Yarn, Food, and Claymation Bunnies

Today was Saturday. That meant a few to-do items:
1) Teaching crochet class and helping out at RA Yarns in Cranston, RI
2) Visiting the Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue education seminar at Petco in Warwick, RI
3) Rich and I going out with our “Best Man” Jeff to a dinner and a movie

Because of the horrible rain hitting New England, some flash flooding happened this morning, and I even had to pull over en route to RA Yarns to let a firetruck by. I was able to make it to the store without further incident, and opened up without any issues. My student Denise arrived, and we set about determining what she wanted to learn and accomplish, then selected her yarn and accessories. Ruth arrived about an hour later, and the 3 of us exchanged the radio warning about roads and streets being closed due to the flooding. Some of the streets were only a stone’s throw away! That is when I decided it was better to stay put at the store instead of driving out to the Petco. Sorry guys! I really wanted the Bun Crew to meet Caesar. 🙁 However, I did drop off another baby blanket, and began a gorgeous hyperbolic scarf for Ruth with Little Wool Company’s Filaro mohair in the Bubblegum color scheme. I also took home an unfinished blanket in a neat variegated color scheme of chocolate brown and happy pink. The ripple blanket is in worsted weight, with each row crocheted in the back loop. I hope the woman who never finished it knows that when it is done, it will be given to someone in need who will benefit from its warmth.





While going home, I wanted to pick up a bite to tide me over for dinner, and thought Boston Market would be good. Well, part of the street to Boston Market was one of the ones closed off, so I did a “U-ie” and decided to drive over by KFC. I noticed that a portion of that street also was shut down. It was where the road crossed over the Pawtuxet River, and I caught a glimpse water burying a home’s picnic table up to the seats, and saw the home’s family members trying to get their items out of the cellar. On the other side of the river’s bank, the ex-factory building had water up to the window bottoms, and the scant number of cars look buried up to their doors. Gulping, I realized I better just get home. And was in time for a quick nap…

I think because the weather was bad, a lot of the restaurants we normally like eating at were packed. We were so correct! I will not say where we ate, but it was a steakhouse that was not used to being busy. The food was mediocre due to bad portioning, poor cooking, and horrible substitutions of 86’ed food items (and our server NEVER told us!). The food that was substituted was a regular baked potato instead of my baked sweet potato (“Oh, since we ran out I brought you a regular one.”) and an overly done sirloin (I absolutely LOATHE sirloins and NY strips) instead of my rare bacon-wrapped filet. Rich’s sirloin seemed uneven for his request for rare, mine was very over-medium, and Jeff’s look freshly killed and not even cooked. We realized that they probably put steaks on the grill simultaneously, which caused each one to be cooked so badly. Our server was very sweet, obviously stressed because of the lack of cooks, but she neglected us and the other tables in the section A LOT. When given our check, we kindly asked for the manager. The manager sat down with us while I calmly explained what happened and what could have made the dinner salvageable (the lack of attention, the poorly done meals, and the bad substitutions). She then told us about the kitchen incident, and how the staff in this particular restaurant was not used to being busy and fast-paced like it’s counterpart. Thanking us for our input, she was relieved that we did not scream and yell at her like some other customers did tonight. Though my higher-priced meal ended up getting comped, Rich and Jeff strongly agreed that we will not go back, and maybe should have taken the one-hour wait at Longhorn or the two-hour wait at Texas Roadhouse.

After such a horrid meal, we looked forward to seeing the movie “Wallace and Gromit and the Were-Rabbit” just a few minutes drive away. I loved the movie, and think I behaved considerably well, since I only shoved my elbow into Rich’s side only once during one of the really cute scenes, and cooed and awed not as loudly and often. Granted, I had to hold my hand over my mouth SEVERAL times… But I will say only one item about the movie, ya gotta see the very last line of the credits. That’s all I will say about the movie, so you have to find out for yourself. 😉