Off to the park, but no soup for me Grandal
Posted in Daily Life by Howard | Tags: coffee, food, grilling, laptop, marla, park, photos, shopping, sookieAnother park visit with the girls, but this time their grandma came along. I think all three of them were really excited to spend the day together. Marla and Sookie had so many things to show this first-timer, like which trees to sniff … dogs to bark at … the watering-hole that we don’t visit. You know, typical teenage girl-dog stuff. Although we didn’t have very many pictures this go-around (because handling the pups is a full-time job) there were a lot of interesting dogs this time. One that stands out is Dylan, a black and white collie. Could easily been over 100 lbs, and Marla looked like a little ant next to him. We sprinted, okay okay, slowly walked about 4 laps and then dumped the girls at home, not without getting their favorite treats first.
The infamous question again rose, where shall we go for lunch? Surprisingly, it didn’t take us 38 minutes to decide this time. Chili’s. It wasn’t even that busy this Saturday. Weird. Except for fast food there isn’t that many restaurants near us, so it’s usually the hot spot. Wouldn’t you know it, we got our favorite waiter again, Steven, a moonlighter that probably works at Hot Topic, but a hell of a waiter none-the-less. Summer claims he is a mind-reader. One time she said, “I wish we had some more napkins.” and here is our boy Blue. Dropped a stack of napkins without even asking. Of course service like that deserves a good tip. Why? Mainly because he used common sense, and didn’t have to ask us like 1 billion questions about everything. He just executed. Okay, his 3 seconds of fame are over, because Chili’s no longer sells broccoli & cheese soup!! NO! I know it’s not listed under the Bottomless Lunch, but I always order it. Not this time, they don’t sell it at all anymore. Eeek! Some points were lost. The doctor said I’ll live.
It’s funny because during lunch, Skippy (Summer’s mom; she has a variation of nicknames) said, “I need new shoes, but ehh I don’t feel like dealing with that today.” And now back to our story, we’re in the Kohl’s parking lot, and I am eyeing Office Max. I need a new desk chair. This $17 one from Wal-Mart probably doesn’t have the proper back support my body requires. Anyways, we head in. SHOES! How did I know that girls, no matter what mood their in or even if a hurricane is rumbling outside, will always want to look at shoes? So we stroll around looking for the smallest sizes possible, and then mosey around the rest of the store. Stopping by the baby section so we can get our “Aww”s and “Oh, look how cute”s out. When we were leaving there was a lady with one bag stuffed with about 44 shirts, all on hangers. The door alarm goes off, and I hear the guy say, “Well, I’ll have to check each one. Sorry.” That sucks … for them.
To end the day, we head to Starbucks and just as I suspected I’m not a very good coffee order-er. Somehow I managed to turn a grande caramel frappacino into what is now known as a Grandal. It’s okay. At least I only get words mixed up. The lady, and crew, working the place completely mangled 2 of our orders. I was suppose to get a pumpkin spice latte, instead got a non-sweet 1/2 milk 1/2 black coffee mixture. Grandma Skippy was to the rescue though. She went in, put her foot down, and we were off.
I’d also like to add that if you have the chance to grocery shop early. DON’T! Summer and I enjoy there not being anyone down the aisles taking 12 minutes deciding which mayonnaise they are going to try this week, like this one couple we spotted. We’re more of a we know what we like so just grab it couple. We only step outside those boundaries when we go to stores with more variety – anything not Wal-Mart.
P.S. In my failed attempt to grill again, I have discovered that Summer is a super-hero in disguise. I did deem her Lighter-Fluid Girl. Catchy, I know.
