I don't know what my deal is but I haven't been very inspired to write lately. I am sure there hasn't been a lack of things to write about, only a lack of desire to write about them. I do have a funny story though.
Last night we were invited to go with some friends to a free dinner that they had won at the Ruby River Steak House. It was supposed to be a dinner with a short presentation on fire safety, or so the letter said. When we got to the restaurant we were instructed that we needed to go through the exit door at the back of the restaurant and then down the La Quinta hallway to the conference room. We were seated at the back of the room at a long folding table that was supposed to have enough room for 2 but they squeezed 4 of us into the spot. Mark and I were in the normal seats with Lourdes sitting on the corner of the table and John sitting at the end of the table. Cozy. Not really the word you want as a description when you are going to be eating with someone other than your spouse.
When we were seated Mark was missing silverware and a glass so he and I shared our glass for at least the first 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the presentation started right away. It turns out that the "free dinner" was a dinner from a company who was selling some sort of special fire detector. The company could be good but their approach was so doom and gloom that we were immediately turned off. We ate salad as their presenter talked and Mark sat. Yep, there was a total of about 80 people in the room and everyone had salad except for mark and 3 other men at our table. His salad finally came about 10 minutes after we got ours and, since it wasn't their normal size salad but a miniature version, Mark finished it pretty fast. Next was the main course. This time the whole table was served except for Mark again. John Lourdes and i didn't want to be rude by eating in front of him so we sat there for awhile. 5 minutes went by, then 10, at fifteen minutes we decided we weren't going to stay for the end of the presentation we would eat and leave. At this point John started getting pretty lit up about the whole experience and decided to do something about it He got up, walked into the kitchen, and proceeded to inform the kitchen help that there was somebody not being taken care of out there and that he was shocked that they wouldn't be out among the guests making sure all was well with everyone. They assured him they would come right out and take care of the problem so John came out and sat back down at the table with the rest of us.
At least 5 minutes later (and probably 20 minutes into waiting for a dinner that everybody else had finished eating) we still had not seen anybody and were all in agreement that it was time to go. We were going to walk out the doors at the front of the room, which would have created quite the scene, but then a man walked through the doors right behind us and we noticed that the doors led right into the restaurant. At that point we promptly picked up our things and left.
We weren't quite done though. Mark and John decided it would be appropriate to lodge a complaint with the manager of Ruby River. Mark gave the man a full description of what had happened and the manager did not care. He was adamant that this had nothing to do with his restaurant. Mark then asked him "was it your food?" which the manager replied yes to. "Was it your servers in your kitchen?" Yes again. "Then how can this not reflect bad on your restaurant?" The manager became irate. He got up in Mark's face and proceeded to lecture him on his non-responsibility in the whole matter. Mark got the picture that this was obviously going nowhere so we left.
Fast forward 10 minutes and we were in Sizzlers paying for a dinner that should have been paid for by Ruby River. We had a great time chatting, and when Sizzler made a mistake on Mark's order they brought out another entree and let him keep the first one that they had messed up on. The food was not as good, but the service was much better. We actually had an attentive waitress.
Moral of the story? We each decided that nothing is really free. Everything has some "cost" associated with it. Mark was talking to a buddy of his from work whose son-in-law went to the same presentation recently and had the same bad experiences. If you ever win a "free dinner" at Ruby River from a fire safety company just run the other way, hang up the phone, or shred the letter. Trust me, the free dinner isn't worth the price we paid.
Last night we were invited to go with some friends to a free dinner that they had won at the Ruby River Steak House. It was supposed to be a dinner with a short presentation on fire safety, or so the letter said. When we got to the restaurant we were instructed that we needed to go through the exit door at the back of the restaurant and then down the La Quinta hallway to the conference room. We were seated at the back of the room at a long folding table that was supposed to have enough room for 2 but they squeezed 4 of us into the spot. Mark and I were in the normal seats with Lourdes sitting on the corner of the table and John sitting at the end of the table. Cozy. Not really the word you want as a description when you are going to be eating with someone other than your spouse.
When we were seated Mark was missing silverware and a glass so he and I shared our glass for at least the first 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the presentation started right away. It turns out that the "free dinner" was a dinner from a company who was selling some sort of special fire detector. The company could be good but their approach was so doom and gloom that we were immediately turned off. We ate salad as their presenter talked and Mark sat. Yep, there was a total of about 80 people in the room and everyone had salad except for mark and 3 other men at our table. His salad finally came about 10 minutes after we got ours and, since it wasn't their normal size salad but a miniature version, Mark finished it pretty fast. Next was the main course. This time the whole table was served except for Mark again. John Lourdes and i didn't want to be rude by eating in front of him so we sat there for awhile. 5 minutes went by, then 10, at fifteen minutes we decided we weren't going to stay for the end of the presentation we would eat and leave. At this point John started getting pretty lit up about the whole experience and decided to do something about it He got up, walked into the kitchen, and proceeded to inform the kitchen help that there was somebody not being taken care of out there and that he was shocked that they wouldn't be out among the guests making sure all was well with everyone. They assured him they would come right out and take care of the problem so John came out and sat back down at the table with the rest of us.
At least 5 minutes later (and probably 20 minutes into waiting for a dinner that everybody else had finished eating) we still had not seen anybody and were all in agreement that it was time to go. We were going to walk out the doors at the front of the room, which would have created quite the scene, but then a man walked through the doors right behind us and we noticed that the doors led right into the restaurant. At that point we promptly picked up our things and left.
We weren't quite done though. Mark and John decided it would be appropriate to lodge a complaint with the manager of Ruby River. Mark gave the man a full description of what had happened and the manager did not care. He was adamant that this had nothing to do with his restaurant. Mark then asked him "was it your food?" which the manager replied yes to. "Was it your servers in your kitchen?" Yes again. "Then how can this not reflect bad on your restaurant?" The manager became irate. He got up in Mark's face and proceeded to lecture him on his non-responsibility in the whole matter. Mark got the picture that this was obviously going nowhere so we left.
Fast forward 10 minutes and we were in Sizzlers paying for a dinner that should have been paid for by Ruby River. We had a great time chatting, and when Sizzler made a mistake on Mark's order they brought out another entree and let him keep the first one that they had messed up on. The food was not as good, but the service was much better. We actually had an attentive waitress.
Moral of the story? We each decided that nothing is really free. Everything has some "cost" associated with it. Mark was talking to a buddy of his from work whose son-in-law went to the same presentation recently and had the same bad experiences. If you ever win a "free dinner" at Ruby River from a fire safety company just run the other way, hang up the phone, or shred the letter. Trust me, the free dinner isn't worth the price we paid.
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