Today was the last day I will buy anything from the fast food establishment known to the majority of the world as McDonald’s. Yes, you heard it here. Feel free to point at me and scream if you see me even eyeing some greasy fries. I have HAD IT! McDonald’s has long been my least favourite of the fast food franchises. Today they have solidified their placement at the bottom of the list. In fact, as I inferred, they are not even ON said list.
What has happened that this mecca of fried would be deliciousness has so disgruntled Beach Mama as to be banished from her world? Well, it began years ago, when on a road trip. This first egregious incident happened at 8:30 in the morning. We pulled into a McDumb@$$ for some quick drive-thru breakfast. The Dude and I had been extolling the many virtues of a certain breakfast pancake style sandwich and decided to pick one up. Remember, it is 8:30 am. We were informed by the barely coherent attendant that they were no longer serving breakfast. WHAT!??!!?!? Yes. This particular restaurant began serving breakfast at some ungodly hour and decided, that, well, 8:30 am is a fine time for lunch. What – you don’ crave a floppy grease soaked fish sandwich at 8:30? How about a Big Mac. But, by all means, DO NOT try to order a egg and cheese biscuit and heaven forbid you want pancakes.
Ok, so that is what began my loathing that is McDonald’s, now known to me and my faithful bloggers as McDumb@$$. I decided to write this off as a twilight zone-esque anomaly.
Onto today…
We slept in a bit and by the time we were packed and ready for travel to Charleston, SC it was after 11. So the Dude and I decided to drive through a McD’s for some LUNCH. Little Mermaid got a Happy Meal, and Dude and I got sandwiches. Little Dude also got a Happy Meal. First, we nearly didn’t get our drinks b/c the window cashier was shirking her responsibilities. Then, we parked to check our food. Good thing too, b/c we were missing an order of fries. So Dude went back into the grease bucket to get the fries. When he got back we realized we were given any napkins. SHEESH! Good thing I had some extras stashed in the glove box. Oh, I also forgot to mention that the health code rating was a mere 90. That’s out of 115 folks. Yup. You KNOW we sucked down some e-coli with our cokes.
Ok, whatever. It wasn’t until we stopped for a bathroom break that Little Mermaid discovered she never received her apple dippers with her UN-Happy Meal. ARGH!
So we carry on. Later in the afternoon Dude was thirsty and Little Mermaid was hungry, still upset about her AWOL apples. So like a good father, Dude pulls into a McDumb@$$ drive-thru to order said apples. He also orders a vanilla milkshake for himself. Notice I wrote ordered and not got… We are pulling onto the road when Dude goes to take a satisfying slurp of his coveted VANILLA shake. Wait. Not vanilla. STRAWBERRY! UGH! NO! SAY IT ISN’T SO!
It wouldn’t have been SO bad if these last 2 incidents had happened on different days. But for this to happen in 2 separate McDumb@$$’s, in 2 different states, on the same day?! No, it’s fate. I’m clearly not supposed to buy from these people. I can quit while I’m ahead. No bolt of lightening needed. I get it. Moving on…
Finally we get to Grandmum-mum and Grandpa-pa’s house in Charleston. The Dude and I unpack the car while the G-rent’s play with the G-kids. We have sandwiches for dinner. I brought my first vegetable from my organic garden. A beautiful green bell pepper. Aahh! So good! Should have taken a picture. Oh well.
Then my Mom (aka Mamasita or Grandmum-mum) had planned a mini birthday party for me. Complete with hand delivered invitations to the Dude, Little Dude and Grandpa-pa (aka Padre-man, my Dad). We took pictures and Little Dude helped me blow out my candles. Some were trick candles, yeah, those never get old. The cake was funfetti. G-d I love those. So colourful and happy. I opened cards and presents. Got a cool candle warmer. Looks sort of like a mini crock-pot and it holds those great big candles in glass jars. I never, almost never, light candles. I too often forget their lit so now I use warmers to melt the wax and get all the scented loveliness in the air. I also got some warm vanilla sugar scented bath goodies in a super cute basket. And school supplies. I love school supplies, and I’ll actually need them this year, as I’m going to be taking a class at UNCG this Fall.
