The Pearl ... No Big Deal

Time to head back to work. It’s never easy going back to work after being out for a week, but at least I woke completely rested and ready to attack my morning regimen. In fact, I was even up a few minutes early.

Downstairs, I manually started the coffee maker then did calisthenics. Push-ups felt good. Hadn’t done any for about ten days, a well-deserved rest for my shoulders and arms. Played on the computer for quite a while – at least 35 minutes. Went to wake Mindy near 610am.

Back downstairs I did meditation and stretching. Both felt good. Dressed and left for a run around 640am. Pretty much doing my run under full daylight now. But that won’t last once we get to Sunday, when we spring forward an hour. I believe it’ll take about 40 days to get back to where we are now relative to the sun and time.

I ran the full 4.1 miles, my legs feeling stronger than ever. I’m really surprised with the way my legs responded to a week of skiing. Perhaps it has something to do with running everyday on a treadmill versus the streets. In any case, my legs haven’t felt this alive for many years.

Was back at the house near 720am. Mindy already had the Pilot warming in the driveway. The pug was soon downstairs and ready for our walk. Everything’s back to normal. Mindy was walking out the door as the pug and I made our way back up the drive. We chatted briefly about our 645pm dinner reservation at the Pearl, Cameron Mitchell’s latest/newest venture.

Inside, my eggs were waiting in the microwave. Enjoyed my eggs with a wide assortment of fresh fruit. We even had cantaloupe, something Mindy hadn’t been buying due to poor quality. This one tasted great. Off to the shower by 740am. At the same time, Bella was back to her bedroom to brush up for school.

I was showered and had my lunch packed before bus stop time. Makayla was at the front door near 8am. At first I wasn’t sure why. A check of my phone revealed an earlier text from Kenny asking if she could come over while they dropped Chrissy’s car off at the shop. Of course. I walked the girls to the bus stop at 810am.

I tied up a few loose ends before leaving for the office. As much as I always hate vacation to end, something nice about driving into the office on a sunny morning. Despite a slight chill (about 34 degrees) there were plenty of spring birds singing, a definite change in the air.

Arrived at the office near 840am. Took a few to get settled. My laptop needed several updates, I suppose for being offline for ten days. That process took a while. My boss stopped by to ask about my vacation. We chatted for about 10 minutes. I spent the first hour or so catching up/sorting through email. My boss pointed towards one hot issue needing my time. I took care of that as soon as feasible.

Had a team call at 11am that was a bit more in depth than usual. Left for lunch around 1pm, my first stop being the bank to deposit three checks. That took a while. I was the third car in the drive-thru line. After the bank, I stopped in the Kroger and bought two beautiful bouquets of flowers for Mindy (Tuesday is her birthday). I also picked up two varieties of dark chocolates, which I know she loves.

From there I headed to the Mill Run Target where I picked up another small gift for Mindy, a new pair of sunglasses. They‘re purple! I picked up some almonds for myself, and then a gift bag and gift tissue paper too. Dang! I realized on my drive back to the office that I forgot to get a cake. I planned to make another stop at Kroger on my drive home. And since I’d have to make the stop, I figured I would pick-up another birthday card, too, only this for the kids.

Spent my afternoon at the office continuing the dig out process. Fairly quiet, though. No urgent emergencies. Left for home at 505pm. Was feeling just a smidge stressed over the need to stop again at Kroger and then hurry home and then leave for our dinner reservation. Sometimes I fret just to fret. It’s just my nature. I know this.

I hemmed and hawed over which cake to buy. I eventually decided on a double chocolate fudge cake. Looked awesome. Picked out a card for the kids too. Now I’d have to sneakily have them sign it before leaving for dinner. Given my druthers, all of this would’ve been taken care of much earlier in the birthday process, but given my return late Saturday evening, I hadn’t had much if any time to take care of it prior.

Arrived home near 530pm. Lovely evening. And there to greet me were two Canada geese eating and crapping in my front yard. Yes, my dear, spring is in the air! I chased the geese into the pond, heaving a fist sized rock their way. I hate those rats with wings.

I had to make two trips to the car to carry in all my stuff, including Mindy’s birthday cake & flowers. She loved the two colorful bouquets. And while she prepped the flowers for a vase, I pulled the kids aside, who were already upstairs grooming for our dinner date, to sign the card.

We left for our dinner reservation a little early. I figured getting their early wouldn’t be a bad thing. We drove the Pilot since my Accord was almost on E. Jacob wasn’t happy about having to wear a button-up shirt. We took 5th avenue all the way across then south on High St until we arrived at The Pearl. At Mindy’s prompting, we used valet parking, which was $6. That was easy enough.

Inside, we were seated immediately even though we were several minutes early. Good thing. The place filled up fast. The Pearl’s been open for about a month. The concept is restaurant, tavern, and oyster room with a touch of class. Mindy and I were excited to give it a try.

We ordered drinks first. Mindy went with the Rogue stout that supposedly isn’t available in our parts via bottle. I went with a Four Strings Pale Ale (local brewery). Just decent. The kids had fresh squeezed lemonade. Our server told us that no free refills with the lemonade. Oh my! Over the next 20 minutes or so we ordered appetizers: devils on horseback, deviled eggs, and baked oysters. All were a bit pricey, but we didn’t really care otherwise we wouldn’t have picked The Pearl. All were delicious but small portions – only 5 bacon wrapped dates, 3 or 4 deviled eggs, and 3 oysters.

We finally ordered our dinner entrees. Jacob ordered wings, Bella grilled cheese, me the Cuban, Mindy the New York Strip. Our server, can’t recall her name, must’ve said, ‘no problem’ with her valley girl accent 25 times in the short amount of time we were there. Yeah, it was grating on my nerves. Our food arrived soon enough. As expected, everything was tasty though not blow me away impressive. Sorry Cameron, but your reputation proceeds you. We expected something far better. When Mindy mentioned that we were celebrating her birthday, they comp’d her a slice of their crack pie. It was tasty.

The kids made a game of guessing what our dinner tab would be. Jacob was damn close. The total was $163 before tip. Nobody had complaints about the food but it wasn’t worth $163. Not even close. We can get everything we had at The Pearl elsewhere locally and in some cases even better, for half the price. We may return, but won’t be in a big hurry. We tipped the valet attendant and drove off for home near 730pm.

At home we changed into PJs while Bella ran down to fetch Makayla who was spending the night since Chrissy had knee surgery scheduled for the early AM. As soon as the kids were all gathered around we sang happy birthday to Mindy with a candle lit cake. Next, she opened her cards and gifts. Seemed to enjoy her candy and sunglasses. The cake was scrumptious! Soon after cake I got really sleepy and dosed a time or two from the sofa. Mindy peeled off for bed around 915pm. I stayed up a while longer watching The Universe. I headed to bed around 10pm