Coffee and silence

It's so quiet.  Scott has taken Sam to an OU basketball game, Annie is snuggled in her sleeping bag watching Noggin, and the preteen is still asleep.  Yes, I should probably entertain Little Miss with some sort of fabulous educational game.  And Jack should be doing homework.  And I should probably get out of my pajamas and do something productive.  But it's one of those wonderful dank dreary November days where I just want to drink coffee and be silent.  So here I sit.

Annie has had a bad cold all week, so we've stuck pretty close to the house.  We did celebrate PaPa's birthday yesterday -- always somewhat of a challenge.  What do you do for a 78-year-old widower who is suffering with the early stages of Alzheimer's?  He spent the night with us, and we gave him a bird feeder for his back patio.  That just doesn't seem like enough, does it?    We also took him to dinner at Sophabella's.  We keep going there because it's close and Italian seems to be a crowd pleaser.  Unfortunately it keeps missing the mark.   Now the lobster-crab bisque is tasty -- creamy and a bit of a bite, not too too rich.  But nothing special either.   (Jack also reminded us all that we were eating Sebastian from the Little Mermaid.)

Chicken picatta was my choice -- usually an easy sell for me, but not good at all.  There was no zing -- where was the lemon?  I found only a smattering of capers -- literally only five or six of the tangy berries.  And the chicken itself was not the usual cutlet, but a very thick boneless breast like I purchase at Homeland.    Scott had shrimp linguine which I neglected to try.  (Remember, we were dining with three children and an elderly grandfather!)  He said it was fine.  The boys had calzones and pepperoni rolls that they both thoroughly enjoyed.  (Who doesn't love crust stuffed with cheese and meat?)  The marinara sauce that came along with those was really quite good -- very fresh, tasting of vine ripe tomatoes, basil and garlic. 

I think Virgil won the best menu selection of the evening.  Although the restaurant's specialty is deep dish, Chicago-style pizza, he ordered the quatro-formaggi with thin crust.  It was excellent.  Perfectly crispy on bottom with a generous, but not overwhelming, smear of pizza sauce (probably the same marinara from the boys' dishes), topped by the yummy cheeses and Italian herbs.  I will definitely stick to pizza when we more-than-likely dine there again. 

It's still cold and dreary.  My coffee cup is empty.  Guess I'll go wake the sleeping one and interact with my darling daughter.