a cold start to spring

It's been such a damned cold start to spring so far! Yikes. Hopefully we'll get some milder days again soon here. I've officially started up my "container garden" again! Bought a few seeds that will be firsts for me this year, things I haven't tried to grow yet; sugar snap peas, lavender, strawberries, marjoram, & spearmint.

Hub and I (last year I think?) went to this "pick-your-own" farm in the area, and I really loved picking peas from this huge field. So I though this year, why not try to grow some myself? The same thought for strawberries. I think it'll be fun to grow strawberries at home. :) I've had mint before (apple mint that's dead now...T__T), but never have tried to grow it from seed. Same as lavender. I have chive seeds also - they'll be sown sometime in the beginning of April. Which is not too far away actually...wow time flies.

I have tons of lettuce seeds still, but I'm hesitant to use one of the shallow, long plastic containers for that again. Lettuce was difficult to grow for me, last year. They just never flourished as much as I wanted them too. What I may do this time around is just plant one seed in it's own individual small pot or container - see how it goes.

Some woolly lavender I bought transplanted into a slightly bigger pot - so fuzzy!

My two strawberry starts - trying different containers for each one

Marjoram seeds sprouting

TEENY spearmint sprout emerging

A tough life...

work & nihongo

It’s gotten to that usual point every year, where I am done with winter and want spring to get now! It’s probably been brought on by these recent random days of milder temperatures. Mother nature is a big tease, I swear.

Things have been going fine, and much as they can be I suppose. We’ve all just been working our tails off, day in and day out. Design job keeps me busy everyday, and recently they’ve just finished doing some renovations around the HQ office. Our HQ is pretty basic – consists of a small square office space downstairs, the same thing upstairs, and then a larger warehouse space in back (where they pack tea, do orders, etc.) through a door. The only downside to all of these new changes lately is that they’ve re-organized peoples’ desks. They essentially moved everyone’s desk upstairs, except moi. Some people had already been up there to begin with, so they really only moved one person up there, who used to be with me down here. But now I’m by myself, and I do miss having company. I have to walk upstairs to talk to people face-to-face. I am a person who relishes their alone time, but this is a little too lonely for me! I know they didn’t do this for any mean reason, but I can’t help but feel “left-out” some days, because they’re all up there talking to each other and stuff. I feel like I’m in grade school again, where I was the weird kid who no one picked for their kickball team, and sat alone at lunch. Bleh. It’s crappy how those experiences stay with you long-term.

Biggest news is that the in-laws are coming to visit! They’ll be visiting the States from the end of April to the beginning of May, so not too, too long. The last time we all saw in each in person was when we left Japan to moved back to the States again, in 2008! Wow. Long time. This is obviously greats news because Takeshi gets to see his parents again. It’s making me somewhat nervous because uh – oh shit I haven’t used/studied Japanese that much at all since we’ve been back. Which I hate because I genuinely like learning Japanese, I love the language – and yet I can tell how this visit’s going to go already. It’ll be like it always was in Japan – me sitting there, not knowing enough nihongo to actually carry on a true conversation with anyone, and Takeshi having to act as translator 24/7. Me sitting there while they all talk to each other, wishing like hell I could follow along and contribute. It’s the one thing that’s made it so awkward between me and them – the thing that prevents me from totally feeling like a part of their family.

And if I voice these thoughts, TK would turn to me with annoyance and say, “Well, why don’t you just study the language?? Just do it, and stop complaining.” Which is fine to do when I have oodles of time, blah blah. Which he’d roll his eyes at. There’s not even a SLIGHT opportunity in the U.S. to use Japanese (never mind any other foreign language) for an average working person, and the one source of knowledge (a.k.a. hub) is busy with a 80+ hour work week. I don’t like to study on my own all the time, and I can’t practice conversation by myself, now can I?

The most I can do at this point is hunker down and brush up on as much as I can before the end of April!

catching up

Jeez, where did I leave off? The last time you heard from me, we were up in Frederick, MD (a.k.a. Nothing-to-do-up-here-ville). Hub was working at a restaurant in town which he had grown very tired of (to put it lightly). I had a part-time retail job in town (was also growing tired of, but what retail job doesn't do that to me?), and a contractor-ish design job with a place in Annapolis, MD. In September we adopted Percy our toy parti poodle (a.k.a. Perce, Perce-Perce, bubba, bubby, etc.)

