I'll have the chicken caesar salad, arrrrrr!

I can't believe it's December already!!
Tonight, Mike and I finally drove out to Daniel Island to try a place we've been really excited about. It's called Queen Anne's Revenge, and it is a pirate-themed restaurant. I was imagining it to be kind of like the waiting-in-line area of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyworld, only with seating and food. Which was actually pretty much what it was like - I was quite satisfied. The food was good, and the only disappointment was that the servers don't wear eyepatches, or say ARRRRRR or do anything pirate-y like that.
I made Mike pose for a picture with me, just so I would have something to post on the blog.


And just to show you what the place looks like, here are some pictures of the interior:

We also got our first Christmas tree yesterday. Our strategy was to go with a small-ish (real)tree and a very sturdy tree stand. I think it turned out pretty well, and it hasn't fallen over yet!

Back to the grind...

August was a busy month. We moved to our new spacious apartment which unfortunately is by the train tracks. I like to think we live on the wrong side of the tracks since it gives us a little edginess but I'm sure we don't. On our side of the track is a golf course subdivision.

After moving, I had to deal with finals and finishing up all the unfinished projects from the summer semester. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad. My incentive for finishing the semester was the fact that we were going to Disney World for the week break I had between summer and fall semesters. (That's us with Pooh at the Crystal Palace)

Disney was fun. We did all the parks: Animal Kingdom, Epcot, MGM, Magic Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, and Typhoon Lagoon. We stayed at a Disney resort so we got to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours which allowed us to go to some of the parks before everyone else and stay in the other parks longer than everyone else. Becky was stunned by how much you could get done at the parks if you arrived at the park right when they open (and this isn't counting Extra Magic Hours). At least at Disney, the early bird does get the worm.

This was our first time at Animal Kingdom. The park was impressive. The Africa section really gave you the feeling of being in an African outpost except there weren't many black people there. So, it was like Africa if Africa was only populated by white tourists in loud clothes eating smoked turkey legs. Expedition Everest was cool with lots of spinning in the dark backwards.

I hadn't been to Epcot in awhile, but Mission Space is definitely the bee's knees. I don't know why anyone would do the ride without the spinning option, but there it was at 10pm, a super long line for the lame-o version of the ride. Sure, if you have problems with motion sickness maybe the non-spinning option is best. Anyway, I also got to play with the Wii and ride on a Segway at Epcot. Apparently, I was the only person in my family who hadn't played the Wii and I had to drive to Orlando to do it. Yes. I, too, am lame.

But now, we're back in Charleston. School has already started and work's been pretty busy. We're switching to a computerized charting system next week. That's about it. Go Cats!

Every meal is a deal

It's Friday night, and Mike and I decided to go out to dinner. There is a deli/Italian restaurant down the street from us that I had never tried, so we decided to check it out tonight. Their sign out front advertises "Freshest food in town!" and "Every meal is a deal". We ordered and were happily munching on our calamari and bread, when the waitress brought our entrees to the table. I looked down at my lasagna and noticed, to my dismay, that the lasagna had fuzzy mold growing on it. We flagged the waitress over and showed her, she apologized and took it back to the kitchen. I briefly began mulling over whether I wanted to chance it with a replacement lasagna, or whether I wanted something else...

And then the waitress brings the lasagna back, sets it down in front of me, and tells me that the chef says "it's just the meat," as if that is how meat is supposed to be. We were stunned. It took me a minute to process the fact that they actually expected me to eat moldy lasagna. Eventually, after I clarified that I had no intention of eating that lasagna, they got me some spaghetti (without meat, given that apparently their meat comes with fur).

I'm not that mad. But it was pretty funny. That was definitely not how I expected that to go.
That definitely takes some chutzpah, to bring back the same moldy lasagna.

So.... definitely avoid Nathan's Bella Napoli, on Ashley River Rd in West Ashley.

Tragedies

Last night, Mike and I went out to dinner. As we drove to the restaurant, we noticed a huge cloud of smoke rising from down the street, and emergency vehicles kept flying past us. We figured that there was a fire somewhere nearby. This morning, we learned that 9 firefighters were killed in that fire. It's a terrible loss for our community.

Two weeks ago, an aircraft carrying a University of Michigan transplant team crashed. Six people were killed, including Richard Chenault, who lived across the street from my parents. He was a father, a nurse, a high school cross-country coach, and he worked tirelessly to promote organ donation.

The world needs more people like these. You can read profiles of the U of M crash victims here.
You can read profiles of the Charleston firefighters here.

Night Shift

Last Thursday and Friday night, I worked my first night shifts at the hospital (12 hour shifts from 7p to 7a). They're definitely a different beast from day shifts. The floor's much quieter at night, but unfortunately that doesn't translate to being less busy. It's been a rough few days trying to trick my circadian rhythms. Friday was really rough because I couldn't sleep during the day. It didn't help that I got on the wrong bus and ended up on James Island. Anyway, I was really struggling near the end of that shift. Fortunately, I was so exhausted Saturday morning that all I could do was sleep. Unfortunately, Becky had convinced me to run the Riverdog's Run Forrest Run 5K later that afternoon. A) I really could have used the sleep. B) I'm not really the running type though I've been trying real hard lately to put some miles on my shoes. But I ran (ok, I walked some of it) the 5K in less than 37 minutes, which meant I got to finish at home plate with high fives from the Riverdogs, the Bubba Gump shrimp mascot, Charlie the Riverdog (I think he was there), and a Forrest Gump impersonator. Of course, Becky totally lapped me finishing at least 15 minutes ahead of me. We stayed for the game which included a golf umbrella give away (almost as dangerous as bat day). By the time we got home, I was already asleep again. I've another night shift tonight and two more this weekend. Then, I'll be officially off orientation which I'm greeting with some dread and relief. It'll be nice to finally be on my own, but it definitely has been nice and comforting to work with someone with way more experience.