Everyone's a Critic

Dave and I enjoy eating out and for me, part of the fun is researching the restaurants where we're going to eat. I'll check Zagat, Yelp, Chowhound, and Michelin among others to read reviews and peruse menus. A good restaurant for me, needs to have not only good food, but a pleasant atmosphere and consistent customer service.

The other night we made the mistake of asking the girls what kind of food they wanted to have for dinner. Apparently, food, atmosphere, and customer service were all pretty low on their list of criteria for a good restaurant. In fact, they really didn't care about any of those. Their only demand was unfortunately that the establishment have crayons and a coloring sheet. Heaven help all the Gary Danko's and Chez Panisse's of the world, because if my kids get a yelp account...they're going down! No crayons = zero stars!

One Person's Pest is Another Person's Pet

Almost a year a go we joined a meat CSA and a produce CSA. While there are many, many benefits to eating organic there are a few drawbacks. This season the sweet white corn from Full Belly Farm has been plagued by earworms. When we brought our box home today, Dave took the corn into the garage to break off the worm ridden tips and throw them away. Alison happened to be watching and was horrified when she saw the first little worm being thrown into the trash.

Needless to say we now have two new pets (aka. pests). "John" and "Violet" have now taken up residence on my kitchen counter in an old fishbowl accompanied by their corn tips. I guess there should be a saying, "One person's pest is another person's pet."

Soul Mates

This year, Alison started a new school and her primary concern was not the new teachers, new students, or unfamiliar building...it was that she would not have a boyfriend. Today I picked her up and asked her if anything exciting had happened.

"Yes, mom, I found a boyfriend!"

"You did? How did you find him?"

"I just walked up to him and asked him if he wanted to be my boyfriend, and he nodded his head yes."

"What's his name?"

"Oh, I don't know his name."

So, apparently, when finding a soul mate names are not necessary. I only hope that poor boy knows what he was getting into when he nodded his head yes!

Fabulosity

You're HOW Old?!?!

I stopped by Amanda's school at lunchtime today to sign up for some of our required parent hours. When Amanda got home, she told me that all the kids at her lunch table remarked on how much we looked alike. One smart-a** kid apparently agreed with the exception that I looked like a much, much old, old, old, old, OLDER version of Amanda.

He's right...but could we please remove at least one of the "olds" please? The truth hurts!

The Amazing Houdini

Last night after dinner at our favorite Mexican place, Dave picked up Alexa. To our surprise, although her pants were still on, her diaper was hanging around her ankles! Not sure how she managed to do that. I'm just relieved it was empty!!

Surfer Girl

In Pismo Beach last weekend, Alison really enjoyed watching the surfers. On the pier, looking down on them catching waves, she said "Mom, I really want to be a surfer girl when I grow up...but first I think I need to learn how to swim."

Yes, that would probably be a good idea!