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The Queen and I are going to Florida for the weekend to surprise her mother for her 80th birthday. Rita does know The Queen is coming but she is unaware of my arrival. Rita's brother and step-daughter will also be showing up for the surprise. The plan is to take them all out to dinner after the surprise arrival. This is dependent on the health of The Queen's step-father, Gene.
This trip could be exciting because The Queen might be going over the million miles mark. This generates her all sorts of perks for flying. It also bestows them on her spouse, which I heartily approve of.
We are flying back on Sunday. Both trips require getting up at ungodly hours to avoid the complications of the government shutdown. I'm getting up at 2:30 on Thursday so I can get a dog walk in before heading to the airport.
Good times!
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
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All hail to tQ! 1M miles? Wow. Does she get one of those black cards and a visit from the pilot?
It's always about Genes.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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Tampa is our keyword for the day.
I'm at check-in. The woman asks where I am flying to today. I say Houston and then Orlando. Because we always fly to Orlando.
My wife at the next counter leans over and says "No, dear, Tampa. We're flying to Tampa"
Good thing I reserved our rental car for pick-up in Orlando.
All better now.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
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All the stewards congratulated The Queen on her Million Mile Status. One met us at the gate and walked with us to the plane down the jetway. The Queen was given a card to honor her achievement. Since it was 7am, she opted for nothing.
The surprise for The Queen's mother went very well. She and I separated at the airport. The Queen travelled with her mother while I picked up a rental car. There were plenty of text messages during the journey between all the participants in the plot.
Originally, we were going to meet up at The Queen's mother's house. But the QM decided just to go right to Manny's Steak House, which is one of the better restaurants in town. When we were first plotting this, we had wanted to surprise the QM at Manny's but the Queen didn't think she could get QM to agree to going out. I even placed the idea of going to Manny's into the QM's head during a phone call earlier in the week when I shouted out that they better not go to Manny's without me.
So, they went to Manny's. I stopped along the way to pick up the cake the Queen had ordered for the house celebration.
I wasn't here for this part but when TQ and QM arrived at the restaurant Gene's daughter Sherry was already there. Now, QM and Gene had a table they liked to sit at and were a bit displeased that TQ was shuttling them in a different direction. And it took QM a bit to realize it was Sherry sitting at the table because Sherry was supposed to show up until February.
At some point QM's brother and his wife arrived to more excitement.
I felt I was so far behind the gang that they would be through with dinner by the time I showed up. But no.
When I arrived, they were still Facetiming with QM's son Mark.
Upon arrival, I scolded the QM for going to Manny's without me after explicitly telling them they didn't have my permission to do so. The QM was very surprised to see me.
We ate. We shared stories. We marveled at the QM's surprise. I kept whispering quietly to the wait staff to not forget to bring out the cake after the dishes from the meal had been cleared, trying to keep it on the down low.
Nope. The waitress informed the table the she would bring out the cake once the plates were gone. Nobody was paying attention so they didn't hear. And for whatever reason when they did bring the cake, they thought the best thing to serve with the cake would be a huge IceCream Sundae.
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It's seems to be the theme for the weekend is death or at least it's approach.
First off, Gene is not in the best shape. He's confined to a Jazzy scooter for mobility. He's also confined to his own skull by his fading eyesight and hearing. It makes him cranky.
At late night conversations around the kitchen table, the talk turns to funerals and hospital visits. At one point the QM brought up the fact that her and Gene's funerals are already paid for. We talked about the funeral of Sherry's mother and Gene's first wife. We talked eulogies.
All I kept thinking, was we really need to move on to a different topic. Especially in the company of a health challenged man.
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Woohoo. iPhone excitement.
As we were going to bed, the Queen realized she couldn't find her phone. She used her iPad to find it. The map showed it was back at the Olive Garden where we had dinner. We got dressed and headed back out.
No one in the restaurant had noticed the Queen's phone hanging off the back of the chair in the intervening 90 minutes.
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(01-26-2019, 06:49 AM)Greg Wrote: First off, Gene is not in the best shape. It makes him cranky.
So true. So very true.
Sounds like the surprise went really well and the iPhone save was tragedy narrowly averted.
HBD to tQM!
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
