The New Year

Greetings everyone, and welcome to the New Year! In early December, we said goodbye to "Big George," my maternal grandfather. While it is always sad, sometimes death is a blessing. I am hoping that is the last we will see of the grim reaper for a while.
After a great Christmas with Andy and the kids, I am slowly getting back in the routine. The kids go to school and Janelle's, I get work done, the kids come home, and I don't get any work done!
Andy has started his OB rotation. He gets to deliver babies for the next two months! So far he is enjoying it, and I have been enjoying it as well. I know that will change as his call schedule starts to increase this week, but I am appreciative of the time we've been able to spend together. Last night we did another candidate dinner. This time, rather than the Toasted Frog, we ended up at Sanders 1907, which used to be the best fine dining place in town. I think it has outlived its glory days. One of my pet peeves is restaurants that have huge TVs every four feet. I figured that since Sanders used to have a dress code, the TV issue was one I wouldn't have to worry about. I was wrong. As soon as you set foot in the front door, there is a giant TV hanging over the bar. Once we found our party, we were greeted by a rather inept waiter, who tried describing the specials but tripped over his words and used incorrect forms of plurals. Repeatedly. If you are going to work in fine dining, you'd better know your food. Then, he proceeded to leave work, go home, play video games, built a shed, and painted it before coming back to take our order for appetizers. He actually stuck around to bring the appetizers to our table, but failed to give any indication of what slabs of cheese were stuck to the fruit and cheese board, and also failed to explain the gloppy looking fruit type mass that was in two of the corners. We were on our own. A few moments later, he came back to demand our dinner orders, again tripping over the specials. We scrambled to make a decision, and then sat back to wait. And wait. And wait. Drink glasses were empty. The water was gone. And we waited some more. Evidently he forgot to build his treehouse when he went home earlier, so he decided to plant a tree, nurture it, wait for it to grow into a towering oak, and then build his tree house. And paint it. With two coats of paint.
Finally, he came back with our dinners. Two diners had pasta with the same white sauce. Both remarked that it was watery and flavorless. One had crab ravioli. While you could see the crab, there was no other indication it existed. The flavor was completely dominated by pepper.
While the candidate dutifully ate her salmon, I was unable to tell if it was enjoyable. She did drink a lot of water with it. I ordered Chicken Florentine, thinking that with the ingredients listed in the specials speech it really couldn't be messed up too badly. And it wasn't messed up too badly. It just had no flavor. No flavor at all. And very little texture. I can't even say it was like eating paste, because paste has flavor. This was so bland I cannot even come up with a comparison. At first I thought it was comparable to a slice of plain bread, but that has a rich flavor. Then I thought of tofu, but even tofu - plain and unadorned - seemed flavorful compared to this. How do you take chicken, spinach, bread crumbs, and cheese - all very flavorful ingredients - and end up with that awful, bland dish? I asked for a to-go box and brought mine home for my neighbor. Maybe she could coax some flavor out of it in the magic of her kitchen!
After dinner, glasses again sitting empty, our waiter brought us our dessert menus, then promptly left for his vacation in Amsterdam. I have no idea if he had a good time, as Andy and I left about 45 minutes later. He had yet to return. Maybe he was detained at customs trying to sneak his recreational items into the country.
Maybe I've been spoiled the last few months by the Toasted Frog, but when I am staring at a $40 entree, I shouldn't be wishing for a meal prepared by the public school system instead.
In other, slightly less critical news, the family is headed to Fargo for the weekend to frolick in the hotel pool and watch UND women's hockey. Andy is playing team doctor, so we are taking advantage of the free hotel and going with him. Friends of ours have a room at the same hotel tonight, so I am sure a good time will be had by all!
I hope all of you are well and that these cold months fly by!