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bigmacbear) wrote2021-12-26 11:59 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2021-12-26 11:59 pm
Christmas Trip, Day 5 of 8
SUNDAY, December 26th
I got up with Gary's alarm about 8:15 and turned off my own which was set a half hour later. I took a while in the bathroom so I deferred my shower till after breakfast so Gary could get ready. We made it downstairs for breakfast around 9:30. While we were choosing from the limited selection of breakfast food, a rather lean young dude wearing a Bengals jersey with AJ Green's name and number was chatting with the lady restocking the counters and mentioned where Green is playing now (Arizona). I grabbed some oatmeal, an English muffin, a blueberry muffin, and two hard-boiled eggs. When I went for coffee, a rather chunky little black boy of maybe ten was looking for a cup for water, and asked me if he could use a coffee cup. I said "Either or" and under my breath, "I don't work here," and proceeded to pour myself some coffee. After breakfast we watched TV in the lobby for a bit, then returned to the room for the football pregame show.
About 12:30 I changed into swim trunks and went downstairs to the pool, with Gary following while I was swimming laps (he wasn't interested in swimming but wanted to update the neighborhood Facebook page). I did ten, then got some pictures and updated my Facebook. After a while I returned to the pool for five more laps, then dried off and we returned to the room to watch the Bengals game vs. the Ravens at home. Around halftime we drove across the road to Ruby Tuesday for lunch. It appeared we were one of maybe three parties, one of which was a relatively large family group. We were seated alongside the bar so we could watch the game. I had a bacon cheeseburger, tots, and a trip to the salad bar (which for me was always the main attraction of Ruby Tuesday to begin with), while Gary had a chicken sandwich and fries with no salad bar.
After lunch we returned to the hotel and had the game on mute with closed caption while Gary set up his family Zoom call. Mike, Rahmik, and Lillie joined the call (after we ended up spinning up a Facebook Messenger call to help Lillie join) and they chatted for almost the full 90 minutes allotted. During the call, the Bengals game concluded with a 41-21 win over the Ravens and I tuned in the Bears at Seahawks game. There was a lot of snow on the field. All day I received reports from the XL Bears on Telegram regarding the difficulty of getting from Seattle and Renton to Lynnwood for Spa Day, and other reports on Facebook on how much snow had fallen elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. CC Attle's also announced they would be closed today due to the snow and resulting lack of staff. During halftime of the Seahawks game I changed into my gym shorts to get comfortable. The game went back and forth quite a bit, but the Seahawks had the lead right up until the Bears made a two-point conversion with a minute left to play. Unfortunately the 'Hawks were unable to catch up and lost 25-24.
After the game we went to Frisch's Big Boy for dinner. On the way the car threw a warning on the display that the rear passenger tire was low on air, so we inspected the wheel before entering the restaurant and decided to stop by the nearest gas station after dinner to refill the tire. We were served by a cute young otter with a long, thick red beard and a mini-ponytail to match. We each had a fish dinner, mine with a tossed salad and mac and cheese, and Gary's with coleslaw and broccoli. The waiter accidentally dropped my slice of toast and one of my fish fillets on the tray so he took them back to the kitchen to be replaced. He returned with the toast and three fish fillets, which was nice. Dinner was tasty and rather filling, so Gary asked for a box and put all the fish we couldn't eat in it to take back to the hotel. When we finished dinner and checked out, we stopped by the Shell station on the corner and Gary got quarters to feed the air pump. I was surprised by the pressure required to turn off the sensor: I'm used to 30-35 psi but this tire seems to want 50 or more. However, we eventually got enough air in the tire to get the sensor to shut up.
That settled, we returned to the room and turned on Sunday Night Football. I called Bob, my best friend from high school, and we caught up on years of news. A few highlights: his son Andy has a son Cameron and the family live in Kent, Ohio; his daughter Meredith has come out as transgender and is living with her fiancee; he and his wife Lisa live on a five acre spread between Hamilton and Oxford with a couple of dogs (who have to be fenced in to protect them from coyotes), and commute to Cincinnati hospitals (he's in executive IT in the research arm of Children's Hospital while she's a nurse at Good Samaritan). We made a date for lunch at the Outback Steakhouse in Tri-County Mall for tomorrow. I let Gary know and caught up on the football game, in which Dallas was simply crushing Washington 49-7 with five minutes left in the third quarter. The final score was 56-14. We watched the late local news and got to sleep about 1 AM.
