Unfortunate...

Unfortunate last name? Unfortunate restaurant name? Unfortunate experience with home cooking?

I think yes.

I mean, for hospital food...

This is pretty darn good!

Brisket with succotash and sweet potato mash with my choice of Eastern or Western Carolina BBQ sauce. (I chose Western)

The Best Kind of Fail

I signed up recently for the Mileage Plus Dining program. If I eat at participating restaurants I get 3 United miles for every dollar I spend. There isn't much in the immediate vicinity of where I usually stay in Raleigh so I looked up what was available in the Mileage Plus Dining program and found, what looked like, a good Greek restaurant. Only when I showed up the restaurant was dark, clearly closed.

Fortunately, there were a few other options in the area. I walked up to one, Saffron, to look at the menu. There were people standing right inside the door and they opened it for me before I got to scope out even what type of food it served. Apparently it was Indian. And good Indian at that! I had Malai Chicken Tikka (Chicken marinated in yoghurt, cream and mild spices overnight).  It was delicious. I'll definitely be going back!


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Side note - the restaurant was only 3.5 miles away but it was few turns, dark out, no light, not very well marked, etc. I had my GPS to get from the hotel to the restaurant but I didn't really think about how I was going to get back to the hotel! The hotel is fairly new and the street isn't in the GPS. Fortunately I happened to remember that there is a Hooters at the intersection near the hotel so I was able to get back...yep. Hooters. awesome.

It's a Small World After All

Is that song stuck in your head now? It's in mine. Sorry!

Anyway...

I flew down to NC yesterday and drove to Emerald Isle to meet my cousin and his wife as we wait for their son (my second cousin, or first cousin once/twice removed or something like that) to arrive back on base from Afghanistan. Unfortunately his arrival kept getting pushed back, and pushed back again. He is now not supposed to arrive until 5pm today (as opposed to 8am and then 5pm Sunday). Instead I just spent the day with my cousin who I do not get to see very much as he lives in California.

My cousin is staying in the house of a friend of his from the Marines. It's a beatiful house with a very of the beach. I spent some time wandering around getting a lay of the land...only to stumble upon a picture of my very first boss! Apparently my boss and this gentleman's daughter were best friends from undergrad and she was in her wedding.

Such a small world that I could be more than 350 miles away from home, in the house of someone I don't know and stumble upon pictures of people I do know!

Perks of the Job

My cousin is coming home!! Lt Bobby Jakucs USMC has been stationed in Afghanistan for the last 9 months. In July my sisters, cousin and I road tripped down to North Carolina for the 4th of July weekend to see him off. He will be getting back into NC this Sunday. 

Just today I discovered I would be onsite with a client in NC Monday and Tuesday. Instead of flying down Monday morning and getting into the hospital late morning/early afternoon as I normally would, I'll be flying down Sunday morning and driving to Camp Lejeune to meet my cousin and his family. Monday morning I'll drive back to Raleigh to arrive at my client site as I normally would. 

It'll mean a lot of driving in a 24 hour period.

But it's totally worth it.

Raleigh Restaurant Recommendations Requested

Headed to Raleigh shortly and will be there for 2 nights. Feel free to send a restaurant recommendation or two my way. Worked so nicely last time! I'm staying near the airport and the only options I noticed last time I was there were Cracker Barrel and Texas Roadhouse...

3 Pictures I Wish I Had Taken

1. An older gentleman doing calisthenics at the airport gate.

2. A guy wearing rubber boots, knee high socks, a kilt and dreadlocks down back.

3. The clogs with socks the guy next to me on the plane was wearing.

But I wimped out. I need a stealthier camera. Or figure out how stop my phone from making the "camera" sound when I take a picture.

Parking Garage Rage

My colleagues and I made it safely to Raleigh this morning and after a brief stop at Kinko's arrived at the hospital. Everything was running pretty smoothly up to that point. The bus to Hertz was right there when I stepped out of the airport, my car was mere feet away and I didn't have to stand at rental car counter, the copies were ready, waiting and paid for when I arrived at Kinkos.

All was good.

Until I got to the hospital and started driving around. There was no parking to be found. The first time through the garage I noticed 2 things.

1. An entire level of parking was roped off because it was open air
2. Some (insert expletive here) one parked across 2 spots.

After 2 additional trips through the 4 story garage I finally found parking when they opened the roof (or someone just decided to rip down the yellow caution tape)....which was still a sheet of ice...and I  had a serious urge to key someone's car. (I should note that I did not, nor have I ever, keyed anyone's car).

Off to Raleigh...maybe?

I'm headed to Raleigh, NC tomorrow morning and will be back on Thursday evening.

Unless I don't go at all?

Two colleagues working on this engagement were supposed to head down tonight. Their flight was canceled. Now they're supposed to be going tomorrow but on a 6am flight (the rest of us are at 8:45).

None of us are really sure if this is actually going happen.  Apparently there is ice in Raleigh?

The suspense is killing me.