Greetings William, Before I forget, you received two checks yesterday from The Hatcher Group. I haven’t opened them yet – after I do I will tell you the amount. I plan on taking them to the bank tomorrow at lunch.
As I told you earlier we went to dinner last night with Vickie and Rob. She has reached her last birthday – 39. She may celebrate but she will cease aging. The dinner party included Rob, Vickie, Andrew, Mom and I. You were missed, of course, but not forgotten; the tales of your adventures dominated a respectable portion of the dinner conversation. We went to a Japanese restaurant in Columbia, Maryland – Sushi Sono. The ride up route 29 was into a storm at dusk; the storm never quite broke, just a sprinkle; but we drove into the black clouds with lighting flashing in the sky. The lighting was too far to hear any blooms – it was all a bit surreal, beautiful in a horror film kind of way. I think Rob and Vickie came through the center of the storm.
Rob’s real estate agent recommended the restaurant. This was Vickie’s last fling with fish – she is crossing the next line into the cult of veganism. I asked her if she was planning on becoming a full fledge vegan, she said that dairy would be too hard to eliminate. She did make an interesting comment. She said that one of the things that influenced her was the kid’s page on the PETA web site. She said that the adult pages were too aggressive for her tastes; however the kid’s pages did get to her.
By the way, how is your re-introduction to the world of meat going? Good, bad, will you go back to a non-red meat diet after you return? Are you feeling different? Sometime when you have a chance why don’t you write a note about food and family meals in Chile? I’m sure everyone would find that interesting, I know I would.
As it turns out Sushi Sono was worth the trip to Columbia. I don’t think it is a chain, but who knows. The restaurant was located on one of the artificial lakes – Wilde I think; along with the Tomato Palace, Clyde’s and Copelands, and others – all very beautiful, calm and artificial. In Columbia they even refer to the mall as the Town Center. Columbia is planned a bit too ‘Fahrenheit 451’ for me; maybe the town needs another 150 years to develop. After all Washington DC is a planned city and I like the way it turned out.
The food was great everything was extraordinarily fresh. We all ordered individually but everyone ate from everyone else’s plate, as I am sure you would appreciate. We had sushi sashimi, various tunas, BBQ squid, tempura, and green tea and plum ice cream. Rob had a Asahi beer and Vickie a warm saki. I tried both; Mom wasn’t impressed with the warm saki. I think warm saki is right up there with tequila – you don’t know what hit you until you are flat of your back contemplating all the stupid things you did before you arrived in the prone position. The price was right, dinner for five came to a little over a hundred dollars, I was expecting much more. The after-dinner mint is this case was a small individual box of fruit bubble gum, plum, orange, strawberry, grape – we all got one but I think Andrew was the only one that tried it.
The service was flawless, we arrived with five for dinner but with a reservation for only four (Andrew’s presence was required). A new table had to be arranged, which delayed dinner for about twenty minutes. The waitress and hostess apologized many times, even as we were leaving the restaurant. However, they also reminded us almost as often as they apologized, that the next time we should call before we arrive to inform them that we had changed the number attending. In some ways, the excessive detail to the apology may have been a polite Japanese way of reminding us that we had screwed up – which we did. It worked, we were happy not offended and they made their point. The difference is that at an American restaurant it would not be mentioned, of course, neither would the apology. As we left we couldn’t help but notice the attention to detail. In the foyer was a beautifully designed stand of bags to place your umbrella. No slippery wet floors in Sushi Sono.
My only complaint was the noise, we were seated opposite the open kitchen and between the customers and the kitchen it was noisy - not so noisy as to be unable to understand one another, but we had one hell of a time understanding the soft spoken, Japanese waitress. Rob dutifully asked questions and took notes on the menu, but admitted he didn’t understand.
After dinner we walked off the dinner by taking a stroll by the lake. It was a manicured walk, among the tended shrubs, statures, docks and sculptures, but again, a little too ‘Fahrenheit 451’ for a boy from Pittsburgh.
And so our night ended. Went we got home I watched the Redskin/Raven preseason game, Mom read, and Andrew entered the world of virtual reality – either the movies or the computer I’m not sure which. The game was called in the 3rd quarter on account of a front of lighting storms.
I just saw your letter. I’ve written enough for tonight so I’ll respond tomorrow.
Love you, miss you, and take care.
Dad
