Sunday, August 13, 2006

Wow, it's already been one year. Can you imagine, a year ago, David Lange was still alive? Yep, the 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand died on this day a year ago. Oh, yeah, and I got married. (In researching this joke, I also discovered August 13 is International Lefthanders' Day! So I have 2 reasons for this to be my favorite day of the year.)

So we celebrated (our anniversary, not Mr. Lange's death) by heading to Pleasant Hills, a bed and breakfast near Fredericksburg. Great place! We highly recommend it for couples looking to get away. We drove around Fredericksburg a bit - apparently kamikaze butterflies are in season as they assaulted our windshield all weekend long. I showed Wife Enchanted Rock, but due to my crashing my foot into the stairs last week, we decided to forgo any hiking. We window-shopped a little bit around town, and played mini-golf, a long-standing tradition since, er, um, about this time last year on our honeymoon.

We also enjoyed great sandwiches and desserts at Rather Sweet Bakery and Cafe. Service seemed a little slow there, but that seemed to be the theme of the town. The food was amazing. Actually Wife picked up our desserts from Rather Sweet while I got the car. She told me she'd gotten herself a cookie and me a "surprise" pastry. Being her, she told me about the surprise on the drive to Peaceful Hills as follows: "Well, it's got coconut, chocolate chips, graham cracker crust ... actually, never mind, I think I bought the cookie for you." This change of possession was later resolved in my favor. If you're ever at the bakery, I highly recommend the Hello Dolly.

We also had a good German dinner at Altdorf's. Unfortunately we also had one of our worst common culinary experiences at Der Lindenbaum. We get there for dinner, walk in - there's no indication whether to wait to be seated or just sit, but after a minute of the entire staff standing at the bar doing nothing staring at us, someone finally told us to sit wherever we'd like. At about the same time, an older couple sits down at the table next to us. The waiter, after about 5 minutes, takes both of our drink orders. Wife orders a glass of wine, and I get a Coke, and since we've had so much time, we also order our food. In the 10 minutes before he returns (I should notice the time in between these events is not spent helping other customers - it's standing at the bar with the other workers looking bored), they decide to leave. Smart them. We get our drinks - Wife's wine smells disgusting, and tastes to match. But that's German wine, you say! Can't disagree there, but the Coke tasted wrong too - and it was from a can! Not good. But we've ordered, so we wait. A couple with a toddler come in and sit at the table next to us - they too leave before ordering looking unhappy at the service. The couple on the other side of us doesn't even finish their cake and leave, looking unhappy with everything. Finally, after another half an hour in which several other tables' food arrives, we just leave cash on the table and walk out. Bad service, bad drinks, seemingly bad food - just an all-around terrible place. We assume they have large professional advertisements because they have no repeat business, and must attract all the naive tourists they can.

But idiot restaurants aside, it was a great weekend, as it's been a great year. Many thanks to Wife for putting up with me this long (it's Day 633 since we met, if anyone's counting), and to all of you for putting up with my sentimentality. Tis fun. :-)
posted by Unknown 5:02 PM | 2 comments