Cheesey birthday

Yesterday we had a very inefficient evening of driving.  Cindy and I carpooled yesterday.  I picked her up after work and drove home.  After no more than 30 minutes at home we got back in the Prius and drove back to Cheesecake Factory which is right across the street from Cindy’s workplace.  The nearly 50 miles of extra driving was a combination of wanting to tend to the chickens while navigating scheduling to meet up with Cindy’s daughter for her birthday dinner.

Katie is a big fan of Cheesecake Factory.  I am not.  I think prior to last night I had been there two times in my life.  There are a number of things that bothered me about the place.  The Egyptian style decor inside is bizarre and makes no sense to me.  I am not sure if this decor is unique to the Naples location or chain wide.  The lack of any sort of queuing system for people waiting to be seated is annoying, forcing you to have to huddle nearby the hostess area, waiting to have your name screamed out by staff. Finally the food never seemed good and they doubled down by giving you too much of it. But who knows, maybe things have changed.

Cindy and I lugged in Katie’s presents into the restaurant.  Cindy’s mom was already there waiting. As is customary Katie and her boyfriend were last to arrive.  Katie’s cousin Stephanie was also there to help celebrate which was cool.

I used a couple huge 22 ounce Miller Lite drafts to help take the edge off. I wasn’t in a fantastic mood entering the festivities so the alcohol helped mellow me out a bit. Katie had her first legal drink, ordering a pina colada for her 21st birthday, a big moment for young adults.

For my meal I ordered shrimp tacos off the “skinny” menu, trying to avoid one of the typical CF monster meals with 4 digit calorie penalties.  The tacos were only ok at best and the side of vegetables it came with were pretty much inedible.  It was a cold vegetable “salad” with some sort of seasoning I could not identify but had no desire to ingest anytime in the future.

It seemed like the others, especially Katie, enjoyed their meals which was good.  My lackluster meal was made better by the key lime cheesecake Cindy and I split for desert.  The waitress brought out Katie’s desert with a candle on it which we accompanied with a Happy Birthday rendition.

Katie opened all of her presents but mine in the restaurant, the box was too big to accommodate in a cramped booth.  She already knew it was a SpotBot, something that will come in quite handy in an apartment with two young dogs.

By the time Cindy and I got home I was quite tired.  I think once I closed my eyes in bed I was out in 60 seconds.