Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop

The yarn diet is over and I blame the Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop for knocking me off the wagon. But seriously, there was no way I was getting out of this event without indulging.

My friend and I started planning this a year ago, so I was prepared with a yarn budget. After making the drive up, we started out on the Hop, tentatively planning on hitting all 17 stores but prepared not to be sad if we didn’t. Because let’s face it…17 stores is a lot of yarn shopping. One of our first stops, however, was the local tea shop, where I picked up some loose leaf tea that tastes delightful and makes me happy.

Tea – the preferred drink of many a knitter.

On the first day, we hit 4 stores, and considering we didn’t start until the afternoon, that was pretty good. Especially because it was snowing. Snow in Kansas makes me want to hide and avoid the roads. Snow in Minnesota felt normal, and I think I went into Michigan driver mode.

What size do we think these are?

Over the course of the weekend, we hit all 17 stores, which scored us a set of 17 stitch markers and a cute holder. We saw some beautiful scenery and petted some delightful yarn. To give you an idea of how the hop works, you buy either an EZ pass or a VIP pass with the proceeds going to the local food pantry. This passport is stamped at each store, where you’re given your marker. At the end, if you fill out the whole thing, you turn it in for a chance at a drawing.

At each store, you can also enter a drawing, and along with the stitch marker, you get a free pattern that uses the store’s specialty Hop yarn. You can buy the yarn if you want.

I picked up quite a few of the specialty yarns. I also found some other delicious yarn that I have to relegate to patterns, but it’s nice to already have some of my yarn paired with patterns. I’ve already wound one of the specialty skeins, so if I can get through the frustrating hat I’m currently working, I’ll be casting on for that.

We had a blast yarn shopping and hanging in the hotel room and eating at new places. By Saturday we were pretty tired and ready to get back to reality, but it was a great time. Now to work on using up this yarn and more stash yarn in preparation for next year.

A.

Adventures in Topeka

The weather was beautiful today, and I’m happy that we got to go out and take advantage of it. Jon hurt his back yesterday and it still wasn’t feeling great this morning, so we were going to hold off on any adventures until tomorrow. Unfortunately, the forecasted temperature for tomorrow is about forty degrees colder than today. Just getting to the car to get to MHK is going to be a challenge.

After taking some ibuprofen, Jon decided he was up to trying to get out and about, even with a sore back. After stopping for a quick breakfast, we rolled along to Topeka.

Our first couple destinations were shopping stops for clothes, first for Jon and then for me. I was in need of a new pair of pants, and I managed to find a pair at Lane Bryant that were the right size and the right length. I probably could have ordered another pair, but I figure one is good for now. I also picked up some frilly, girly items because apparently, I have a girly side sometimes.

We thought about seeing a movie at the second run theater, but there was nothing we wanted to wait around for, so we headed to the zoo. Our original plan was to walk both the zoo and Gage Park, but we ended up just getting through the zoo before Jon’s back needed a rest and some more ibuprofen. The animals were pretty lazy today, but the walk was nice. The highlight was probably the baby orangutan. He was so cute, though his mama didn’t seem too thrilled to be on display.

Our original plan for lunch was to go to Jersey Mike’s for a sub, but when we got to the one downtown, we found that it was closed. After walking down the street, we found a restaurant and pub that was open…and we were the first patrons of the day.

Jon’s lunch: “Bangers and Mashed”

Brisket sandwich and potato soup

Jon’s food was delicious and my soup was really good. I took a chance with the brisket, since I know not everyone makes brisket perfectly. I was a little disappointed. The flavor was good, but the meat was tough. I really need to remember to stick to burgers when I go to a pub. Still, for a serendipitous find, it was a pretty okay meal.

For dessert, we walked over to Hazel Hill chocolates and picked up a few small treats. Not sure if we can do that more than once very so often. It was pricey. Then we made a quick stop at Walgreens and headed back home.

Our adventures didn’t end there, though. We came home and chilled for a bit. I still have some mystery caches that need solving, so I watched a couple Christmas movies while Jon took a nap. We were going to walk to Subway for dinner, but by the time we got around to it, it was dark and I was worried about hidden ice, so we drove instead. Even though we’d walked the zoo, I hadn’t met my step goal for the day, so I talked Jon into walking a lap with me at the rec center. It wasn’t overly cold, but by the end of the walk, parts of the parking lot had started getting slippery again, so we had to proceed with caution.

