Bad Restaurant Weekend

This weekend was rather unkind to me in terms of restaurants. The first mishap happened on Saturday night. We were coming back from church and I suggested we stop by The Italian Gourmet for dinner. It's a little place we've gotten take out from before, but we had never eaten at the restaurant. The meal started out nicely with Lauren enjoying some bread sticks while Debbie and I enjoyed our salads. After our salads I began to think our meal was taking a little while. Twenty minutes after I noticed THAT, our food arrived. It was now 7:20 and, as many of you may know, we like to put Lauren to bed at 8. No problem, we can easily eat and make it home in plenty of time. Unfortunately, as I began to eat my Filet Mignon with white wine, garlic, and mushrooms, I began to realize this was most likely not my order. One, the steak was not a Filet, but a Sirloin. Big difference! Next, instead of medium well, the steak which took entirely too long was almost rare. The staff was very apologetic and eager to fix the problem, but time constraints forced me to just have them fix the error and place it in a doggie bag. The steak was okay, but it was not the meal experience I expected.
Tonight, we went to Friday's for the first time in several months. After perusing the menu, Debbie became distraught. They had removed our favorite dessert ever: the Oreo Cookie Madness. That was really the only reason I could get Debbie to go to Friday's. She never really liked their menu since they removed the "flair" from the servers' outfits. This just sealed the deal. My meal was okay, but Debbie was once again less than impressed with her choice. Given that and the removal of one of our favorite desserts of all time, we will not be going back.
Despite that, this weekend was very productive on many fronts. For starters, I was able to make a little more progress on the deck. I filled in the area around the external faucet. I also placed 2 more boards on the far end. I now have a 1 inch gap between the edge of the last board and the railing. This is going to be interesting to complete. I now have to rip some deck boards along the length, and hopefully do it in a fashion that has some semblance of skill. That's a lot harder than it sounds. Then there was the concrete work. I decided, with the crappy weather, it might be a good weekend to finally close the Possum Hole (TM). Working with cement is always fun, but I managed to keep the mess to a minimum. Just a bit more work on the hole and that should be sealed shot forever. Just in time too. While working on the deck, I noticed a chipmunk wandering around. Turns out, the little bugger now has taken up residence underneath the patio as well. It appears there was a tiny little hole I missed with the concrete and this bastard found it. Given the small size, I think some Great Stuff will work just fine. After the Possum Hole (TM) is sealed, all that area needs is some more insulation (since the previous tenant treated that stuff like a home). Possum Gate is coming to a close! Finally! Deck Gate, well that has some more to go. Hopefully I can get that done before the snows come. If not ... well ... I have warm clothing.