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breoaigitSo Saturday, Dean and I headed down to Dover as planned. We checked into the hotel room, and schmoozed for a few hours, watching TV, reading and crocheting for me, and then a rather happy and long nap. I'm big on naps, as lots of people know. I'm a total nap-fiend. Anyhow, we got up, and decided to head out to dinner. We hit the Lone Star Steakhouse because we figured a laugh would be good. And lo, it was indeed comical, if a really neat place. The comedy was in the shirts of the staff. On the back of everyone's shirt was an outline of Texas with "Don't Mess With Texas" inscribed inside the outline. Why is this funny? Because "Don't Mess With Texas" is the anti-littering slogan back home. It's used to remind people that there's a $200 fine for tossing trash on the highway. I'm not sure what this says about a restaurant, but the food was good, and that's what counts, right? We hit Walmart after that (yes, vacation and Walmart, we are rednecks), because my travel toothpaste was out, and I forgot shampoo. Conditioner, I remembered, but not shampoo. Doh. Back to the hotel, a hot bath, then more crocheting and TV, then collapsing. Steak and boiling myself in a bathtub is guaranteed to send me comatose for a while. And indeed, ten hours later... ;)
Sunday was more eventful, if you can apply that word to Dover. We were out and about by around 11am, and went to hit Dover Downs, only to find out it didn't open till 1pm. No problems, we wandered around the fancy hotel there oohing and aahing at all the artwork and architecture, then hit a discount bookstore and the mall. I got the 5th Evanovich book. At the mall, they had a stand selling socks. Now I like socks, but most especially, I like really obnoxiously colorful and painfully loud socks. They had 6 pair for $10. Dean insists now that I was trying to make his eyes bleed, but I like them! ;) After the mall, we hit what looked like a little hole in the wall Chinese buffet place. Turned out it was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked, and really quite nice. The food was incredible, and the service was friendly, and it was seriously cheap. Still, after buffet, I was ready to sleep again. Go figure. We got back to the hotel, and Dean took advantage of the whirlpool, while I went inert for several more hours, only to find Dean curled up with me before long. I have a theory: Dover is a soporific. Anyhow, we woke up in enough time to catch the last quarter of the Eagles/Buccaneers game. Dean's happy with the ending of that, to say the least. I was just happy that it ended. ;) After that, we wandered out again to drive up and down a bit, then hit Dover Downs while it was open We each got $5 in quarters, and Dean won back the $10 investment. Me, I got painfully lucky and ended up winning about $75. Stunned? Yes. A -lot-. But it was fun. At that point, we decided it was time to stop, and go away from the gambling place very very fast before they changed their mind and took the money back. ;) We hit TGIF for dinner, where I had to beg the host guy to please not put us at a table by a window, as I would freeze. The Oakland/Titans game was on, and Dean watched that and I read on my PDA. Quiet, happy dinner, and TGIF's vanilla bean cheesecake is beyond amazing. Once again, back to the hotel, more TV, more crocheting and realizing, doh, my stitches had been off for a few rows. Thankfully a ripple is a forgiving pattern, and correcting it is pretty easy.
This morning we got up to hit the continental breakfast, which was kind of uncomfortable. They had a news channel on, discussing affirmative action, and there was a very loud and emphatic African-American family a table away voicing their support of this issue, and proclaiming those who didn't agree to be 'idiots'. It doesn't matter how I feel about the issue, it made me really uncomfortable. That I disagreed with them made it even worse. I felt as if I wasn't allowed to have an opinion because of my color. I just thought that was the whole point, to make color irrelevant. That's just me, though. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Anyway, I didn't really want to debate the topic, but I was really unthrilled. It isn't the topic, it was that people felt it was appropriate to voice their own opinions so loudly and in such insulting terms. It's a free country, and that's their prerogative, of course. I just wish politeness were a universal thing.
After this, we headed up to the room again and nearly yelped at the clock, which said checkout was in 10 minutes. I had not repacked, or had a shower. Then we realized the clock was an hour fast. Whew. Plenty of time, then. We finally wandered out, checked out, and hit the road. We hit another discount book store, and I got a Robin McKinley, and some novel about a vampire detective. It looks relatively film noir and humorous, so I'm looking forward to that. After that, we drove around the capitol district (not very big), and ooohed and aahed at the architecture. After this, we hit the Chinese buffet again, then had to head for home, as I was starting to droop badly. Turns out all the sleeping had been for a reason, and I was starting in with a nasty head cold. I snoozed all the way home, but now that I am home, I'm still a little iffy, but light years better than I was.
