Grateful...or not?

As always, Reese and I decided to eat out when T was out of town....

I picked her up from daycare and we commenced our discussion of where we would eat that night.  We always pass Long Jo.hn Silv.er's on our way home, so I asked Reese if she'd like to go there.  We had never been there together - in fact, I cannot remember the last time I'd been in a LJS.

She asked what they had and was sold when I mentioned the fish.  She asked if Baby could go with us, but Baby was at home.  Reese asked if we could run home to get her.  This was followed by Baby's voice resounding in the car, "I'm hungwy".  Don't know how we could hear her from so many miles away, but we did.

My initial thought was, "what a pain - I don't want to drive all the way home to take some fake baby out to eat with us".  Then I reconsidered.  Would it really hurt to drive the few extra miles (5 miles each way)?  We weren't on a schedule...T was out of town.  So I relented and we headed home to get Baby.

It probably took us 15 minutes to get Baby and return to Long Jo.hn Silv.er's.  As we pulled up, I noticed they weren't very busy.  Then my mind started to wander...maybe they've had lots of bad health inspections and everyone but us knows it...maybe something bad happened here (is this a bad part of town?) - you know, the normal crazy stuff.  But we all went in and ordered.  We sat down and I scanned the other patrons wondering if we'd meet up later to discuss our dining experience as we tried to figure out how we contracted hepatitis b.  I have no idea why my mind was having these thoughts other than trying to reconcile why it had been so long since I'd darkened the doors of a LJS.  Did I forget that their food really sucked and that's why no one was here?  Anyway, Reese, Baby and I enjoyed great conversation while we ate our dinner (which was just as you'd expect - fried and delicious!).

We were just about finished when a man approached our table.

This post is getting rather long, so I'm going to make it a 2 parter...stay tuned for what happened next :)