The walk and the drive home gave us the chance to finally get some pictures of the pretty Christmas lights that Wamego put up for the holidays. Though I didn’t celebrate Christmas in a huge way this year, I love the park decorations the city rolls out for the season.

The extra walk helped me hit my step goal, and I got to enjoy a few more hours of the outdoors before tomorrow’s cold hits again.

All in all, it was a good day. I still didn’t get my whole to-do list done, but I’m okay with that. Tomorrow will be organizing and getting ready for the coming week and the new year. Grocery shopping, laundry, and gym are all on the horizon for tomorrow.

Happy Saturday!

A.

Passing Batons and Making Dinner

We started the day off with my final Tengaicon meeting, or at least my final one as chair. This was our wrap-up meeting to talk about what went well and how the committee is going to move forward for next year. Because our (meaning mine and Jon’s) plans are so up in the air for this coming year, I knew it wasn’t fair to start something and then have to dump it onto someone else later. So we chose a new chair, one of the guys who’s done it in the past, and I made my formal resignation.

It’s kind of bittersweet. I liked planning the convention and was really happy with how it turned out, though there was a degree of stress in heading it up. I was a little sad to give up my position, but I was also a little relieved too. I think we built a strong foundation and I’m hoping that no matter where I am next year, I can come back and attend the con as both a gamer and maybe a volunteer.

Our original plan was to do laundry and geocache in town while we waited for our Pathfinder game to start. However, the game ended up being cancelled, so we decided to curb our plans to get some chill time in at home. Though we made it to the laundromat, we ended up deciding to wait for our normal laundry day of Monday to do clothes.  We went up to my work and hid “the body” for this week’s office murder mystery (which I’m pretty excited about), then went shopping at Aldi for groceries for the coming week.

We’ve been spending more money on eating out, and we’re back into “tightening the budget” mode to prepare for our trip to St. Louis and our end of the year plans. This week we’re planning on eating at home more and either taking our lunches or sticking to value menu sandwiches (which I think I have to do one day while I delivery laundry and run errands).  This plan always takes us to Aldi because food there is pretty cheap.

Though I’m not much of a cook and leave most of the kitchen responsibilities to Jon, I decided to make Maple Barbecue Beef from the recipe I got from Stephanie O’Dea’s blog.  I didn’t have any frostbitten meat, so we bought fresh stew meat. I also went with maple pancake syrup rather than true maple syrup.

Fuzzy picture of dinner fixins.

We paired it with cheesy biscuits from a mix that Forsh bought me, a copy cat mix of the ones they serve at Red Lobster.

 

This was so good! Probably had way more of the beef than I needed, but I wasn’t too full when I was done. I think we’re going to be making this again because it’s super easy and tasty. Next time I think we’re going to put it over rice though.

We finished watching Season 5 of Parks and Rec, and I’m debating watching a horror movie tonight. I was going to get some knitting done, but I’m feeling kind of lazy tonight. I will probably work on a few cache puzzles, then shower and turn in early for the new week tomorrow.

Here’s to hoping everyone has a fabulous Monday!

A.

 

Hangin’ Out with Mom

It was another longish drive back to Kansas on Sunday. We left early but still made a few final stops to finish out the visit. We also stopped for food and a geocache.  Jon and I managed to keep ourselves from going geocache crazy, but we needed a few stops to stretch, so it gave us a good excuse to do so. We found one along the highway that hadn’t been found in over a year. I was glad it was still there.

We made a stop in Rose Hill to visit the in-laws and grabbed one last geocache on the final stretch home. Online, there was no other logged find, so we thought that maybe there was a chance we’d be the FTF, but no dice. The FTF just hadn’t logged it. Still, it was a good cemetery cache, and the area was beautiful. It was one of the first ones we’ve been to with crypts, which always strike me as such peaceful structures.

Dinner was easy roast beef sandwiches, and we watched a bunch of YouTube videos that Mom hadn’t yet seen.

Monday was our day out in Manhattan. We had to do laundry first thing in the morning, so we got that going while we went and ran other errands. Mom had a bunch of photos printed at Walgreens, so we picked those up, vacuumed the car, took it through the car wash to get the red clay off, and picked the laundry up. It probably wasn’t the most exciting start to the day, but it helped us kill time until things started opening.

