family+holiday=x.

now it's your job to find out what "x" really is.

so. i told you my mom was sick on Christmas, AND the days following. yesterday, she said, was the first day she really felt human again. and as such, she wanted to go have a deelish fried chicken dinner over @ Knott's.

naturally, when you are recovering from ANY kind of a stomach bug, you want to eat deelish, if a little greasy, fried chicken with biscuits, corn, mashed potatoes & gravy, salad AND chicken soup.

did i mention you also get a slice of pie for dessert? all for the low, low price of $14.95.

it's really good. really, really good. otherwise, it wouldn't have been around since the 30's, right?

however, it's not my little secret. everyone knows about it.

and everyone was in line for it last night. matter of fact, the line went out of the restaurant, along the front of the building, then, down the other side of the building..all the way to the back entrance.

the wait was two hours.

duuuuuude.

as a matter of fact, the host of the restaurant came by to get the number of people in each party, and in talking to the group behind me, said that last Saturday, the line made its way all the over to the exit of the park...about a quarter of a mile long line, he said.

duuuuuude. that ain't right.

so, being the first one there, i called the parents, driving over. and naturally, they had no intention of waiting two hours for dinner.

let's go get Mexican, my mom says. great, i reply. we've got a really good one just up the 91 freeway.

no. my mom says. we'll go to Senor Compost (i swear. that's what she calls it) in Whittier. that's about a seven mile drive from here. our restaurant is only three miles up the freeway. but it's the same distance according to my mom.

oh goody. let's go to Whittier.

there's something about people when they are absolutely convinced they're right. they are as firm in their conviction as a kernel of caramel corn stuck in your shag carpet.

my mom was that caramel corn in my shag carpet. even though i don't have shag.

dinner was OK. the company was way better. oh, and by the way, the restaurant is called Senor Compos.

and to quote the late great Gilda Radner's Emily Latilla from Saturday Night Live - well - now that's very different.
never mind.

in other weird news...
at my birthday dinner group's Christmas party, we somehow got on the subject of...leg cramps. and apparently, if you get them, the cure is to stick a bar of soap under your bottom sheet. the chick that told us about it, said she tried it.

it.really.worked.

well, allrighty, then.

i'm trying it tonight.

and in one last note...Hagan Daas has a holiday (read: limited edition) flavor out. green tea.

are you making a face? don't. if it's anything like the green tea ice cream we get any time we go to a Japanese Teppan restaurant, i will be in hog heaven.

so let's review: so far i've covered unreasonable parents, chicken dinners, Mexican food, leg cramps and bars of soap and green tea ice cream.

they don't call it Random Thoughts for nothing, kids.