woke up this morning just knowing it was going to be a great day. We were going out to lunch for someone’s last day at work, and Ilene was coming to town! I got to work and did a few things for my boss. He’s SO busy that he really has no time to spend with me, so I was pretty bored. I was helping one of the girls yesterday with her files, and she was on vacation today, but I told her I would help her more and she should leave me instructions as to what needed to be done.
She needed two drawers of files moved from one place to another, and replaced with the two drawers of files that were currently there. Confused? I was a little, but I managed to get it all done with the help of a little cart. I just piled all the files into the cart, moved them to the other side, and then replaced them with the correct files. Then, I organized them and neatened them up. When I was done, it was almost time to go to lunch.
We just walked across the parking lot to Tio Leo’s, a cute Mexican restaurant. There were 9 of us, including the guest of honor. I had the Fish Taco Special, which was one fish taco, with rice and beans. It was SO good! Most everyone had the Fish Taco Special. We all chipped in to buy him an original framed watercolor of a surfer, because he surfs all the time and it’s his greatest passion. He’s only leaving because he and his wife are moving back to the East Coast.
After a long lunch (1 ½ hours), I went to work in HR. I was busy all afternoon and it just flew by. When I got home, I just did a few last-minute things around the apartment and then we went to pick Ilene up at the Amtrak station. She was taking the Pacific Surfliner from Los Angeles to San Diego and arrived a few minutes after 8:00pm.
We got in the car and drove to HILLCREST. We were going to take Ilene to PICASSO TAPAS, but the place was packed and we didn’t feel like waiting, so we walked around the corner to TASTE OF THAI and had a delicious dinner.
We started with Shrimp Sa-Rong – marinated shrimp wrapped with egg noodles, golden fried and served with palm sauce and Fresh Spring Rolls – rice paper stuffed with lettuce, bean sprouts, mint, vermicelli noodles and shrimp (or tofu), served with a special house sauce. Then, we shared two entrées: Scallops with Broccoli -- oriental broccoli, carrots, baby corn and mushrooms in oyster sauce and Pad Thai Noodles -- rice noodles, dried shrimp, bean sprouts, scallion, egg and ground peanuts.
Everything was so delicious and we enjoyed talking and catching up. When we left, we walked back to the car and drove home. Eric had another neckache (or maybe it’s the same one), so he went right to bed and Ilene and I stayed up and talked.
Tomorrow we’ll be running around all day, and then we’ll go see SPRING AWAKENING tomorrow night. I can’t wait! It’s so great to have Ilene here. She’s so much fun and such good company!