Ohmygod, you guys showed up!
Ohmygod, you guys showed up!
“Ohmygod, you guys showed up! I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t see you before I left.” That was how Amy greeted Doug and me on Saturday night at Morton’s.
“I’m so glad you came to dinner tonight. When it got so late in the month, I was afraid that you weren’t coming.”
It is nice to feel wanted, especially at this time of the year.
As Doug said, “We had some things come up. But, here we are.”
Then, Amy gave us both a big hug and an air kiss on the cheek. This was just for showing up. Nice way to start a wonderful dinner. Of course, other diners were probably confused or surprised at what was going on at our table.
Next, it was give some gifts to Amy time. But first, we made Amy promise that you wouldn’t get mad if any of her clothes no longer fit as a result of the chocolate we had for her. We also made her promise that we were not responsible for any ill-fitting clothes following the consumption of any super-rich, premium chocolate.
One of the other servers, a blonde, I think was jealous that Amy was getting some nice things. The chocolate came in a very fancy seasonal box that opened like a book. Amy said she was going to open it later with her mother.
“But wait Amy, there’s more for you,” I said.
“Ohmygod, more? You guys are so sweet to me.”
“That’s why we are sometimes called Nice Guy Doug and Nice Guy Chuck,” I said as I handed Amy the small Coach bag with the red box in it.
Amy opened the box and the bag that her initial “A” was in. She giggled as she pulled it out of the box. She said it was so thoughtful and sweet of us to remember her at this time of the year.
The Dinner
The meal was excellent as usual. I think I may have overdone my time with the hot fresh bread. But, the bread was steaming hot when I cut it open and butter melted so quickly that it was hard to stop at only one bread roll for our dinner.
I had originally planned to have a large steak, the Chicago style rib eye steak [about 22 ounces / 625 grams] with a baked potato and sour cream and bacon in the potato. This would have left me with enough to take home for a meal on Sunday.
Then, Doug discovered that Morton’s is now serving a West Australian lobster tail at dinner. This was an excellent discovery because I changed my meal plans in mid-stream.
I ended up with a small steak and a lobster tail with the baked potato. Along with a salad and the bread, I was filled up when it came time for dessert. I went light on dessert and just had some vanilla ice cream. I am highly confident that I got more ice cream than Morton’s usually serves for dessert.
One of the benefits of knowing the server I guess.
Doug had his usual beef steak [very large size] tomato salad and the lobster tail and the Chicago style rib eye steak. He had his usual Godiva cake for dessert.
Burp.
Being Nice Guys, we ordered a prime rib dinner with a baked potato to go for his mother. Amy thinks we are so sweet for including his mother/my ex-wife in the meal.
Another Amy story
I told Amy the story about possibly having to wait for her the last time we were at Morton’s.
When I got there and gave my name to the hostess and specifically asked for one of Amy’s tables, the hostess said that she might not have one of Amy’s tables available. This was not what I wanted to hear.
“We’ll wait for one of Amy’s table then.”
“Really, you’d be willing to wait for one of her tables?”
“Yes, Amy is well worth the wait,” was my reply. Fortunately for us, the hostess had one of Amy’s tables readily available for us so we didn’t have to wait. Judging from her reaction, Amy was very pleased with our loyalty and commitment.
Douguary
Towards the end of the meal, Amy wanted to know when we would be back at Morton’s.
I said January was sort of sketchy right now since she was going to be going out of the country for a couple of weeks in January. I think Amy accepted this.
Then, I mentioned that we would be back for sure and certain in February for the traditional Douguary celebration. For those of you that are not familiar with the celebration, it is a month long festival that celebrates all things Doug.
I told Amy the traditional Douguary dinner at Morton’s is held on the last Saturday of the month with a group of six to eight celebrants, who will be named later. The celebrants will include the usual suspects from Doug’s life besides his father. Then, Doug and I got into a brief discussion of who we should invite and we came to a reasonable conclusion to discuss the list some more at a later time. I suspect the discussion will be during a meal of Mega-Combos at the Original Tommy’s Burgers in January.
New Year’s Eve
Amy wanted to know what we were going to be doing on New Year’s Eve.
Doug said he was not one for going out drinking and partying on New Year’s. He said he would probably be at home, writing something.
I said that I was between girl friends right now so I had no one to be with, assuming I wanted to go out on New Year’s for the moment. I said I, too, would be home, probably writing as well.
School
I made my final presentation on Friday night. It went very well as I knew it would since I had gone over it with the professor before class.
The woman in my class that I have tried to help seems determined to make her dissertation as difficult as she possibly can. She is intent on making it difficult from a simple data gathering point of view.
Her original plan called for her to interview managers in the Philippines as the principle research methodology. I tried to point out how difficult this would be in addition to the obvious that she was in the United States. If she goes ahead with her plans, she will end up with a qualitative based dissertation and that will be significantly harder to complete.
