Catch Me Daddy

Father's Day Part 2 - Definitely more enjoyable! 

 So talk about a night & day experience!  Last weekend, we went to Pete's Steakhouse for Father's Day.  Tommy wasn't there, so it was Rach & I, my parents & some of their friends. The company was amazing, the food was so-so & the service was absolutely appalling. 
Well, THIS time, Tommy is home and we are going to Olive Garden.  Much smaller crowd this time, since it is just us & my parents, but oh, what a difference!
First of all, we walk in & my parents are already there... how do I know this?  Because a family sitting on the bench inside the door waiting to be seated stops us and says "Are you looking for a lady in a hat?  Oh, well then your parents are waiting for you inside!"  Um... ok...
Then we go inside, and the host says "Well, THIS must be Rachel!!!  Well, your Nana & Papa are waiting inside for you!"... yeah... totally embarrassed!

So we head over to the table... and we wait... about 20 minutes goes by, when a waitress appears & says "Has anyone been here to see you yet?" and we tell her No... She immediately apologizes, and takes our order.  She says she is not our server, but she will locate them & put our order in in the meantime.  A few minutes later, Sierra comes over & tells us that she will now be our server.  She was not originally the one who was supposed to work the table, but the guy that SHOULD have been our server apparently vanished without telling anyone we were waiting!
Sierra was awesome... After verifying the order that the other waitress passed on to her, she ran to get our food started.  When she arrived with our soups & salads, she informed us that because we had to wait, our entire meal was on the house... EVERYTHING... then the manager came over & also apologized, and reiterated that our meal was free... he even insisted that we order dessert, even if we took it home!!!  Talk about customer service???  We were all SO terribly impressed!!!!  and on top of everything else, we LOVE the food there!  (For me, I think I could LIVE on the Chicken Gnocchi soup!).  Anyway, we were so floored by the whole experience that I wrote to the corporate office to advise  them what a pleasant time we had & how I was going to tell everyone about it... they were just amazed someone took the time to say something NICE instead of writing to complain!
All in all, this was a wonderful Father's Day for both Tommy & my Dad! 

Daddy's Home

 

Because of some very sad circumstances, we have to do Father's Day as a 2 parter.  Tommy's Uncle Chuck passed away so he had to fly up north to go to the funeral & won't be home until VERY late tonight... SO.... our FIRST Father's Day celebration was with my parents & some of their friends.  We went to a local restaurant called Pete's Steakhouse.  My folks had been there before & said the food was really good.  

  

 Well, after what we went thru, that was the first and LAST time we will ever go THERE!!!  I understand it was a holiday, but the place was NOT jammed.  We had a 5:30 reservation and were seated quickly.  That was the first & last quick thing about this night! 


We started getting very restless after waiting OVER AN HOUR just to get our ORDERS taken!  It was ANOTHER hour before we even got a SALAD!  We complained, & were pretty much blown off... We had to get up and ask someone for refills on drinks, & when the food DID arrive, it wasn't at all what we expected. And after all that, they didn't so much as offer us a free dessert!  Towards the end, the waitress made a lame apology, but I was SURE it was only to try to salvage any hope of a tip.
I don't even think they bothered to ask if we wanted coffee!  Good thing we had already planned on going back to mom & dad's for dessert!

We had coffee & cake at my parents house, and I decided to hang around there until it was time to go to the airport to get Tommy.  His plane was due in at midnight.
Well, as our luck always seems to run, his flight ended up delayed.  Rachel insisted on coming with me to the airport, so I put her down for a nap at my parents.  When we finally got to the airport, we found out they lost Tommy's carry on bag (which they said he had to check at the gate because they ran out of room in the overheads).  By the time he did all the paperwork, etc., it was after 2am before he got in the car... OY... NOT the best Father's day, but surely not the worst!  Next week, Father's Day part 2... when we go to Olive Garden :-)  Hope it turns out less stressed!

Uncle Chuck

Goodbye, Uncle Chuck...

We got word today from Tommy's cousins that Uncle Chuck has passed away. I'm glad Rachel got to meet him and share some time with him when we were up the last time for Christmas.

My Secret Garden

 The garden is finally starting to share!  We are really doing well with the Banana Peppers.  This is just today's batch... I've been roasting them with a little oil & a tiny bit of fresh ground sea salt... they are SO yummy!  and we are also getting a fair amount of cherry tomatoes!  Rach thinks they are "sooo cute!"

We also have about 8 eggplants but they aren't big enough yet... also the 3 regular size tomato plants are LOADED... just waiting for them to turn red & hoping we get to them before the birds or bugs do!

We have 1 melon too, but I'm not sure it will survive. Nothing on the cucumbers, and our beans are... well, not worth it since we are only getting one at a time! kinda hard to incorporate 1 bean into a meal!
Hopefully, we will get the full bounty of the garden relatively soon.  Next up will be broccoli & cabbage... but not till it starts to cool down... a LOT!

Oh by the way... Every now and then I like to explain a bit about this journal... for instance, not sure if you all have noticed, but every post title is a song title. Some are obvious, but some are REALLY obscure... I like to mix it up a bit. 
I try to keep things interesting, or at least share some good pictures, but bare with me if sometimes I let things get a little personal.  After all, this journal is really for Rach for when she grows up. I'm trying to find a way to save the whole thing in a book or something, but until then, This is it!

June Afternoon

I just feel like it's been so long since I've updated this blog!  I know, I've said that same thing so many times.  Not sure why time just seems to get away from me.
Basically, this entry is just some random shots of Rachel in various poses of her choosing... I just said I wanted to take her picture, and she decided to ham it up a bit... I'm glad.   She's a cute ham!

It's her "I'm a little angel" look...  could you ever say no to a face like this?

She SO wants to take ballet lessons!  So much that she's started learning some of the poses on her own!  I wish we lived somewhere more culturally aware... maybe then we'd have lots of choices where we could take her for lessons!

Our little beauty...

True Colors

 Rachel decided today was a good day to get creative.  First order of business was painting.  She likes working with her water colors (pretty sure it's mostly because she likes to change the colors of the water! LOL

 While Rachel was busy painting, Abbey decided to come off her perch & climb up on my lap to pay me a visit on the couch!  She was in the mood for some good old snuggle time with Momma... and since she wasn't trying to add a new orifice to my body, I was more than happy to oblige!

After painting, we turned on some of her favorite music, and our little butterfly girl was dancing & flitting around the room.  She REALLY wants to take dance lessons... Hopefully, we can find something within our budget and get her started while she is still so enthusiastic!