The Dude and Padre-man played Bocce Ball, Little Mermaid served play tea and I cut out paper strips for that paper purse project. Oh yes folks, I’m on the verge of a break through!
It’s been thoroughly great evening at the ‘rent’s house in SC. Mom and I hit Wal-mart for some groceries tonight and now we are all going to bed. I’m pooped. One of these days I’ll catch up on my sleep…
Later Gators!
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Birthday Girl!
Monday is a blur. We woke up at 4:45 and got home in the USA after midnight. We had a great visit with Banana, the Dude’s sister, at the Washington DC airport.
Oh, here’s a quick and dirty story about our return. On the flight to DC from Bogota, the Little Mermaid spilled a full cup of orange juice all over herself. We had checked the bags in Manizales so we wouldn’t have to deal with them on the way back home. This means that we had no clothes for the poor Little Mermaid to wear. I gave her my huge (even on me!) Juan Valdez hoodie. Yes, his face is TOTALLY on the front. It was a big sacrifice on my part. But, as Ned Kelly said, such is life.
When we got to DC, after going through customs, getting our bags and re-checking them, going through security and walking to the ENTIRE other end of the dang airport, we were able to look for new clothes for the Little Mermaid. Why didn’t you just get some clothes out of the bag once you picked them up – you ask? Well, the baggage guys in their infinite wisdom zip corded our bags shut. We didn’t have any scissors and were unable to open them! ARGH!
So, we were looking for clothes. Did you know that there is an entire men’s suit store in the DC airport? Look in the B gates, like B 40 something. BUT there is not 1 article of clothing for the lower half for ANYONE else in the ENTIRE FREAKIN’ AIRPORT. I know. I looked. Thank goodness I have mad skills when it comes to clothing design. My mom would say that I have mad skills at rigging myself up, but I disagree. It’s art Mom. Art. I looked for the cheapest t-shirt I could find. $9.99 at a newsstand. Yup, I bought it and asked the cashier if she had any scissors. She asked the manager and the manager went back into the secret room where they scan your retina to make sure can you be trusted with scissors in the airport and then came back with a pair for me to use. What I’m going to tell you next is shocking – at least to the ladies at the register. I unfolded that bad boy and cut across the body of the shirt, just under the armpits. Then I cut a strip off the raw edge of that newly cut tube. I snipped the strip so that I had 1 long strip and a tube of shirt. I shoved the cropped off top in my shopping bag. Then I cut a little hole in the hemmed bottom of the t-shirt tube. I threaded the strip through that already turned over and hemmed bottom, flipped it upside down and viola! The Little Mermaid had a skirt! TA-DA. Then I got her a shirt and she was ready to take off that screaming hot Juan Valdez sweatshirt hoodie.
The Little Mermaid was very happy with her new ensemble and modeled it all over the airport. You would have thought she was wearing Versace!
On to my birthday…
On the drive home from the airport, the kiddies were asleep and the Dude and I sang Happy Birthday to me. We quickly crashed and slept until late the next morning. I woke up to the sweet smell of Colombian coffee. Then we went to our local pizza place, the Mellow Mushroom for lunch. Ah, so good! AND there is a new frozen custard shop on 4th street! So of course we hit that. Did you know that frozen custard has half the fat of ice cream? It tastes so much better too!
The Dude surprised me with a trip to Greensboro! UNC-Greensboro! I got information on starting towards my Master’s in History. As of today, my application is in and my transcript has been ordered!!! I’m a college girl again! Check it out. The school colours are blue and gold, like my first high school, and the mascot is the Spartans, like my graduating high school. See, it was meant to be.
Then we went to this super cool bike shop and got a chariot for my bike. This way I can stick it to the man and ride my bike with the kids to the grocery store instead of driving and buying gas. SCREW THE MAN!
PLUS, I got both Barack Obama books on CD, read by Grammy winner and Future President Obama himself. And the Dude got me the Netflix attachment so we can watch the free Netflix movies on our TV instead of crowding around our laptop! CHA! SEE?!?!? THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! Plus a Lemon Charlotte Royal cake from Whole Foods. It tasted like a combination of cake and Lemon custard. AHhhhh! AND pink champagne!
