This and What’s That?
Last night we had the first thunder boomer of the summer. It rained, it poured, the lightening lighted up the sky and the thunder boomed. A little over an inch of rain fell to the ground before it was all over. The temperature only dropped to 62 degrees last night and the high today is expected to be 72 degrees. The weekend forecast shows some scattered thunderstorms but partly sunny skies with highs near 80 degrees on Sunday. Overall I think it will be a great weekened with even better weather expected early next week.
What follows is based on a true story of a personal experience that Social Media Experts say may not be wise to state in a business/personal blog. If you think I am above being rude or catty then please stop reading now and pretend I am perfect if not then please, read on.
Last night was also my softball team’s third game of the season. I think everyone finally knows each other’s names with the exception of me. I keep calling Martina Katrina because our new crew cook’s name is Katrina and I met them both about the same time. I’ll get it down one of these weeks I hope. I couldn’t tell you any of the scores of our three games but I do know we have been 12 runned in each of them. I also know the other team never wants to play the final two innings and I have no clue how we are suppose to get better if they won’t let us at least play 7 innings. I’ve heard of holding practices but who has time for that?
The social aspect of the game is what we all like. Our game was in Grand Portage last night, only 90 plus miles for me to play ball. After a swift butt kicking we headed back to Grand Marais to get a bite to eat. One would think in a tourist town like Grand Marais it wouldn’t be that difficult but we managed to make it complicated.
The Birch Terrace is the favorite Thursday night after softball hang out. There’s great deals on burger baskets in the bar, $5.00 last year and $6.50 or something this year. Depending upon who is serving the experience can be good. The Kareoke is what we all really go there for but the place was so packed last night we decided to drive up the hill for a bite to eat.
Another restaurant/bar in town we heard was offering $5.00 burger baskets to hungry softball players on Thursday nights. We walked in and looked for a place where 8 of us good sit and unfortunately the back room with the big tables was being set up for a wedding so we needed to squeeze around a bar table for four. We were fine with that until we heard the grill wasn’t on and we could only order fried foods. An executive decision was made and onward we went to the next restaurant/bar in line.
We had heard there were homemade pizzas on the menu at this other establishment so we thought we’d give it a try. It’s a long story and I have errands to run so I have to make this short. The place was far from busy but it took 10 minutes to get noticed, 5 more minutes for a menu, 5 more for a drink, 10 more to place our order. My kids were at a friend’s house and even though we got into town at 8:30 the clock said after 10 by the time we got our food. The waiter asked if we needed anything else and I said I needed my bill. The crew inspected the homemade, hand tossed pizza only to find a stamp on the bottom of the crust that said, "Made in China." Not really, that’s a joke, but for obvious reasons the consensus was it didn’t appear to be hand tossed. I didn’t care too much because I had a burger with waffle fries wrapped up in my napkin to eat on the way to pick up the kids. I received my bill with the burger, fries and one windsor diet(he never asked if I wanted another during our stay nor did he put the lime that I requested in it). When I saw the bill I thought he had put a couple of our meals together because it was $16.30. I checked it out and saw the burger basket for over ten bucks, the slice of raw onion I asked for .49 cents and my one bar pour drink. The look on my face, PRICELESS. With burger in hand, sticker shock on face and an empty wallet I left defeated.
The evening was not a failure but a lesson in life. Get a group of hungry and thirsty women around a table and true personalities come out. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. We’re thinking about packing lunches for after next week’s game unless My Sister’s Place decides to extend their hours. We figure by the end of the season there won’t be an eating place left in town that will smile when we enter the room. Rest assured we’ll be smiling the entire time we’re there or playing our version of ball on the field.