For whatever reason, the next thing we knew it was Wed night and we were packing for SC and realizing that we hadn't gotten the car serviced! Since we needed to leave the car at the garage and needed a car on the road, we decided a rental car would be the best option. We'd pick up the rental, drop off our car, use the rental over the weekend while our car was being worked on, then pick it up from the garage on the way back to turn in the rental. Kill two birds with one stone!
Thrifty has this neat discount called "wild car." You get a mid-sized or larger car for less than mid-sized price based on what cars are available. When we did this while our car was in the garage back in July, we ended up driving a Chrysler 300 for a week--loved that!--so we decided to go with a "wild car" again. Imagine our grins when the agent asked, "Will a Chrysler 300 be ok?" Oooo, it's one sweet ride. :)
Friday afternoon I called the garage to find out the good news/bad news. The mechanic said, "Well, it's all bad news: The ignition key won't work in the locked doors!" Gro-o-o-o-o-oannnn!! When we dropped off the car we actually had started to walk away from it, then remarked, "Hey, the car's unlocked!" and went back and locked it. Thankfully we had reserved the rental car through Monday evening, so we stopped by the garage to unlock the car on our way home Sunday evening. Also thankfully, work on the car had been completed by the time Ken got off work. So we picked up our car and returned the Chrysler 300. We're back in the normal lane!
EMPLOYMENT MADNESS -- During our weekend jaunt to SC, Ken went into the company on Friday to complete the application and work styles "test." He went in sorta nervous but came out flying high. He is very impressed with the facility and operations and is getting rather excited about the prospects of possible employment there. Now we wait for a phone call about scheduling an interview.
BASKETBALL MADNESS -- If you know me and my upbringing, you know that I am not into sports; and if you know Ken and his upbringing you know he is (vicariously) into sports. Over the past 16 years, however, I have acquired some knowledge and developed bouts of interest about sports (not that I'm any expert, understand, but I do know that it was President Richard Nixon who threw the first ball in Memorial Stadium in Baltimore! [inside story]). Each year during the college basketball March Madness, I bypass the brackets trauma because my choices are easy to keep track of in my head: I cheer for PA, MD (or rather, Coach Gary Williams), TN, TX, KS and all the "underdogs" (read Gonzaga, even tho they are no longer underdogs!) and I do NOT cheer for UConn or CA.
Last March, Ken set up an online group for bracket competition. He persuaded me actually to fill out the brackets. I filled them in according to my normal inclinations... and promptly fell to the bottom of the list of participants and stayed there. This year I decided I had better change my method. Ken gave me some advice, but I made my own decisions, sometimes following his advice, sometimes not! Well, here are the standings (I have removed the names of the other participants to protect the innocent):
After Thursday's games:
After Friday's games:
I forgot to save standings after Saturday's games, but here they are after Sunday's games:
Sadly enough, although I am not a Duke fan, I chose them to win the national championship. * sigh * They won their first game only by a buzzer bucket (against a #15 seed, no less! which I always say is a College Junior playing against a 2nd grader) and they played a sorry second game and lost it. So... I told one of the participants that I enjoyed my day in the sun (#1) and got burned (it's all downhill from here!)!
MENU MADNESS -- When the first games had finished on Friday and Ken announced that the games would resume in 50 minutes, Mom said, "Well, let's go eat in those 50 minutes. Where do you want to go to eat, or is that a stupid question?" (They know that at least 9 times out of 10 my vote will be for Chinese food.) She offered, "I wasn't sure if you would rather have CiCi's Pizza or Chinese. Dad had said earlier he would like to eat at CiCi's." "Oh, not now," Pop piped up. "That was before I knew all the options!"
I get such a kick out of him eating Chinese food. For years I tried to persuade him to eat Chinese and he would always respond, "Nah, I don't eat that stuff." I would tell him that some day he will try it and love it and regret all those years he could have been enjoying it. Look what you will have missed! He was unmoved.
Well... since they have moved to SC, he went with his son Paul into a local Chinese restaurant--and he DOES "like green eggs and ham!" Now almost any time you ask for his vote for an eating place, he will say, "You already know where I want to go." Mom is convinced he would eat there every day if she would let him!
So we traveled to the Chinese restaurant, made our buffet selections and sat down to eat.
FAITH: Did you see they have frog legs on the buffet? I collect frogs, not eat them. And what are they doing on a Chinese buffet? (I ate Chinese three times a day most days while I was in Taiwan for two years and never met up with a frog leg [not to say they are not there, but I never saw any].) I think it has more to do with being a redneck.
KEN: Yeh, I saw them up there! Not for me either!
F: Oh, c'mon. This is your chance, your opportunity! Some day you will try them and love 'em and regret all those years you could have been enjoying them!
K: Maybe so, but I don't think tonight's the night.
When I returned to the buffet, I tonged one of some poor little froggie's legs onto my plate, grabbed a spring roll, a couple other items and headed back to our table.
K: Is that a frog leg?
F: Yep. I didn't want you to miss your opportunity. You just might like it!
K: I don't know if I can do this. I will if you will. You take a bite first. How do you eat this? Do you eat all of it? ... Oh, wow, this is good! You oughtta try this! Are there more up there? This would be great with tartar sauce.
Ken actually took a bite before I did, believe it or not. I ate one, part of a second one. He ate like FOUR! If it has anything to do with being a redneck, Ken must be official.
I didn't think they taste "like chicken." A faintly "fishy" taste (which surprised Ken), texture not as flaky as fish, but not as stringy or firm as chicken. I have to say tho, they were indeed tasty!
SHUTTER MADNESS -- Several years ago I purchased an inexpensive digital camera/web cam. I didn't want to spend too much money on it because I'm not really a shutterbug. I thought I just might start taking more pictures... and initially I did. When I plugged the camera into the computer and saw the pictures I had taken however, I quickly lost interest. The quality was so poor that pictures weren't worth the effort to take them.
Fast forward... this week someone I know upgraded their digital camera, and I bought the old one! I have seen photos taken by the former owner--they are beautiful! I snapped several for a trial run--very nice!! So who knows?! I might become a shutterbug after all!
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