forget about the pricetag

I actually made it out of bed sometime before eleven, which is the equivalent of sometime before nine on the west coast - I am such a productive member of society. The only reason I got out of bed then was to have lunch with my mother. We drove to a town north of ours and ate at a little cafe called Grassroots; it's really lovely in a totally different way from all other restaurants in these parts. For one, they serve quiche (which I didn't have this time). For another, they serve hot tea (which I also didn't have). And, their chicken salad was made with mayonnaise and cranberries, not with Miracle Whip. Don't get me wrong, I love deep fried cheese balls and deep fried breaded mushrooms and chicken strips and cheeseburgers and all the other things I usually eat when we go out around here, but I'm glad to have some variety. I'm also glad to see that they seem to be doing well, since the place was crowded when we showed up - a good sign, given the economy, fuel prices, etc.

So my mother and I each had a chicken salad sandwich, and she had cheesy potato soup while I had the tomato bisque. My soup was good, but between that, the croissant, and the mayonnaise, I was eating so many non-Alyssa-approved things that my stomach rebelled and I only ate a third of my soup. This caused a lot of consternation for the owner and the waiter, both of whom offered to bring me a different side dish and kept asking me if the soup was okay. Isn't that nice? After lunch, we went across the street and looked around the general store, then came home so that I could take a nap.

I spent the rest of the day and night alternating between taking care of things on my to-do list, catching up on a thousand or so messages in my romance writing accounts that I've basically ignored over the last two weeks, and watching some fine CBS programming. My father had been in Des Moines all day, but he was home in time for supper (ham, baked beans, and sweet potatoes), and so we spent a bit of time hanging out before he fell asleep in his chair and my mom and I watched "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "The Good Wife". I came downstairs while Letterman was on, and now I'm trying to wrap this up so I can go to bed. I have a lot of things on my list to take care of tomorrow, and I need to go to bed tomorrow night so that I can get up early and leave for Oklahoma (bleh). Goodnight!