So, fast-forward to end of October/beginning of November. TK gets an out-of-the-blue message from a lady who co-owns a restaurant in D.C. with her ex-husband. Hub had (before we ended up moving to Frederick for his job) interned for a day at this restaurant for the chance to work there. He had ended up not taking it (thus, the job in Frederick instead), because he wasn't "feeling it" at the time. Just not the right time/place whatever you wanna say. They had been very interested in him though, and had seen his food blog. So now, the head-honcho chef there was leaving to start his own venture, and they were looking to fill the position. They had kept him in mind, no doubt.

It was a pretty short "interview" process over a couple of weeks, where he's go down to D.C., do some dishes for them, talk about ideas for staff, food vendors, and so on. We kept it a secret from both of our jobs for all of November, just because it too early to start announcing to them, "hey, we're leavin'!"

As for my job - I was SO happy to leave that part-time job. I don't know if it was just that store, but - us employees never got breaks. As in, never. As in, working 7 hours straight on the floor. Now - it wasn't the hardest job to have by all means. But having to stash away and choke down junk food/water bottle at my register before the next customer walks up, wasn't very uplifting. There was never any way to bring real food with you on the floor, like an apple. And no-one (including me) never said anything about it. I think it just boiled down to everyone having the attitude of, "well it sucks, but I need the money, so I'm just going to deal with it, and find a way out a.s.a.p." Which was true for me as well, since I did have the other design job.

So we stayed at our jobs until the last part of December. What made the whole moving process weirder was that mum and dad had come to stay with us again, per their annual vacation-time period. I had already started to pack up things by myself while they were here, since hub was swamped at work with the Christmas crowds the whole month.

After we left our apartment in Frederick, we ended up staying for a month at this lady's house in D.C. who is a friend of hub's new boss. That's a whole other post though!

So now, we live in an apartment in D.C. and are finally getting settled, everything out of boxes finally. My design job hired me full-time, which I am SO thrilled about. I design for a business that interests me, I work with a small group of great people, and I get AN HOUR for lunch. Yay :) I'm the only graphic designer there, so I am pretty much "the face" of all of the advertising, packaging, in the respect that I design/create all of it. I'm always working with the CEO to create tons of new projects. It's pretty cool to walk into one of their stores, or go onto their website and see my "work". They're planning to expand this year - right now they have 5-6 stores. Pre-tty cool stuff.

Hub is busy as the Executive Chef of the restaurant, and working on writing his own menu. This place he's at (I heard from him) is known as a "springboard" restaurant for young/new talented chefs. It's a place where it's his food on the menu, not someone else's. It's pretty awesome. :) People are sitting at tables, eating TK's food! I definitely see it as a door to something more in the future, whatever he wants to do.

 So we're just busy busy. OH! My 26th birthday was this past Wednesday (6th). It was pretty quiet, since I have to go to bed earlier these days, and hub gets back at around the same times. So it was just me and the pooch. But at work during the day, the crew threw me a little surprise "party". I was called upstairs to the CEO's office for a "marketing meeting" and instead was greeted with everyone singing Happy Birthday, a card, a small creme brulee, and tea sampler set gift! It made my day. :)

So, so far so good. Hub said that tomorrow (Sunday - his usual day off now) we should go somewhere for my belated birthday. I have places in mind, but I know how these things usually go - we sleep in, because he never get enough sleep. And then our time to do stuff is cut short, and then even shorter now because things close earlier on Sundays. So, we'll see!

i've been busy

I'm alive, really! I've been through a whirlwind of changes, so I apologize to anyone who may still have been reading this blog. I'm not sure how many, hehe. I plan to write a "catch-up" post this weekend when I will have time. じゃね！

Percy

So it's another "catch-up" post after being bad and not posting for a while. D: Sorry, to whoever still reads this blog lol.

So lotsa stuff has happened since I posted last; good and bad.

We finally got a dog! :D

His name is Percy. He's a 4-year old (soon to be 5 in December) Parti Toy Poodle. Funny that originally, I hadn't applied for him online! We had inquired about another female toy poodle in the area - met with the foster mom and whatnot. In the end, the foster mom told me that we wouldn't be the best fit for the dog because she needed someone who only would be away from home for about 3-4 hours per day (whaaa??). Instead she told me about another poodle she had met recently, through her girlfriend who also fosters dogs. Percy was originally from Ohio, where he was owned by an old man with Parkinson's Disease. After not being able to take care of him anymore, Percy was given up to a shelter. That's where Debbie, the foster mom, found him and brought him in Maryland.

