A Day with Friends

Today was a pretty busy day.    First we met some friends in Kimmswick for a wonderful lunch at The Blue Owl Restaurant and Bakery     Was it ever delicious!   We got there right when they were serving breakfast AND lunch so it was a really hard decision of not only what to have, but which meal.    As usual, JTK and I  always seem to inadvertently step in some $hit  with people.     We had a reservation under the name of "Davis" and we were the first of our group to arrive.   We let them know that but they said give them a minute and they'd check if our party was there and if they weren't, they'd be back to get us a table.    For some reason, once we got to the table the lady realized the rest of our party wasn't there and gave us a lecture on how she's not supposed to seat us until our entire party is there.   I was like, "We can wait - it's no big deal."   But she "allowed" us to stay ... so silly since she wanted to seat us!   THEN after JTK and I were sitting there a few minutes, another lady came in and flipped out that we were at the table.    It turns out there were THREE Davis reservations and we were seated in the wrong table.    The woman was literally "OH NO OH NO OH NO OH NO" - very, very distressed.    Not only were there three Davis parties with reservations, but one Davis party specifically asked for the table we were at.   (Really, it was all part of our diabolical plan to send The Blue Owl into a frenzy mwahahaha)  So she went and checked out the solution to this calamity and they moved us to the front.     While the 2nd lady was gone, the other Davis table and I got to talking and even a woman said she noticed I got "tsk tsk tsk" lecture.   It's such a relief when other people notice things or I might start feeling paranoid.    After all this commotion, our other friends started arriving ... little did they know the grief and strife WE saved them from.  haha

We ate and chatted and exchanged our Secret Santa presents.    I think everyone was really happy with what they got and it was a treat to do something like this since I really don't have the chance to do this much anymore.   Again - go to drawnames.com ... if you would normally throw names into a hat and can't do it, you can do it via the Internet.   Genius!!!    After lunch, we went for a little walk - but JTK and I only had time to shop in The Christmas Haus.   I always make sure JTK gets to pick out a special present every year.    It's a great memory I have of my childhood and hopefully it will be for him too someday.   Not so much right now.   ;)   Plus, he always picks the same thing - I had to talk him out of another freakin pug ornament.     He picked out this very pretty deer and I picked out the crazy octopus.  I love getting really unique ornaments ... when I see it, I know which one I want and when I saw this one I fell in love.   Plus, it's purple -  that's just icing on the cake for me.   Or I guess you could say a purple octopus on the Christmas tree instead. ;) 

After our afternoon in Kimmswick, we came home and I had to nap.   I ended up even getting Natsumi to nap with me.    She never sleeps in my bed - she just is so excited to be around a person she can't calm down to fall asleep.   She has to keep nudging, nudging, nudging to get some extra pets and I finally get so frustrated I put her in her dog bed.    But this afternoon, she did great.   Hmmmm what is going on with all these crazy dogs acting normal?     I was tired and woke up 30 mins later than I wanted to, so we headed out the door for our evening festivities late.

Where's JTK and Elizabeth???

Our group director threw a Volunteer Appreciation party in House Springs at a restaurant called  Madabella's.    We got there about 20 mins late, but it ended up being perfect timing.    There was tossed salad, garlic cheese bread, pizza, beverages, AND dessert.   Yummy    JTK and I sat at a table with people we both really like and talk to frequently and easily.   What a fun evening!    One of the volunteers in our group, Joan, is just a wonderful and sweet person.   She's really knowledgeable and she seems to always help out the newbies that come into fostering.    She has grown up sons of her own, so she always makes a special point to kiss, hug and generally embarrass Joe as much as she possible can.    Do you see how red his face is???    Joe absolutely adores Joan and has even given some of  his favorite women in the group valentines.   :) 

To top it off I got to play a game of Ms. Pac Man to show JTK what mad gaming skills I have  ;)    That darn thing was sped up to double!  For all of you arcade folks out there, remember the days that the first level of MPM was sooooooo slow and easy??   Well the first screen on this one was set higher than the apple.   It was nutty, but I still got to the pretzel and ate a bunch of ghosts so Joey might have a little more respect for me.    They also had Galaga which used to be one of my favorite games (along with Tempest!) but arcade games now cost 50 cents instead of a quarter and we ran out of cash.   ::sigh::

We almost didn't go tonight because I don't like being out late on a Sunday night when I have to work on Monday, but Janet and Elizabeth talked me into it yesterday.  I'm really glad they did !! 

Good Times .... Good Times