I didn’t even care that we had a major storm that knocked over tons of trees blocking street access all across Winston Salem! Or that our power was out until the next morning! I had the best dang birthday ever!
Neener neener.
Oh, here’s a quick and dirty story about our return. On the flight to DC from Bogota, the Little Mermaid spilled a full cup of orange juice all over herself. We had checked the bags in Manizales so we wouldn’t have to deal with them on the way back home. This means that we had no clothes for the poor Little Mermaid to wear. I gave her my huge (even on me!) Juan Valdez hoodie. Yes, his face is TOTALLY on the front. It was a big sacrifice on my part. But, as Ned Kelly said, such is life.
When we got to DC, after going through customs, getting our bags and re-checking them, going through security and walking to the ENTIRE other end of the dang airport, we were able to look for new clothes for the Little Mermaid. Why didn’t you just get some clothes out of the bag once you picked them up – you ask? Well, the baggage guys in their infinite wisdom zip corded our bags shut. We didn’t have any scissors and were unable to open them! ARGH!
So, we were looking for clothes. Did you know that there is an entire men’s suit store in the DC airport? Look in the B gates, like B 40 something. BUT there is not 1 article of clothing for the lower half for ANYONE else in the ENTIRE FREAKIN’ AIRPORT. I know. I looked. Thank goodness I have mad skills when it comes to clothing design. My mom would say that I have mad skills at rigging myself up, but I disagree. It’s art Mom. Art. I looked for the cheapest t-shirt I could find. $9.99 at a newsstand. Yup, I bought it and asked the cashier if she had any scissors. She asked the manager and the manager went back into the secret room where they scan your retina to make sure can you be trusted with scissors in the airport and then came back with a pair for me to use. What I’m going to tell you next is shocking – at least to the ladies at the register. I unfolded that bad boy and cut across the body of the shirt, just under the armpits. Then I cut a strip off the raw edge of that newly cut tube. I snipped the strip so that I had 1 long strip and a tube of shirt. I shoved the cropped off top in my shopping bag. Then I cut a little hole in the hemmed bottom of the t-shirt tube. I threaded the strip through that already turned over and hemmed bottom, flipped it upside down and viola! The Little Mermaid had a skirt! TA-DA. Then I got her a shirt and she was ready to take off that screaming hot Juan Valdez sweatshirt hoodie.
The Little Mermaid was very happy with her new ensemble and modeled it all over the airport. You would have thought she was wearing Versace!
On to my birthday…
On the drive home from the airport, the kiddies were asleep and the Dude and I sang Happy Birthday to me. We quickly crashed and slept until late the next morning. I woke up to the sweet smell of Colombian coffee. Then we went to our local pizza place, the Mellow Mushroom for lunch. Ah, so good! AND there is a new frozen custard shop on 4th street! So of course we hit that. Did you know that frozen custard has half the fat of ice cream? It tastes so much better too!
The Dude surprised me with a trip to Greensboro! UNC-Greensboro! I got information on starting towards my Master’s in History. As of today, my application is in and my transcript has been ordered!!! I’m a college girl again! Check it out. The school colours are blue and gold, like my first high school, and the mascot is the Spartans, like my graduating high school. See, it was meant to be.
Then we went to this super cool bike shop and got a chariot for my bike. This way I can stick it to the man and ride my bike with the kids to the grocery store instead of driving and buying gas. SCREW THE MAN!
PLUS, I got both Barack Obama books on CD, read by Grammy winner and Future President Obama himself. And the Dude got me the Netflix attachment so we can watch the free Netflix movies on our TV instead of crowding around our laptop! CHA! SEE?!?!? THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! Plus a Lemon Charlotte Royal cake from Whole Foods. It tasted like a combination of cake and Lemon custard. AHhhhh! AND pink champagne!
I didn’t even care that we had a major storm that knocked over tons of trees blocking street access all across Winston Salem! Or that our power was out until the next morning! I had the best dang birthday ever!
Neener neener.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
