The beast is serving time. He’s at puppy boot camp working in the yard. He’s served about six weeks thus far, but it looks like he will be out soon.  He’s figured out the system and as you can see, he’s pretty happy about it.

We’ve made the long four hour drives to visit him, twice this week!  I thought about slipping him a toy on out last trek out there, but didn’t want him to get in trouble and have to stay longer. So I settled for pets and cuddles in front of a relative mountain man of a stranger instead. I kept waiting for him to yell, “no touching!” As they do in OITNB. He didn’t. Instead he told me I am a big softy and have large hands for a lady. Pretty sure no one has ever said that to me before…

I don’t mind training with our new and improved beast, but the long drives were beasts themselves. Looking for a fun diversion on the way home Sunday, I recalled that a friend had told me about the Printworks Grill. Everything in NC is pretty casual, so we rolled up to the gorgeous Proximity Hotel in out jeans and sneakers from playing with a dog in the tall grass all morning. Boy did I feel stupid. First of all, I never wear sneaks to anyplace but the gym or if moving house. Secondly, the hotel was gorgeous! The Obama’s stayed there and it looked like it was transported from South Beach. The nice part.

I just pretended not to notice the chic decor, applied extra lip gloss and vowed not to remove my sunnies. Thankfully, there was an absolutely stunning patio where we could hide out shambles of outfits.

The Puritans of NC said it was too early for mimosas, so we test drove Boylan’s colas. There was something too herbal about my diet bubbles, so I left most of it for the birds.

The brunch menu all sounded great from the French toast to versions of eggs benedict and every dish that walked by looked better than the last. I was in a healthy mode and settled on grilled salmon. Well grilled fish atop a bed of argula dressed with tarragon vinaigrette, parmasean chunks, red quinoa, and best of all, sweet potato chips. Note to self, add sweet potato chips to all future salads for that crunch I constantly crave. The food was good and beautiful, but not blow your mind. I’d shift to a different menu item next time.

The chap had traditional eggs benefict. As always, I confiscated a bite, and confirmed it was indeed eggs benefict. It was alright but the ham was too salty/smoky for my taste. There must have been ten potatoes worth of hash browns on his plate, all of which were cold. He seemed to like it, so I didn’t have the heart to tell him his dish was awful.

All in all, stay at the gorgeous hotel, have drinks in the beautiful restaurant, but maybe save your stomach rumblings for another restaurant.