Square plates, round tables

Dear Restaurant Owner,

I have to admit I thought square or rectangular plates were pretty cool when they first became popular a couple of years ago. But I'm over them. They may look edgy and modern, but they're just not practical. They don't fit properly on the table and you can't balance your utensils on them. The oblong rectangular ones take up so much room, you can't even rest your wrists on the table. I feel bad for the wait staff who have to try to balance them as they make their way to the table from the kitchen.

I know you're trying to be different, but it's just not working. Please throw away your rectangular plates and return to round plates.

Thank you,
Christina

This one's for Peter...

So, we recently made a trip south to Savannah, Ga., and I proved myself to be an ugly New Englander.

Bobby and I were at a restaurant on a slow night. There were only a handful of people and we were sitting on top of another couple. Well, it turns out I talk too loud (surprise). We had this strange waiter who was easily 6-foot-2. He had a different accent every time he came back to our table. At one point he sounded French, next he sounded Italian, and finally he threw in a y'all for good measure.

I had noticed while in Savannah that practically everyone uses y'all even if they have no business using it. The town is filled with college students that are clearly from the Northeast, yet they feel obliged to say y'all after nearly every sentence.

So, I commented (a bit too loudly) to Bobby something to this effect:
"Everyone in this city is so fake. They all use Southern accents even though they aren't from here."

After the couple next to us left Bobby informed me that the woman sitting next to me was not happy with my comment and said so to her dining companion.

In my defense: Could you ever imagine a college student in Boston taking on the local accent just for show? Of course not. But for some reason in Savannah, everyone wants to have a drawl.

It's just weird.

What's for dinner?

If there's one topic that causes stress in the Davis household, it's what's for dinner. Bobby would be happy with any side of a cow bleeding on a plate, but I have much more refined tastes. Okay, not so much refined as picky. And I'm fundamentally lazy, which means I don't like to cook.

For the first couple years of living together we tended to leave planning for dinner to the last minute, which left both of us annoyed and unhappy. Typically, we would talk on the way home from work and stressfully inquire: Hey, what's for dinner? Then we'd argue about what we should have and opt for dining out. But ITE (in this economy), going out is a little pricey, especially if you do it five days per week.

We were faced with three options:
1 - Get a divorce (not desirable)
2 - Stop eating (less desirable)
3 - Start planning

We selected the option behind door number three, and that's worked out pretty well. We generally plan our meals out on Sunday before we go to Stop & Shop for our weekly supermarket stroll. And we split the cooking down the middle (unless you ask Bobby and he'll claim that he makes all the meals. Whatevs!).

Anyway, here's what's for dinner this week:
Sunday - Cod cakes (pictured in process above) with brussel sprouts
Monday - Pasta dish with tuna that we saw on the Food Network
Tuesday - Dinner in a bag (one of those handy frozen meals that taste really good because they have a tremendous amount of fat and salt in them. Not the healthiest option, but we're both in class until 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, so it has to be easy and quick).
Wednesday - Cheesy tortellini
Thursday - Grilled chicken and salad
Friday - Angel hair pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese
Saturday - Out to dinner

That's it for this blog post. Today's Fit Count? Two