Captain Greybeard’s Novel Ideas: 365 in 365 for 2014: Images 020 through 026

Well, let's try this again. In my effort to be a perfectionist, I was making changes to how the blog looked on the page and somehow duplicated my previous post under this title. I will try to rewrite the original blog post.

My wife and I were invited to a birthday celebration for a friend of a friend. We've actually partied with her the past couple of New Year's celebrations and a couple other birthdays, so I suppose she has become a more direct friend; although we hang out with her and her boyfriend when we hang out with my friend and his . . . you know what, let's say we're Facebook friends and leave it at that.

At any rate, the plan was for a group of us to meet for dinner at Khan's Mongolian Barbeque on Friday night. Yet another winter storm had rolled in that day, so I had left work early to have enough time to pick up my wife and head to the restaurant. That part worked okay, but we still left late and the snow had not let up at all. Worse yet, we almost hit a deer crossing the four lane road by our house, so my nerves were pretty frazzled when we arrived. The parking lot hadn't been plowed, which left for some creative, and sometimes stupid, spacing issues. I had my wife ask an employee for a read on the situation and we were told to park any way we could and all would be forgiven. I had visions of scratched quarter panels and headlights as we went inside.

The interior of the restaurant was as crowded as the parking lot and did not seem conducive to this unique dining experience. For the uninitiated, Khan's is a combination buffet and Japanese steakhouse where you negotiate a series of bottlenecks to prepare your meal then have it cooked in front of you. This seems just a step away from actually making dinner, of which I'm not a fan.

You start with loading a bowl with a selection of meats, raw and freeze dried. You then decide from a choice of two different noodles. The vegetables are next. The final step in the preparation is creating your sauce, which is the culinary equivalent of mixing paint to get just the right hue. The next bottleneck is waiting to hand your bowl of potential salmonella to a chef who dumps its contents onto a round grill. After cooking for the right amount of time, the chef puts your meal on a plate and sends you off with a good luck.

For all the ball busting I'm doing, the food was excellent and I had no digestive issues afterwards. I made two trips, the second of which was very easy as we were beyond the dinner rush. I particularly liked the lamb during my second pass. I tried a little spicier sauce, and although still pretty mild, caused thick drops of sweat to form on my bald pate. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one - either sweating or having a bald pate.

Unfortunately, my wife and I couldn't continue with the revelries after dinner. She had to work early and G-Bug had a volleyball tournament that started at eight in the morning - on both Saturday and Sunday! We wrapped up the dinner by playing the "in bed" game with our fortune cookies. Mine just read "You're lousy." A-oh!

The subject of my blog came up and I was asked when I would be making only post. I said I had already made three for 2014. I was surprised to learn that a few there had already read them and were waiting for the next installment. Those who didn't know about the blog were curious about it. I was happy to hear people were reading and enjoying my work.

So, it may have been your birthday, Cassie, but I also got a gift that night! It was a really great time.

After the jump is a week's worth of pictures, although I have to admit these are a weak crop.

No. 020: 01-20-2014

A doorway at work. If the snow gets to above the door
we're moving south - permanently!

No. 021: 01-21-2014

I don't know if it was the cold that caused my hands to shake or
if my camera just can't take clear pictures at night.
It's a poor artist who blames his tools.