How Max and i Breakfasted on National Pancake Day

aka Shrove Tuesday, 2/27/18

 Long overdue for bathroom remodeling, our handyguy Keith started at the end of February.  The first couple of days were slated to be very messy, and he recommended we be out of the house.  All day.
  So i dug out a Bob Evans coupon and we went there after music therapy.  But we didn't
know it was National Pancake Day.  Bob's wasn't celebrating (free pancakes and donations made at IHOP) but they were still packed and we had a really long wait.
  But hey, we had nowhere else to go.
  i turned over my placemat and Max and i drew  and played games on it.  The server was impressed - not at our artwork, but at our patience, and she gave us free drinks.
  But she might have done that anyway.  It was over an hour for our order to get to us.

in this, one of my favorite novels, longtime friends assist an older friend on her return visit to her home town of Olney, England, arriving just in time for the Pancake Race