I got up with Gary's alarm about 8:15 and turned off my own which was set a half hour later. I took a while in the bathroom so I deferred my shower till after breakfast so Gary could get ready. We made it downstairs for breakfast around 9:30. While we were choosing from the limited selection of breakfast food, a rather lean young dude wearing a Bengals jersey with AJ Green's name and number was chatting with the lady restocking the counters and mentioned where Green is playing now (Arizona). I grabbed some oatmeal, an English muffin, a blueberry muffin, and two hard-boiled eggs. When I went for coffee, a rather chunky little black boy of maybe ten was looking for a cup for water, and asked me if he could use a coffee cup. I said "Either or" and under my breath, "I don't work here," and proceeded to pour myself some coffee. After breakfast we watched TV in the lobby for a bit, then returned to the room for the football pregame show.
About 12:30 I changed into swim trunks and went downstairs to the pool, with Gary following while I was swimming laps (he wasn't interested in swimming but wanted to update the neighborhood Facebook page). I did ten, then got some pictures and updated my Facebook. After a while I returned to the pool for five more laps, then dried off and we returned to the room to watch the Bengals game vs. the Ravens at home. Around halftime we drove across the road to Ruby Tuesday for lunch. It appeared we were one of maybe three parties, one of which was a relatively large family group. We were seated alongside the bar so we could watch the game. I had a bacon cheeseburger, tots, and a trip to the salad bar (which for me was always the main attraction of Ruby Tuesday to begin with), while Gary had a chicken sandwich and fries with no salad bar.
After lunch we returned to the hotel and had the game on mute with closed caption while Gary set up his family Zoom call. Mike, Rahmik, and Lillie joined the call (after we ended up spinning up a Facebook Messenger call to help Lillie join) and they chatted for almost the full 90 minutes allotted. During the call, the Bengals game concluded with a 41-21 win over the Ravens and I tuned in the Bears at Seahawks game. There was a lot of snow on the field. All day I received reports from the XL Bears on Telegram regarding the difficulty of getting from Seattle and Renton to Lynnwood for Spa Day, and other reports on Facebook on how much snow had fallen elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. CC Attle's also announced they would be closed today due to the snow and resulting lack of staff. During halftime of the Seahawks game I changed into my gym shorts to get comfortable. The game went back and forth quite a bit, but the Seahawks had the lead right up until the Bears made a two-point conversion with a minute left to play. Unfortunately the 'Hawks were unable to catch up and lost 25-24.
After the game we went to Frisch's Big Boy for dinner. On the way the car threw a warning on the display that the rear passenger tire was low on air, so we inspected the wheel before entering the restaurant and decided to stop by the nearest gas station after dinner to refill the tire. We were served by a cute young otter with a long, thick red beard and a mini-ponytail to match. We each had a fish dinner, mine with a tossed salad and mac and cheese, and Gary's with coleslaw and broccoli. The waiter accidentally dropped my slice of toast and one of my fish fillets on the tray so he took them back to the kitchen to be replaced. He returned with the toast and three fish fillets, which was nice. Dinner was tasty and rather filling, so Gary asked for a box and put all the fish we couldn't eat in it to take back to the hotel. When we finished dinner and checked out, we stopped by the Shell station on the corner and Gary got quarters to feed the air pump. I was surprised by the pressure required to turn off the sensor: I'm used to 30-35 psi but this tire seems to want 50 or more. However, we eventually got enough air in the tire to get the sensor to shut up.
That settled, we returned to the room and turned on Sunday Night Football. I called Bob, my best friend from high school, and we caught up on years of news. A few highlights: his son Andy has a son Cameron and the family live in Kent, Ohio; his daughter Meredith has come out as transgender and is living with her fiancee; he and his wife Lisa live on a five acre spread between Hamilton and Oxford with a couple of dogs (who have to be fenced in to protect them from coyotes), and commute to Cincinnati hospitals (he's in executive IT in the research arm of Children's Hospital while she's a nurse at Good Samaritan). We made a date for lunch at the Outback Steakhouse in Tri-County Mall for tomorrow. I let Gary know and caught up on the football game, in which Dallas was simply crushing Washington 49-7 with five minutes left in the third quarter. The final score was 56-14. We watched the late local news and got to sleep about 1 AM.