Who said nothing is for free??

This afternoon I grabbed my laptop bag, bowling ball, and wallet and ran out the door.  Katy was snoozing as she usually does on Sunday afternoon and the kids were scattered here and there doing their thing as usual.  My choices were to be the play thing for the new kitten OR go do MY thing.  I voted on the MANLY thing and ran out the door.  I washed the truck, wiped it down and ran the vacuum cleaner on the inside.  When I was done with that I found the nearest Raceway gas station near Sandpiper lanes which happens to have the cheapest petrol on this side of town.  I filled up the beast after robbing my checking account to the tune of 45.00 and then went over to Sandpiper lanes so I can get on the list to sub on the league tonight. When I got there I found out that there is a state tournament going on and therefore I would have to wait until 7:45 pm to get a chance to bowl. I figured what the heck, what a wonderful opportunity to go to my favorite blogging place and get a cup of coffee and free Internet access.

I drove across town and arrived just in time for a decaf half strength mocha. Unfortunately they had a sign on the register that said they were no longer able to fix hot drinks. I did not understand that at first and I thought that meant no coffee either. No, they had lots of coffee and because I wanted a decaf mocha the girl behind the counter gave it to me for free. I stood there thinking, wow, I actually got something for free and it came with a smile. I next decided that the decaf coffee that I had just received would not be quite as enjoyable without a banana nut muffin to go along with it. I pull out my money and said," May I get a banana nut muffin to go along with the coffee please". The same girl behind the counter gives me a bag with a banana nut muffin and a banana nut muffin top. When I asked what I owed she smiled again and said," I hate using that register so don't worry about it. I was like, hey are you sure? I was looking around wondering if it was some sort of trick but no she said she was not charging me. Now that I think about it this must have been a combination of the register is closed out because we are closing for the day and she was busy cleaning. Nevertheless I am blogging in front of my favorite place with my free goodies. As they say HAPPY Sunday to me. LOL… Did I mention that I am sharing this experience with my friendly and favorite female vampire bugs from hell? I guess I have sweet blood and they have zeroed in on me and are also enjoying their free meal. I guess one free meal begets another huh?

Yesterday I went out to eat with the men's group at church and then I took care of some errands. Once those were done I went back to the house and kidnapped my wife. I have to do that once per week at minimum so that she can take a break from the drudgery of being a full time mom, wife and school teacher. Not only does Katy work 40+ hours per week as a teacher she also gets to come home and prepare for the next day's lesson plans and the wonderful multipage IEP's. That normally takes her several hours and then in her free time she enjoys taking her online graduate courses. Did I say free time? I know that she will get a big laugh out of that one. So, our day was pretty good and we enjoyed each other's company immensely. Katy and I have been married for 17+ years but we are still like a couple of kids and it does not take much to amuse us. One of the things we like to do is we play "Punch Bug" while driving around town. You are probably guilty of playing the same retarded game. You see a VW Bug and you punch someone and say "Punch bug, don't punch back". If you don't say don't punch back guess what, you are open for the other person to nail you for the same VW Bug that is being seen. Take notes, these rules are very important if you are going to play right. Our day consisted of the normal things like paying bills, dinner and a movie. Once that was all done it was approximately 4:45 pm and I decided it was way too early to go home. My friend Patty has been telling me about a new Internet café that she had discovered somewhere on 17 A so I decided to take my kidnap victim and take a joy ride across the new bridge to go find it. I knew it was called "something" Loop. I had searched the Internet for The Loop and never found one here locally. My GPS was about as useless as a concrete block because it did not find it either. On several occasions Katy and I both would find a VW Bug and we would keep our scores tallied. I think at this point it was 5 to 3 and Katy was ahead. I pulled over at one point over on the Mt Pleasant side of the bridge trying to use the GPS to search to no avail. At one point I was on a side road and I drove right by a VW Bug lot and I started counting out all of the VW Bugs and yelling "Punch Bug DON'T Punch back". Katy was hollering foul and I was laughing myself silly at this point. Remember, I told you that it takes very little to amuse us. Katy told me that she was NOT playing anymore since I found it necessary to cheat. Hahahahahaha

I tried to call my friend Patty and did not get her on the phone. Luckily for me Patty told me she had visited this restaurant with our friend Peter earlier this week and so I called him on his cell phone. Peter told me how to get there and so off to the races we went. That was after burning a quarter tank of gas and driving back and forth across the new bridge. I am sure by this time Katy was breathless with anticipation.

If you visit http://www.looppizzagrill.com/ you will see the story behind this establishment and find the address to all of their locations. Katy told me that she was happy that I finally found the place because she was now most definitely hungry and ready to rest her worn out buns from riding in the truck for so long. We hop out of the Durango and collect my laptop bag and off we go. I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by a young lady behind the counter. I said to her, you have free Internet access, right? The young lady looks at me and say NO SIR. I think my jaw hit the ground and Katy said, maybe you found the wrong place. I did not see any free Wi-Fi signs when I entered the restaurant so I was starting to doubt myself at this point. At this point I inquired about the possibility of free Internet access and the employee said, let me get my manager but I am not aware of any Internet Access. At this point I remembered my hotspot finder in my laptop bag and pulled it out and turned it on. Sure enough it revealed several WAP's on location and by that time the manager came out with the WEP key phrase written down on a piece of paper. The manager told me that he most definitely had free Internet access for his patrons and would be happy for me to try it out. I beamed from ear to ear and Katy thought , oh boy, here we go again, I am hungry and all the Chief propeller head cares about is Internet access. Well, actually I wanted Internet access first and then I was willing to buy a burger to validate my need to be there. Katy and I both tried out the cheddar burger and onion rings and for dessert we had the chocolate shake to go. When we arrived around 5:15 pm the place was fairly empty with only a couple of customers. The establishment was very roomy and clean and every table that I could see had an electrical outlet for folks like me who have a need to plug in our laptops. I was very impressed with that indeed. The food was most excellent and there were plenty of employees to bus the tables and make sure our drinks were refilled. All in all this was a very good experience and I plan on going back with my friend Patty and anyone else that would care to join me. The physical address for this location in Mount Pleasant is 1109 Park West Boulevard in the Shoppes at Park West in Mt Pleasant SC 29466. Their phone number is 843-216-7107 and their email is mountpleasantloop@comcast.net. My hat is off to the owner and his staff and hope to visit again very soon.