Dining Out

The latest post isn't here. It's here.

My friend Stacey writes one of the most practical blogs I've ever come across. It's called Dining With Monkeys wherein she eats out with her two sons and reviews the restaurants from a parent's point of view. A few days ago she put a call out for guest writers and I obliged and it is now posted for your enjoyment. However, it's not the first one I sent her. When she put the word out, I was lamenting the days when we could go out and eat on a whim (and a $20 bill), so I wrote a review of ordering a pizza in. I found it to be very witty. Stacey did not. She roundly rejected it, I could just see her printing it out for the sole purpose of crumpling it up and throwing it across the room, laughing at the inane idea and the elementary writing...but I digress. I also give you the submission below. But go to Dining With Monkeys and read that one, too. And bookmark Dining With Monkeys and visit it often for it is chock full of good writing...and some writing of mine as well.

Entry number one:

Kristy and I, and our Trio, ate at Soul Fish Café last night, which Stacey has brilliantly reviewed in a previous post. We don’t get out much because, well, we have three kids and play a weak zone defense which is why S fell off a bar stool last night. And since the kids are bored with wasting food from inside our house, we ordered from without tonight. I’m not sure this is what Stacey had in mind when she invited guest reviewers but, as I said, we don’t get out much.

There was an all too quick decision made for pizza – three raucous votes for pizza – so Kristy called Domino’s. It was delivered fairly quickly and, to our surprise, came out cheaper than what we had been told over the phone. A full $7 cheaper – perhaps they’ve stopped the practice of charging the idiotic delivery fee. Kristy paid and tipped – tipping is done before eating here, not so much for the quality of service as much as the “waiter” knows where we live.

The Trio, given the options for various toppings had chosen the always adventurous cheese, while Kristy and I had sausage and mushroom. I prefer everything – everything you could think to put on a pie – on my pizzas, but I deferred to the lady of the house, the very pregnant lady of the house. The nice thing about dining here is we are allowed to take our seats in separate rooms. The kids chose a room with a television theme and were amused by dinner theater with the likes of Steve, Blue and Magenta. They love them some pizza and the sound of lips smacking almost drowned out the incessant blathering about clues, thinking chairs and whatnot. The beverage of choice was milk, JP accepted some Ovaltine in his. S made a few furtive moves for the couch but was quickly rebuked and put back in her place.

Kristy and I ate in the traditional dining room, which I found to be dim and the table littered with a TV guide, half-finished Soduko puzzle and unopened mail. But there was original artwork by Elizabeth Alley and good reading material – I perused The Believer magazine while Kristy read a young adult science fiction novel. Along with our pizza (which proved to be predictable) we had hot wings (which Kristy found to be very hot), homemade sweet tea and a Red Stripe. I ate three pieces of pizza and three hot wings but learned long ago not to comment on my wife’s food intake.

We were made to clean up after ourselves and were somewhat put off by the full-to-overflowing garbage can in the kitchen. Someone should take that out, but it will have to wait until after the Kroger-brand chocolate ice cream, the sole offering on the sad desert menu.