Take the day off, it's cheap for cider...

Today, when my alarm went off, well, I just didn't feel like going into work. I didn't wanna just not go in cause I've been doing very well with that. But I have lots of vacation and several personal days. But I didn't want to waste leave and just sit around the house.

And then I remembered today is Mom's Birthday! On Sunday I told her I'd take her to eat for her birthday, whereever she wanted. She wanted to go to the Shamrock Restaurant outside of Thurmont Maryland. But we couldn't go on her birthday (St. Patrick's Day) because that was the only day they did not take reservations and we knew we'd never be able to get in in the evening. So we made reservations for Friday evening. But, as I laid there in bed, I thought, if I take off work, I can surprise her by taking her there for lunch!

So I called into work and took a Personal Day. ANd then I called mom and sang happy birthday to her. And then I told her I was taking her to the Shamrock for lunch. Then she asked me if I remembered that she had agreed to help with the funeral today?

There was a lady at her church in her 90's who just died. She had 18 kids, over 52 grandkids, close to 100 great-grandkids, over twenty great great-grandkids, and at any rate there were going to be over 200 family members alone at the funeral. And that doesn't includes friends, fell chuch members etc. And so they asked for people to help at the meal afterards, and mom volunteered. And she needed to be there at 12:30.

So I told her okay, well we'd still go Friday. And then feeling mildly frustrated, I went back to sleep. It wasn't long after that that my phone rang. Mom said she had called them and said she wouldn't be able to make it. So we were going to the Shamrock today anyway!

I eventually got to her house, and gave her her birthday gifts: five Nicholas Sparks DVD's. She loves the books, and has seen a few of the movies, but I managed to get three that she hadn't seen. And even the ones she HAD seen, she still liked. This is her with the DVD's.



And of course she's laughing, "Oh, stop taking pictures of me that you're just going to post online." Pffft, yeah right, like I'm gonna do that.

So we got to the restaurant and it was already packed at 11:25. I haven't seen so much green since the Kermit the Frog convention! Although there were also a few tables of those purple wearing, red-hat society ladies. They were funny.

Mom got cranberry glazed chicken, I got fish (haddock) & chips (fries). And both of our portions were HUGE! This is a photo of my slab of fish. Use the fork as a means of comparison!



And what's even more amazing than the size of the fish, is that I finished it all. Ate my place totally clean, I did. And it was so yummy.

Afterwards, we ran a few errands to Lowes, to pay taxes, to pay her oil bill, that kinda stuff. ANd then after returning home for a short while, I went to get a cut-N-color (goodbye mousy brown/gray hair, hello red!). And then after hanging out for a bit, I got Chinese for supper. And it was sunny and kinda warm all day. And so, all in all, it was a pretty darn awesome day off work/mom's birthday/St. Patrick's Day.

POLT