Ended up having a very

nice day yesterday. Typical out of the office paperwork shuffle awaited me, as well as the vacation of a key slave, so it was a busy day at the plantation. All worth it on the home front though.

SU and I took 2 to dinner at Clifton’s By the Sea in Bacliff. Good thing we weren’t there for anything but the family time. If I were a food critic for the Chron, I’d have a field day blasting them. Can’t believe how poor the service was, how dirty the place was, how cold it was and how the food has gone downhill over the years.

I remember taking SU there on a date oh so many years ago. Seems like yesterday. It was a quaint but busy place with fresh seafood and plenty of by the sea charm. Last night the shrimp were breaded in a cheap imitation of Long John Silver’s, the slaw was a pile of cabbage with mayo dumped on it, the jalapeno stuffing was stale, the jalapeno’s were mild and the tea was weak. The snow crab was excellent and the apple pie a la mode was heavenly.

But the main thing was a fun little family night. 2 is in town preparing for her tour of Italy in the fall, so it was nice to get away for a little bit. 1 was busy at work and couldn’t make it.

After dinner, we watched a movie called Shooter. It is a screen adaptation of Stephen Hunter’s Point of Impact, a novel I read 12 years or so ago about a sniper disillusioned with the military. The screenplay has been updated to reflect later events, such as Abu Ghraib, but follows the story line pretty close. Funny, I was thinking about that book a few months ago, no idea a movie had been made from it. Pretty good shoot’em up flick.

Going to be another long day at the plantation, then a meet up with a couple of bloggers tonight. Looking forward to that.