Thursday, May 3, 2012

Where's the Beef??

One of our housemates is moving out soon so a few of us are going out to dinner tonight. We are going to a fantastic little vegetarian restaurant called Cafe Paradiso. I am not one to think it's worth spending a lot of money on food where you don't get meat (prices are on the higher end) but apparently Bobby Flay, BBQ King, went to Ireland and loved Cafe Paradiso! I have also had rave reviews from my friends so Branden and I are excited to finally get to try it.

As exciting as it is to get to go out for great food, it is sad to be losing another housemate. He's been in the house since before we moved in and he is always great for stories. I don't think I've ever met anyone who has been around the world (literally) more times than him. One job he had, had him flying totally around the world every 6 weeks and he was there for I think about 3 years. It's also sad since he has a similar sense of humor as I do. Although he probably had it first, being originally from Scotland, and mine developed more from living there.

Who knows though, maybe we'll get another girl in the house and finally we can outnumber the boys!

On a different note, it was actually really nice yesterday so we went to the park along the river by our house. As we were peacefully sitting on the bench along the bank, we heard this loud air spout type noise. A good sized seal had someone managed to get up the river and was swimming along by where we were! There was a row boat with 2 people paddling slowly behind the seal which almost made us think that it was 'pushing' the poor thing further up the river. The seal's breathing when it would surface was really loud, making me think that it was tired as there was no bank for it to get up on for rest.

Once it swam past us, Branden and I decided to walk up the path along the river to follow it and see where it would go. The boaters pulled up to some steps and started to get out, but we still headed up the river, since the seal was a bit ahead of them. At first we walked slowly, listening for it's loud breath when it would surface but we heard and saw nothing. Fearing that it was swimming faster than our slow walking, we headed up river faster, hoping that maybe it found the sandy bank up ahead and was finally getting to snooze in the sun. When we got to the top of the trail, we still saw and heard nothing. This had us thinking something a bit different.

"I know this seems a bit far fetched," I started, "but what if the seal was actually the people in the boat's pet, and they were just taking it for a swim?"

Branden surprisingly didn't look at me as if I had lost my mind, "I oddly was thinking the same thing."

"Since we didn't stick around to see the people get out of the boat, we may have missed the seal getting out too and I could have snuggled it!" I practically moaned.

We headed back to where the people got out of the boat but there was no sign of anything. No boat, no people, and no domestic pet seal for me to cuddle. Ok, so maybe the seal just swam back down the river once the boat left but it is more fun to think of some random eccentrics taking their pet seal for a swim!

Unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera with us so I don't have any photos to show you. Sadly, the weather is back to nasty with no signs of getting nice again but it was great to get out for a bit yesterday...can you tell we probably needed it???

This was taken at the end of February but this is the section of river where the seal was.

Well, I'm off to do some cleaning! Happy Thursday everyone!

13 comments:

  1. Being able to see a random seal? How fabulous is that? You are so lucky.

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  2. Loved the post until you got to the "cleaning" part! I'm allergic to cleaning.

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  3. I would have loved seeing that! In fact I probably would have thought exactly like you did. Just because I would have hoped to cuddle it too.

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  4. Seal snuggling would have made for a great photo too.

    *SIGH*

    See, now we're ALL disappointed.

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  5. A vegetarian restaurant? There?!

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  6. When The Hurricane is out with the team rowing crew, sometimes sea lions poke their noses out toward the boat, probably thinking, Wheh! Those sweaty women stink! I am blogging again and open to the public, so please come back to me. I think you might have to join again to get me in your reader. I'm testing to find out what happens, and I hope you will be one of my guinea pigs.

    Love,
    Janie (Lola is returning, too)

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  7. I'm certain it was their pet that they normally keep in an old, footed, cast iron bathtub.

    Thought I would add a little imagery for you.

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  8. OH my gosh that river is gorgeous! Hope the weather clears up again soon so you can enjoy it again and try stalking the seal some more. :)

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  9. It's so pretty there, consider me soooo jealous! I would've peed myself a little if I'd see that seal. I would've tracked it all over the place. It could've been pet, but I hear you guys have selkies over there, so it may have just walked out and hidden behind something....no?

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  10. Take care with wild seals Maggie. They look cute but can be viscous. That was a fun story you told - Dave

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  11. A lovely river!

    I've never seen seals myself, aside from the zoo variety. In the wild I've occasionally seen beavers and otters in lakes and rivers.

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  12. So, what's your opinion of Bobby Flay's opinion of that high-end veggie restaurant, Padded Cell Princess? I hope it was worth the extra bucks :) Saying goodbye to people you like is always a hard thing to do. I always find myself hoping out of sight, out of mind doesn't necessarily apply... A seal? Well, it sure beats a shark.

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Does this straitjacket make my butt look big?