Weekend highlights

Despite the less-than-desirable weather, we had a very nice weekend.

Instead of our typical Fri night dinner at a restaurant with 'the usual suspects', we had a BBQ at one of the guy's house. John provided the burgers, brats, and dogs while everyone else brought the appetizers, side dishes, and dessert. I made Paula Deen's corn casserole, which is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. I take it to every potluck, cookout, and BBQ. I wonder if our friends will EVER get tired of this? I suspect not. The weather was nice and we had a good time.

Afterward we headed to the beach for a 'Bear Bash' party at Shag restaurant and club. We wanted to support our friend and local store owner Chris who teamed up with Shag owners Tim & Nick to create 'Bear Bash', a party for Bears and Bear lovers. They had a $3. drink special called 'Fuzzy Nipple', and a $5. food menu.
Although Spouse does not self-identify as a 'Bear', you'd have to be Helen Keller not to notice that he fits the 'Bear' stereotype, as least physically. We didn't eat since we had just come from the BBQ, but I did have a 'Fuzzy Nipple' and Spouse had a soda. We saw several friends, sat and talked for a while, and had a very nice time. It was fun to do something 'different' like that. Shag is a lot of fun because they play terrific 70s & 80s music.

Sat it basically rained all day. We decided it would be a great day to go the movies (to see 'Star Trek') but apparently so did all of the disappointed vacationers whose day at the beach was rained out. The theatre parking lot was absolutely jammed to the point that it created traffic problems out on the street, and there was a long line at the box office, so we scrapped the idea and went back home. We had an easy, relaxing day at home. I finally updated my blog list on this here blog; a long overdue task. Later that evening we met our buddies Doug & Jim for drinks and dinner at Rigby's, which recently opened in the space that used to be Partners Bistro. Fortunately the food at Rigby's is much better than their predecessor, and we had a nice time. Then we walked with Doug and Jim to Aqua, an outdoor gay bar, and hung out for a while.

Sun it rained or sprinkled off and on most of the day. Between showers we went to the grocery store and K-Mart. My $19.99 mp3 player quit working so I neatly returned it to its packaging so I could exchange it for another one. But store don't do 'exchanges' anymore. Instead they force you to stand in line at the returns desk (which is never staffed with more than 1 person) to get a refund for the item, then force you to stand in line again at the regular cash register to purchase the replacement item. (I miss the old days when you simply swapped a new one for the old one and there was no register transaction or writing down your name/address/phone number required. I know, I'm old.) Unfortunately, when the returns clerk tried to refund the $19.99 back onto my debit card, it wasn't a match. Apparently the day we purchased it Spouse had used his debit card (from the same bank account) to pay for it. So I had to go find him in the store, get his debit card, and stand in line all over again to complete the refund. Making it worse was the clerk's surly attitude. She didn't offer to bring me to the front of the line when she saw me come back with the other debit card, either. Then, as the refund was processing, she again told me in an elementary school Principal kind of way that she could only refund the price back to the card used for the original purpose. I wanted to scream in her face "Its the same f*cking joint bank account!!!", but decided it would likely be in vain. I opted NOT to go purchase a replacement mp3 player at that time, but instead, to just get the f*ck out of that store.

Later that evening Spouse & I had dinner, and since the weather had improved significantly, we went for a walk on the boardwalk. Along the way we stopped for a few minutes to listen to an a cappella group perform at the bandstand, which was fun. The weather was dreamy. The rain had stopped, the temperature rose, there was a great breeze, it was pretty close to perfect for our walk and convertible ride. We ended our weekend by watching some TV before going to bed.

As much as we enjoy having friends visit on weekends, its also kind of nice not to have company. We're not actively inviting anyone during the construction so we'll have several more such 'open' weekends this summer, unlike past summers when we had lots and lots of visitors. I like the variation.

Crush du Jour: Carlos Yabrudy