It's a good thing the company was great,

Because our evening in Hickory was a bit of a disappointment.

We've had a long, tiring week (well, as usual, and who hasn't?), and it's going to be a rather long weekend (7 hours helping tomorrow with the high school's mystery dinner theater, then Adam preaches again on Sunday),

So, we decided we'd go have a snack of dinner together, and a toodle around Barnes and Noble, before doing the grocery shopping.

El Chapala Restaurant in Hickory was a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT.

Now, we absolutely love our El Chapala Restaurant in Brevard. It's just about our favorite. Great Mexican food, served hot and fast, at unbeatable prices.

Before I could even situate myself on my chair, the waiter this evening asked what I wanted to drink. I said I really didn't know yet. He didn't come back for about 15 minutes. And we asked to be moved away from the annoying TV. Maybe that miffed them.

But the noisy Hispanic family behind us (happy, but noisy) got absolutely gorgeous food. When I saw the mom's large, crispy quesadilla, with a heaping mound of bright green avocado dip next to it, that made up my mind.

When mine came out, it was small, undercooked (some of the tortilla wasn't brown at all), and I had a pitiful little dribble of pale avocado across the lettuce.

The waiter didn't speak to us again until he came to carry my plate away. And when he asked if my meal was fine, I told him no, it was not. And I told him why. He just smiled. We won't be returning.

In WalMart, I reached between two ladies to open the cooler for a quart of half-and-half. They were just standing there, looking at the cooler, so I thought it was fine to reach between them. A few minutes later the younger one (the daughter?) elbowed me abruptly as we were getting some eggs. Later, the mom actually spoke to me rudely. So, we spent the rest of our shopping time, nervously trying to avoid this family of 5 in each aisle.

Just not a happy evening.

But I was with Adam, so the company was good in spite of it all. And Barnes and Noble was still a good stop. They have nothing, absolutely nothing, in the store about Old English. But I still found 2 books for myself for Christmas. Adam bought a copy of Herodotus's The Histories, for $7.

And in case you couldn't tell, my friends, I just got all that off my chest. I feel better, my little guinea pigs :)