Musings in Search of a Muse

After that last post I figured I should mention what I did on vacation. Here's the short list:

1. Drove to Maine to visit mom and others in my family.
2. Took mom to the Foxwood and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut.
1. Mom lost forty or fifty dollars to the slots.
   
2. I was ahead about thirty dollars against the one-armed bandits then spent it all and then some on gifts for others.
3. Hung out with an old family friend and toured the old home around Groton.
1. Well, it's been thirty-plus years so lots of things changed.
2. Despite being late March and the usual signs of spring still absent, I felt winter was well over thanks to all the pine trees.
3. All the development can't hide the beauty of the Nutmeg State.
   
4. Ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Foxwoods.
1. I got to hold a guitar that Todd Rundgren and a bunch of people I never heard of had signed.
2. The eye candy was great, and that includes the waitresses.
3. But someone needs to tell me how the playlist went from The Hives to K.C. and the Sunshine Band to Metallica.
4. One of the waiters jumped on a chair, whistled loud enough that people in the casino stopped, and informed the lot that my mom was celebrating her 21^st birthday.
   
5. The Mystic Aquarium was fabulous.
1. A twelve pound blue lobster I saw some fifteen years ago grew is now twenty-four pounds (without butter) while a second has been added (tipping it at fourteen pounds).
2. An exhibit of jellies was so fascinating mom and I could have watched them all day.
3. They wanted $62 a head to molest ... er, pet and feed the penguins.
4. The gift shop took me for about $60 anyway.
5. Mom wanted to disappear before I could really get my monies worth of the tour.
6. For dinner on the last day of the trip we went to Blue Ginger, a restaurant owned by Food Network chef Ming Tsai
1. The digs had more in common with an ordinary college town eatery than the high-class establishment I was led to expect.
2. A number of problems with getting reservations for a specific time and day vanished by simply walking in when we wanted to eat.
   
3. Despite a menu filled with eclectic fare that should have pleased anyone but me (the meat & taters guy), mom ordered Chinese noodles with fresh vegetables and a simple sauce -- a dish she often enjoys in a restaurant near her home at half the cost.
4. On the other hand, I ordered the grilled Alaskan butterfish in wasabi sauce with vegetarian sushi and chipolte accents -- but I don't like fish or "hot" foods.
5. Desert for me was a pair of wonderful ice cream cookies, partly dipped in chocolate and crusted with slivered almonds, that were easily on par with the one I had at Emeril's a few years ago.
6. Mom's desert was a vanilla creme brule with cookies on the side, one with Happy Birthday written on it.
7. The rest of the vacation was comprised of fixing, cleaning, and the usual Honey Do list stuff.