Of all sorts:
MFO and her sister set up camp and had a pretty good meal of fried chicken and various stuff from a great store there called Festival Foods.. lots of good things.
We also had a chance to see FOJTE display his form at Boules
We took a respite in the afternoon, and then went to Olive Garden (Hey – it’s her birthday! ~ see below) for dinner. After dinner we came back to her apartment and opened gifts and had some cake
MFOM enjoyed the day and seeing her grandsons and families. She’s a great lady, in pretty good shape, and still has her wits about her. I wish that for all of us. I’m glad we could be there to help celebrate..
Back to being Bottom Feeder
MFOM enjoys eating at the Olive Garden, and is especially fond of their Minestrone soup. It’s pretty much all she has, and usually doesn’t finish the portion but brings it home for the next day. So, all eight of us trooped into the place just after 5 (hey! It’s her birthday) and were seated at a table comprised of a rectangular 6 top abutted to a circular table, a rather odd combination. We were greeted with “the speech” by a nice young lady, and also a young man (maybe the buddy system) who arrived with the bottle of wine they were pushing that day, and asked about drinks. Non-alcoholic all around (since we had a selection of Wisconsin Beers at the picnic just a few short hours earlier). They disappeared and came back with the drinks and asked if we were ready to order. Once again your’s truly was indecisive and asked for a couple of minutes.. A cheery “sure” and did the disappearing act. A short oil change later, she reappeared and very carefully went around the table with note pad in hand. “I’ll start with you…”. Every dish has a name of course (shrimp caprese, steak toscano, pork Milanese,etc.) and with main plates you get salad or soup as a first course. Sooooo, everybody ordered around the table, and MFO still feeling full just got an order of Bruschetta, and MFOM got her soup order. Others had various items (I in fact got the shrimp caprese - Grilled marinated shrimp served over angel hair pasta with melted mozzarella, fresh basil and tomatoes in a garlic-butter sauce). And, the FOJTY party wanted a “light” dressing on the (bottomless) salad bowl. Eventually the soups and (two bowls of) salads arrived (along with MFOM’s minestrone). Server lady said, Um, I forgot which one is the light dressing… At this point the line of the evening was delivered by the other server, he said “It’ll be the one that doesn’t taste very good”. Bingo.
But my main gripe (which I didn’t act on) was the fact that they knew MFOM was only having soup. So why would you bring that with the rest of the first courses if that was the only thing she was eating. Result was, she was completely done while the rest of the table was working their way through their first courses. They brought MFO’s bruschetta with the mains…
By the way, my Shrimp Caprese would have been okay without the melted mozzarella, it pretty much served to cement everything together into a solid mass of stuff. Ever try twirling angel hair that is welded together by melted cheese? But, caveat, we had a great time, and I kept my mouth shut. The manager made a couple of visits to the table, which was nice. “just fine, sir”. Gulp gulp..
Bye Bye La Crosse
So the next day, I went to the airport and flew back here rather unceremoniously and observed the fireworks on the Solomons. La Crosse is a pleasant little town, the people are friendly, they have art
But they also have interesting things culinarily…
And the code is not hard to match when you
DFD
This Just In: the 2010 - 2011 NBA season has been called off, the trophy has been awarded to the Miami Heat..
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