ordered a dessert to share (but scowled at the dessert selection, even though it's awesome). They tipped me approx 8%. I don't think they appreciated the fact that I knew what I was talking about.

All in all, it was a very odd night. A very strange mix of odd-ish people dined out with us. Sometimes it goes that way...

07 June 2006

a walk in the woods


hahahahahahahahahaha!