Hi friends, happy Monday!   I can’t believe in 2 weeks I’ll be driving to work in the complete opposite direction… For those of you who don’t know, I’ve accepted a position with a new company and I am more than a little excited about the opportunity.  It will be sad to leave a place I’ve been for over 5 years, but I think this is the right move for me right now and I’m anxious to get started!

So I have to tell you all that I had quite the dining experience this weekend. My parents met Brandon and I for dinner, to celebrate Brandon’s birthday, at a local restaurant, where my mother and I had both purchased Living Social coupons recently.  Even though the coupon says “one per table”, other restaurants have always been really cool about honoring them as long as we just split the check.  This time, however, not so much.  (I will say that the experience was already kind of tarnished when I told the owner that my meal was extremely salty, and he proceeded to tell me that no, in fact, it wasn’t.  He did bring us a free dessert, but was kind of a jerk about it and said “well I hope this isn’t too sweet for you!”  Ok then.)  So when it came time to pay the bill, we asked for separate checks and proceeded to turn in our respective coupons.  Next thing we know, the owner is back at the table, telling us how this was the worst mistake he’s ever made, that he makes no money off the deal, and how if let’s us both use our coupons, he’d have to let everyone else do the same and he’d be out of business in a year.  This went on for no less than 10 minutes.  Seriously.

First of all… calm the f down.  We just enjoyed a nice meal, and what we don’t need right now is someone speaking to us in a unpleasant tone in front of a dining room full of patrons who have all now stopped eating their dinners and are staring in horror.  Second of all, that’s fine!  All he had to say was “sorry, one per table” and I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash.  You’d think it would have ended there, but no less than 5 minutes later, he was back with a coupon he’d already received from another table, spouting off about how it says on the bottom “one per table” at which point I looked at him and said, “Ok, I understand.  We aren’t arguing with you.  Honestly, I don’t even want to hear about it anymore.”  Which is totally out of character for me, I never speak up in situations like this, but seriously.  Enough.

But it wasn’t enough.  5 minutes later I hear, “BABY.  BABY.”  Assuming I’m baby, I turn around, and there he is, fanning an entire BOX of other Living Social coupons he’s received that month in my general direction, and yet again screaming, “I make no money!”  We lost it.  It was a bad Curb Your Enthusiam episode.  We all burst into laughter, and could not hold it together.  Finally we got to leave and if my Living Social coupon had been on a piece of paper and not my phone, I honestly would have thrown it in the trash.  It was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had at a restaurant ever.  Ever.

The whole weekend wasn’t so bad, thankfully.  Before the Living Social Nightmare occurred, I got to see the Hunger Games, which was freaking awesome.  (Especially the part when the kid in front of us came back from the bathroom and face-planted into his chair.  HI-larious.)

I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone, so I will just say that I really really really liked it.  I want to go back and see it again.  Like now.  Bravo.

Sunday was also a pretty sweet day, I did a little shopping with the biff at T.J. Maxx and Target (my two favorite places in the whole world) and had an awesome little lunch at an adorable little Thai restaurant, Bangkok Wok.

We both got our own appetizers, I got the summer rolls (with steamed chicken and shrimp) which were fab.  (Mary got the fried spring rolls, which she thought were “ok”.  PS sorry for the crappy iPhone pictures.)

And then we split the  salmon with a red curry peanut sauce.  Which we couldn’t even finish.  Between two of us, two women with remarkably large appetites.

This was fantastic.  The curry was the perfect amount of spice and just the right amount of coconut milk.  The salmon was cooked beautifully and the option of brown rice will always earn extra points with me.  Most notably, the staff here is truly amazing.  They were helpful and pleasant, and stopped by the table just enough.  They made us feel very welcome, which is great for first-time patrons, and we both agreed we’d definitely go back.

Especially if they offer a Living Social coupon.

So what’s the deal?  Have you guys ever gotten negative feedback when you used Groupons or Living Social deals?  Apparently my mom had an awful experience at a spa when she used one to get a facial and they were really rude about it.  I think I might just stop buying them altogether.