tobermory's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's a Springfield in every state in the Union So, the state board meeting went fine. Dinner at Cracker Barrel was not as heinous as expected � I got to have deep fried okra nuggets. Even though I have evidence to the contrary, I suspect that there must be some southerner in me. Either that or it�s further proof that if you bread something and then deep-fry it, I�ll eat it. The same holds true for foods that have been pickled. I once ate at a place in Mendota, Illinois that served my ultimate food � breaded, deep-fried dill pickle chips. Sadly, I�ve heard the restaurant is no more. Not enough demand for the salty, greasy, tangy. I also wandered around the Cracker Barrel gift shop like a zombie for about 15 minutes before the husband gently led me back to the car. That must be how they sell that crap � after you�ve been on the road for a few hours suddenly you start to think that you might have a use for a sweatshirt with calico cow appliqu�s. Or not. H0liday 1nn responded to my e-complaint from my El Paso stay. There was a huge wedding one of the nights I was there and as the hotel has an open-air plan, I was serenaded by Ricky Martin, the Mambo #5 man and other wedding favorites until the wee hours culminating with the obligatory �Celebration� at midnight. I had complained and was given a room-rate reduction � of a whopping $12.00. Now I don�t know about you, but I feel my peace and quiet is worth a little more than that. Apparently they�ll be calling hotel management to further investigate and then they�ll get back to me again. Mmm�k. All I know is that if I had been making that kind of noise they would have told me to pipe down or get out. I�m not suggesting that one shouldn�t have a gay ol� time at their wedding reception, just that hotels with open-air plans should think long and hard about the soundproofing provided by a tent (none) and the relative comfort of their non-event attending guests. I do like my sleep ever so much and woe to the man, woman or wedding that prevents me from getting as much as I can. I�ll keep you posted on how they handle this little snafu. Last night I got to have my real birthday dinner. We went to Bistro Campagne and it was ever so tasty. I had a goat cheese salad that was sublime and then steak tartar followed by the best mandarin orange sorbet ever. I was in heaven. It�s hard to find a restaurant with the balls to serve steak tartar these days which is sad because I find the raw meat thing to be scrum-dilly-icious. I know it squicks most of the general public way, way out but if you�ve grown up eating it then there is no problem. Except for the mild KalKan breath. The wonderful husband came through with many excellent and thoughtful gifts like a white noise machine (could have used that one in El Paso), books to explain the many facets of religion to me, the heathen, and a beautiful sparkly bracelet from Pistachios. I should further explain the religious books so y�all don�t think my husband is trying to �save� me or anything. I was never baptized and never attended church as a wee one � unless you consider regular Sunday morning youth hockey viewing to be church - in which case I would guess that you�re either from Minnesota or Canada where hockey IS religion. So, in recent years I have taken to wondering things like, �what makes a Presbyterian different from a Methodist?� and wishing for a �Religion for Dummies� book to give me the brief .25 cent answer. As there is no such book in the �for Dummies� line and I am too lazy to do any real research, the husband was thoughtful enough to find three books that should concisely explain what I want to know. Not that I want to start going to church or anything � I just want to know what the difference is between the different sects. I do believe that I�ve rambled on quite enough now. If anyone (anyone? anyone?) is reading they must be bored silly by now, so�. �til later. 10:24 a.m. - 2004-02-26 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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