Pickles & Dimes

Friday night was going to be like every other Friday for us: going out to dinner, followed by spending hundreds of dollars at Target and Cub Foods. We’ve found that grocery shopping and errands are much quicker when nobody’s in the store; hence, Friday night = errand night. We’re crazy like that.

We’ve been in the mood for Olive Garden since finding our neighborhood one shut down two weeks ago. We started our evening by actually finding an Olive Garden that wasn’t closed for business. I dropped Shauna off at the door, parked the car and met her at the door, where I saw the defeated look in her eyes. A 50- to 60-minute wait, she said. Not for us, we’ve got a “Plan B.”

Our favorite, Outback Steakhouse, was less than a mile away. This time we both walked in, because at this Outback you don’t have to wait for the booths around the bar in the smoking section if they’re open. However, they were, in fact, not open. So we went to put our name on the list and they told us it will be another 60-minute wait. No thanks. It’s 7:00 by now, and if Shauna and I don’t get something to eat soon, we’re coming to blows. (Just kidding; verbal blows, maybe.)

Thankfully the Old Chicago across the street only had a 15-minute wait. It turned out to only be a 2-minute wait, thanks to their quick waitstaff. It’s nice when the waitress has to apologize for getting our dinners out too soon, while we’re still enjoying our appetizers.

Thanks to the Old Chicago staff, we were able to eat, shop and get home so I still had enough time to beat Shauna at darts and foosball.