How Disappointing

[chironcentaur]

Renee and I went out for lunch/early dinner today, and since it was early we went to one of our favorite restaurants that we hadn't been to in a long time. We ate there a lot when I was still working and we would go out to dinner every Friday after I've been paid, but with me not working anymore dinner usually comes up later and that place is

Comments

[bluedolfyn]

You're more likely to be limited to organic, more natural, less processed sugar here than you would be forced to have artificial sweeteners. There was one buffet that I didn't hate, here (mostly because, omg, they made crab rangoons, and they made them correctly) before I became more rigid about having to know how the animals were raised and treated and slaughtered. There's also a vegetarian Chinese food place that erl_queen doesn't hate, but they're big on meat-substitutes, so I wasn't thrilled with them. One of the things that I love about this place is the good places to eat. I realize we go on and on about this place, but really it comes down to three things for me: it's fucking gorgeous; book access is amazing; the food rocks. Granted, I love having such a valuable support network in place, too, and they're being here did influence our decision to move out here, except as much as I valued them before the move, and as much as I considered us close before the move, it's nothing like it is now. The beauty of the place, the wonderful foods (and the attitude about food), and the library systems (and bookstores) were seriously the big reasons for relocating here. And the mild winters, as Beth can't deal with the cold anymore.

It it *way* better here than it was in Philly, with regard to dogs and responsible dog owners. It's not perfect by any means, but over all I'm happier with how people are. 99% of the time, dogs are leashed, and it's pretty strict here. There are a number of dog parks, but I've heard of people getting fined for having their dogs unleashed in non-dog-park areas of parks. Obviously, some park their heads off when you go pass their yards or houses. In all our time here, we've only encountered one loose and aggressive dog, and to be fair, she was fine until we got near her yard. We crossed paths on the sidewalk and she was nervous and non-aggressive, getting back home. It wasn't until we saw her in her yard and stopped to see if we could help confine her (it was a busy street) that she charged at us.

I'm not sure if my perceptions will measure up to what you want to see, as we're quite dog-insane. If any dog we pass shows any signs of interest in us, we stop and say hello. I'm a small dog magnet, Beth attracts the big ones. This was true even if Philly for us, but like I said, we've only had to do dog rescue stuff once (and that was fun, trying to get the police to understand why were were calling. Busy street. Loose, semi-aggressive dog, and the front door was wide, wide open), where, in Philly, it was somewhat regular. (I'm still thrilled Brutus, the GIANT doberman was as friendly as he was. Omg he was huge).

I'll warn, though, that it's a dog-happy place. There are a lot of dogs, and often people will bring them into stores, and by and large most stores allow it. Well, the non-food stores. But, for such a dog happy place, people are responsible and so there's not a lot of running around free and nuisance dogs. Leastwise, not in our area, and I haven't heard about problems in other areas.