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HAPPY MOUTH — May 2006

HAPPY MOUTH — May 2006

Thursday, May 11, 2006 was the May meeting of the HAPPY MOUTH SUPPER CLUB, and it was Chuck’s night to pick. A group of us — Ted, Tracy, Wendy V, Ron, Holly then Ed, Angel, Jay, Drew, Wendy B, John, guest Paul, Dave, and Robin — met at Allyn’s…

DINNER 131: Thursday, May 11, 2006

DINNER 131: Thursday, May 11, 2006

Tonight was a HAPPY MOUTH night, so the report on our dinner is here.

DINNER 130: Wednesday, May 10, 2006

DINNER 130: Wednesday, May 10, 2006

I was scheduled to have class this evening, but when I got to school, there was a note on the door notifying us that class had been cancelled (an email ahead of time sure would have been nice and would have saved the $2 for parking, but hey, you can’t have everything!), so I had an unexpectedly free evening.

On the way home, I dashed through Taco Bell for a couple tacos and a Chili-Cheese Burrito (which I still call a “Chilito”, from the long-ago Zantigo days) before heading home. Wendy had a brush-up rehearsal, so I played Oblivion and watched some TV until she got home.

Taco BellI am reminded of when I was a kid and we’d go to the Zantigo (later Taco Bell) out on Beechmont Avenue in the eastern suburbs of Cincinnati. In keeping with the pseudo-southwest theme of the chains, the restaurant had been decorated with high shelves full of knick-knacks around the dining area — things like fake plants, little ceramic donkeys, and plastic cacti. The shelves were about 9 feet off the ground. Too high to reach without a ladder, but just the right height for some hijinks…

One of the kids I used to hang around with (not me, honest!) had the idea that surreptitiously lobbing food items up onto the high shelf was not only fun at the time of the lobbing, but the fun actually MULTIPLIED when considering the already-foul food putrefying over time up there next to the little ceramic donkey.

So, from time to time, and extra burrito or taco would be ordered, unwrapped, and prepared for flight. We learned from experience that nachos were a bad candidate for lobbing since they tended to break-up in mid-flight and make a heck of a clatter as the individual chips crashed back to the floor. Burritos, it was discovered, were exceedingly aerodynamic and not only looked beautiful in mid-flight – smooth white tortilla contrasting with the sand-colored walls — but landed softly on the high shelf, nestling themselves comfortably among the brik-a-brac and beginning the long fermentation process.

Visits on subsequent weekends would reveal a restaurant growing increasingly smelly. It must have taken the poor hourly workers quite some time to discover the source of the foul odor, and the stunt was able to be repeated several times before we, frankly, outgrew it.

I haven’t been to the Taco Bell on Beechmont Avenue in many years now. I wonder if the shelves are still there. If they are, I would fully expect to find a mummified burrito up there, near the ceramic donkey.

Ceramic Donkey
DINNER 129: Tuesday, May 9, 2006

DINNER 129: Tuesday, May 9, 2006

A nice quiet night at home with Wendy. Tuesdays are her ‘early night’ off work, so she gets home by 6:30 or so. We both worked out, then settled in for dinner in front of the television. She ate her NutriSystem stuff and I ate…

DINNER 128: Monday, May 8, 2006

DINNER 128: Monday, May 8, 2006

Tonight was a class night. We spent a lot of time butchering in this evening’s class — we did ducks, trout, salmon, and lamb leg. During a break in class, Nathan, “Hype”, and I jumped into Nathan’s car and hustled down to White Castle to…

DINNER 127: Sunday, May 7, 2006

DINNER 127: Sunday, May 7, 2006

After a busy week and weekend, Wendy & I enjoyed a rather quiet Sunday together. Tracy hosted a lovely breakfast/brunch party, called “Brekky with Friends” as sort of a reunion of the DINNER WITH FRIENDS cast & crew but mainly to allow Angel to share her slides from her recently completed trip to Rome. All of us enjoyed Mimosas, strata, fresh fruit, muffins, and ‘meatwads’ (this last dish I made — sausage & cream cheese wrapped in crescent dough and baked). The weather was great, so we ended up sitting on Tracy’s porch to soak up some of the springtime sun. Thanks to Tracy for organizing and preparing food for such a fun event!

Once Wendy & I got back to the house, we hibernated and watched a bunch of the television programs stacking up on my PVR. We did remarkably well and got through several episodes of some of our favorite shows — AMERICAN IDOL, HOUSE, and LOST.

We ordered LaRosa’s for delivery and had a nice meal of salad, a ciabata for Wendy, and a steak hoagie for me. It was an early night, too… We were in bed before 11:00. A perfect Sunday.

DINNER 126: Saturday, May 6, 2006

DINNER 126: Saturday, May 6, 2006

The second night of Wendy’s show, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, for Falcon Theater, so we drove down together and stopped to pick up a couple tacos at Taco Bell before the show. After the show (which was very good this evening), we all went to…