We're Lucky We're Not Dead

So after a month or three weeks or whatever of having to wash all the dishes by hand, what would you do if your dishwasher finally got fixed?

Bingo! Go out to dinner!

That's right! I came home grumpy yesterday afternoon. Who doesn't come home from Walmart grumpy? Why did I even go there. Just for the record, they were out of something I wanted and so I made a note of everything they were out of - whether I wanted it or not. So in order to save you time, here's a list of things you CAN'T get at Walmart.....,which you probably don't need....because it's TWO DAYS BEFORE THANKSGIVING!

Do not go to Walmart for Turkeys, TURKEYS! (I wasn't looking for one, but couldn't help but notice row after row of empty refrigerator cases,

CREAM, (and don't ask for cream because the guy stocking the dairy department doesn't know what it is.),

GRAVY mix (I wasn't buying this but I noticed the gaping hole on the shelf), SAUSAGE (I was looking for this for my stuffing),

Produce of any kind (Come on! That produce was picked 2 years ago, embalmed and cryogenically sealed)

Wait...........this isn't about Walmart. I forgot. And I'm getting grumpy again.

So, I come home grumpy and Brian suggests we go to dinner with our friends. It sounds great since there was no food to buy at Walmart anyway.

We should go to the Mexican place we always go to................except...........we now have dangerous information.

My friend works for TriCounty Health doing restaurant inspections. He should NEVER have told me that inspection results were available online. I have checked every restaurant in the Tri State area. I am armed and dangerous.

It's true - the Mexican restaurant has failed, FAILED the last three inspections. It is under civil penalty. That means that it 1) failed an inspection 2) didn't fix what it promised to fix and 3) now has to pay a fine and THEY WILL GET SHUT DOWN if they don't fix their issues.

Now don't freak out! You can get written up for a variety of restaurant sins. Some of them are not that bad (well compared with others): not having handsoap next to the employee handwashing station, letting an employee put his own drink in the walk in cooler, storing cleaning supplies too close to food items. Some are more worrisome: rodent droppings near food. Yeah, that one is gross. Not having food stored at the right temperature; that's probably important to fix. I am pretty proud of my new found knowledge, so I've told pretty much everyone I know. So I tell the kids we're going to the condemned Mexican place and Parker says, "I'm not going." Me: "Fine. Don't go." He goes. We all go. We even sit near the kitchen and I peak in. I examine the floors. I go in the bathroom and look around. But when I go back to the table, I eat every chip in sight and consume my whole meal. We forget all about the failed inspections, the rodents, the cleaning supplies etc. And we've lived to tell! So there!