We went to Goodwill first and poked around. For the first time in years, I actually found clothes there that fit me. I found a pair of pants, two shirts, and a pair of walking shoes since my other ones are already wearing down.  Down the sidewalk, we checked out Tuesday Morning. I’d heard about the place, mainly from stories of people finding great discontinued yarn there, and I knew Manhattan had one, but I’d never been there.  It turned out to be a really cool store. It was like a smaller Big Lots, offering discounted closeout items.

Once we got our first round of thrifting out of the way, we went to the Flint Hills Discovery Center and then picked Jon up for lunch at Cox Bros BBQ. Afterwards, we commenced with round two of thrifting by heading out to the Grand Ol’ Trunk to poke around. By this time, I was getting tired. It didn’t feel like a lot of walking, but my feet were telling me it had been.  Instead of looking for more shops, we went out to the scenic overlook so I could show Mom the view, which seemed fitting after she visited the FHDC.

We once again found ourselves with time to kill, so we went on a drive to look at more scenery. My original intention was to find Pillsbury Crossing, but I missed the turn. Still, the drive was nice and we stopped for a geocache, which my mom actually found. I don’t know if she’ll become a geocacher, but it was cool that she made the find on that one.

We stopped in at work to say hi, then tried to find a premium cache near the stadium with no luck. After we picked up Jon, we came home, made more sandwiches, and watched Frankie Go Boom and Cabin in the Woods.

This morning we got up, finished Cabin in the Woods (we were too tired to make it to the end last night), and took Jon to work. Our first stop was Menards, as we were on a mission to find Mom some overalls. They didn’t have any, but they did have a lot of Christmas decorations, including Risky Business Santa, which amused me more than it probably should have.

We completed our overalls-finding mission at the supply store across the street, then headed back to Wamego to give a more extended tour and visit the Oz Museum. It was my third time there, but I actually stopped to read more of the information on this visit. Mom liked it, and I learned more about the artifacts than I had on previous visits.

We headed toward KC a little earlier than planned, but we stopped off in Topeka and had Cracker Barrel for lunch. I love browsing their store, even though I don’t usually buy stuff (except a few snacks every now and then). They had some neat holiday things. They also had massive candy bars and Pez dispensers. I didn’t take many pics, but they had Peanut Butter Cups that were a pound each.

We arrived at the airport much earlier than we needed to, but Mom wanted to make sure her bags were under the weight limit and that she didn’t need to send anything back with me to mail. I drove around looking for parking but had no luck, so in the end, I pulled to the side and gave her hugs in the fire lane. I’m not going to lie….I’ve been sad and teary eyed since leaving the airport. I hate goodbyes, and I cry every time I have to go through them, but it’s especially hard saying bye to my Mom. I never feel like the time we get to spend together is enough. The time we did have was awesome, though.

Now I have to try to slide back into routine, which is going to take a couple days. I got a jump on that by putting away laundry, catching up on email, and getting this post done, as well as uploading the rest of the week’s photos. Tomorrow it’s back to work and back to working on several projects I need to finish before Monday. It’s going to be a very busy next few days.

A.

Tea and Walks and Things in Quotation Marks

Deadlines make me productive, and this week at work has been no exception. I’ve been kicking tail on getting things done. Today, when things deviated from the norm with a meeting and luncheon, my brain still recovered fairly well, and I “swallowed some frogs” at the end of the day.

I picked Jon up and we debated whether to go to the gym or go grab something to eat first. We decided on food, because even though we’d had a big lunch, I was feeling hungry.  Chinese was our first choice, but I realized we hadn’t had McAllister’s in awhile, and I had a craving for their chopped savannah salad. It didn’t disappoint.  Also, I love their iced tea. Even with the weather getting cooler, I’m still craving it.

Since we were in the area anyway, we walked to Dick’s Sporting Goods and looked around. Our goal was to price out some handheld GPS units, but they didn’t have any. We’d originally meant to look for walking sticks as well, but completely forgot about that. We don’t necessarily need a stick for the act of walking; we mainly want one to poke at things when geocaching. It seems like a better idea than sticking our hand into unknown places and risking getting bit by critters. We’ll have to go back tomorrow and check again, or maybe hit Target or Wal-Mart.

