Chili's

We were at Chili's tonight. Were you? I would like to say that we had a delightful meal while at the same time helping to raise money for St. Judes, but in actuality it was really quite stressful. There is a reason that we DO NOT go out to eat on Monday nights! We were all tired and had the cranky "Monday blues" and I worked my long (well, long for me) day and didn't get home until 4. I had to get the kids into the tub before we went out to dinner because they were filthy and I knew when we got home it would be too late. It was my brother's birthday so we met him, his girlfriend and my parents at our local Chili's around 6:30. For us to get there it takes a 1/2 hour, plus we had to stop and get some cash. It seemed like I was yelling at everyone for the entire hour before we left the house, because NO ONE seemed to be cooperating. The kids DID NOT WANT to have a tub at such an odd time, and then they DID NOT WANT to get dressed again after and Abbey DID NOT WANT to have her hair dried with the hair dryer and Jack DID NOT WANT to have his hair brushed at all! By the time we got to the restaurant I felt ready to collapse. I expected it to be crowded, due to the whole "100% profits to Childhood Cancer" day, but it was depressingly not. It seemed that the word didn't quite get out there, or maybe all the other families just played it smart, succumbed to their Monday blues and did Car Side to Go or something.

In any event, the 8 of us were there, slightly cramped into a booth, enjoying our family togetherness. I have to admit right now, we never really eat at Chili's. It's not close enough, and I think we would all rather go to an Italian place, or a good burger joint instead. Also, my family isn't exactly all that keen on any kind of "spicy" food. In fact, in all of my life I've never really seen my father eat with his hands, so for him to order taco's, quite strange. My parents kept saying how hot and messy everything was. On the upside, they were quite impressed with the $2.99 Margarita's (but I think I heard my brother ask if there was any alcohol in them). They were all good sports though, considering I practically forced them all to eat there. But I was annoyed. For a place only half filled the service was s...l...o...w. Super slow. The kids used up all of their patience waiting for their food to arrive, so that by the time it actually did they were all done and just became antsy, annoying and all-around pains in the asses. In fact, I brought my camera with me, expecting to get a nice family picture to put here on this post, but do you see a picture? No. Because the kids would not sit still long enough for such a thing, and by the time the check came we were wrangling them out of there, and happy to go.

In the end I will admit that the night was not that bad. The chips were salty and delicious, my chicken tacos were tasty and the company (not including my children) was delightful. I would like to give my parents a GIANT thank you for treating us all, and when it comes right down to it, any food that is prepared, served and paid for by someone else is always a damn good thing.

Did You Know?

Did you know that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month?

Did you know that cancer is the number one illness among children?

Did you know that each year one in every 330 kids will be diagnosed with cancer before age 19?

Did you know that The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) federal budget was $4.6 billion. Of that, breast cancer received 12%, prostate cancer received 7%, and all 12major groups of pediatric cancers combined received less than 3%?

Did you know that one out of every five children diagnosed with cancer dies?

Did you know that Cancer in childhood occurs regularly, randomly, and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region?

I didn't. But I do now. There are tons of things you can do, but one is very simple and also quite tasty. Eat at Chili's. They have made a 10-year, $50 million commitment to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and on September 29th they will be donating 100% of their profits. 100%! I wasn't planning on eating at Chili's on September 29th (which happens to be my brothers birthday) but now I will. So Matt, how about joining me & the kids at Chili's to celebrate your big 3-0 (oops, did I put that here)? I'll probably have the fahita's. Or maybe the Bacon Burger. Or perhaps the Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad. Ahhh, choices, choices.