I was sitting quietly on the couch, catching up with the newspapers (I am generally at least a day behind), when I happened to look out the window. It'd gotten really dark for 3:30 in the afternoon, and I was curious to see what was going on.

It was snowing. Actually, it was pouring snow. Here in Washington we get these pellets of snow; it's not hail, although in other storms that's what I thought it was since it bounces. But when you look closely, you realize it's just snow in a dense form; it's not ice like hail would be. When the snow comes down like that, it looks like it's pouring rain, only with snow. I think we got almost an inch in about ten minutes.

Then all of a sudden, as I was on the phone with AS to ask her if it's snowing where she is, I saw a flash of lightning, which was quickly followed by a boom of thunder. It never lightnings and thunders here, which is something I have missed from when I lived in Nebraska and even Virginia. This winter weather is freaky. We weren't even forecasted to get snow. The forecasts have just said it's supposed to be chilly, lower 40s, and rainy. No mention fo snow.

It's still snowing, half an hour later. I'm so glad I'm done with running places for the day!

Last night I finally convinced my mail lady to go to dinner with me. There's this place in town that I like to go to when I have a coupon, and they send you coupons for your birthday for a free entree. Both my friend and I ordered pizzas, mine was a Creole version (shrimp, red bell pepper, andouille sausage -- it was sweet and spicy... so good!), and she got a chicken something-or-other. After we handed the menus to the waiter, he asked us if we wanted to add a side salad, so we both said sure. I asked not to have onions on it (I hate raw onions), and he told me there weren't any onions on it anyhow.

Grace's food came out with the salads (I'd gotten her a pepperjack quesadilla; it always makes sense to get the baby her food first), and so I piled some of my salad on her plate since she seems to like them so well. It was just a mixed spring green salad, the same sort of salad we have here at the house.

After dinner, my friend needed stuff at Target, so off we went. While we were roaming around Target, I noticed that Grace was starting to break out in hives. I called the restaurant and asked what could possibly have had nuts in it, and they informed me that the side salad comes with candied walnuts on the top.

WTF????

Who in the hell puts nuts on a freakin' side salad???

This place has delusions of grandeur, so I sort of see where they would want to fancify their salads a bit. But candied walnuts??

I am still extremely confused as to where these supposed walnuts were on the salad because I didn't see them, and neither did I taste them. They also informed me that there was supposedly bleu cheese on the salad as well. I abhor both nuts (anything but peanuts and cashews, really) and bleu cheese. Had either one been on my salad, I would most certainly have noticed. My friend didn't notice either one on her salad. But apparently they were there, as Grace broke out in hives.

The benefit to this happening is we officially know that Grace is allergic to ALL nuts. I am seriously considering getting her a medical bracelet to that effect.

I'm sort of peeved at the restaurant, though. When I spoke to the manager on duty last night, I wasn't accusatory or rude or demand my money back or anything. I was just concerned that they would put such a highly allergic item on their salad without notice. The manager told me that it was in the description in the menu, but I hadn't decided on getting the salad until the waiter gave me that option after I gave him my menu back.

What I wanted out of all this was to have the waiters (who are sort of like the folks at Chotchkie's in Office Space -- wayyyyyyyyyy too perky for normal human beings) to mention, when they offer a side salad, "Hey, it has walnuts on it; is that all right?" That's all I wanted! Yes, I should have looked on the menu to see if the side salad has nuts on it, but honestly, a chef's salad in every other establishment that I've frequented is usually just a pile of iceberg lettuce with perhaps a few tomatoes and cucumbers! I wasn't expecting a foo-foo salad with organic mixed greens, arugula, and goat cheese, for cryin' out loud!

Fortunately Grace just had a bit of a hive break-out on her face, nothing to the extent that she had with her peanut reaction back in October. I gave her a Benadryl (I keep those Fast-Melts in her diaper bag), and the hives were gone in an hour or two. I woke up at 4am to check on her, though, to make sure. Nut allergies are scary things.