Charlie's on the Lake

Last night we had this big dinner plan that started in the early evening. We went to the grocery store and bought provisions and got back and was starting to make the salad and the sink got backed up. The disposal turned on and worked, but there is something deeper than that backing up the sink. No plumbing things here and the plumber won't be here until tonight (which yesterday was tomorrow).

So we decided to go to Charlie's on Maple where it used to be a Denny's and just less than two years ago it was a closed down Sprigs. We drove down and it's closed down which is funny because that means that in less than, or just more than, a year, it went out of business. It's one of those funny things like that restaurant space in Dundee where any business that opens there is just doomed to fail. Meanwhile every other shop around those places flourish. I don't understand that. I always have been thinking about opening a restaurant and if you're that worried about failing, open it in a big city or in a busy area because no matter what, on a busy night you'll at least get the overflow from the other more prominent restaurants.

So we ended up driving to Charlie's on the Lake out west. Super awesome. They have a huge list of martinis. So I got a regular gin martini. Bomb. I tasted a dirty martini for the first time and loved it. I don't know why I had such an aversion to those since the whole reason I love martinis is to get to the olives. It's like your reward for drinking the martini. I could just eat those all night. Anyway, almost all the other martinis had like tropical stuff or fruity stuff in it which I just couldn't get behind. We also had the luxury of a waitress that would pour our martinis to the brim and tell us we need to start sipping it because she still has more to pour in. So in essense you're getting one and a half martinis.

The only downfall about the evening meal was that I really wanted scallops and salmon but they didn't have that combo in anyway, but I did get a dish with salmon, mahi mahi, and bacon wrapped shrimp. It also didn't come with rice pilaf and steamed vegetables which I usually like to accompany seafood or steak.

After dinner, Bouchra and Mbarak came and got us and they rented a room at the Suburban Inn, which I'd like to go back to. You get the room for $40 with a CDL and they have a minimart and lounge there. I really like hanging out at hotel lounges. Especially when it's snowing, like it is. I was hoping for snowstorm so our Greyhound would be cancelled and we'd have to stay in Omaha for a couple more days.

I have just been informed of a job opportunity come April. It's either driving a dumptruck or flatbed in Omaha. All you do is go back and forth from a place to pick up cement or dirt or whatever and drive it to the work site and go back. It pays like $13-$15/hr plus full benefits and, we've been told, that we'd definitely get the job because it's Bouchra's friend's friend's work.

So we're at the mother-in-law's place just hanging out for our last day in Omaha. Tonight should be fun, though. I really would like to hang out with everybody out here, but we're usually here for so short a time we h