A Christmas Party, A Big Swedish Store, and Hockey

I've actually had quite the week so far, and it's only just Wednesday! Monday had the annual company Christmas party. One of the good things about where I work is they give us two parties per year (and not much else) so I make it a point to go to the Christmas party. It's usually at a nice restaurant in the Ft. L vicinity. This time it was at a fairly well known restaurant that is named after a tropical fruit on the "fancy schmancy" street downtown.

Well, let's just say I wasn't very impressed. I don't know who the arsehole is who picks the place where we go each year, but it just gets successively worse. (Last years was at some skanky little "dance on the tables" kitschy novelty joint.) First off, there's no parking downtown and if you're lucky enough to find a spot in one of the private lots it'll cost you a pretty penny. So having to pay for parking got me set off even before I stepped foot into the place.

Secondly, I was led to believe that the menu would be Latin food. It was not. I could have gotten better food at the local Denny's. It was the typical overrated and overpriced sort of thing you'd expect downtown (at least the company was footing the bill). The restaurant didn't seem to be prepared for all of us. The dining room we were in was too small to accommodate everyone. There weren't enough tables to sit at so half the people had to sit at the bar to eat their meals. And the service was horrendous. Everything just seemed to be very disorganized.

Then there was the little matter of my Swedish coworker who talked me into ordering that shite Presidente beer. "Oh! I love the stuff," he says. "You ought to try it! It's really good." Yeah, really good for a seething, cheap beer headache. Utter shite! Horrid, weak Dominican piss. Consider yourselves warned.

Now... onto Tuesday's events!

So, Mrs. PA and I had planned on going to hockey on Tuesday, which we did, but not before stopping at the new I-K-E-A!!! I've never been to one before and since I like those sorts of modern looking furnishings, I was fairly excited. It was a nice enough store but I can't for the life of me figure out why people get so fucking hysterical when they open up a new one. They had a couple chairs and a sofa that I liked, but for the most part it's just all cheaply made stuff from China. The best part of the place was the cafeteria and the other food place down stairs. Cheap, tasty food makes me happy. See, this post isn't all complaints!

Then onto the hockey game!!!

Since I totally rule, I scored us a couple vouchers for tickets, so we ended up paying $9 for regularly $62 seats. We played a little bit of shooting the puck before the game and then went in to watch the pre-game skate where I got many good pictures of both teams. The game itself was really boring. I don't know what it is with S. Fla. teams- all of them are terrible. At least during one of the intermissions I was lucky enough to finally catch one of the coupons that they drop from the big blimp while avoiding falling over the balcony. Free food at one of the local eateries! Sure, it doesn't beat the last time when I won the $162 second row seats, but at least it's something!

Well, the home team ended up losing because they couldn't hold on for the 10 seconds left in the game, but at least we had a fun evening out.

Hope this post hasn't been too boring!