When we had no luck with GPS units, we walked to Best Buy. They had one unit, but it cost more than we want to spend. Not that we need to buy one right now anyway, but it looks like when we are ready, we’ll probably buy online. I don’t want anything fancy at this point, just something that won’t run out of battery power within a few hours.

Our next stop was the gym, but there were a lot of people there. Sometimes that’s not an issue, but sometimes we just don’t feel like dealing with a crowd. On the fly, we changed our plans and decided to walk the rec center track. I don’t know why, but the track kicks my butt, yet I kind of want to “own” it. I also wanted to do some more experimenting with the Zombies Run app, and the time of day was perfect.

The walk was good. I had no ankle pain, no back pain, and I didn’t tire out. I did walk slow to pace myself, but that was because I thought at some point I’d have to pick up the pace to “run” from zombies. That didn’t happen. I can’t figure out what the deal is, but I don’t think the accelerometer on my phone is working right. Either, that, or I was just legitimately walking too slow. I’m going to do some more playing around with it. Eventually I’ll get some encounters. However, just listening to the playlists and story line is fun and makes the walk bearable. I do need some more music, though.

We got home late, so I did some things on the computer, watched a documentary, and finished The Emperor’s New Groove. I prepped my backpack for this weekend’s geocaching adventure, too, so that’s one less thing I’ll have to do tomorrow night.  Can’t wait for the weekend to find some caches and explore some more of Kansas.

But for now…it’s shower time.

A.

 

 

Special Ingredient Tuesday

It was a pretty low key Tuesday.  The special ingredient in the title refers to the weird chocolates my friend brought to work. She picked them up in Seattle, and they consisted of some crazy flavors, like basil and ghost chile. Some were really good. Some were just plain weird. They all seemed to make us a little goofy for five minutes, but I think it was just one of those days.

We made it to the gym after work. I bumped my resistance up to the next level finally. I think I’ve just been lazy about it.  I finished Tuff Turf and started a movie called Deathwatch, but I wasn’t too excited about it. I rearranged the Netflix queue to change up the movies and push the TV shows closer to the back. Otherwise, there are movies on there I’d never get to. Our queue is like five hundred items long.

After that, we went shopping. There were some Naked juices on sale, so we picked those up, along with dinner for tonight (tacos) and tomorrow (chicken tenders and fries).  Then we came home. I did some editing and called the final winners of the silent auction from Saturday. The plan is to finish off the night with a shower and some Zoolander.

I’m absorbing the quiet days in preparation of the upcoming weekend.

A.

 

Hollywood, Legends, and Arcades

We went on an adventure today to Kansas City with a couple of friends, and I’m stealing their term “daycation” to describe it.

They got to our place around eight and we took off to get an early start. Our first stop was at Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and breakfast. I went with the egg white flatbread sandwich with turkey sausage, highly recommended for both tastiness and because it was pretty filling.

The next stop was the Hollywood Casino in Kansas City, where we got a picture of our travel bug visiting another casino before we sent it back into the wild. I also snapped this shot of the Kansas Speedway from the parking garage.

 

The casino was big and colorful. We had fun, but we didn’t win this time.

After that, we went to the Legends Outlet Mall. Jon and I hadn’t been there for several years, and I was surprised at how much bigger it was than last time. Shopping isn’t normally our thing, but we like to people watch and find new places to walk, so it was definitely worth the trip.

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Jon bought a wired controller for gaming. I browsed Lane Bryant, but still had no luck finding what I need. I need new pants, but they still haven’t jumped on board with the average/petite difference in the pants I like to buy.  We looked around a few other stores, like Hot Topic and Books-A-Million, where I found this gem:

 

I kind of wanted some frozen yogurt, but decided to hold off, especially since we had a soft pretzel for a mid-morning snack.

One of my favorite parts of the day was watching the fountain show. I did a short Instagram video of it, and though I meant to go back and take a full video of it, I missed the chance. Besides the fact the show is cool, it was hilarious to watch the water spray unsuspecting adults and kids who were hoping to get wet. The kids were hilarious to watch. Some of them would get close to the lower fountains and then get sprayed in the face when the water came out. I realize how mean that sounds, but I don’t mean for it to be. They loved it and would just giggle every time it happened.  For the most part, the kids in the area weren’t ill-behaved, either. There were a couple kids who had to be told an extra time to get going by their parents, but most of them were just having a blast in the water.  It doesn’t make me want to have my own, but it was definitely an adorable show.

