A Problematic Pattern and Answers to Some Questions

You may remember that the plan for our date tonight was to dine at Urbane and then go see the Picasso exhibit at the SAM.  Well, as is our wont, we achieved half of the plan.  Those of you who were privy to our Christmas Eve plans (dinner out, then a burlesque show followed by midnight mass: we made it out for dinner and then went home) may begin to see a pattern as I reveal what happened tonight.  We did, in fact, make it to our 5:45 dinner at Urbane.  The food was pretty good, though the prices were a little steep given the quality.  I'll give you the rundown.  But first, let me apologize for the incredibly poor quality of the photos.  I need to read up on how to make one's iPhone take halfway decent pictures.  If you know something about how to do this, please, do us all a favor and tell me.

First we had water

then we had drinks (Margo had a Dragonstooth Stout and I had a Moscow Mule, which is my new favorite drink).  This was, in fact, the best Moscow Mule I've had so far (out of 3 total).  Margo liked her Stout.  We then had a cheese plate with three fine cheeses (a Camembert, Beecher's Blank Slate with Honey and a raw goat cheese), crackers, and the MOST AMAZING spiced huckleberry jam.  I was so enthusiastic about the jam that the bus boy asked me if I wanted him to bring me more.  On to the entrees; Margo had the Hanger Steak Frites and I had the Hazelnut-Crusted Rainbow Trout with D'Anjou pears, chorizo and sage in a delicioius little hash on top.  Margo liked her entree fine.  I loved the little pear/chorizo/sage hash on top of my trout.  The trout was fine, just not that exciting or flavorful.  Also, it was white.  All the rainbow trout I've eaten prior to this has had some color.

On to the dessert.  Oh, dessert.  I love dessert, and this dessert did not disappoint.  I had the lemon pudding cake with housemade ricotta.  And it was delicious.  An excellent balance of sour and sweet.  And the ricotta was the perfect counterpart.  Margo had the pear crisp with ginger ice cream, and it was mighty tasty as well. (I am also apparently incapable of making the pictures display properly.  Just tilt your head to the right and squint.  I think that will make it all look much better.  I promise not to take any more pictures with my iPhone and post them on the blog.  At least not until I learn how to do it better.)

  The service was less than ideal.  The waitstaff kept trying to take our dishes to other tables, we saw more of the people with plates and the busboy than our waiter, etc...  The final blow came when the waiter brought our debit card back with a receipt that showed he had charged us $145 MORE than the total of our bill.  Needless to say, he didn't get a great tip.  All in all it was fine, but I don't feel the need to go back.

Now on to the shameful part of date night.  Margo stood in line to get tickets for the Picasso exhibit.  The earliest she could get was for the 9:40PM entry.  By the time dinner was done, we had decided to skip the Picasso exhibit and go home.  I am sorry to say that we do this ALL THE TIME.  At least this time we didn't pay for the tickets because they are free for members.  But it's pathetic, truly.  We always have these grand plans, which I have to tell EVERYONE about ahead of time, and then we have terrible follow through.  Apparently following through on plans should have made it on to both of lists of 101 goals.  Maybe next time...

Now to answer some of your questions, since some of you have apparently forgotten how to use Google.  The Mycological Society is just a fancy name for the Mushroom Society (the people who like mushrooms and learning about mushrooms and picking mushrooms in the forest).  The Gottman book is The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman.

Finally, the other question I've gotten is about why I want to get rid of my iPhone.  Especially when everyone else is poised to get one, now that Verizon is going to have them.  Here's the thing.  I feel like my iPhone has kind of taken over my life.  I can't seem to do anything or go anywhere without my iPhone.  I check Facebook at least ten times a day, I check my email compulsively, I'm constantly available in every possible way to everyone I know, I check my blog to see how many followers I have at least fifteen times a day, and the list goes on.  Every moment I'm not doing something real I am doing something on my iPhone.  I want to experience life again without the distraction.  I'm trying to watch less television, spend less time on the computer, and have more life experiences.  So I want to ditch my iPhone.  Just have a regular phone with an unlimited text plan and experience what's going on around me rather than Googling it or distracting myself.  So there you have it.