July 31, 2010

Althouse's needs are met!

We're happy to find a place that might be okay, open for lunch in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Bellarietta. I misread it as Bellateria and joke that it's deleterious.

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I'm cheered by the colored pencils and paper-topped table. (You know how I feel about drawing on table-paper. ("1 part Homer + 1 part Moai + a dash of Redon + sprinkle with love = Meade.") Ha. Those links go to last summer, in the early days of the Meadhouse marriage.) And there's a book too, in case we run out of amusing things to say: "The Little Book of After Dinner Speeches."

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(Enlarge to read the text of the open book... and the messages we've penciled on the table.)

After extensive consultation with our excellent server Tanya, I trusted them with a Philly steak sandwich and Meade, oddly enough, went for a black bean burger. It looked like this and tasted as good as you'd hope upon seeing it, and it's hard for bread to meet my high standard:

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Computer on the table? Damned right: There was WiFi! Yay! The wifie got her WiFi, and her hubby is happy with that. So marriage can work. It was possible to find a husband who suited my eccentric needs.

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And it was possible to find a great place to eat in this little town in the middle of Wisconsin.

Life is good!

32 comments:

David A. Carlson said...

New Richmond has plenty of great places to eat - although you did find one of the best

DADvocate said...

Often, the best places to eat are local restaurants in little towns. Good food, friendly staff and all that. Sometimes it helps to get local's advice.

AllenS said...

If you go to the right of Ballarietta, you'll find Larson's Hardware, where I get my chain saw blades sharpened. If you go to the left you'll find Cost Cutters, where I get my hair cut.

Peter Hoh said...

Mmm. Sweet potato fries.

HT said...

"server" = blech! She's a WAITRESS.

Meade wears a wedding ring. Aw.

Clicking on the enlarge link didn't work.

Do yall ever eat vegetables? Or should I say, do you ever take photographs of the vegetables you are about to consume, because I never see them!

Anonymous said...

Is that veggie burger and fries? Terrific choice.

Anonymous said...

Glad you're having a good time.

Did you check to see whether the locals had lynched any blacks, gays or women?

As we know, in small town America, particularly in the Midwest, the rednecks are stringing up the blacks, gays and women at every opportunity.

What are you doing visiting the bigots?

Unknown said...

Ann Althouse said...

"Althouse's needs are met!"

We knew that when she met Meade.

Your happiness knew, and still knows, no bounds. It's one of the greatly appealing features of coming here.

PS The Blonde is a great one for writing on the paperware at restaurants.

Ann Althouse said...

@AllenS Were you that guy we met on the sidewalk who advised us to go to the county fair?

@HT That's what people in that job call it, as far as I've noticed lately. I don't particularly like "server," but I'm deferring to the people in the job, who use that word.

Calypso Facto said...

The table writing has the clues to the unspoken reasons for your happiness: Meade tells us you're "hi" while you retort in satiated glee that he's a "ho"!

HT said...

Yes, yes, you are doing the decent thing. I used to be a waitress, and that's what I called myself. And if I were on the stage ever, I would have been an actress, not an actor. I understand you are being polite, that's a good thing. But I mourn the .... [insert word I cannot think of right now] of our language.

Deborah M. said...

I love roadassing.

AllenS said...

No, it wasn't me. I'd have recognized the two of you. Did he look like me?

Anonymous said...

And Ann,

I'm going to work for NYU.

Thought I was retired. The job is a surprise.

Got my advanced degree at NYU, too.

Going to be spending my working days in the Village. I'm really looking forward to that.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I enlarged the picture which made me think of how far computing has come. When the Sojourner rover sent back its first picture from Mars on July 4, 1997, it took me 2-1/2 hours to download the picture, at far worse resolution.

Those are the worst jokes ever.

traditionalguy said...

Confuciaterious say " The best marriage is a man pleased to meet spouse's needs. Abundant harvest follow such husbanding."

Trooper York said...

Wait a minute. Did Meade call you a "HO"?

mc said...

I heard that Wisconsin was a myth. Doesn't really exist, some kind of collective hallucination.

........


O.k., I never really heard that, I just wanted to comment on the nice pictures and had nothing to bring to the table.

I'll lend a joke in supplication for that:

What's the worst thing a woman can hear while she's blowing Willie Nelson?

..........

"I'm not Willie Nelson"

I'll stop and go away now...

Ann Althouse said...

"The table writing has the clues to the unspoken reasons for your happiness: Meade tells us you're "hi" while you retort in satiated glee that he's a "ho"!"

Remember we were writing messages to each other, writing upside down for the other. So, Trooper's right about who wrote what.

***

mc's joke made me LOL.

jamboree said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mc said...

Very glad to make you laugh:)

jamboree said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jamboree said...

Do you guys do anything but eat and take walks?

You guys remind me of my sister. Find new places to eat, find new galleries/boutiques at which to shop and look at sparkly things, go to Yoga class, go wine-tasting, go to cute desert shop, go to new age voodoo doctor, go to real doctor with voodoo sympathies, go to farmer's market, go to natural foods store, go to Craft Fair; go to another town, possibly another country, and do it all over again.

It's okay for a visit - I call it my soccer mom/yenta-friendly vacation, but bores the living crap out of me long term.Her stamina for that shit amazes me. I'd be running to get the weed Rx if I had to do it permanently just to make it interesting. At least you have a job and a hobby.

(Is it an attorney in a college town thing?)

Ann Althouse said...

@jamboree Was that really worth writing twice? When do you see us shopping in cute shops or going to craft fairs or doing anything yoga/new age? That doesn't happen. We've been hiking, canoeing/kayaking, and biking.

Alex said...

Vegetables are meant to be eaten behind closed doors, beyond prying eyes. It's an intense spiritual thing, eating a vegetable.

MamaM said...

I enjoyed the fun of the hidden surprise in the enlargement.

A closer look gives the entire post new context, revealing the deeper truth of an hi/ho/oh exchange.

What can be held without touching?

I like the answer, daily revealed across tables and blogs.

Chennaul said...

Vegetables are meant to be eaten behind closed doors, beyond prying eyes. It's an intense spiritual thing, eating a vegetable.

Why in the hell is this so funny?

Chennaul said...

I enjoyed the fun of the hidden surprise in the enlargement.

LOL!

JAL said...

199 pages of those riddles could be a conversation killer.

Glad you are having a nice time.

Friends I want to do good by are coming over tomorrow night for dinner.

Grilling chicken breasts (marinated). Any other ideas for something nice to go with them? I have blueberries so I can do something with for dessert ....

AllenS -- do you really look like your mug shot? ;-)

HT said...

Rice and figs, if you have a fig tree near by.

AllenS said...

Yep, that's a picture of me. Taken last year, or the year before.

Ann Althouse said...

It has a charming "mug shot" vibe.