i tell you, mark and i don't know what to do with all our kidless time. saturday we baked four different kinds of cookies, about seven dozen in all. since we thought we'd be running late, we asked the kids to bring us pizza when they came home(they work in a pizza joint, can we say yummy). but c, an assistant manager soon to take over head manager even tho she purposely demoted because it was too stressful on her and her health, had to redo the schedule and the kids didn't get home until 9 pm.

i'm proud of the boy, he pulls himself up at 7:30 in the am to get ready for work, we never have to wake him, and sat, he had to get his sleep-like-the-dead aunt up. she's late for everything, and will probably be late for her own funeral.

ibriham stopped by too. it was good to see him. we had received something for hadi from the government. he's been trying to extend her visa. now get this folks, the government charges an application fee of $900 with no guarantee that they'll give you the visa. now listen, most americans don't have access to $900. i mean, i've only had that amount in my hands at one time only a handful of times. anyway, they declined her. i don't know what they'll do now, tho i imagine she'll stay illegally until they can figure something out. i'm very disappointed in her because she has lost all of her english. she doesn't use it and so she's lost it.

but we had a nice visit with ibriham. he had asked if he could have our little grill and when mark went out back to get it for him, ibriham says to me, "i've got something for you" he pulls out a $20 from his wallet and gives it to me. i, of course, protest, telling him i can't take it. he says, "it's for you baby. you're my girl." he always calls me baby and it's funny to hear him say it in his african/french accent. he always gives z money too when he sees him. mark says he does it because he knows what a prick mark can be and because the two of them are just alike, ibriham makes up for his own prickiness toward the women in his life by being nice to me. but ibriham always tells me he will never forget my kindness and how a white christian woman took such good care of him during ramadan. as he was leaving, i made him promise he and hadi would come back to see us on christmas day.

because we waited so long for the kids to get home sat night, we didn't get our fiesta time. so sunday we walked to eckerd's to get coke and then stopped off for a few beers. we were only going to watch the first half of the panthers game there(fucking losers), but ruban, who is suppose to be off on sundays, was there and so we spent time talking to him.

he invited us to his christmas party. ugh. it's on christmas eve. even in his teens, my son is up at the butt crack of dawn to check out his presents. ruban says this year he's fixing his mom's recipe. we went to his party last year, that he had at the restaurant, and he had wanted to fix the recipe last year, but one of his cooks insisted on fixing it. so this year, he insists on fixing it. i can't remember what he said the name of the dish is, but it's beef, tho he says veal is better, with a sauce made of several kinds of peppers and even the seeds are put in the blender and pureed. it is eaten with tortillas. i remember last year, that it was a little too spicy for me, but ruban doesn't really like it too spicy so maybe his will be a little more mellow.

ruban left for a short time, and we were wrapping up our forth beer(each) and had asked for the check. marisol gets the bill and it's like $21 and some change. we give her $25. about that time, ruban comes back and says something to marisol in spanish. she turns to us and says, "ruban says it's only $15" and mark tells her, "then you've made a good tip." ruban says something else to her in spanish and without a word, marisol lays the $5 back on the bar. mark insisted she take the five and then chided ruban for the other times he doesn't charge us the tip we put on the credit card slip. even tho we always include a tip, ruban only punches in the price of the beer and cheats his servers out of the tips, just to be nice to us.

so i guess, since we insisted on paying the full price plus a nice tip, as were were about to finish the last sips of our forth beer(each, i remind you), he quickly pours us another. by now, my head is starting to reel, and we're now cruising into the forth quarter of the game. we of course, take the beer, under protest, but what can you do, right? and we talk to him some more and drink. then again, before we can finish our last sips, he fills us up again. OMG!

so, the iceback(wearing a t-shirt and shorts, mind you) and the southern bell(or princess, as the iceback has taken to calling me, because in my softest southern accent i always tell him, "i'm a delicate flower") stumbled back across the street on a sunny sunday afternoon, three sheets to the freakin wind.

we had pizza for dinner again.