I went to meet him at the farm he was staying at (dog's heaven, right?), and it was so pretty there. Percy was running around with a little pack of pups there: 2 Pembroke Corgis (OMG LOVE), a big mix dog, and 2 Bichon mixes.

So long story short, (and after an over night "try-him-out" stay) we ended up getting him. $300.00, not too bad. It's been fun seeing hub really warm up to Percy, since TK did not grow up with any pets.  wasn't sure how it'd go! Lol. Unfortunately the pup has cataracts in his right eye and has no vision in it anymore. We're not sure how it happened or when - perhaps just hereditary. We'll also never be sure of his actual birthdate. His paperwork from the shelter only says "4 year and 10 months old".

So he has a wonderful temperament - only thing is that his owner NEVER taught him basic obedience, like "sit" or "stay". Percy's original name was Cuddles (eww) so we had to work the first few days with just teaching him his name!

So he's just now really settling down, getting used to our schedule. It's so nice to have a dog in the home again (for me - since my parents house). He frustrates me somedays, but he is a sweet boy and he makes us laugh for sure. ;)

overload

That's pretty much describes my life now, with the 2 jobs and everything else I need to do that's not work related. Things are going well for the financial situation. We've saved a LOT in the past month. The part-time retail job has increased my hours due to them losing about 6 people who went back to school/college. And my design job has definitely upped the number of projects that are "high priority" and need to be done, "oh, by next week." Don't get me wrong, I kind of have begun to like the chaos of having an overabundance of design projects to get done for them. It's just that sometimes people don't know that design. takes. time. I try to go as fast as I can, while still creating material that they/I can be proud of.

What happens though, when I need to get shit done for them, is to still on my round butt in-front of the laptop for hours (on-site and at home). When I'm not doing that, I try to get housecleaning done. I'm still the only one who can really get that stuff done. Just recently, I was finally able to take some time and do a quick vacuum of the apartment. Yesterday I had a few minutes to clean/scrub the kitchen sink.  Sometimes I feel like the only exercise I get is at the part-time gig. Starting this week, some of my "new hour" days consist of me coming in to "do the truck". Coming in at 5:30AM. (X__X);; I usually drag my sorry ass out of bed at 4AM. But on the brighter side, I get some time to move around, unpacking things from boxes, running them out to the shelves, moving items around, and I get out at 10AM. I do this, so far, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And on Wednesdays I wake up at 6AM to go to Annapolis for the design job. So straight 3 days of EARLINESS for me. Whew.

Hub has been equally busy with his work, since they've put him back on 6 days a week now. Mondays, again, are our only full days spent together. But we're both working hard to save money, and so far it looks like it's happening. Which is something to be grateful for. And to keep busting our butts for. So I can....get me' a DOG finally! >__> *Sob* I want one so bad.

Plants are all doing well. The bell pepper plant is about to bloom! :) I might have to transplant that sucker though, to a bigger pot again, since I'm not sure how big the peppers could get right now. But we'll see.

In other happy news - Takeshi finally FINALLY got to speak to Tousan on the phone the other night! Since we've moved back to the States in 08', he hasn't been able to hear FIL's voice. Only emails. Tousan likes to be anywhere but at home, on his days off. So he'd NEVER be there. Most of the time he would call home in Suzuka, Baasan would pick up. Cuz' she stays home, does chores, and then watches TV for 5 hours a day.

FIL said that he's thinking of visiting us in May of next year! Which would be so cool. (I'd rather visit THEM in Japan though lol) He might be able to bring SIL and MIL as well. Fingers crossed. But this means that I'll have to brush up my Japanese! :( It blows that I haven't had the time to truly continue to study the language. Sigh. I DON'T want to be like this forever - not being able to hold a conversation with my in-laws (except SIL knows some English). And where hub has to be "the translator" all the time. Well, when we finally get some concrete dates from FIL, that'll be my green light to buckle down as much as I can!

