Goodbye Villa del Mar

I find myself feeling sad today over the loss of my favorite area restaurant. Villa del Mar has shut its doors for good. Even if you live here in Plano, you probably haven’t heard of the place. Every time my family and I visited (about twice a week or more for a couple of months after finally discovering it) there was rarely anyone there. That’s a shame, because the food was excellent, and the owners were some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. They didn’t speak much English, but they loved to play with our one year old boys, who would run around the mostly deserted restaurant smiling, laughing, squealing, falling down, and dancing with the owners (of course, dancing for them basically means bouncing up and down, but it’s very cute). It’s just so sad to have met the owners, seen how they poured their heart into this place, and then see it fail. Villa del Mar deserved better, and they most certainly did. All I can hope is that they find success elsewhere. Best of luck to you, wherever you are. You’re already missed.

What's the worst thing you've ever done ? (Keep it clean)

How do you punish your kid for sneaking out at 3am and getting brought home by the police, knowing the things you did when you were that age? A brief list of my exploits:

1. Snuck out in the middle of the night, found a convertible parked in a driveway with the top down, took the bags full of grass piled by the curb and dumped them into the car, then stuck a hose into the grass, turned it on, and left. I feel guilty about this one now.
2. Same night – poured mud into the mail slot in several doors
3. Stole a plant from Jack-in-the-Box
4. Started drinking at age 15 on a semi-regular basis, haven’t stopped since
5. Stole a bunch of construction sawhorses with the blinking light and put them in the front yard of a friend
6. “Borrowed” a bunch of For Sale signs and posted them in the front yard of same friend
7. Stole a bunch of pumpkins and tried to leave them impaled on the fence of same friend’s house, but his dad came out and threw one of the pumpkins at us as we ran and dove in the back of the getaway pickup truck, nailing one guy in the head (nice toss)
8. Snuck into Six Flags after hours and stole a spelunker and several of the spelunker’s “pimp” hats, plus a Holiday in the Park sign to enhance the decoration in my dorm
9. Took a garden gnome and “relocated” it several houses down; did this repeatedly over time as the gnome liked to travel
10. Packed 10 people in a Volkswagen Bug to go haunted housin’. It took about a block and a half to stop the car.

I’d go on, but I hear sirens in the distance and I think I’ve said to much.