In the end, I felt good about my comments and suggestions. I tried to help her fashion a more manageable project.
Jury Duty Part 2
Doug has to show up at the local courthouse on Monday for jury duty. We talked about jury duty at dinner on Saturday.
I suggested that the cases that will be handled at his courthouse are likely to be simple civil actions like a dog bite or a minor criminal case like driving under the influence or serious speeding. I felt it was unlikely they would have any major criminal trials there because the courthouse lacks the physical security arrangements for housing inmates.
Doug wanted to know if he could bring an i-Pod with him to the courthouse. I said that he probably could but that he would have to turn it off when he gets sent to a courtroom as part of a potential jury panel. He asked if I thought he could take a back pack with him. I said yes but pointed out that it would be subject to a search by the sheriff’s deputies when he got to the courthouse.
I think Doug is not at the point where he has accepted the idea of jury duty and will do just fine if he gets called to serve on a panel. Of course, there is always the good chance that he will not get called and he will earn his $5.00 while he reads and writes in his journal.
Early Christmas
I told Doug that I was going to get him Sirius satellite radio for his car when we were at dinner. I said that he could go out and get it installed now and not have to wait until next week.
Doug was very happy and pleased to know he was going to get Sirius so he can continue to listen to the Howard Stern Show. As a side bar, Doug was up at 6:00 AM on Friday so he could hear the final terrestrial radio broadcast of the Howard Stern Show.
The Pathfinder
I was planning to take the Pathfinder out for a washing today. It would be clean for when the Princess comes home later on this week. For some reason, the battery was dead when I went to start it. It ran fine a couple of weeks ago.
I am now planning to take it into the dealership and have it checked. I think the battery may have died from old age and that it’s dead was brought on by cold, for California, weather. I know it is not really cold but we think a low at night of 48F / 9C is really cold. Alternatively, the alternator could have failed on the car and the dealership would have the proper parts in stock to fix the Pathfinder.
I will swing by the local dealership on Tuesday morning and wait while they fix it. I will miss a few hours of work but no one is likely to notice me gone since Tuesday is the end of the year Board of Directors meeting and there are still some elements that were not final when I left the office on Friday to go to school.
Fortunately for me, I have three or four magazines here to read so I will have something to do while I wait for the Pathfinder.
That was my weekend in a nutshell gentle readers.
Live well and play hard, it’s the party season now.
“Ohmygod, you guys showed up! I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t see you before I left.” That was how Amy greeted Doug and me on Saturday night at Morton’s.
“I’m so glad you came to dinner tonight. When it got so late in the month, I was afraid that you weren’t coming.”
It is nice to feel wanted, especially at this time of the year.
As Doug said, “We had some things come up. But, here we are.”
Then, Amy gave us both a big hug and an air kiss on the cheek. This was just for showing up. Nice way to start a wonderful dinner. Of course, other diners were probably confused or surprised at what was going on at our table.
Next, it was give some gifts to Amy time. But first, we made Amy promise that you wouldn’t get mad if any of her clothes no longer fit as a result of the chocolate we had for her. We also made her promise that we were not responsible for any ill-fitting clothes following the consumption of any super-rich, premium chocolate.
One of the other servers, a blonde, I think was jealous that Amy was getting some nice things. The chocolate came in a very fancy seasonal box that opened like a book. Amy said she was going to open it later with her mother.
“But wait Amy, there’s more for you,” I said.
“Ohmygod, more? You guys are so sweet to me.”
“That’s why we are sometimes called Nice Guy Doug and Nice Guy Chuck,” I said as I handed Amy the small Coach bag with the red box in it.
Amy opened the box and the bag that her initial “A” was in. She giggled as she pulled it out of the box. She said it was so thoughtful and sweet of us to remember her at this time of the year.
The Dinner
The meal was excellent as usual. I think I may have overdone my time with the hot fresh bread. But, the bread was steaming hot when I cut it open and butter melted so quickly that it was hard to stop at only one bread roll for our dinner.
I had originally planned to have a large steak, the Chicago style rib eye steak [about 22 ounces / 625 grams] with a baked potato and sour cream and bacon in the potato. This would have left me with enough to take home for a meal on Sunday.
Then, Doug discovered that Morton’s is now serving a West Australian lobster tail at dinner. This was an excellent discovery because I changed my meal plans in mid-stream.
I ended up with a small steak and a lobster tail with the baked potato. Along with a salad and the bread, I was filled up when it came time for dessert. I went light on dessert and just had some vanilla ice cream. I am highly confident that I got more ice cream than Morton’s usually serves for dessert.
One of the benefits of knowing the server I guess.
Doug had his usual beef steak [very large size] tomato salad and the lobster tail and the Chicago style rib eye steak. He had his usual Godiva cake for dessert.
