Thursday, December 15, 2005

...and the rain came pouring down...

Yesterday was the entire staff (secretaries, maintenance, and ministers) Christmas lunch at Brenner's (remember my fine dining from about a month ago (if not see post from November 11), yes that's the place). Well yesterday was also the day that a huge front decided to blow in with intense rain and thunderstorms. By the time we were supposed to leave for lunch, 11:00, I was making jokes that we all needed our paddles so we could use a raft to get to the restaurant. Well, we made it there fine, all 40 of us, but it was terribly messy. Well, what really added to this drama was that our reservation was for outside. If you recall, it's a beautiful scenary. Now on any ordinary day this would have been marvelous, like today for example, it was glorious today, but no, our reservatoins were for yesterday, outside, in the pouring rain. Well, they have a tent like structure, with metal posts and all, and clear roofing and walls made out of clear tarp. Well, we all got settled at started thinking that this was all very risky. We were trusting our staying dry on this not so permanant structure. Anyhow, it was lovely (I actually enjoyed the rain), but still sketchy. Well it wasn't too long till a lady sitting at another table had a few drops on her sleeve. So she moved seats. About that time I felt a drop on my cheek. The people at my table tried to convince me that it was just condensation. A few mins later I felt another drop on my lap, then another, and another. There was now a constant drip. So we moved me over and scooted the table. As soon as we got settled with 8 of us crowded around 2/3 of the table, the drip turned into a full on rain cloud. There were about 20 drops now falling right were I had been sitting. It was at this point they decided to relocate our entire table. So, we moved away from this rain cloud. What had happened was a huge puddle had formed and wasn't running down the roof, it was hinged on a metal bar, and so the pressure was getting really heavy and now starting to leak. Here comes the best part, no the whole roof did not let in. Oh, incase you forgot I need to remind you that this is very fine dining and by this point the manager was out there in his Armani suit assisting in any way possible. That meant now that he was on a ladder holding a squegee with a long handle and began punching the puddle so that it was forced to run down the roof. This worked, but it was only a matter of time before another puddle formed in its place. So to prevent that from happening they duck taped this long squegee (sp?) to the ladder so that it was propped up against the roof, preventing another puddle from forming. The whole escapade was hilarious and definately a lunch that will be talked about for years. The whole fact that it was at one of the nicest restaurants in all of Houston is what made this priceless. The food was spectacular!! So as we finish up our meal (which included 3 adorable bite size desserts!!!), the manager came out to apologize. While he was assuring us that this was not the norm, the wall where the tent met the outside of the building began leaking because the wind was blowing so hard. It was spalshing up and many people were very close by. Then one of the walls became unvelcroed and flew up so the wind and rain came in. At this point the manager quit talking and he and another man in a nice suit went outside in the pouring rain and held the walls down untill we left (which was about 10 mins). It was insane! Quite a memory!! I was laughing the whole time!!!!

Super Duper: tomorrow's friday and i'm don't have to work!!!
Super Pooper: made cookies tonight with my friend and ended up making a huge mess and most of them weren't even that cute...but I guess it was good bonding time!

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