Good Friday, April 6th - Happy Easter Everyone

It's o' outside but the almost full moon is shining brightly in the sky,heading for sun and 5',  my sweetie is asleep upstairs and I have 3 days off work. Does it get any better than that???
So, Wednesday afternoon, Lloyd calls to tell me that he didn't get on the flight he hoped to get on and was in Montreal. The good news (or so he thought) was that he knew he could get on a flight to Moncton. So his plan was to fly there (arriving at 11:25 at night), stay overnight at a hotel and then take the bus over in the morning. Great plan, except for one little glitch - there are no buses - they've been out since the fall due to a work stoppage.
So it appears there is only one solution - ROAD TRIP! I agreed to drive over after work and pick him up. So after I called Brenda and told her what was going on, as our evening plans depended on whether or not he got here, she offered to go with me.
After driving home, changing into jeans, switching cars and grabbing something to snack on, I picked her up and we headed down the road. The trip was uneventful, fortunately and we arrived in rainy Moncton with about 1/2 an hour to visit the mall. After touring around there a bit and window shopping some after everything closed at 9:00 we headed into downtown to find something to eat. The lady at Eddy Bauer had suggested The Pumphouse and the name rang a bell with me. I was pretty certain that was the place some of my IAAP cohorts frequent when in town on conferences. Wasn't that the place with the blueberry beer? The Eddy Bauer lady confirmed, yes indeed, it was. Brenda had a vague idea of where it was and we found it with no problems.

Once inside we ordered two wood fired pizzas - a garlic finger one and a BBQ chicken one washed down with two small blueberry beers. Not a bad way to pass a bit of time! I really enjoyed the crust on the pizza and was impressed with how it came out of the wood fired oven. Got to get me one of those!!!

After leaving we toured the City of Moncton. I've only really been there a couple of times and haven't really seen the city so we drove all around and Brenda pointed out places she was familiar with.

Eventually it was almost time to go to the airport so we stopped first at a Tim Horton's and managed to close that place too. Turns out they close at 11:00 so we were able to get our coffee and tea just in time. From there we went to the airport and picked up Lloyd who arrived right on time.

Once we got headed back onto the road, Brenda attempted to catch a bit of sleep in the back while we sat up front. It must be difficult for someone to try  to sleep in a car with me and the deaf guy trying to have a conversation. Not only does everything have to be repeated several times, each time it's repeated the volume is increased. Not conducive to sleeping, I'm afraid.  We had a safe trip although at one point we passed a brightly lit transport truck parked on the other side of the road and while I didn't see it as I was busy watching where I was going, Lloyd noticed some debris on the road that looked like chunks of meat so I suspect the truck may have hit some kind of animal. We didn't stop as I didn't want to create any more hazard by being in the way but it appeared to be under control as the driver was walking in front of his truck so it appears he wasn't hurt and there didn't appear to be damage to the vehicle.  It's a scary thought that you might 'run into' a moose on that stretch of road. Having lived in Northern Ontario for many years I am all too familiar with that risk.

I always breathe such a big sigh of relief once I've made it to the bridge. Then I know the remainder of the trip will be without incident  - or at least that kind of incident.

All in all a pretty good trip, and after dropping Brenda off at her house we were home by 2:15. Needless to say it was a short night but I did sleep in till 6:30 instead of my usual 5:00 but it was a long day.

SO now I'm getting through the day, a little sleep deprived but looking forward to lunch with Lloyd at the restaurant that is right next to my place of employment. We had a meeting with a lady to go over some investment/banking/financial stuff and she suggested we meet there as it was most convenient for me. So I arrive at the restaurant at 12:03 and she arrived a couple of minutes later. The waitress eventually came and asked what we wanted to drink and I ordered a club soda. Not an option, so I chose water instead, not a problem. We waited a while for her to come and take our order, but we were busy talking so I didn't notice how late it was getting. Lloyd and I ordered the sea food chowder and Margaret ordered a salad. We continued on with our conversation and at one point I did think, gosh, it's taking a while for the soup. Finally she came back and announced that there was no sea food chowder, Did I wish to order something else?  I looked at my watch and realized that it was 12:55. My lunch hour is pretty much over. I told her it was too late, I didn't have time to wait. If she had told me that 20 minutes earlier I could have made another choice. So I was finishing up my conversation and getting my coat on to leave and the waitress comes back and announces it's okay, they have some now. Again I explain as I finish putting on my coat, that my lunch hour is now over. Then just as I'm saying good bye she arrives with the salad and chowder for Lloyd.
I wandered back to work, tired AND hungry!

Not to worry. We will make up for it after work with a burger downtown, and make up for it we did. We chose the Old Triangle for our Burger Love and I wasn't disappointed. I think so far it's my favorite. I really liked the bun - the same dough as a soft pretzel ( one of my most favorite snack foods) and the meat was juicy but not so juicy that it ran all over and the bacon was extra crispy, just the way I like it.. The only criticism I had, and the waitress says most people say the same thing - was the lobster fritter on top of the meat. While I liked the crispy fritter it didn't contain much lobster. In fact I would not have known it had lobster in it if the menu didn't say so. SO for that I think they may have missed out on having a top winning burger but on the whole, I really liked it. We chose to buy one burger and split it which is actually a great idea. Then you can order something else to try as well. In this case it was the chicken dip that Brenda and I had eaten before and we both really liked it. We probably could have done without dessert but the rich warm brownie with chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream was a pretty good end to our meal.

"FISHERS + FARMERS = THE ULTIMATE TEAM. 
A SUPERBLY BALANCED BURGEr EXPERIENCE." - the Surf and Turf

100% Island Beef topped with Caramelized Mayo, Butter Lettuce, Tomato, Double Smoked Bacon, and homemade Lobster Fritter on
a Pretzel Kaiser with a Dill Pickle and Lemon garnish.

On our way home we stopped into the liquor store and picked up a bottle of white wine for tonight's dinner and then headed home.

Needless to say it was an early night for me.