Why is it that when you go to a buffet restaurant, you feel obligated to stuff yourself silly to get the most for your money????? We certainly don't order another meal when we're eating at a sit-down restaurant, why do we feel it necessary to eat two (or more) meals at one sitting at a buffet?
Saturday night we went to our local Hometown Buffet for dinner with my brother & his wife, to celebrate my dh's impending doom-er-birthday. The cost was something like $10.89 per person, which is pretty cheap for a dinner if you've eaten at a regular sit-down restaurant lately and noticed their prices. There is a LOT of food to choose from. I can fill up on the salad bar and not have room for the regular part of the meal if I'm not careful, but this time I limited myself to a helping of tossed salad and seafood salad. And the choices for entrees and side dishes is seemingly endless. I've watched the same people walk by with plate after plate of food and wonder where they put it. And how do they feel when they're done?
Now if you eat at a regular restaurant, their portions are usually generous too, but you don't have that variety of dishes to choose from. You spend the same or even more, depending on where you eat. One benefit of of a sit-down restaurant is that you can take home your leftovers--something that isn't allowed at a buffet. But you usually stop before you're too full, and at least for us, we don't order a dessert with our meal.
Maybe that's why we eat until we're stuffed to the gills. We can't take home the leftovers, so we feel obligated to eat everything in sight. It is going to take some serious control to limit ourselves to just what fills us comfortably, and leave some of those other dishes to try at another time. Hubby & I usually walk/waddle out of there feeling physically ill because we've overeaten. And three hours later, when sister-in-law says, "Are you ready for dessert?" we usually aren't. But we eat it anyway, and regret it for the rest of the evening and even into the next day.
So if you decide to eat at your local buffet restaurant, here are some key points to remember:
1. Stop before you're full. You've already gotten your money's worth with the salad bar and first plate of food, no need to try every dish. Save something for your next visit.
2. Eat dessert first. One of our daughters will select a couple of tasty-looking desserts and eat those before she embarks on the rest of the menu. She says she never has room for dessert at the end. This is her way of making sure she gets her just desserts, too.
3. We've never tried it, but hubby threatens to wear a jacket with plastic-lined pockets for leftovers. If you're daring enough, give this a shot. I don't know what they'd do to you if you got caught, though.
I'm still waiting for the wisdom they say comes with age. At least at our local buffet restaurant, I'm not seeing it yet. Maybe next time..........
Monday, May 28, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Roxanne
We lost our old cat today. Roxanne was about 16 years old, maybe older. She came to live with us when my #2 daughter moved back home not too long before she was married. Roxanne's early years weren't very good. As long as dd (short for dear daughter) was there, she got good care, but there was a brief period of time when dd moved home and when she discovered Roxanne wasn't getting fed by ex-roommate. Dd brought a skinny, emaciated Roxanne, along with 4 kittens, home to live with us. To make a long story short, we did eventually fatten her up some, but she was always on the small side.
Roxanne was a huntress. She had to be for those weeks when she was taking care of kittens and not being fed regularly. She caught birds, mice, and even a snake once. She usually left them on the patio step for our approval. Nothing like opening the patio door drapes to find a dead critter laying on the step. And just a couple of short years ago she was still hunting and being successful at it. We found several rats laid out on the patio too, which wasn't a pleasant sight by any means.
Roxanne was also very nimble. When we had our funky decorative fencing in the front of the house by the walkway, she would jump up on the post and then jump onto the roof. One of her favorite roosting places was on the roof over the garage, under an eave. She was shot by a bb-gun once, probably while sitting on the roof. When she wanted down she usually jumped back down onto the fence post, or sometimes our van if it was parked close enough to the roof overhang. She also jumped from our patio roof straight onto the ground quite often. We'd see her poke her head over the edge of the patio roof, look at the ground a bit, then she'd jump down with a "thunk."
Once, when our 2nd oldest granddaughter was about 4 years old, one of our sons-in-law heard about a photo contest for milk. It was for those magazine ads that usually showed a celebrity with a milk mustache and the words "Milk: It does a body good." I don't remember what the prize was, but he thought of Roxanne when he heard about the contest. You see, Roxanne was black & white, and one of her features was a white mustache. Dsil thought she'd be a good candidate for this contest, and he thought of our blonde, curly-headed granddaughter as an accompanying photo object. Who could resist a cute little curly-headed blonde girl and a sweet-looking black cat with a milk mustache. He never did enter the contest but somewhere in our archives we probably still have the pictures he took of granddaughter and cat and their milk mustaches.
