I had a great time with my family last night. Pizza, ping pong, rock climbing, basketball and Barnes & Noble.

We went to a restaurant supply store for a while.  While Joel talked to guys in the back about spending thousands of dollars on equipment, Sarah and I purchased little plastic tongs for $1.51.

We ate dinner at Godfather’s Pizza in Nixa.  They have a buffet.  Pizza Hut only has dinner buffets on Tuesday nights.  [See the useful information you can get by reading this blog!]  I found myself more concerned than usual about not wasting food.  I made some bad decisions on my first trip to the buffet.  But I didn’t want to toss the BBQ chicken pizza in favor of the fresh Hawaiian pizza.  I could just imagine people wasting lots of food at our all-you-can-eat restaurant.  Being a restaurant owner completely changes my ability to enjoy dinner out.  For one thing, my husband spends most of his time counting tables and customers and checking out what kind of tile they have in the bathroom.  I notice all the things that need fixed.  All the signs of poor management or bad service.  I feel compelled to fill out customer surveys.  I’m not complaining.  I just want owners to know what is going on so they don’t go out of business and lose their house.  This sudden concern does have a nice side effect.  I just got a coupon for a free pizza in the mail.  [Pizza Hut in Nixa… by the way… was a mess a few weeks ago.]

After checking out the building progress at The Lazy Susan, we went to the Chesterfield Family Center.

Joel beat me at two games of ping pong.  I haven’t played for over 10 years.  That’s my excuse. 

After ping pong, I went rock climbing.  They have a rock wall in the gym.  This was my first time to try such a thing.  I made it really far but decided to quit before I got to the top.  I didn’t realize that Joel was trying to take my picture with his cell phone.  If I had known he was taking pictures, I would have told him to get my digicam and gone ahead and climbed to the top.  [Anything for a good photo to post on my blog.]

Going up was easy.  But then I had to figure out how to get down.  Perhaps I had made another bad decision… worse than BBQ pizza even.  I knew the cables and harnesses keep you from falling.  But I had never seen anyone come down from the wall.  I had only read the instructions.  The worker below assured me that I just had to hold on to the cable, kick back and I’d come down softly… Sure, that sounds easy enough.  But since I had never seen this done, letting go was a major act of faith. 

Following my slightly scary decent, Joel and I shot a few baskets.  I was terrible at first.  I haven’t played for 10 years. That seemed to be my excuse of choice for the evening. But after a few shots, I was doing surprisingly well.  I’m glad I didn’t give up after those first embarrassing shots.  I miss out on a lot because I don’t want to look stupid.

Next we went to Barnes & Noble.  I love this place. I love the perfect smell of coffee and books that hits you when you open the door.  This is my favorite smell.  Jeremiah was snoring in the back seat.  Joel needed to buy a book.  So I stayed in the truck with Jer while Joel took Sarah on an exciting B&N date instead of me.  When they returned, Sarah had a decaf latte and Encyclopedia of the Cat.  He bought her coffee and a book!?  And I bet he held her the whole time too.  I’m jealous.