8:10 p.m. - 2007-01-21
meat, pasta and grandma
We just had some really amazing fillet mignon. It was a present from my mom for Christmas. She gave it to us in a gift bag - frozen meat. It was delicious. I hate when people go into great detail, describing a good meat experience, because unless you're about to sit down to a nice t-bone, any descriptive words on the subject of dead cow are pretty much stomach turning. I'll spare you.
Last night, we, we being my extended family on my mom's side, ate at Bucca di Beppo, that italian place where you eat family style and which no one can pronounce the name of. You hear all sorts of variation, and almost no one says it right. I've heard it all - Bucci Di Peppy, Bucco Di Peppa, whathaveyou. But the meal was pasta-tastic and enjoyed by all 14 of us. We ordered like crazy, appetizers, many entrees, salad, wine, coffee, dessert...and when the bill came, my uncle told us a story. A few days ago, he found five one hundred dollar bills in a book he was about to throw in the pile to donate to the thrift store. It was in an envelope and the envelope was put there by my grandma who died three years ago. He realized how it got there - years ago they had been at the beach and my grandma and uncle bob were doing that "I'll pay for it" "No I'll get it" arguing thing that family members do. Grandma was always doing that - insisting on paying for big ticket items like a beach house for a week, dinner for everyone, etc. Well somehow, Bob "won" that time. Well, she got him, didn't she? She put that envelope in the book he was reading that week at the beach, and figured he'd come across it eventually. So, he found it years later, two days before a big dinner out with just about everyone that woman loved dearly, and naturally, being both smart and generous, he knew just what to do with it. Isn't that the coolest thing? She does that every now and again - asserts her "presence" at just the right moment.
