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How We Met Two Friends

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Good Morning, Darlings!

Remember our gratitude dinner from Monday? We had invited our two new friends, Teresa and Nick. People ask how I meet all these people. Here is one tale of meeting new friends.

Eric and I had decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out two weeks ago and made a reservation at Shaun’s through Open Table. You know about Open Table, right? The more reservations you make, the better chance you have to earn dining gift certificates. This is an especially great idea for all you executive assistants who make a lot of reservations for the office. The more they dine out, the more you earn. Win-win!

Anyhoo, our reservation is made and we arrive at Shaun’s about 5 minutes early. It is packed – everyone is trying to use their Scoutmob coupon before it expires the next day (I have to admit that two of those people were us). You would think the restaurant would take this into account when allowing folks to book a table. But alack and alas, I don’t think it crossed their minds. We waited. And waited. And waited. 45 minutes go by. We are about to walk out and order a pizza when we are told that our table is ready. Ok, we’ll stay.

We are seated next to a nice couple and through the shared experience of being made to wait, we get to talking. She previously worked at The Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, where I just visited and he is a nice chap from England. Just add wine – instant friends.

And food. You need to share your food. Here’s what we ordered.

Pork belly buns - Scrumptious

Crabcake with slaw. Good but tiny...

Chicken Liver heaped on toast. This was huge. So I guess it all balances out.

Flatbread with greens. I don't think I touched this. I was too busy gabbing.

Swell new friend, Teresa, and me.

Eric and our new friend, Nick.

And that’s how it happens. It’s a small world and we are all in it together. Make a new friend today.

oxox, Patti

Today blogging to Joe Cocker – A Little Help From My Friends

Pedicures, Zombies and Shaun’s….

Monday, October 5th, 2009


Oy, so I’m a zombie!

I love the weekends. Mostly, Mr. Eric and I try to spend it together, but sometimes you need time with your buddies. Sunday was one such day. Eric spent the day with Teague and I got to spend the day with Crystal. I think our girls’ day was the winner.

We started out with pedicures at Cure, with Kim and Cheryl. Although our appointment was at 1:30 p.m., we got started a little late and didn’t finish up until 4 p.m. We were supposed to meet Miss DeVore at Oakland Cemetery to shoot zombies for real (with the camera!), but the zombie walk started at 3 p.m., so we didn’t think we could catch them (which, in retrospect, is funny, since zombies are notoriously slow walkers – or lumberers, as Crystal put it..). After our tootsies were done, we dashed to the car and drove to Oakland Cemetery and saw a few zombies. Finally, we met a zombie who was very helpful and told us to drive to Underground Atlanta, where they were all headed. We were richly rewarded with tons of zombies taking to the streets of downtown Atlanta. God bless Crystal, who has a morbid fear of zombies, hanging out of my car window and snapping shots of the undead. She only screamed when they stuck their ghoulish heads in the car. I was so proud of her! Here’s a couple of our favorite shots from the day.

Crystal and I both reasoned that it was fine to post the zombie pictures here because they were looking for something to eat and this is a dining blog. So there’s my rationalization for steering off course. To see some killer professional shots, click here for photos shot by Josh D. Weiss, an amazing talent who works with Crystal.

Chasing zombies in the car works up an appetite, so Crystal and I headed over to Shaun’s to wrap up the evening in style. Chef Doty has a $12 menu on Sunday with salad, pasta and dessert. It was wonderful.

Because I thought I was starving, we opted to start with an appetizer of chopped chicken liver – it was gigantic! And one of the tastiest things ever! Funny, that we started with a body part after chasing zombies – seemed appropos to me.

That was followed by a lovely salad with buttermilk dressing and then the pastas. Rigatoni with a chicken bolognese for me and the lemon ricotta ravioli with pesto, green beans and fingerling potatoes for Miss Crystal.

Dessert was rich, chocolate ice cream, which I am embarrassed to say I gobbled up before realizing I had forgotten to get the shot. Oops…

I hope your weekend was as zombirific as mine was!

Happy Monday!

xoxo, Patti