New on my $hit list: Budget Rent-a-car and Lebanese Taverna

First of all, just don't rent a car in Boston unless you're leaving the city. And if you do, don't rent from Budget.

The cars are a ways from the terminal, and it took a good twenty minutes to get there by shuttle bus (which is longer than it takes to get anywhere in Boston by cab). To make matters worse, it was at least that long before we got a shuttle bus; at least three drove right by us. Other rental companies' shuttles stopped at the designated area. When we finally got to the office, we were first, and there were four open counters, but we waited for at least five minutes for anyone to call us over. None of the employees said anything, either; a simple, "we'll be with you in a minute, our systems have been down," would have gone a long way. Finally, just when I thought we were on our way, I had to stop at a booth by the exit of the parking lot. I didn't realize that, however, because the booth wasn't lit at all. I almost drove over nails trying to get out. The guy in the booth asked to see my rental agreement; I went back to the car and got it for him. Then, because he couldn't have asked for both at the same time, he asked to see my license, too. Now, this is by no means the first car I've ever rented, and while I haven't seen this keys on the dash/show ID to exit thing before, apparently it exists. However, unresponsive shuttle buses, rude counter people, a dimmed booth and annoying dim counter guy, added up for a very unpleasant renting experience.

***

I went to meet Marcela at the mall, we were going to have lunch. When I arrived and called her, she was in Marshall's, which meant we'd cross the big mall to get to where the good eating was. I suggested Lebanese Taverna, mostly because I didn't want to eat at Thaiphoon, but remembered, out loud, that we'd had a problem at that one before, in that they forgot our order. We thought we'd give it a second chance. As we walked into the big mall, Marcela caught me subconsciously gravitating toward Banana Republic and quickly set me back on course; she was hungry. We got to Lebanese Taverna, were seated, and sat for a good ten minutes before anyone in the almost empty restaurant had come to take our order. So we got up and left, and tried the tapas place across the square. It was quite good, but more importantly, we were actually served promptly.

We sat outside, which was lovely, apart from the children in the square who would practice their screaming from time to time, to get it just right for their next trip.