My bouche was definitely amused

Been going crazy with one thing or the other, including great misadventures loading Windows on [insert clever name for new Mac here]. Everything tends to go off the rails when you get a new computer, what with having to get it up to speed with data and apps and whatnot; what I really need is a day off for me and the little fellow to spend some quality time. Too bad I work for a living. Fills up the day and sort of tires you out by night as well.

I know. Your heart goes out to me.

I never did get to discuss the high point of last week, which was “My Dinner with O’C (action figures sold separately).” The thing is, I talk about him a bit at the chez, and I thought it might not be a bad idea if my wife got to meet him and put a face to the name. The good news was that the O’C clan apparently is big on bidding on charity offerings (rumor has it that they’re richer than the Madoffs), and one of the prizes they’ve amassed over the millennia was a free dinner for two at this upscale restaurant on the West Side, Teleplan, which sounds like the payment system for cable TV, but, well, isn’t. It was quite the place. Everything was way more than a cut above, and a lot better than O’C and I usually eat (think random tab room; think “if you really expect me to eat that Jiffy Sub, I am going to have to kill you”). House-smoked trout, carbonara with what looked like a raw pheasant egg, pork every-which-way, crème brulee (of course). The wine steward kept coming by (there were course pairings) with these remarkably poetic descriptions of fruits and vegetables that each wine had suspicions of, and since I wasn’t driving home, I can report that I actually forgot at one point where O’C had gone to college, which is like forgetting whether he has an award ceremony at his tournament. And my wife got to hear him admit that he actually didn’t like a Lucas production (“Clone Wars”) which did not at all gibe with the prepress on the guy. He kept apologizing when, once or twice, we went off on debate conversation tangents. As if the mother of our daughter is not used to people occasionally wandering off on debate conversation tangents. Anyhow, the whole thing was a lot of fun, and apparently one of O’C’s relatives has tickets to meet Bette Midler in Las Vegas this October. He’s taking all of us (including you!). Start packing now.