Text 10993, 82 rader
Skriven 2007-01-27 12:15:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: dining with father 947
==============================
More dining adventures with father

So I was on my can at 10, and my brother, not realizing I was
there, came in to mutual shock and surprise (in this house there
are 3 toilets and 3 persons counting me, and I thought it was
pretty clear whose was whose), considering that he was supposed to
be at work around 10. Turned out he had taken the day off. So I
asked if he would drive my father to his doctor's appointments.
Jonathan didn't even know about the doctor's appointments but
agreed to adjust his plans to include chauffeuring us around.

One appointment was at 11:45 (blood tests and an EPO shot, just a
couple minutes), the other at 1:45 (ENT), so it seemed sensible to
take us lunching at the Holiday Inn next door to the medical
building. We invited Uncle S.Y. as well, as he lives a block away.

Julian's flies way under the radar. We'd in fact been by it a
gazillion times and didn't even know that it was a functioning
restaurant. Well, it's almost a functioning restaurant. The food
is fairly decent; the service friendly but incredibly slow; and
the credit card machine wasn't working. So they all went and got
seated at a fairly nice table while I sought out the nearest ATM.

The rather flustered but friendly enough maitre d' served as
our waiter - I think he was sort of unused to having people
actually eat at the place. And we all ordered two courses, which
of course meant that we stayed there for way over our allotted
hour and quarter and almost were late for the second appointment.

My brother had split pea and barley soup (an odd combo) followed
by pollo alla saltimbocca; he pronounced both good, even if he
couldn't pronounce pollo alla saltimbocca.

My father had a big crock of onion soup followed by a plate of
broiled eggplant with mozzarella; he finished every bit, aside from
the piece of eggplant he gave me (it was somewhat undercooked but
otherwise okay, with fresh basil and tomato and quite good cheese).

S.Y. started with a homemade-looking chicken vegetable soup,
which he said was okay, followed by excellent smoked salmon
over reasonably fresh salad: he was pleased.

My chili tasted like spicy tomato bean soup, not a great
surprise; what was surprising was that the "French dip, Angus
prime rib served on a baguette roll with au jus sauce" was,
although medium-well and pale pink going on gray, actually
rib roast meat and might even have been Angus, as it was rather
tender and rather fatty. There were about 5 oz of decent meat
(plus another 1/2 oz each of fat and gristle, both of which,
as we all know, I am fond of); the bread was insignificant; the
jus was a strange liquid that perhaps included a deglazing of an
actual pan (there were little clods of beef fat and proteinous
material floating in the usual broth made from a stock cube).
I know that this may be nothing unusual for some of you, but
it was certainly a new experience for me. Next time I think
a burger will do.

Service was glacial; S.Y. said, however, that it was better
than the previous times he'd been.

We hustled (as best we could) back to the ENT guy, and in fact
it turned out that my father had not been telling the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth: the doc really wanted to
do this operation; after 6 months of fixable deafness my father
should have been eager to have it done, but he kept saying that
the doc wanted to wait and see (for an ex-med school prof he is
quite afraid of hospitals and operations). In fact, on getting
my okay, the doctor did the worse ear right away (as with most
of these bilateral eye and ear operations, one does one at a
time to make sure it'll work). It took 20 minutes, was pretty
painless, and now my father can hear out of one ear. The other
is scheduled for a couple weeks hence, but we'll see.

Jonathan went to fetch the car: turned out the medical center
garage had been full and he had parked in the Holiday Inn.
Turns out too that if you eat lunch at the hotel restaurant,
you get 3 hours free parking. Bingo!


___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 www.docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)