Date Night

We have had places like that too. There was a health food store that was the only place to sell this all natural tangerine sparkling water drink I loved. They closed. As it turned out, the health department shut them down - something about rats. I guess I was better off anyway.

There was a new Mexican restaurant we had been wanting to try that's actually on the way out to the drive in we went to on Friday. As we drove by, although it was still green, the signs were all gone, the neon was missing from the window, and it looked just like the empty, abandoned Ponderosa it was for years before it was the Mexican restaurant.

p.s. - You made me look up purslane.

Well, you know one of my favorite hobbies is making people look up words, lol, and the next favorite, of course, is looking them up myself.

A wild variety of purslane grows in the cracks of just about every sidewalk, but you can't eat that because of all the dirt and bug spray. The good news for those of us who like this traditional English pot herb from days gone by is that domesticated purslane is making a comeback because it is high in Omega 3. Hah! We always knew it was healthy, we just didn't know why.

But our now-deceased junky little store sold it seasonally in 50 cent bunches labeled "veragos" which was a misspelling for "verdolagas" which is Spanish for PURSLANE, but the literal translation is, of course, "green lake." Speaking of Mexican markets, they do sometimes sell purslane, too, as it makes the pinto beans taste really good.

Yeah. Big bummer. I figure it only happened because I told you all about it. Had I kept my mouth shut, I would have no story to tell.

I am anxiously awaiting the updates for next Friday, which just happens to be my birthday.:)

Well, that sounds pretty darn awful. I can only imagine the kind of emotional roller coaster you experienced that day.

As far as drive ins in your area, check out http://www.driveintheater.com/drivlist.htm. . Just click on your state. Or if you are close to another state, check out that list too!

I think you don't have to worry because the Simpsons and Die Hard will probably still be playing. They were both pretty good.

I love the idea of dusk 'til dawn. They had that here for Halloween weekend last year. We talked about going, but then decided we were too old to stay up all night. One of the three theaters I listed always has three movies. It's the cleanest of the three as well.

I'll be watching for this next weekend's lineup. One of the three theaters seems to be lazy when it comes to updating their website (The "What's playing this week" link takes you to information from two weeks ago). The one closest to us (the one with the technical difficulties) doesn't have a website and doesn't update their phone message until Thursday. The third has Ratatouille, Underdog, and Harry Potter (we'll be skipping that).

I didn't really expect anything more than a refund. However, it seemed to me that a business like this should have a hot swap machine ready to go, and they obviously didn't. I don't know how much a projector costs, but when something like this happens on a weekend, it seems like a financial loss that's large enough to warrant having a hot spare.

By the way, it would have been a pretty big insult to me to get no more than just a full refund of my ticket price. After looking at the link that you provided in a previous comment, it looks like out of the eleven drive ins in my state, the nearest one to me is well over a hundred miles away from home!

It's disappointing when people just opt out rather than recognizing that there is a family responsibility, isn't it?

Where we live, we have to drive a ways to get to just about anything. We have a grocery store in town that disgusts me (dust on most of the canned goods, expired products on the shelves, inventory varies - they can go months without carrying grapefruit juice), so we drive 20 minutes to get to a grocery store we really like. The 25 minute drive to the drive-in isn't any different.

It sounds like your grocery stores are worse than ours are. I don't like ours mostly because of the prices and often the quality of the fresh meats and vegetables. We usually make a 45 minute drive to get to the stores where I like to do my shopping. I pick up what I need to get locally in between trips, but at least once or twice each month we make the long drive out of town to do our regular grocery shopping.

I didn't even mention price and quality, but I probably should have. For example, usually I get to choose between three avocados (when they have them), and they are all overripe and $2 each. The quality of the fresh meat is the ONLY reason we go there (and even then, it isn't too often) because my boyfriend loves his steak. Our Sam's and BJ's are 35-40 minutes away. We go once a month, and then hit the good grocery store on the way home. Other than that, we will even go to the Mobil On The Run to pick up the in-between-trips stuff just to avoid going to the dusty store.

I am glad someone else feels my local grocery store pain!

I agree that the trailer for Evan Almighty made it look like it could have been promising. It wasn't. Without ruining any of the plot, I will say that anyone could have played any of the roles in that movie. They didn't take advantage of Steve Carell's talent. Lauren Graham (who plays Evan's wife) was mediocre at best, and I really liked her in Gilmore Girls. I think Wanda Sykes, although funny when she does her stand up routine, is a horrible actress.

Did you check the drive in link I provided to see if there is one close to you? If we are going on a road trip or out of town, I always check that link to see if there is one near where we are going to be. I hope you get to go!

Yeah it says there is but I haven't had the money to go so I haven't called them yet.

I too love Lauren Graham...I can't believe it was that bad. Well that just sucks! I was all syked cause she was in it!

Don't let me ruin it for you! Please see it and judge for yourself (only wait to rent it instead of paying the full ticket price!).

LOL - we still will rent it. My hubby loves Steve Carrell...so he'd still want to watch it. I just won't expect too much:) Maybe I will enjoy it more this way LOL.

I am so glad you got to experience the drive in! Did they broadcast the movie over the radio, or did you have to use the clunky speakers? All of the ones around us use either just the radio, or both. I am so glad none of them use ONLY the speakers. I could never get the volume up high enough, and I found it annoying.