About ten days ago we noticed Roxanne wasn't eating. She has been known to be picky from time to time, but not much we offered enticed her to eat. She ate a little cooked chicken, but even buying Fancy Feast cat food didn't do anything for her. So off to the vet she went. $276, some senior cat food and two weeks worth of antibiotics later, she was gone. She seemed to be picking up strength. She still didn't eat hardly anything, but she was going outside and walking around, and more importantly--fighting us off when we gave her the syringe full of milky white medicine two times a day. We fully expected her to recover--she still had almost a week's worth of antibiotics to take. Sadly, it wasn't to be. DH found her in her bed, no longer with us in body. We buried her in the back yard next to our pink rose bush.
She will be missed. She was a big part of our family for many, many years. And every time we lose a pet, I visit the Rainbow Bridge site online, which brings comfort at times like this. Here's the URL:
http://www.petloss.com/poems/maingrp/rainbowb.htm
It never fails to bring tears to my eyes every time I read this poem. My brother sent me this URL years ago when they lost their cat Tsunami. I read it every time we lose a pet, and every time he loses one, too.
Goodbye, Roxanne! How we'll miss you!
Roxanne was a huntress. She had to be for those weeks when she was taking care of kittens and not being fed regularly. She caught birds, mice, and even a snake once. She usually left them on the patio step for our approval. Nothing like opening the patio door drapes to find a dead critter laying on the step. And just a couple of short years ago she was still hunting and being successful at it. We found several rats laid out on the patio too, which wasn't a pleasant sight by any means.
Roxanne was also very nimble. When we had our funky decorative fencing in the front of the house by the walkway, she would jump up on the post and then jump onto the roof. One of her favorite roosting places was on the roof over the garage, under an eave. She was shot by a bb-gun once, probably while sitting on the roof. When she wanted down she usually jumped back down onto the fence post, or sometimes our van if it was parked close enough to the roof overhang. She also jumped from our patio roof straight onto the ground quite often. We'd see her poke her head over the edge of the patio roof, look at the ground a bit, then she'd jump down with a "thunk."
Once, when our 2nd oldest granddaughter was about 4 years old, one of our sons-in-law heard about a photo contest for milk. It was for those magazine ads that usually showed a celebrity with a milk mustache and the words "Milk: It does a body good." I don't remember what the prize was, but he thought of Roxanne when he heard about the contest. You see, Roxanne was black & white, and one of her features was a white mustache. Dsil thought she'd be a good candidate for this contest, and he thought of our blonde, curly-headed granddaughter as an accompanying photo object. Who could resist a cute little curly-headed blonde girl and a sweet-looking black cat with a milk mustache. He never did enter the contest but somewhere in our archives we probably still have the pictures he took of granddaughter and cat and their milk mustaches.
About ten days ago we noticed Roxanne wasn't eating. She has been known to be picky from time to time, but not much we offered enticed her to eat. She ate a little cooked chicken, but even buying Fancy Feast cat food didn't do anything for her. So off to the vet she went. $276, some senior cat food and two weeks worth of antibiotics later, she was gone. She seemed to be picking up strength. She still didn't eat hardly anything, but she was going outside and walking around, and more importantly--fighting us off when we gave her the syringe full of milky white medicine two times a day. We fully expected her to recover--she still had almost a week's worth of antibiotics to take. Sadly, it wasn't to be. DH found her in her bed, no longer with us in body. We buried her in the back yard next to our pink rose bush.
She will be missed. She was a big part of our family for many, many years. And every time we lose a pet, I visit the Rainbow Bridge site online, which brings comfort at times like this. Here's the URL:
http://www.petloss.com/poems/maingrp/rainbowb.htm
It never fails to bring tears to my eyes every time I read this poem. My brother sent me this URL years ago when they lost their cat Tsunami. I read it every time we lose a pet, and every time he loses one, too.
Goodbye, Roxanne! How we'll miss you!
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