In fact, I'm actually starting to feel more cheerful about some online stuff like Search that's coming up. Am I finally coming through the funk of burnout? I sure -hope- so. I know I usually just have to wait it out and let it take it's course. It's happened before, and it'll happen again, but I'm always so relieved when it really is over. I'm hoping it is now. It feels like it, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
So all in all, an excellent weekend. I'm glad to be back now, and American Idol starts tomorrow night. Woo!
Sunday was more eventful, if you can apply that word to Dover. We were out and about by around 11am, and went to hit Dover Downs, only to find out it didn't open till 1pm. No problems, we wandered around the fancy hotel there oohing and aahing at all the artwork and architecture, then hit a discount bookstore and the mall. I got the 5th Evanovich book. At the mall, they had a stand selling socks. Now I like socks, but most especially, I like really obnoxiously colorful and painfully loud socks. They had 6 pair for $10. Dean insists now that I was trying to make his eyes bleed, but I like them! ;) After the mall, we hit what looked like a little hole in the wall Chinese buffet place. Turned out it was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked, and really quite nice. The food was incredible, and the service was friendly, and it was seriously cheap. Still, after buffet, I was ready to sleep again. Go figure. We got back to the hotel, and Dean took advantage of the whirlpool, while I went inert for several more hours, only to find Dean curled up with me before long. I have a theory: Dover is a soporific. Anyhow, we woke up in enough time to catch the last quarter of the Eagles/Buccaneers game. Dean's happy with the ending of that, to say the least. I was just happy that it ended. ;) After that, we wandered out again to drive up and down a bit, then hit Dover Downs while it was open We each got $5 in quarters, and Dean won back the $10 investment. Me, I got painfully lucky and ended up winning about $75. Stunned? Yes. A -lot-. But it was fun. At that point, we decided it was time to stop, and go away from the gambling place very very fast before they changed their mind and took the money back. ;) We hit TGIF for dinner, where I had to beg the host guy to please not put us at a table by a window, as I would freeze. The Oakland/Titans game was on, and Dean watched that and I read on my PDA. Quiet, happy dinner, and TGIF's vanilla bean cheesecake is beyond amazing. Once again, back to the hotel, more TV, more crocheting and realizing, doh, my stitches had been off for a few rows. Thankfully a ripple is a forgiving pattern, and correcting it is pretty easy.
This morning we got up to hit the continental breakfast, which was kind of uncomfortable. They had a news channel on, discussing affirmative action, and there was a very loud and emphatic African-American family a table away voicing their support of this issue, and proclaiming those who didn't agree to be 'idiots'. It doesn't matter how I feel about the issue, it made me really uncomfortable. That I disagreed with them made it even worse. I felt as if I wasn't allowed to have an opinion because of my color. I just thought that was the whole point, to make color irrelevant. That's just me, though. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Anyway, I didn't really want to debate the topic, but I was really unthrilled. It isn't the topic, it was that people felt it was appropriate to voice their own opinions so loudly and in such insulting terms. It's a free country, and that's their prerogative, of course. I just wish politeness were a universal thing.
After this, we headed up to the room again and nearly yelped at the clock, which said checkout was in 10 minutes. I had not repacked, or had a shower. Then we realized the clock was an hour fast. Whew. Plenty of time, then. We finally wandered out, checked out, and hit the road. We hit another discount book store, and I got a Robin McKinley, and some novel about a vampire detective. It looks relatively film noir and humorous, so I'm looking forward to that. After that, we drove around the capitol district (not very big), and ooohed and aahed at the architecture. After this, we hit the Chinese buffet again, then had to head for home, as I was starting to droop badly. Turns out all the sleeping had been for a reason, and I was starting in with a nasty head cold. I snoozed all the way home, but now that I am home, I'm still a little iffy, but light years better than I was.
In fact, I'm actually starting to feel more cheerful about some online stuff like Search that's coming up. Am I finally coming through the funk of burnout? I sure -hope- so. I know I usually just have to wait it out and let it take it's course. It's happened before, and it'll happen again, but I'm always so relieved when it really is over. I'm hoping it is now. It feels like it, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
So all in all, an excellent weekend. I'm glad to be back now, and American Idol starts tomorrow night. Woo!
