Daily Report: Good Eats

Payday today, so I went out and did a bit of shopping. Now that the new year has arrived here in Florida, all of the retirees have arrived from the north for the rest of the winter as well: at the large shopping center, I actually could not find a parking space until 10 minutes of looking had been taken.

I went to eat at "Rib City Grill" for lunch and had their baby back rib lunch for $9. (The diet starts tomorrow.) It was actually the best ribs I've had since Bob's in Thailand, principally because they were quite a bit like Bob's ribs in Thailand. Their BBQ sauce wasn't as good though, but their baked beans were the best I had ever eaten.

The waitress came over — this horse-faced, bored-looking, 20-something girl: "Hi sweetie. My name is Monica and I'll be your waitress today." Sweetie? I had forgotten that American waitresses say things like that. I tried to imagine sitting down at a restaurant in The Philippines or Thailand and hearing that instead of "Sir" as per usual. The only thing I could think of was the Thai prostitutes at the go-go bars who called everybody "darling" or "teerak".

Off to Publix I went, where I restocked the house with all of the foodstuffs belonging to Mom and Paul that I had finished off in the last month. (They were due to return from New York today.) I also treated myself to a 6-pack of Guinness and (oh, joy-of-childhood-joys) a 2-liter bottle of "Cherry Crush": When I was a kid, my father's company used to have a soda machine in the workshop that had bottles of Cherry Crush for sale and it was my favorite soda ever. I hadn't seen it in almost 30 years, but there it was on the shelf.

Food bill this time around: $115. Getting a bit expensive... but I spent about $40 on stuff that was more frivilous (like the Guinness) or high-priced/high-quality than previous shopping excursions.

After that it was back home, and Mom and Paul arrived at 4:00, having driven down from New York. Papillon Puppy Gracie was funny when she got out of the car. I imagine she thought it was yet another in a series of interminable rest stops for a quick sniff and pee before getting dumped into the back seat again, but when her paws hit the ground and she saw me standing there, she just exploded with puppy joy and zoomed around the neighborhood for 10 minutes.

For dinner, Paul and Mom and I joined Uncle Bob, Aunt Carol, and Aunt Alice, and her friend George (a pharmacist from Pittsburgh) for dinner at Alice's house, where we had a fantastic lasagna and apple crisp for dessert. Oh so good.