Typing on the fly.....

That's what this feels like...... as soon as my husband walks out the door to go to his office or out on an errand, I sit in front of his computer. It's like writing on demand..... and hard to do. If I'm not in the mood to type, or have nothing to say at the moment, well tough..... my typing window is small and I have to take advantage of it when I can. Needless to say, my laptop is still nothing more than a paperweight sitting on my desk.... and not a pretty paperweight at that.

The Swine Flu has taken over the news here..... schools have been closing all over the Houston area, as well as other parts of the state. How do they determine which schools to close? If one child sneezes, do they send everyone home and lock the doors? And with schools closed, the kids are home alone.... and that's not a good thing, so parents are complaining about non-supervised kids. (Well-- stay home from work and take care of your kids. A novel idea, don't you think?-- Don't get me started on the day-care phenomenon in this country.)

I read in the paper where thousands and thousands of pigs were slaughtered in Israel..... and they didn't have to do that.... Swine Flu hasn't been reported there. I'm sure other countries are doing the same..... and there are a lot of "Miss Piggy" jokes in the paper every day, concerning the mass-execution of her could-be long lost relatives.

We went to our once-favorite Italian restaurant for dinner last night..... my husband said he had a taste for some of the dishes we used to get there..... and we also thought we'd see our friend K, who (wonder of wonders) is working there again (after they let her go quickly when she had given them a two-week notice last year). (A run-on sentence if ever I've seen one.)

K wasn't waiting tables last night.... she was working behind the bar, mixing drinks, which she seems to like. Her favorite thing to make is a Chocolate Martini.... she said it's like having a liquid dessert. I love chocolate, but not enough to try it.... I'd rather have to chew the calories than sip them.

The food was good.... but the owner didn't cook any of it. There are three chefs in the kitchen now, because of the larger restaurant. Their new china plates are huge..... like having your dinner served in a bathroom sink. The salads are smaller, the portions are smaller, the prices are higher..... which are all reasons why we stopped going there when they changed locations.

But to be fair.... dinner was good. K wasn't serving it.... and we weren't crazy about our waitress..... and the owner's wife came to our table to hug us as if we'd been there just yesterday.
It's just not the same. No matter how good the food..... and even if K had been waiting tables instead of tending bar...... just the fact that Stefano isn't in the kitchen singing along with the Italian music and cooking food just for you, makes it just another Italian restaurant.

And did I say "Italian music"-- there wasn't any..... they were playing part rap/part crap music that's hooked up to a TV screen above the bar.... so you can watch those awful music videos as you listen to the awful music. Give me a blessed break.