North Carolina, Day 4

Happy Black Friday!

In contrast to most holidays, I did not have to work today! Hooray! So instead, I -- wait for it -- slept in :-) Can you see a pattern here? Mom made us pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, which were most tasty. J and I spent what was left of the morning (and some of the early afternoon) working on the puzzle, while B and K tried to be productive in an academic sense.

After a snack of leftovers for lunch, J and I were rejuvenated enough to finish the puzzle. Hooray! K continued to be productive by re-raking the front yard. Mom and I also helped, and we cleared out the one remaining corner. The problem now is that, until the clean-up guys come to pick up all the leaves on the curb, we can't rake the back yard because there's nothing to do with the piles and piles of leaves! I suppose that's for another day.

Mom's cute "rosemary" Christmas tree

Tonight we went out to dinner at Il Palio, this super-nice restaurant in the Siena Hotel in Chapel Hill. Everything was delicious, and the restaurant was lovely. My meal:

- Amuse-bouche: chestnut and apple soup

- Appetizer: acorn squash bisque (served in half an acorn squash!)

- Entree: pork osso bucco

- Dessert: chocolate cherry semifredo

The whole menu (although it's a tiny bit different) is available here. I recommend looking at it, but try not to drool on your computer.

Apparently the real fun at dinner was not at our table, though. Sitting across from us (behind mom and J, but K, E, and I had a clear line of sight) was a very odd couple. There was an aging white man, and a woman of indeterminate age and nationality. Estimates range from college age (she was in something akin to a prom dress) to middle aged (and not a good-looking middle age, at that), and she could have been from Asia or Central America or anywhere in between. It was difficult to tell.

Anyway, the first thing I noticed was her dress. He was in a suit; she was in a floor-length, open-backed, red satin dress. At one point during our meal, they both got up from their table, he put his jacket around her shoulders, and they were both gone for probably 5-10 minutes. Most of the rest of dinner was uneventful...until it was time for us to get our check.

As we were talking and finishing our wine, red dress lady had a very definite When Harry Met Sally moment -- she threw her head back and forth, and there was audible groaning. When it was over, she slid down in her chair, and said, "that was awesome!" Then they sucked face for a while, and a similar (but slightly more subdued) process ensued. When the second round of face-sucking commenced, she leaned across the corner of the table (they were sitting on adjacent sides of a square table made for four). Apparently they were so deeply involved in their kiss they didn't realize that her weight was tipping the table -- until all their glasses fell over! Some fell on the floor and shattered, others just emptied their contents onto the plates of food.

As the waitstaff came to clean up the mess, we decided it was time to make our exit. We were definitely not the only people in the place who had witnessed their, um, escapades. Maybe someone who had to stick around can say more about what happened after we left....

Mom and me after dinner

E and me after dinner