Sunday slop

Slow and steady wins the race

My running routine has really fallen by the wayside lately, mostly due to being out of town for almost three weeks while Builder Daddy was sick and in the hospital. I had all kinds of intentions to keep up the routine while I was away, including packing my workout clothes and running shoes - but most of the time was either spent at the hospital or trying to get some sleep. The day that my dad went into his little coma, I walked out of the hospital and walked until my feet blistered and I couldn't walk anymore. Leather thongs are not ideal for walking further than a few feet.

Since I returned, I've discovered that my right hip is giving me some trouble. I'm not really sure if it's from the awful hospital chairs (which were more like sitting on a bed of nails than a chair), all the time spent on my feet, or the horrid beds at my parents' house, but my stupid hip has been giving me fits. Not sharp pain, but more like a dull ache that comes and goes.

After babying it for a few weeks I finally decided to stop being a wuss and get back to my routine. I've been hitting it hard this week, and it hurts just the same - no more, no less. So I really don't know if I'm doing it any favors but at this point unless it gets worse I'm just going to run my way through it.

I do know this - I missed it. I'm not a natural runner - like Gretchen said, there are some people who are just natural runners. I am not by any stretch of the imagination. I am slow, but steady, just like The Little Engine that Could. There are a few 5K/10K races coming up this fall and since I ended up bagging out on the one at the end of this month, I guess I will try to do at least one of the upcoming ones.

Part of the reason for the renewed workouts - our trip to Cabo at the end of the month. I figure the least I can do for our friends is at least not be super flabby, even though it's almost guaranteed that they will be blinded by the whiteness of my thighs.

*****

The end of the world as we know it

Yesterday, Monkey Man was invited to go to a "movie birthday party" for one of his little friends. A very cute idea - they roped off an area at the movie theater with a table for the kids, where they had popcorn, cake, candy, lemonade, and then saw the movie "Everyone's Hero".

Cute idea, but there was no food offered for the kids even though it was a lunchtime party. By the time I got some hot dogs at the concession stand (which required a second mortgage and a kidney), the sugar was in full effect and Monkey Man and his partners in crime were totally off the hook.

Imagine, if you will, ten cats high on catnip, literally bouncing off of each other.

That would be a tame representation of the scene at hand.

Couple that with no nap, and by the time I took Monkey Man to the grocery store (where he knocked over a display before I removed part of his ass) and got home I was completely frazzled.

Oh, and he was asleep in the backseat. For his whopping five-minute nap.

*****

A general gripe about a certain restaurant who is now dead to me

I decided at the end of last week that since Joey and I hadn't been out in a while, I would make dinner plans for Saturday night and line up a babysitter so we could go on an actual date. Not to mention that I needed some Philosophy stuff at the mall all the way across town and we had a gift card for Maggiano's that I got last Christmas and hadn't had a chance to use.

We called to try and get reservations - no go, booked. So we headed that way anyway, and got there at the ungodly early hour of 5:20 PM to at least get the makeup stuff and then decide what to do about dinner. We trotted on into Maggiano's, and managed to get our name on the wait list.

Now, make a note - we were told at that time that it would be 60 - 75 minute wait.

I ran down to Nordstrom to get what I needed, then we snagged two prime seats at the bar and ordered a few drinks. The first hour went by - we went to check "the list" and were told that they were running a little bit behind, it would probably be another 30 minutes before we could be seated. So we ordered an appetizer and a few more drinks and waited. Meanwhile, another couple came in and sat next to us and we instantly hit it off. They also were trying to get a table, but when they found out that at that point we'd been waiting for 90 minutes they pretty much said "let's have a few drinks and then go get a pizza".

They were the smart ones. Joey checked several more times at the hostess station, and the last time he checked there were "two more parties in front" of us.

Know how long we waited?

Three hours. Three. Fucking. Hours.

I believe that the only reason they seated us was that I finally went to the hostess stand myself. I politely asked why we hadn't been seated, and the little beeyotch told me "well, we don't have a table for you, and WE DID CALL YOUR NAME ALREADY," to which I promptly called Major Bullshit and asked for the manager. I explained to the manager - we had checked with the hostess stand every 30 minutes...so, pray tell, if they had "already called our name" then the greatest amount of time we would've been AWOL was 29 minutes...and they could've rectified the situation immediately when we showed up on the scene. Not to mention the fact - our seats at the bar were a mere 10 feet away from the hostess station and she was bellowing like a wounded animal into a microphone, so unless we were stone deaf there was no way we would've missed our name being called. Hell, we heard every other party of 4, 7, and 23 being called.... And, might I add, if they had already called our name, then why did they only allegedly call it once (especially when we heard the Jones party being paged over and over again until my ears bled)?

We got our table. And great service. And free dessert. And an apology from the manager.

I doubt we'll go back. Which is a shame, because when they have Boston Cream Pie on the dessert specials I get weak in the knees. But then again, this may not be a bad thing, either.