lancaster, plants

So I'm finally uploading these few photos I took during our recent day trip to Lancaster, PA (where we used to live while I was in college there). We arrived on a Monday evening, spent some time at our old favorite cafe, went to a hotel in town, woke up early on Tuesday for the farmer's market, and left at about noon. But hub got to enjoy the rest of his day off, while I went to work at 5pm. Bleh. >__<

It was great seeing old places again, but that hotel we had stayed in downtown was a piece of crap. An old, mildewy piece of crap. We had never stayed there, and only did because it was close to everything in town. And it was only for 1 night, so why not. An old desolate place, with dust caked on light fixtures, & stained carpets. It looked like the place was being prepped to be a haunted house amusement. The first key they gave us ended up being to a room that wasn't even fixed up yet, with frumpy, rubbled bedsheets, a pile of towels on the floor in the bathroom, and a CREEPY white-bar baby crib along one wall. UH. NO thank you. We went down and got another key, to a room which was fixed. TV had no working channels though.

Farmer's Market the next day was wonderful. We got to wander past all of the stands of produce, nuts, breads, preservatives, and Amish quilts. Hub, being the chef that he is, was very excited by many things, and bought some produce. We also bought a small rosemary plant, to add to our garden. :)

Prince Street Cafe on Monday night

View of Lancaster city from hotel room

Farmer's Market

And again

Hub bought "Indigo Rose" tomatoes. Very pretty!

I bought tea!

Our new rosemary plant

Apple mint is growing and growing!

Our tomato plant; about 3.5'  high now!

growth

I'm tired of all these cloudy overcast days. I swear I hear my plants weeping out there somedays. But actually, recently they've been doing fairly well. A few weeks ago I thought I had a pest problem, leaf-hoppers or something, and covered all plants with this insect killing spray. Ended up burning the sh*t out of them. Leaves crinkling up, turning brown, falling off. I seriously thought I had single-handedly killed off our entire garden. T__T But everyone has recovered since then, expect for the dill. Just had to throw that poor thing out. That thing was going downhill even before the spray. I don't know why.

Our very first cherry tomato finally ripened and we ate it last night! I felt weirdly proud as I held it in my hand, like it was a gold coin or somethin'. It was very tasty too. :)

Still on the plant

Tadaa! Ready to eat

The graphic design contractor job has been going well so far. I really do find that I enjoy it more and more. And the retail job...well, it is what it is. But that's how one feels between a job, and a career. I'm definitely gaining more experience for my resume, gaining some good material for my portfolio, and not to mention it's not bad money either! Hub thinks that this month will be the first in a long while that we'll end up saving money. I just hope it keeps going, that the boss likes me & thinks I'm worth keeping around! It may turn into my being employed, but I don't want to pine away on that too much. I get nervous when things are going well! I can't help it. Every time I've started feeling positive about where a graphic design job was headed, it usually ended sometime afterwards! Hell, the last position I had in Chantilly only lasted a month.

But everything seems to be in a state of growth lately - earning money at both my jobs, the garden starting to produce things finally, everything lush. It feels like the huge "thunderstorm" with rain, wind, and basketball-sized hail, that TK and I have been sitting under for about 2-3 years is starting to move away. I hope so.

On some other good news, the dude who hit us a week-and-a-half ago's insurance company called us the other day, and have accepted liability. So they'll be paying for the repairs to our f*cked up door, and a rental car, etc etc. So I'm taking the car into the auto body shop on Monday for an estimate. It can't be as much as the repair cost of the last accident it was in, with me in Virginia! Where I was hit from behind at about 30mph by an SUV, and then subsequently hit a 4-door in front of me. Completely punched in our trunk door. I think those repairs totaled about $3,000. Bleh. Good thing I didn't have to pay for it. So, we can finally get this door fixed so that it doesn't rain into the car anymore. Thumbs up.

i hate sharing the pool

Sure it's the community pool, but, I hate trying to swim in peace around dozens of little snot-nosed, screaming kids with floaties and huge neon water noodles. I came back from there about 20 minutes ago - I left prematurely because I just couldn't stand it. I didn't want to leave, but I got pool water up my nose one too many times while swimming, by huge waves created by groups of kids jumping constantly. I was spending most of my time spluttering, hanging on to the wall.

Maybe I'll try going a lot later in the day, next time. Might mean less people? I hope so, since I genuinely like to swim.

Going to drive to Annapolis again, for the scheduled meeting with the tea-boutique gig. Gotta wake up early at around 6:10am.... >__< waah.

