Sunday, September 7, 2008

While the Husbands away the wife will play!

Mandola Vineyard in Driftwood, TX






Well, actually I really wish James could have come and experienced this with us but the hubby has to do his job and bring in the money! Anyway, when James is gone I usually turn into a workaholic and this past week was ridiculously busy and stressful! I missed my husband BUT thankfully Saturday I was able to get out and enjoy myself with these great girls above (oh ya and TYLER- my neighbor). But the night turned out to be quite the experience.

It started out a great night. We got a bottle of the vineyards white wine and sat outside on the porch to watch the sunset (very relaxing). Next thing we knew we were able to get our table early, woo hoo. So we got there at 7:40 and was seated around 8ish. Not bad since our reservation was at 8:30pm. Well, our table was in the so called "out door seating" but the windows were closed and cement walls and ceiling made for a VERY loud atmosphere. I was yelling the whole time! Then we ordered another bottle for all of us to share and waited for it to come. And we waited, and waited, and waited. 45 minutes later we had to remind the waiter about our wine. We hadn't even ordered our food yet and 2 tables had come and gone. We all were giggling and having a good time but geeze, grandma here goes to bed at 10pm and it was already 9pm. Anywho, the waiter finally comes and gets our order. its 9:30 and we all looked like we could eat off each others arms we were so hungry! Maybe it was the 2 bottles of wine on an empty stomach and no BREAD!! The waiter never brought us bread until the main course!! Not good for might lightweight self who has to drive 45 minutes home by herself!! Okay so the food finally comes around 10pm, when the restaurant is closing, and we all take a couple of bites and are just ready to go! There was no one left in the restaurant! My friend called over the manager and told him what happened. We were hoping for a free meal but all he gave us was a free desert. We took what we could get! So at this point its 10:45 and we all need coffee to get us home! We ask the waiter to bring it out with our desert but what do ya know, their out of coffee! So he brings us cappuccinos. I said, thanks but I am lactose intolerant. He gives me a not so pleasant look and I just ask for the check. Geeze, its 11pm and we've been here for 3 and half hours! We finally leave a little past 11pm and I am dreading the drive home on the dark country roads. I was fine to drive, just tired! This is James' job! he's my chauffeur, I miss him!! :) I call him in LA to see if he will talk to me while I drive home. It was only 9pm there anyway, but he was fast asleep getting ready to race the next morning! Who could blame him. Got home an hour later and went straight to bed! What a night!

Overall- Vineyard was beautiful, food/wine was pretty good, service was horrible!
Lesson Learned- I need supervision when it comes to these outings! In other words, my husband!!


Okay so not a tri blog but something different. Off to Malibu on thursday to reunite with James for the Malibu Triathlon weekend extravangansa. Yea!
Cheers,
LCotter

6 comments:

BreeWee said...

I LOVE that photo of you both on the top (the newish one)!

Way to have a fun weekend Mrs. Cotter... you totally gotta have those every now and then! Besides, you guys share the blog and we gotta know what the crazy pro's spouse is up too! Your posts are just as fun :)

MarkyV said...

BEST BLOG YET!!!!!!!!! :)

Life stuff is soooo cool! :)

Bruce Stewart (施樸樂) (ブルース・スチュワート) said...

Perhaps a good lesson to learn from the meal is not to go somewhere you are not sure of without a rowdy bunch of hardened triathletes. It sucks. I experienced something similar many years ago when I went to a small restaurant with my wife. I was just too polite and waited. We should have just got up and walked out.
18. James Cotter, United States, 1:59:26. I found this LA result on the Internet, it may not have been what he wanted, but better to win last week than have two average performances. Maybe the race this coming weekend will be something James will be focusing on more.

Unknown said...

Bruce,

Found out the James was racing very well until he was pulled over by a marshall for drafting. A 2 minutes penalty on an Olympic COurse is not easy to catch up to. He said he wasn't and told the Marshall to please review it. Well later after the race the USAT head marshall apologized and said they were wrong for penalty but there was nothing they could do, UGH!!!!

Free and Living said...

Linds, I love that last pic of you and Malita. Wish I could have enjoyed the 3 hour dinner with you both!! That's ok for Europe, but not for the States!

Unknown said...

Bruce,
The race yesterday did not go as planned. A bad call from an official ended the day. In such a short race it was hard to come back and I pushed to hard and cracked. That's racing. Hope to put in a better performance this weekend.