And Beloved Hubby's almost as bad.

Slept like a rock last night after a terrible visit to Golden Corral last night. Ugh. I don’t think we’ll be going back there again. Sure, I ate my fill of pot roast, but it was not only more expensive than ever, but a bigger mess. The staff was too busy embarrassing birthday guests to attend to the massive press of sheer humanity (not their fault, but still…) and various items were emptied before we arrived and weren’t refilled by the time we left. At the carving station, the carver watched me saw off a chunk of meat after waiting a minute or two – the knife was on his side, but I got tired of trying to get his attention from whatever he was staring so intently at. It’s not like he was busily carving anything for anybody else. The nibble of steak was pretty good, but I’ve gulped ocean water that was less salty than the bacon it was wrapped with. 

Oh, and the heavily promoted ‘Vegas’ thing was just plain stupid. We got one ticket to spin the wheel – as you exit, please ! – and one glace at the thing told me what I needed to know. The big prize was nearly impossible to obtain, due to opportune peg placement over a tiny sliver of opportunity to begin with, and it was for one free meal. Most of the other ‘prizes’ were one free drink or free dessert… um, don’t you already get sweets with your meal ? Breads are now down to just yeast rolls and cornbread, and the cotton candy machine is gone. I actually got elbowed out of the chocolate fountain line (I just wanted a couple strawberries, those gimmick things always utilize cheap crap chocolate, and despite ample use of sticks, people still get their fingers in there, watching folks around those things is fascinating) by some kid… and I’m still wearing the sling ! Clearly the place is attracting more jerks than anything else, an opinion I solidified after hearing Beloved Hubby’s report of the state of the men’s restroom. I’ve had better dining ambiance at 7-11 than I got from our $60. meal last night. We were one of the few tables that tipped, too. If we go again, it’ll be by Dearest Son’s birthday request, nothing else. Ugh. 

But, as mentioned, with all those fatty meats in my belly, topped off by a very good salad and a thin chocolate pie slice, along with having the end-of-month bills paid, I slept very well. By the time everyone was up and moving around today, it was much closer to lunch, so we went out for a bit. Ended up at Hastings, where Beloved saw me eyeing the miniature Elsa, and I told him it was a tossup between her and one of the blind-box Frozen series, but at least this one was a dollar cheaper and I knew what I’d get. Of course, it was the only Elsa left in a bin of Olafs with two Annas. Tiny as she is, she still shows a thin sliver of leg through her gown, just like her bigger sister. Beloved snagged her and said I’d get her once I helped with taxes, and he kept his word. Taxes were much easier this year ! We were done in less than two hours. 

And I found some new embroidery designs to want, darn it. Expensive ones. The only sales I can find are from designers that don’t have anything I want. Anymore. Downloaded a free set of doll-sized Valentine’s Day cookies, but if I skip the ‘Be Mine’ cursive, they’d be fine for any time my larger dolls want a snack. Since I got both the beige and dark brown felt on my last Hancock’s run, they can have milk and dark chocolate versions !

That reminded me that I’d bought some uber-cheep glass seed beads to use as ‘snow’ in the snowglobe designs I already had… and  had no idea how to use those beads. I poured some glitter in the Elsa one I did, and it was too dangerous to repeat. If the needle drove the sandlike stuff down into the works…yikes. So when I saw some other designs using beads, I figured that had to be much safer to poor Brody’s innards. Then, I realized I had no idea how to keep the beads from getting under the rapidly plunging needle, any more than I knew how to keep the glitter away. I could either buy a design that offered to tell me how in the directions, or I could do a little Google-fu. Fu is free. It didn’t take long ‘til I had the answer. You kind of baste-sew a couple strings of beads into the design just before the vinyl for the dome is stitched in, and when the design’s done, pull the threads and loose the beads. I was thinking I’d have to pop and re-sew a few stitches, but the thread sounds much easier. 

Now, when’s our tax refund due in…?