We met up with the others around two for a late lunch at Dave & Busters. The food was good, the service was slow, but overall it was fun. We bought one of the eat and play packages, so when we were done eating we headed to the arcade. I really enjoy that place. It’s a ton of fun and it’s kind of like gambling except the games are a little more engaging, sometimes. Jon was earning a ton of tickets. Me, not so much, though I did hit a mystery bonus on one of them.

The game we ended on was a variant of the claw game in which you tried to hit the stop button at the right time to open a hatch that would eventually let a stuffed animal fall through. Jon and I went through our remaining credits to get it. I was so frustrated when we just couldn’t get it and ran out of credits when the thing was so close to falling. We walked away, a little annoyed that someone else was going to get it, but when we looked back a few minutes later, my friend was standing there. So we ran over, talked her into giving it one last try, and of course on her try, the hatch opened. She was awesome and let us keep it, so we’ve dubbed our new friend Miles the Traveling Cheetah and will be taking him with us on future trips.

 

After turning in our tickets, we had enough to buy me a new water cup and Jon a fake mustache. Yeah, kind of cheesy…though I needed a new cup, so he was awesome enough to use what was mostly his tickets to buy me one.

Before heading home, we found two geocaches in the area and took a stroll around the Russell Stover store.

The day was definitely a success. We got a lot of walking in and had a good time.  I got sunburned because I forgot to put sunscreen on beforehand, but it’s not the first time it’s happened. Strangely enough, my older self seems to be able to get a slight tan. Not aiming for it since I know the sun risks, but since that’s been happening, it’s harder to remember that I actually do burn when out in the sun for long periods of time.

Now we’re home and relaxing. I think I’m going to watch a movie tonight and maybe crash early. My computer mouse is messing up, so I may have to pick up another one soon. Not sure what our plans are for tomorrow. Originally we were going to do some museums in Abilene, but we might just want to call it a rest day other than a trip to the gym and maybe some geocaching.  We’re taking a sort-of vacation this week, staying at another friend’s house to dog sit while she’s on vacation.  Tomorrow will also be a “get more con stuff done” day to kick off the work week.

For now, it’s time to unplug and unwind.

A.

Crossing Things Off Lists

In an effort to travel with less stress, I’m trying to get as much done as I can this week to prepare for our trip to Gen Con next week.  I was able to check a couple things off the big to-do list today.

First, we went to a local car wash and vacuumed out the car.  Jon and I have made an effort to keep the car trash-free (yay for adulting), and we decided it was time for something a little more heavy duty, so we vacuumed the floors and the cup holders, which had gotten kind of gross, and then we wiped everything down with cleaner wipes. It didn’t feel too strenuous, and now our car is clean and passenger ready.  I even took an extra step and put a monthly general cleaning reminder on my calendar so we can keep up with that.

Second, we picked up our travel snacks. Originally, we were going to go to Target and use the credit we still have on a gift card. Since we also had a gift card to Menards and wanted to go find a cache there (didn’t find it, but rescheduled only to be stealthier later), we just went ahead and shopped there.  Trail mix, dried fruit, and beef jerky should be good for both travel and for walking around the convention center.  We also picked up some travel toiletries so we could make sure everything was packed and ready the night before.

As far as our GC list goes, that’s about all we got done tonight, but I think it’s going to make a huge difference by the time we leave. Other things we have to do this week include turning in our change for some spending cash, cleaning the house, cleaning out the trunk of the car, and, of course, packing.  My goal is to have everything packed on Sunday night to put in the car on Monday night, so I can get to bed early and be ready to hit the road at 5 on Tuesday morning.

The rest of our evening included some geocaching and dinner out at Cox Bros BBQ.  We also picked up some lunches for this week. I had every intention of getting stuff to make some easy pasta salad and then forgot. I even had a list. I fail at groceries, sometimes.

The big excitement of my night was finding out that another of my favorite webcomic artists is going to be at Gen Con. I’m thrilled, and this means I will have to splurge on a plushie if the artist brings any. Or a book. Or both. I have my priorities.

