My Recent Misadventures

As previously noted Monday I volunteered at the Barnes and Noble for gift wrapping. I am terrible at gift wrapping but I often do things I am not good at. Carol suckered me into B&N gift-wrapping at her house Sunday after the movie and dinner with CLSFF Book group. I discovered I left my coat at Carol's Monday.

Friday I went out to dinner with Pat. I knew she would like to use her coupon book so I picked Taqueria Guadalajara in South Houston. Food is Norteno style, not my favorite but I had been here before, not terrible before. Tonight bad runny cheese sauce, not very good chips, OK red salsa but worse - a bad margarita. I disliked Pat's no gravy carne guisada and my Chiles Rellenos. Beans were good - spicy, rice was mediocre. Definitely not a culinary delight. Then a fight broke out in the parking lot. High speed car chase, broken window, a punch in the face. At least no gunshots. I will cross that restaurant off my list.

Coming home I hit a pothole. Picked up small gifts for Carol's and Peter's children. Discovered pothole had put a hole in the sidewall of a tire. Tried Fix-A-Flat and my plug-in air pump. Seemed to be holding when I went home.

Saturday I watched a tape of the 2 hour Firefly from Friday night. Terrific and Fox network executives are stupider than regular network executives for not showing this show as the premiere. I had a garbled message on my answering machine so I didn't answer it. Saturday night I started for Carol's party and discovered tire was not fixed. I pumped it up again and tried Discount Tire, closed, and then Pat, who didn't want to go to the party or drive me, before replacing flat with my spare. Went to Peter and Carol's Yule party late, but many people still weren't there. Lot's of food, I may have missed any pagan rituals. My salad was good. Stayed to help Carol clean-up afterwards and left at 10:30. It was good seeing Chris and Peter and arguing politics. Good to have wine and spiked eggnog and forget my rules for dining. Got hugs from Carol. Picked up coat I had left at Peter's and Carol's.

Sunday was the group seeing The Two Towers. 4 1/2 stars. I thought Lord of the Rings was better but when I said that the comment from one person was "You suck." Everyone loves a critic. In Lord of the Rings I only disagreed with one director decision, the scene with the Ballrog and how Gandalf.fell. The Two Towers started with an even worse, longer version of that scene. I also didn't like several other scenes at the beginning of The Two Towers, minor things. The story improved as it went along and for the middle part of three wasn't bad. Jackson has improved the women's stories from the book. I don't think I'll see it three times like Lord of the Rings, but seeing it once again would be good.

Nearly everyone went for dinner at Taco Cabana afterwards. They were out of queso, they were out of their speciality - grilled chicken , we could not move their inside tables together, we couldn't sit outside because it started to rain, the music was not good, and the music was too loud. I also ordered extra nacho's and chips for everyone and ended up eating most of it myself. Other than that it was fine, food was pretty good. Afterwards, Richard and I wanted to get people for games at his place but couldn't get anyone else interested and I didn't remember how to get to his house. There were some things I had to to do at home as well.

I discovered I have misplaced one of the gifts I bought Monday today, a gift certificate. This apartment is in no way prepared for visitors Sunday, I am not ready for Christmas. Decided that garbled message might have been from Richard but got no answer from what I think is the number that was left. I realize I have a ton of things to do tomorrow. Tornados and wind tonight.

Happy Christmas Eve. I am not enough hugs lately despite one from Carol on the solstice.