I Suck At Grumpy White's

on sunday, karen and her cousin (karlene) from lowell went to their grandmother's house in the morning to finish scanning all of the old pictures. as karlene was going to be there back to back days, she actually spent the night at our place on saturday. for anyone curious, she spent the night in braden's/my bff's (kerry) room.

karlene's husband (tommy) was taking a workshop this weekend, which actually made her staying over make more sense. tommy, by the way, had apparently gotten me a surprise present. that present: a t-shirt... and not just any t-shirt. written across the t-shirt: "there is a lot to like about lowell". the slogan, which i generally poke fun of, is a nice little plug for lowell. it seems however, that the city of lowell is actually changing their slogan from that to something different... so there apparently will not be a lot to like about lowell any longer. how sad.

anyway, while karen and karlene were gone, i decided to continue my little wood project. i applied the first coat of polyurethane on the pieces of wood. while that was drying, i decided to be productive again and wage my war on the "holly vine thing" that is plaguing the back yard... or more accurately, the conservation land behind the back yard.

with my sheers and my lopper, i went out to attack the "holly vine thing". it would have been more visually appealing had i a machete in my hand... but sadly, i don't own a machete. needless to say, i made some headway. i think i actually was able to remove much of the vines that were clinging and pulling down the nearby tree behind the shed. i was so excited when the vines dropped to the ground. i almost felt like i had saved the big tree.

as i am apt to do when i have a full head of steam on a particular project, i had forgotten to eat. before i knew it, hours had passed. the only reason i had even stopped was because my favorite sister-in-law (janine), my favorite brother-in-law (pj), my niece (kaleigh) and my nephew (pj) walked out of my house and onto the back deck. apparently, they had been trying to reach me because there were plans to go out to eat for dinner. the restaurant: grumpy white's located in quincy.

now i suck at grumpy white's. i have not been to grumpy white's in quite some time. from what i have been told, karlene has eaten there the past couple of times that she has been down this way and has raved about it to tommy. thus, tommy wanted to try the place out.

so following a brief stop at karen's grandmother's place... where i got to meet and greet some of the southern relatives... the eight of us headed off for dinner. grumpy white's was pretty good. i had the baked scallops which were good. of course, anything would probably have been good yesterday because i was so hungry.. having missed lunch and all. truth be told, the quad burger was looking pretty good. that's how hungry i was. for anyone curious, the quad burger is... well... a burger with 4 4 ounce patties. heck, it sounds good right now.

anyway, probably the funniest thing at the restaurant was the moment a member of the wait staff (sue) approached our table to ask us how we were doing and my nephew (pj) blurted out that we were planning to steal uncle richie's car. mental note, don't include pj on any secretive plans.

taken out of context, motor vehicular theft sounds thrilling and all. there actually is a back story to the stealing of the car. uncle richie is karen, janine and karlene's uncle who currently lives in tennessee. growing up, richie asked janine and karlene to remember to put their bikes away. needless to say, janine and karlene forgot to put their bikes away. so, in an effort to teach them a lesson, richie took their bikes and hid them from them. naturally, janine and karlene were surprised to discover their bikes missing... even though richie reminded to put their bikes away. suffice to say, they were freaking out... as much as a couple of 10 year olds could freak out. eventually, richie gave them their bikes back... but it was a lesson they would probably never forget.

as it so happens, richie fly up this weekend from tennessee. he purchased nana's car and is actually driving the car back to tennessee. thus, in what would be a prime practical joke, the idea to steal his car before he could drive the car down was floated around.

anyway, it was rather comical when little pj blurted out to the wait staff about our clandestine plans. it was definitely the best part about dinner because the prevailing topic of conversation consisted of... well... the mind numbing discussion about nana and how things were going to be divided amongst the relatives.... and who wants what... who should get what... the fairness of who take what... etc.

personally, i cannot wait for this entire thing to be over because i get a headache constantly hearing about this topic.