The last thing I want to mention is something a co-worker told me about today.  It’s a program called Becoming an Outdoors-Woman. Camping that involves sleeping on the ground doesn’t agree with me, but I do enjoy  outdoor activities and would like to revisit some of the things I did in my youth. Plus, I love new experiences.  I don’t know if I can register for the fall one right now, both due to time and money, but I am going to apply for one of their scholarships since this would be my first time going and I could swing the remainder of the cost. If the fall one doesn’t happen, I think I’ll aim to sign up for the spring one, pending our location after the first of the year.

On the whole, it was actually a pretty good Monday.

A.

 

 

 

Some People Do Go for the Wings

Allergies and all, I survived my day in Topeka yesterday. I messed up and threw myself even more of a challenge when I got starry eyed over some medicine deals at Walgreens and completely forgot to look for something non-drowsy. Luckily, I remained functional and didn’t fall asleep at the wheel.

We hit a local joint called Juice Stop for a smoothie breakfast and a stuffed pretzel (because I never get the opportunity to indulge in those) and I tried a shot of wheatgrass. It was grassy. I showed my ignorance by originally asking for it in my smoothie, but the staff was nice and set me straight on the fact that most people do shots and it would make a fruit smoothie taste like the ground. I’m glad they gave me the info.

Sadly, this was the only adventure I was able to catch a pic for on this trip because I forgot to charge my phone overnight (this really isn’t my best weekend, mentally). Not really a big deal, though, since Topeka is a short drive and we’re already planning on going back to the Topeka Zoo, which was our second stop. I’ve heard mixed reviews about this zoo, and they all have merit. It was nice seeing some of the animals we don’t have in MHK, but everything felt a little dirty. Then again, it was raining and hot and muggy, so that might have contributed to it. All the animals were out, lazing around and doing as little as possible. We got the once over from a gorilla named Tiffani, and even though the zoo said we might be lucky enough to see it via a “sign” on their window, we missed out on seeing the mating of the tigers.

The third stop was to buy clothes for Jon. Nothing especially exciting happened there.

Our fourth stop was unplanned and mostly a means to kill time until the movie theater opened, but it was well worth the side trip. We checked out the Kansas Museum of History which included an exhibit on retro and antique furniture, a huge train that triggered my claustrophobia when I tried to walk through it, and all kinds of neat historical stuff. I’d actually like to go back and get pictures from there sometime.

We had lunch at Hooters, another new food experience for me. The food was delicious. I had one of the best grilled chicken sandwiches I’ve ever had. I realize people make Hooters jokes and all, and I guess I thought it would be a little more risque than it was. But it wasn’t uncomfortable and the service was good.

Our last Topeka stop was to the West Ridge 8 second run theater. It has been years since I’ve been to a “cheap seat” theater. Jon and I opted for different movies. He went with the newest Fast and the Furious flick and I went to see The Purge. In my last post, I complained about people talking , but for  two dollars, a lot can be overlooked. I was lucky in that there wasn’t a lot of talking in my theater, and what there was seemed fairly appropriate, including the moment when the theater was silent and after a pivotal scene in the movie, another movie goer said “Moron” out loud in reference to one of the characters. It was funny because I’m pretty sure everyone else was thinking the same thing. There was also a scene at the end of the movie where everyone busted out laughing. Humor aside…especially because it wasn’t supposed to be a funny movie…I enjoyed it. I didn’t so much enjoy the theater seats which leaned back way too far, but again, for two bucks, I dealt with it. And we’ll probably go back.

We drove home in more rain, made a Baskin Robbins stop, and came back to the house where we watched “Knocked Up” and part of “Sharknado,” which I’m sure will get its own post. Overall, it was a fun  and active day and even though we did a lot of walking, my soreness and stiffness is at a minimum.

A.

Wichita Weekend

This past weekend I took a two-night trip to Wichita with two friends. It had been a long time since I’d done a “group” trip. I realize that not everyone considers three people to be a group, but it definitely changes the dynamic from a two person trip. While my own tendency to get introverted made part of the trip a personal challenge, overall, we had a good time.

My traveling companions

After fighting the Wichita traffic, we finally made it to our hotel room to chill for a little bit. We decided Friday night would be our casino night, so we went to Mulvane where we had Luciano’s* for dinner and goofed around in Cobb Park for a little bit before trying our hand at gambling.

Classy italian restaurants always make me feel classy.