Church Sale, Grad Party and a New Restaurant...

This morning I ran to a local church rummage sale and I got there about 8 minutes before they opened the doors. I was probably about 30th in line. I ran into my good friend Auntie there. She was further up in the line than I was. We both swooped into the "kitchenwares" room and filled our bags! I also ran into another lady from church-we see each other probably 5 or six times a summer at garage sales.

I had a couple more sales on my list to hit, but made a quick pit stop at a local convenience store/gas station to get a soda for the road when I saw their beer section. I'm not a beer drinker, but my dad is, and with Father's Day coming up...I thought I'd see what they had. I found two fantastic six packs!!! Moose Drool and Trout Slayer!!!

My dad is an avid hunter and has been to Alaska several times for vacation as well as to hunt. He's even gotten a moose before. Since he retired a few years ago, he lives on a lake and probably fishes more than he hunts now. So I think he's going to get a kick out of the names of the beer. I don't even care really if it tastes good-I just bought them for the names!

After a couple more sales and not much to find, I decided to switch tactics and pick up some more stuff that we need for the grad party. I'm so ready for it to be over, and it's still a week and a day away!! After a couple quick stops for non-perishable food stuff and some decoration stuff. Adam met me for lunch at a new-ish restaurant in the area. It's a Mexican restaurant, and I've hear good things about it so I've been wanting to give it a try.

When we walked in, we were the only ones there and it was noon (first red flag). It was brightly decorated, the music was festive, and it looked clean. The server seated us, and asked what we'd like to drink. He returned quickly with our iced teas and chips and salsa. The salsa was so bland it was like they just threw tomatoes into a blender and called it salsa.

I went to the restroom to wash my hands and noticed it was dirty and the paper towel was sitting on the counter-like someone was too lazy to put it in the dispenser. You could tell it had been there a long time too, from all of the marks at the top where people held the roll while unwinding some to dry their hands with (second red flag).

When I got back to the table, the server still hadn't taken our order (I had told Adam what to order if he came while I was gone). In fact, it was several minutes before he wandered over to take our order. By that time, our glasses were more than 3/4 empty, and the chips were gone. There were 3 other tables that had filled-but it wasn't flooded with people. There seemed to be 3 workers in the outer restaurant-so they weren't swamped by any means.

We waited quite a while for our food. When it came, he just set it down and took off. Never offering a refill of drinks or chips (third red flag). He came back to bring the bill and since we had our empty cups on the edge of the table-he kind of had to ask if we wanted refills. He got them, slapped them on the table and was walking away before we could say anything.

We had to take the bill to the cashier stand, and we had to wait for someone to show up to take our money. Our server was at the bar rolling silverware, and he just meandered over rang it up, slid the receipt over to me, told me to sign it and walked away--BEFORE I even signed it!! I signed it, added the tip and turned to look for him, and he's back at the bar rolling silverware!! I slid the receipt over toward the cash register, looked over at him, and I'm sure I gave him the stink-eye, because at that point I couldn't hide my irritation any longer!!

I still can't believe he did that...he couldn't wait an extra ten seconds for me to sign it so he could say "thank you" for choosing my restaurant over the 15 others that you passed on the way here...rolling silverware was that important...??? Needless to say... with all of that and mediocre food...we will never go back. It's a shame because it has such huge potential to be a really great restaurant.

 This was our table top...aren't Pandas associated more with Asian food than Mexican?

These were the backs of our booth...

After lunch I went to Linda's house to help prep and get stuff set up for her daughter's grad party tomorrow. We made a ton of homemade baked beans that looked and smelled amazing!! I told her I want the recipe-so when I get it, I'll share it with you. We also made Cole slaw and set up the food tables in the garage, and went through her list to be sure we are on track for all that needs to be done tomorrow.

I'm heading over to her house at 12:30. Two other co-workers will be coming at 1:30 and the party starts at 3:00. It is supposed to be 90 degrees tomorrow-so I'll be melting as I run food back and forth from the kitchen to the garage. It might sound weird to be serving food from a garage, but their garage is so clean-they even have wainscoting on the walls with baseboard trim and chair rail trim---in the GARAGE!!!

When I got done at her house today, I stopped and picked up the stuff for our centerpieces and got a few other odds and ends for our party. Then I came home to make centerpieces...what do you think??? It's a canning jar, wrapped in a bandanna, held on with a rubber band-covered with ribbon. The school colors are orange and black.

Here is what I got today...

 A big stack of plastic, divided plates all of them for a quarter!

 I LOVE egg plates-especially when they are a quarter!

 For our pool---usually over $60---today $2!

 Finally! A shoe horn to give to Adam...as a joke for him being so tall and his car (smart car) being to tiny!

 A couple of aprons-first is full second is half.

 old hanky box filled with sewing stuff all for a quarter!!

  A second hanky box.

 Teeny, tiny tin.

 Old cigar box for a dime!

 A pair of these...

That's it! Now it's time to hit the shower, get some rest and get ready for a long, hot day tomorrow! I'm hoping for a good turn out for them for their party, and for a nice breeze!  Happy Friday everyone!!!