22 Hours Of Food, Friends, And Face Painting

Our first day in Georgia was arguably also our busiest. After staying up past midnight with our arrival/greeting rituals we were up and out of the house around 5:30 to meet Christina for breakfast at the local IHOP where we dined with other early birds and were the youngest diners by at least 45 years.

We learned all about her new love, their plans for plans, and the ugly underbelly within the world of a modern day pinup girl. I had Peaches & Cream Brioche French Toast. Delectable.

Next was Budd. We used the excuse that I needed a new shirt and tie, which I did, but, it's complicated. Budd dragged us around his store, showed off our daughter to strangers, and gave us the skinny on his exciting news. It's hush hush. You know what? It's hush hush hush.

Then Christian for lunch, which we dragged Budd to as well, and solicited at Chili's way longer than any diner should. We never make it Chili's nowadays, so we stocked up on Southwestern Eggrolls. Don't judge.

When we got home I tried to take a nap, but the girls decided that they would take advantage of my stillness and try and paint my face like a dimestore hooker.

Yuula did her own too, but she somehow managed to still look cute.

Then Laura had to go out for Mariah's bachelorette party. I know nothing of the events of the evening. But I did find this photo on her phone, so... there was shrimp.

I took advantage of the wife being out and free babysitting to hit the town myself and went into town with the gang, meeting up at Rick's and then heading out for tacos in the rain and then a little live music at 529 in East Atlanta. Headliners were Takenobu and Weekend, but to me, Book of Colors was astounding. Got to meet the lead singer backstage and got the skinny. Remember that name. 

you won't

I got home at 3:30am

Mall Hallow's Eve

Surviving Sandy: Day Three

We woke up this morning with the realization that this was not going to be the day we got power back. Neighbors were found wandering the streets muttering blasphemes such as "Saturday, Sunday at best" and "Jersey is running out of gas". We had to decide whether we should go buy shotguns at Walmart and hunker down to protect our homefront or load up the car with the bare necessities and head for greener pastures. Scary Halloween decisions. We decided to dress Yuula like a lion and take her to the mall.

I had heard of these mall trick-or-treats but refused to believe they could replace the real thing. I was right. What a travesty. Ghosts were rolling over in their graves. A line that wrapped the interior of the mall twice, a systematic "parade" from store to store with communistic candy rationing. The GNC was handing out vitamins and they weren't even Flintstones! Let's remember to never attempt that again. It shouldn't be hard.

Yuula did get a decent share of candy however. Her first box of Nerds was a hit. I think she even ate one off the ground. Yeah, she definitely did.

Giving up and sucking a lolly

We met up at the mall with the Trunks and since it was the girls turn to decide where to eat we ended up at a mysteriously empty Chili's. 

But that was fine with us because it gave the girls a chance to run around some open space. That and the spilled margaritas, the waitress didn't hate us, no. Not one bit.

just let them

This was the first night we transitioned from blanket fort to sleeping on the daybed mattresses in front of the fireplace. Temperatures outside were starting to drop and we weren't messing around anymore.