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and I made the 50 minute drive to Cuyahoga Falls for my "birthday adventure". We had lunch at Arthur Treacher's (and it was so much better than our local Long John Silver's...now if we can only get a Captain D's this far north <g>), then walked around the downtown area, wandering in and out of little shops. The best shop, in our opinion, was the little candy shop that also had a ton of fun soft drinks; when you don't drink alcohol, it's always exciting to find different beverage options. On the way home, we hit a craft store and stocked up on some (not really needed) supplies.

Saturday I worked the morning shift, then bff and I went to a new-to-us Indian restaurant, The Indian Kitchen, a couple towns over. We used to make a point of going to the Indian restaurant a few towns over in the other direction until it closed several years ago and we've been unable to find a suitable replacement...until now. I was surprised to find there was a wait for a table; the place is small but normally when I drive past, the parking lot is nearly empty. But it was a Saturday night...and the wait was totally worth it. We split an order of paneer pakora and aloo naan, then she had the mango chicken and I had the chicken korma. We also got ice cream for dessert--mango for me, pistachio nut for her--and every single dish was a winner. We both immediately declared The Indian Kitchen was somewhere we needed to come back to sooner rather than later.

Yesterday, I was up early so I could go cross town and meet bff for a 5k, Jogs For Dogs, a charitable event that raises much needed money for the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter. At first I was slightly irritated by the early start time (8:30 AM, which meant I had to be up by 6:45 to get ready and drive over there to meet bff by 8:15), and it always bothers me to miss church on a Sunday when I'm not ill, but the irritation quickly melted away once I was surrounded by so many precious, friendly doggos. Neither bff nor I run, so we walked the 3.2 miles, frequently stopping to pet the pooches who were walking with their owners (or in a few cases being pulled in a wagon). I didn't mind the distance, and it was a perfect morning for a walk but the course for the run wasn't quite as scenic as the course for the 1 mile walk so next year, I think I would prefer to do the walk. After we completed the "jog", we got nifty "participation" medals <g>. We then walked around the vendors' section for a while, meeting and petting more dogs, before winding up having lunch a couple miles down the road at Bob's Big Boy. I'd not dined at a proper* Bob's Big Boy since high school--the ones closest to me all closed a long time ago--so I was ridiculously happy to get an original Bob's Big Boy burger.

* about 10 years ago, a Bob's Big Boy "express" opened up a couple towns over, featuring just the burgers, fries and shakes, plus the usual soft drinks. It was OK but it just wasn't the same as sitting down next to the iconic BBB statue and debating if you want a burger or a pork tenderloin sandwich.

I'm off today (this is the third week I've worked Tuesday-Thursday, plus Saturday, and I thought I was finally getting a sort of "official" schedule, but then I saw I was scheduled to work next Monday), so my aunt is taking me out for a birthday lunch, then we're hitting a local park to shoot the bows and arrows. Tomorrow, due to a co-worker having COVID ("M", the 84 year old dynamo that gave me so many of her older tops), I'm scheduled to work a 9 hour day (with a 30 minute lunch break), plus I'm working an extra hour both Wednesday and Thursday. I have a sort of plan for Friday but that might turn into a day I just lounge around the house in ratty clothes and do absolutely nothing <g>.