Friends, Chili's

Yesterday, we had pairs of friends over one at a time. First, one of my best friends and her boyfriend stopped by. Said friend has been in the Netherlands, then France for a total of six months. This is the first time I've seen her since she was in my wedding. Next, we went out to dinner with Justin and Bethany, who then came over for a while. Last came a friend who lives in North Carolina and an old high school friend of Scott's.

All this is to say that the kitten, appropriately, was freaking out over all these new people. She performed some fairly impressive feats for them, including the infamous "couch corner to table" jump maneuver. Now, today, she's a little cranky. She was so keyed up last night that she didn't go to bed until after 1 am, and she woke us up at 10:30. Cats sleep something like 16 hours a day when they're grown; as a kitten, she usually gets 12 hours, so the crankiness is semi-justified. We also blame the fact that she had all her food eaten and water drunk by the time she woke up, which hadn't happened till now. Our little Midna is growing up so fast.

Yesterday, we went to dinner at Chili's, and this compels me to tell you how much I love Chili's.

For those unfamiliar (and I feel sorry for you), Chili's captures the Americana feel that so many restaurants strive for and fall short of. The menu is ideally American, a hodgepodge of entrees and appetizers with descriptors in their names like "club," "Southwestern," "old timer," "crispers," and "explosion." The food is consistently delicious, especially for a relatively cheap restaurant. And best of all, they offer two entrees, an appetizer, and a dessert for 20 bucks.

I went to the UK a while back. The first thing I did after we touched down in Grand Rapids was go to Chili's with my parents and Scott, because I wanted to taste what London could never capture. That, and I added a toddler's worth of weight to my body in Britain, so I could consume just about any portion. (This weight is largely gone now, thankfully). My 21st birthday was spent at Chili's. Heck, Scott and I went to Chili's on our first date. It's just a cheery, tasty, and wholly satisfying restaurant. Beat that, TGIFriday's.