Burp.
Being Nice Guys, we ordered a prime rib dinner with a baked potato to go for his mother. Amy thinks we are so sweet for including his mother/my ex-wife in the meal.
Another Amy story
I told Amy the story about possibly having to wait for her the last time we were at Morton’s.
When I got there and gave my name to the hostess and specifically asked for one of Amy’s tables, the hostess said that she might not have one of Amy’s tables available. This was not what I wanted to hear.
“We’ll wait for one of Amy’s table then.”
“Really, you’d be willing to wait for one of her tables?”
“Yes, Amy is well worth the wait,” was my reply. Fortunately for us, the hostess had one of Amy’s tables readily available for us so we didn’t have to wait. Judging from her reaction, Amy was very pleased with our loyalty and commitment.
Douguary
Towards the end of the meal, Amy wanted to know when we would be back at Morton’s.
I said January was sort of sketchy right now since she was going to be going out of the country for a couple of weeks in January. I think Amy accepted this.
Then, I mentioned that we would be back for sure and certain in February for the traditional Douguary celebration. For those of you that are not familiar with the celebration, it is a month long festival that celebrates all things Doug.
I told Amy the traditional Douguary dinner at Morton’s is held on the last Saturday of the month with a group of six to eight celebrants, who will be named later. The celebrants will include the usual suspects from Doug’s life besides his father. Then, Doug and I got into a brief discussion of who we should invite and we came to a reasonable conclusion to discuss the list some more at a later time. I suspect the discussion will be during a meal of Mega-Combos at the Original Tommy’s Burgers in January.
New Year’s Eve
Amy wanted to know what we were going to be doing on New Year’s Eve.
Doug said he was not one for going out drinking and partying on New Year’s. He said he would probably be at home, writing something.
I said that I was between girl friends right now so I had no one to be with, assuming I wanted to go out on New Year’s for the moment. I said I, too, would be home, probably writing as well.
School
I made my final presentation on Friday night. It went very well as I knew it would since I had gone over it with the professor before class.
The woman in my class that I have tried to help seems determined to make her dissertation as difficult as she possibly can. She is intent on making it difficult from a simple data gathering point of view.
Her original plan called for her to interview managers in the Philippines as the principle research methodology. I tried to point out how difficult this would be in addition to the obvious that she was in the United States. If she goes ahead with her plans, she will end up with a qualitative based dissertation and that will be significantly harder to complete.
In the end, I felt good about my comments and suggestions. I tried to help her fashion a more manageable project.
Jury Duty Part 2
Doug has to show up at the local courthouse on Monday for jury duty. We talked about jury duty at dinner on Saturday.
I suggested that the cases that will be handled at his courthouse are likely to be simple civil actions like a dog bite or a minor criminal case like driving under the influence or serious speeding. I felt it was unlikely they would have any major criminal trials there because the courthouse lacks the physical security arrangements for housing inmates.
Doug wanted to know if he could bring an i-Pod with him to the courthouse. I said that he probably could but that he would have to turn it off when he gets sent to a courtroom as part of a potential jury panel. He asked if I thought he could take a back pack with him. I said yes but pointed out that it would be subject to a search by the sheriff’s deputies when he got to the courthouse.
I think Doug is not at the point where he has accepted the idea of jury duty and will do just fine if he gets called to serve on a panel. Of course, there is always the good chance that he will not get called and he will earn his $5.00 while he reads and writes in his journal.
Early Christmas
I told Doug that I was going to get him Sirius satellite radio for his car when we were at dinner. I said that he could go out and get it installed now and not have to wait until next week.
Doug was very happy and pleased to know he was going to get Sirius so he can continue to listen to the Howard Stern Show. As a side bar, Doug was up at 6:00 AM on Friday so he could hear the final terrestrial radio broadcast of the Howard Stern Show.
The Pathfinder
I was planning to take the Pathfinder out for a washing today. It would be clean for when the Princess comes home later on this week. For some reason, the battery was dead when I went to start it. It ran fine a couple of weeks ago.
I am now planning to take it into the dealership and have it checked. I think the battery may have died from old age and that it’s dead was brought on by cold, for California, weather. I know it is not really cold but we think a low at night of 48F / 9C is really cold. Alternatively, the alternator could have failed on the car and the dealership would have the proper parts in stock to fix the Pathfinder.
I will swing by the local dealership on Tuesday morning and wait while they fix it. I will miss a few hours of work but no one is likely to notice me gone since Tuesday is the end of the year Board of Directors meeting and there are still some elements that were not final when I left the office on Friday to go to school.
Fortunately for me, I have three or four magazines here to read so I will have something to do while I wait for the Pathfinder.
That was my weekend in a nutshell gentle readers.
Live well and play hard, it’s the party season now.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 3:56 PM
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