Road Trip Finale

After Jessica Fellowes' presentation, Linda and I realized we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so we went to Chipotle Mexican Grill.  It was my first time to eat in one of their restaurants.

I ordered their Burrito Bowl, and liked it so much that when I returned home I went to the grocery store and bought all the ingredients to recreate it at home.  Yummy!

After Chipotle, we went back to our hotel to watch episode 5 of Downton Abbey.  Despite the opening scene of Tom and Mary walking the estate together, Jessica dashed any hopes of them becoming a couple before the series ends.

Wasn't it sweet of Mrs. Patmore to take a picnic tea to Mr. Mason the day he moved into Yew Tree Farm?  Is there a romance budding?

[Internet Photos]

Lady Violet never disappoints.  I loved her quote to Denker.

Things keep getting better and better for Lady Edith... while Mr. Carson desperately needs a filter between his brain and his mouth to prevent strife with his new wife!

When Lord Grantham clutched his chest and complained of indigestion for the third consecutive episode, I predicted to my friend, Linda, that he would have a heart attack and quietly keel over at the dinner table.  A ruptured ulcer never entered my mind.  Poor Cora when he spewed blood all over the table and her!  

I read since returning home that the stunned look on Cora's face was totally genuine, because Robert's violent [and gory] projection of blood wasn't in the script.  It was, however, considered 'great acting'.  Really?  It was a relief to hear the rupture wasn't fatal, because I wouldn't want him written out of the script for the proposed Downton Abbey movie - although some may be wary of dining with him ever again!  The silver lining in the dinner fiasco was that Cora won the battle with her mother-in-law over the village hospital. Poor Violet was so shaken she didn't utter one word of protest when Cora told the Minister of Health to proceed with the plans. What will episode 6 bring?

Linda and I were up bright and early Monday morning to begin our journey home.  Since returning, most of my time has been spent working on my upcoming hat presentation for the Mad Hatter Tea. My "odometer" rolls over another year tomorrow, and I can't think of a better way to spend a birthday than at a tea party.  I'll be sure to tell you all about it.

Here is a "hat-ism" I'll be sharing at the tea.  "Mad as a Hatter" means crazy or demented. Hatters inhaled fumes from the mercury used in the process of making felt.  The toxic fumes caused violent twitching and derangement, and hatters were often made fun of and treated as drunks. In the U.S. the condition was called the "Danbury shakes" since Danbury, Connecticut was a hat-making center.  Yikes!  Fortunately, mercury is no longer used in the felting process.