The Cheesecake Factory and Other Stuff

Last weekend was pretty eventful...at least for two boring people like me and James. On Friday night, we went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. James took me to a Cheesecake Factory in Southern CA the day that he proposed to me, so it's kind of a special restaurant for us. We haven't had one in this area, but one opened up a couple of months ago near Salt Lake. We've been really excited to try it out and decided to give it a go to celebrate James' promotion and bonus at work. We got to the restaurant at around 5:30pm. There was a line backed up all the way to the front doors that you had to wait in just to put your name on the waiting list. We knew it would be busy, but we didn't know that it would be that busy. However, we probably should have known...James and I have come to the conclusion that whenever we have an idea to do something, everyone else has the same idea...or it could just be that we live in a relatively densely populated area, and people here like to spend money! So anyways, there we were, waiting in line, to put our name on the waiting list, and this guy comes up to James and asks if it's just the two of us that are together. James says yes, and the man hands him the buzzer the restaurant gave him and explained that his wife was pregnant and that she couldn't wait any longer to eat. Then he told us that the reservation was under the name Juan. We thought that was funny...wondering if James could really pass for a Juan or not. He does speak Spanish, so I guess it's at least half-way believable. Then the man tells us that they've been waiting for at least 20 minutes and probably have at least 60 more to go. James and I were glad to be able to skip the waiting list line, because we had been standing in it for awhile, and it hadn't moved that much. Well, there we were, buzzer in hand, but no place to sit, and hardly any place left to stand. We squeezed ourselves behind a giant potted palm, and tried to settle in for our wait. We thought about going somewhere else, but we had both been looking forward to eating there, and thought that the Cheesecake Factory would always be packed, so tonight was as good a time as any. One of the funny things was that all the people that were standing while waiting, were watching the people that were sitting on the padded benches while waiting like hawks. As soon as someone's buzzer went off, and lit up, it was like a mad dash free-for-all rush to the benches to fill the vacancy...I'm not even kidding. There was one time, that I made my way over to an open spot only to be ousted by a rather rotund lady with a cane. I'm wondering if she even really needed the cane because she proved to be pretty quick and nimble when she came and butted me out of the spot. Come on, I'm 8 months pregnant...have a little sympathy. I told James that she's lucky she had a cane, otherwise I wouldn't have let her push me around! Eventually, we were able to snag some seats, and it's a good thing, too, because it was getting to the point where I couldn't stand anymore (I even tried sitting right on the floor, but that proved to be more uncomfortable than standing) and we probably would have given up and left. Finally, at 7 pm, "Juan" and I were buzzed and taken to our seats, and handed what the server called "the novel"...aka the menu. Seriously, it was SEVERAL pages long, and proved to be difficult to make our way through. You would turn the page and then forget what was on the previous page, so picking something to eat turned out to be more of a challenge than originally expected. We both ordered, and when the food came, were shocked at the portion size. They didn't use plates, they used PLATTERS to serve your dinner. You, have to remember, we only ate there for lunch before, so we were new to how things worked for dinner. The food was really good, and I'm happy to say that I had plenty left over for a hearty lunch the next day. Then, it was on to the main event - the Cheesecake! We had to ask for menus again so that we could look over the page-and-a-half of choices...James ordered the Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake (good choice), and I ordered a little slice of heaven known as the Dutch Apple topped with Struesel and Carmel Cheesecake. Imagine, my two absolute favorite desserts (apple pie and cheesecake) combined into one delectable culinary masterpiece. I think it may be the best thing I have ever put in my mouth, and since I am 8 months pregnant, and have quite a voracious appetite, I was able to enjoy every bite to the fullest. Amazing. The cheesecake made the wait worth it. The only down-side was that since the restaurant took so long, we had to forgo seeing National Treasure like we had originally planned. The movie started at 7:30 pm and we weren't done until a little after 8 pm, so we just decided to call it a night (yeah, we're that boring!) I'm hoping that the babysitter wasn't too disappointed because she only got paid half as much since we came home a couple of hours sooner than expected...oh well.
On Saturday, we went to the car show with James' parents. We've gone every year with them (or at least James' dad) for the last three years (Lisa and Blaine usually come, too, but due to Lisa's bed rest, they had to throw us a "no" this year). We always have fun looking at the latest and greatest cars, sitting in them, and then being shocked by the sticker price. I always enjoy trying out the new Mustangs. This year, they had a white one with a pink stripe along the bottom. It had a black leather interior with pink top-stitching...pretty much my dream car. Too bad James said no. He said that if we got one (which, sadly, we probably never will), he would want to drive it too, and that one was too girly or something...I don't know what he was talking about.
In past years, leaving the car show has been really depressing. After sitting in shiny new cars, crawling into our beater of a car that we just hoped would start every time was less than thrilling. This year, we were happy to be driving away in the car that we could only dream about last year. (Yes, we've been really blessed this year, in many many ways and are VERY thankful)
And that was pretty much our weekend.
At the end of next week, I'll be considered full-term, even though my due-date will still be three weeks away...exciting!!