The sad news is that Melissa is back in Maryland and not with me. :-( The good news is that we had such a wonderful weekend!

THURS: Picked Melissa up at the Greensboro Airport. Got home near to midnight, went to bed.

FRI: Got up around 8am, had breakfast, went to see "Bridget Jones's Diary" (again :-} ) and Ben saw "Mummy Returns". Walked around Concord Mills mall for a little while. Went to South Park Mall as well. Then to the super-nice Harris Teeter for some grocery stuff. Came back and made Filet Mignon on the grill (yum) and mashed potatoes with Melissa's secret ingredient; Cheese In A Box. ;-) **Note to self: Do Not Cook Filet Mignon With Mesquite Charcoal Briquettes Again**

SAT: Got up again around 8am, went to Concord Mills to see "A Knight's Tale" (EXCELLENT KICK ASS MOVIE!!!) and to see "Shrek" again. Went home, changed clothes and went to a charming little Italian restaurant in the University area. The waitress we had was a snotty b***h. Her jet black curls were tight and resembled Shirley Temple as a child. I had ordered Shrimp Scampi on a bed of angel hair pasta. When she brought it to me, it was covered in onions. So, we asked if it could be re-made. She wisked the plate away and meanwhile, I chowed down on the loaf of fresh bread and bites Melissa gave me of her Shrimp Manocotti. (very very yum!) I decided that I'd rather have the same thing that Melissa had ordered so we stopped the waitress and asked her if I could change the order. She tried to sound sincere but the words came out quite the contrary and dripping with Sweet-N-Low... "I'm sorry. They've already started working on your plate. Is that ok?"

First of all, that irritates me when a waiter/waitress says that: "IS that ok?" Of course it's not ok. If it were ok, would I be wasting my time, energy and breath to ask you to change my meal order?"

So, I said to her, "I guess it's going to have to be ok. I don't really have a choice now do I?" I wasn't rude, but I was making a point. Don't sit there and say "Is that ok?" when you obviously DON'T mean it and are just trying to smooth things over. She was quite the snippy little b***h.

Melissa and I waited outside on the boardwalk while Ben settled the bill. He comes outside and says, "She came back over all sweet and asked if she could clear the table for me... I had already paid the bill." In other words, she was trying extra hard to get a good tip and thought that since I was outta sight, that she could bat her little eyes at Ben and get him to pay. He gave her $5 on a $40 check. She's lucky she got that much...had it been me, I would have left her only a dollar. Don't get me wrong. I am not snobby nor am I a bad tipper. In fact, we've been known to leave $10 and $20 tips if the service was stellar. And, we always try to tell a manager when we've received superior service so that the employee can be rewarded accordingly.

So we brush it off and walk down the sidewalk to "The Wine Vault". It's a quaint little store that sells wine, of course, and a lot of imported hard-to-find beers and such. Melissa and I pick out each a bottle of raspberry Lambic. (DOUBLE YUM!!!) Ben chooses a Granny Smith Woodchuck Cider. We pay and sit at an umbrella table outside. Live entertainment starts, we begin to consume our drinks and chat the night away. Melissa had a Cider and I had another bottle of Lambic. I was having such a good time and a lot of fun. But, we decided responsibly to end the night at about 10:30 so that we could get up early in the morning and drive to Chimney Rock.

SUN:We woke up about 6:30am and packed up our cooler w/ water bottles and ice and snacks and headed to Chimney Rock park. It's near Asheville, NC. It's a 2hr drive. But it's sooooo incredibly beautiful. It's a hike up a large "mountain" or big boulder if you will. Pretty trees and such.

We get on the trail and have to climb stairs. Stairs and more stairs. All 3 of us were huffing and puffing because of the steep incline. We begin to sweat and gulp down our water. Melissa has a real sour look on her face and Ben says, "What's wrong?" She quips, "You didn't tell me there'd be stairs!" Eeeks!!! ;-) Well, after about 15mins of climbing, the stairs begin to fade and Melissa finds her happy place. Especially when we came to this place called "Nature's Bath". It was a natural pool from the water that rushed over some rocks. And DAMN was that water coooooooooold. Just ask Melissa. She bravely took off her shoes and socks and went for a dip up to her knees. Not me. I'm too chicken...besides, you know me: Cold and Michele is like Oil and Vinegar. :-) We took a lot of incredible pictures on this hike. I'll be developing them today at Wolf Camera. I should be able to post a few pictures tomorrow on my diary page. If I just knew how to add multiple pictures on my page with captions that would be phenomenal!!! (**Hint, hint to anyone that can help here)

We finished the hike 2 hours later and drove back to Charlotte. There we refilled waterbottles and headed to T.G.I. Fridays for a quick (yeah, right) lunch. Then we unfortunately had to drive Melissa back to Greensboro so she could fly home. I wanted to everything in my power to keep her from having to go back, but I knew that she had to go. ;-(

All in all, it was one of the best weekends we've had all year!

ps-- Ben would like to change the Dictionary spelling of the word FLOSS. He would like it to be spelled FLAUCE (like sauce) because that makes more sense. hee, hee, hee! ;-)

Have a great Monday ya'll!

Thought Of The Day: "When I am trusting and being myself...everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously."--Shakti Gawain, therapist

Until next time...peace, love & HEALTH!!!