Some new crappy news is that hub and I got into another car accident yesterday. No injuries! Nothing really serious. Just frickin' inconvenience at this point. We were pulling into the gas station, and there was a car we went to go pass behind to get through. He was just sitting there -- and then when we're right behind him, he backs up. Into us. >__>

TK was driving this time which is a first (since I've been the one in the past involved in an accident). Also another first is us being in an accident together. Yay more things to share and experience together? Hub practically flew out of the car after he put it in park, and looked like he was going to throw himself at the guy. Mumbling profanities and such.

So we all exchange info, and he was pretty chill to talk to about it but at the end he was like (in his slightly surfer-type voice), "But yeah man, just, look for those tail-lights next time OK?"

UH. No.

How about you look BEHIND you, like any responsible driver would, if you're to back up ANYWHERE.

Ignoramus.

Besides we thought he was parked! There WERE no tail-lights when we started to go behind you.

Rant rant, rah rah.....

So another frickin' trip to the auto shop, get a quote, go get it fixed etc. etc.


In happier news - sprouts! Yesh'.

Our first ever batch of home-grown sprouts was finished today. And they are sooo good. I am NEVER buying sprouts from the stores again. So much cheaper to do it at home. I just have to buy whatever I'd like to sprout; leafy greens, nut, grains, etc.

Growth over 5-6 days

They grew to the shape of the cup! You can definitely see how dense it gets

designing for tea

It's definitely a product that I am passionate about designing for! So, I have officially begun my "independent contractor-ship" for the tea retailer in Annapolis. Pretty cool, and I only have to drive the whole 72.5 miles to and from there on Wednesdays.

They have poured buckets of projects on me already - so I hit the ground running then eh? It makes sense though - I believe that they had no previous graphic designer working there. So now since they have me, and are not trying to put together designs themselves, they have tons of stuff they want to have designed. The only crappy part is of course, taxes aren't taken out of the paychecks. So I'll have to do some research about making quarterly tax payments.

I do love the fact that while I'm there, I get to drink/choose from a TON of different tea blends. So nice.

I still do the retail part-time. But it's nothing too substantial - still only 2 days a week, 5 hours each day. But hey, every bit of income counts.

I just got the "sprouter" device in the mail the other day. So I have started the first batch of clover sprouts! Let's hope it's as easy as the instructions say it is. x) I LOVE sprouts. Can't wait.

garden update

Our little container garden has really grown since we created it only about a month ago. Some new happenings with existing plants, and the adding of new plants as well. :)

New seeds sown: lettuce, mesclun & some 2ish year old nasturtium seeds hub had in the closet

Mesclun seeds sprouted! Didn't take long at all. Lettuce and mesclun have a very short time until they grow to full maturity about 30-48 days

Mesclun shooting up, getting bigger

Mesclun close-up

Our bell pepper sprouts! Definitely got bigger. The one on the right didn't make it though. Some kind of disease took it; red "rusty" patches appeared on the leaves and it wilted

But one is still alive! And is in a new, larger pot

Cherry tomato plant started flowering like crazy

Just yesterday I noticed the first fruits coming in!

More flower-to-fruiting going on

New dill plant

New apple mint plant

So the first lemon balm plant we had pretty much died. Why? Because I went fertilizer crazy = too much fertilizer too often. I've since educated myself about when to do it and how much to dilute. BUT, the plant was too far gone, so we said screw it - just buy a new lemon balm plant. Tadaa.

Garden 6/20

Garden 6/28

Today I also purchased some basic sprout growing merchandise from a website my dad made me privy to. I've always LOVED sprouts since I was a kid. I used to eat sprout sandwiches in elementary school, and I remember a boy asking me "Is that grass??" I couldn't persuade him to try it! Sprouts are a little overpriced in the grocery stores if you ask me - so what a good thing to just grow at home? I'm excited to start sprouted. I bought a pound of clover sprout seeds with it. Check out their website!

From the website: The "Easy Sprout Sprouter"

All of its parts

job scene

So since losing the job in Chantilly in April, after a month of working there, the job scene was pretty stagnate yet again. It's amazing how tough the competition can be these days, for even mundane part-time jobs. Finally in the beginning of this month, I was hired for another retail job - for a new store that was opening. I was happy to get it, and I had a good number of hours when coming in to help with stocking the store, getting ready for it to open. Also, not-so-bad hours for the grand opening this past weekend. But as soon as this week started, the hours dropped down to almost nothing. This week I only work on Saturday for 5 hours.


