Happy Earth Day!

Today I did go help with the "ditch clean-up". I was a little worried and when I got there discovered that their "ditch" is really just the school grounds. All my fears were not alleviated however because around the schools property there is quite a lot of prairie grass and although most of it is knocked down from winter, something could still be lurking in this grass and there was a strong skunk scent in the area. . . As luck would have it I was the only parent volunteer so the two teachers and I each had a small group of students and we took separate sides of the school ~ my side? The back of the school by the skunk odor! The closer we got to the grass the stronger the smell became (the wind was blowing slightly, but nothing like yesterday) it was this same wind, however, that cleared the air so I wasn't so concerned after a little bit. This wasn't before I had already conjured up a vision of me and "my students" running for our lives so we didn't get sprayed or attacked. . . All in all, I think the kids did find and clean up quite a bit of trash around the school grounds. I even found a spot in the prairie grass area (just outside the soccer fields) where it looked like someone had dumped their fire pit ~ many pieces of broken glass, ashes and bottle tops were a few of the items in this pile ~ SOME PEOPLE!!!

Brayton started the day out by accidental biting his spoon while eating his cereal and loosened his tooth a little more. Chris had to help him pull it completely out with a pliers, so it is even more difficult for him to bite things now! :~) Here's his "new" smile (I LOVE the photo shop software!)

Today Chris and I had to run some errands and we happened to be on the north side of town at lunchtime. After some deliberation, we decided to eat at Sushi Nishiki. I told Chris that it wouldn't take too long ~ my bad!!! First, he was excited because the last time I was there, they were supposed to be getting Udon noodles added to their menu and that is one thing that Chris loves from Japan. I, of course, ordered the Fire Cracker sushi roll. To start off, Chris ordered some dumplings and he was very impressed with the flavor. Next came my sushi and I shared that with Chris (we were both VERY hungry) and then the waiting began. . . Finally, after we waited probably another 30 minutes, they came and told him that they were very sorry but the Udon noodles are very new to the menu and the normal chef was gone, the replacement didn't know how to make them ~ Chris was impressed that they admitted to not knowing how to prepare them and didn't serve sub-standard food. Then our waitress said she'd get him something else on the house. Another server came to our table to apologize and suggested some different noodles (fried ~ Udon are a very thick boiled noodle) and we were under the impression it was on the house, so of course he said 'sure, I'll try them'. He'd never had them before and it wasn't like he wouldn't have liked something different on the menu, but I think the waitstaff was so flustered they didn't think to offer that. So the "other" noodles were all that was offered since I got the impression they thought he only wanted noodles. After another 15 minutes, these fried noodles came along with a 10% coupon off our next purchase there and a promise of free ice cream ~ I was a little surprised because I thought "geez, how much are they going to give us??" The bill came ~ SURPRISE! We were charged for the substitute noodles and ONLY comped ice cream, which we probably wouldn't have ordered anyway since our lunch took so long! Our 10% coupon (never even worth the paper it's printed on, in my opinion, unless it's for a house or something!) and free ice cream were our compensation for the 1 hour it took to eat our lunch and get the "opportunity" to try a different dish. Needless to say, Chris said he will not ever go back there again after the "compensation" he was given. I understand in that sort of place, a lot of people do take close to an hour to eat, but we specifically ordered almost immediately when we got there to speed things up. I was really disappointed for him ~ I sooo wanted him to like that place, but knowing Chris, he really will not ever go back there. Poor me :~(

I am finally finishing up work stuff along with this blog, so I can step away from the computer for the night. Even though I was helping the earth this afternoon, my boss didn't see the need to do my work . . . :~)