Lots of stuff to report

Isn't it interesting how you rock along in your everyday life and nothing spectacular happens and you have to comb through the card catalogue that is your mind for something worthwhile to talk about?

Isn't it interesting that I think of my brain as a card catalogue?  I do.  I think of it as lots and lots of those teeny little card drawers and each little bit of information and facts and trivia are each stored on their own little card.  Many are cross-referenced into lots of locations.  But as I have gotten older I have added more and more files with more and more drawers each just chock-a-block FULL of information.  And as I have gotten older it takes a little longer each time I have to sift through the wealth of knowledge to find just that certain particular bit that I need.  Some people might think I have menopausal brain, or I am a dingbat, but no.  I am here to tell you it just means I have more drawers to sift through.

So, last night was our theatre night.  And we normally go to dinner ahead of time.  There are only so many restaurants downtown around the theatre (don't you like that I am using the British spelling theatre?) that are open on Sunday nights.  The rest of the week?  Hell, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a really good restaurant down there!

Anyhoo, I was reading the paper Sunday morning waiting for Patty Cakes to get up so we could read the obits, and while I was waiting I read the food section.  It's all about recipes, farmers markets, restaurants, people that have re-done their kitchens, etc.  The usual food section faire.  There were 2 articles about this new restaurant that opened less than 2 weeks ago and I was so excited to see that they were in fact, OPEN!

This is John Besh's first foray outside of New Orleans.  We are soooooo happy to have him here in our fair city!  I was beside myself.  Not to mention a year ago when he was on The Next Iron Chef I watched that series on the edge of my seat and was really hoping and praying he would win.  Nope.  Michael Simon won instead.

Here is a photo of the glorious Mr. Besh for you to peruse.

But that's okay.  Because if he had won, we might not have this restaurant to go eat at.  So, when we have theatre tickets we have to dine really early because otherwise everything is closed at 10 p.m. when we leave.  I got online and made reservations for us at 5:30 for a 7:30 curtain call.  The restaurant is only a block or so away from the theatre so it worked out perfectly.

Here's my review of our first dinner at Luke (which has the little umlout thingy over the "u", but I don't know how to do that and don't really care to figure that out right now).  The restaurant is very typical of a New Orleans brasserie/bistro.  I had a couple of complaints that were minor and did not concern the food at all.   First off, the tables are way too small.  Like 28" square.  Small.  Smaller than a card table small.  And for 4 people with water carafes, salt and pepper, glasses, etc. even before the plates and food get there.  Too small.  Secondly, our waiter was new and "overly-trained".  I hate that.  But not near as much as Mr. Big Ed hates that.  I could see him visibly cringe every time the waiter walked up, took in a huge amount of air in his lungs and started talking.  That boy needed to learn to relax and also?  Take a breath!

One more irritating thing and then I will tell you all about the sumptuous food.  The restaurant is on the ground floor with outdoor seating overlooking the river.  The kitchen?  Up a huge curved staircase.  They had more young boys (not the waiters) hauling big heavy trays full of food up and down the staircase than you could count.  That seemed to me to be unnecessarily taking the chance that your food would come flying down the stairs with the poor waiter-wannabe.  It's not as if they had a gorgeous old building and that's the way it was designed and there was nothing they could do about it.  This is a brand spanking new hotel that was just finished.  So someone made a conscious decision to do it this way.

Now, on to the food!  Oh, the food!  It was so wonderful.  In addition to the regular menu there is also a Daily Special section that has a different special every day of the week.  The special is a cup of soup, the special of the day and the bread pudding.  So it's a 3-course dinner for under $30.  You can't beat that with a stick.  The regular menu was beautiful.  And small.  Not tons of offerings, just the right amount of each.

So at our table we had 3 appetizers; the Steak Tartare, a dozen fresh oysters and a rabbit and quail liver pate'.  They were each fabulous.  And gorgeously presented.  The pate' was one of the best I have ever had.  I am sure my arteries clogged up just looking at it.  Spectacular is what it was.

Then for entrees: 2 of us had the daily special which was a cup of the gumbo, smoked brisket with potatoes and bacon lardons, and then the bread pudding for dessert.  Also appearing at our table was the Wild Boar chop with fries and a big steaming pot of mussels with fries and bread to sop up the liquid.

We had the bread puddings and also an order of profiteroles for dessert.

Everything was superb.

Oh!  And guess who was there?  Gregg Popovich!  Coach Pop of the San Antonio Spurs!  Yes, it was a Spurs sighting.  I don't know what he was eating, but I do know he was celebrating our win from earlier in the day.  Go Spurs Go!  Gotta love those Spurs.

One more thing, did anyone watch the finale to Amazing Race?  I came home to watch it on my dvr which very nicely recorded it.  Or so I thought!  It definitely recorded CBS from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. but that isn't what I got.

I have complained (and complained mightily I might add) about fucking football running over. And then 60 minutes runs over.  And then prime time television is off by as much as a whole hour and all the programming of tivo and dvrs all over the world is for naught.  I can't tell you how much this irritates the beejeebers right out of me!  It should not be allowed.  If they are consistently running over, then schedule accordingly!  Why do I have to fix everything?  It doesn't seem that complicated to me.  Either get the game over in the allotted time or cut off the end of the flipping game.  That should rile up some people and then maybe the stupid fucking NFL would quit being such wussies and taking time outs every 5 seconds.  Play through like they do in soccer!  It's ridiculous.  Move the game along or move it off my t.v.

Dastardly dogs.

So I did not get to see the ending of the AR.  I had to wait and go online this morning to find out who won, but I didn't get to see them do it and by how much ahead of the other teams.  Seems like a waste of a whole season.  Like getting a book and having the last chapter removed but someone gives you the very last page.  Aaarrrggh!

And what is up on Wisteria Lane?  Good Lord!  Those people are jacked up on meth or something.  What a strange episode that was!

All done now.  I have a client who may or may not be in labor.  So I may or may not be going to a birth. Wish us luck that she gets a safe, healthy birth with a beautiful baby at the end.

Have a great day and remember just 12 days till Christmas!