Needless to say I need another job. Great.


Another update, though, just happened today. A few days ago I had answered a listing posted for a paid Graphic Design intern for a tea retailer/boutique-ish business - only hitch was that it is located 1.5 hours away from us. That's actually a big hitch for us, at this point in time. That means lots money for gas, lots of mileage on the car, and obviously a huge journey every day and back to work there.


But because I was extremely excited to see a listing that I was actually interested in, tea, I had already set up an interview with them. Hub came home and pretty much knocked some reality back into me, and we agreed that it wasn't the best choice to take this position right now. We would just be making our financial situation worse. I send a last minute email to them saying as such and apologize. They send a response saying, "You wouldn't necessarily have to come to Annapolis for the internship. If you're still interested let us know."


Long story short, I had a phone chat with the co-owner of the place today, and it looks like we could set up something, where I could work from home most the time, and then have 1 day a week where I'd go to Annapolis to touch base with them in person, prioritize projects, etc. And I'd actually get a bi-weekly stipend! I hope this works out. It means more experience, portfolio/resume material, actually getting paid for it, designing for TEA (oh yeah), and they said there was a possibility of it turning into a full-time position. The internship is roughly 10 months. So we'll see how this pans out!

container garden

So since the warmer weather has officially started, I decided a few weeks ago, to put our plants outside. Also, when we were cooking dinner at my friend's house, he gave me some bell pepper seeds from the ones we cooked, to take home. I planted them and was thrilled when they finally sprouted! I went and transplanted all of my plants in the end, into bigger containers; both pregnant onions, my cactus, and my money tree. Takeshi also ended up buying a small (here's a real herb plant for you to have!) mint plant at the grocery store, so I decided to transplant it as well. It had a bit of a rough time, since I ended up reverting back to my old ways of KILLING all plants in reach because I "over-mother" them = over-watering. I drowned them with love, essentially. >__>;;


I'm much better about it now though. I've found the best thing to do with plants, in the whole, is to leave them alone. Just let them grow forget them for a couple days, and try not to over-manage them.


I guess hub has gotten back into the container garden hobby as well, since we went out to Lowe's the other day and bought more plants! Lemon balm, sweet basil, thyme, and cherry tomato. So all of the plants are outside now on the balcony (which gets good sun during the day), except for the 2 onions and money tree that are still on the windowsill in the spare bedroom.


I am keeping an eye on my 3 bell pepper seedlings though (2 as a pair, and then 1 by itself). They used to be inside on the sill as well. The day before yesterday they looked a little wilted, and I started to get worried, reading about damping off disease and all. So I've moved them outside as well, for better air circulation. Fingers crossed!

Pregnant onion splitting down the middle! Growing bigger!

Bell peppers sprouted! About 2 weeks ago.

Progress! Still growing and separated into 2 pots.

The most recent photo before they started to go wilty' on me

Decrepit mint and the cactus

My first transplanting expedition, getting down an' dirty

Pregnant onion out of it's former container - had totally outgrown it!

Our newest plants - Top: lemon balm & thyme; Bottom: tomato & basil

anniversary no. 4

So this past Wednesday hub and I went out to dinner at a place in DC for our anniversary. The dinner was ok; hub is always very critical of fine dining food (never mind regular restaurant food), and this meal did not wow him. In fact we we left wanting a little. There were 24 courses with a wine/cocktail pairing. So every 3 courses we would get a new glass of wine, or a new cocktail. Mind you, we had already ordered cocktails while we were waiting to be seated so....yah. We were getting fuzzy by the 10th course. They kept bringing glasses out, and at some point I just stopped trying to keep up. It felt like they were intentionally trying to get us drunk! It did make the food taste better (not that it didn't already), but for the second half of the dinner, I hated being "half in the world". TK at one point, to my total embarrassment, started to drift off to sleep at the table. I kept hissing, "Wake up! Do NOT fall asleep!"


We had a sleepy Metro train ride back to our station in Rockville, and by that time, thankfully, I had sobered up, and we drove back home to Frederick. As I said, not an awesome rock-our-world dinner. We've had better. But it was a place neither of us had been to, so what the heck!