Pam,

There’s never a dull moment around here. By the way, that’s only half of the story. The other day I was on my way into town, short road trip, so as always I called home to see if my wife needed anything from the store. She answered and said no, but if you wouldn’t mind could you swing by the restaurant and pick up my makeup bag, it’s there, it must have fallen out of my purse. So I said ok, I'll swing in, get the bag and be right home.

The minute I walk into the restaurant, Johnny (the owner) flags me down. He says, Sammy, how are you? Boy are you gonna love what I have to tell you. I'm thinking maybe he’s gonna tell me that his liability insurance is going to cover the cost of my tooth. But instead he proceeds to tell me about a shipment of fillet mignon steaks he just received from his new supplier. Then he gets deathly silent, placing his hand on my shoulder. I'm thinking Oh-No, someone died, not another funeral. But instead he says, Sam, you're gonna love these steaks, I had one myself and there’s nothing like them in the world. In the mean time I'm remembering all the mush I've had to eat this week, not being able to chew. Cream of wheat, soups, pudding, yuck! So I must admit the steak sounded pretty good. But there was no way I could eat a steak in my condition and I mentioned this to John. Again, dead silence with his hand on my shoulder. He says, Sammy, don’t worry about it, then whistles for the cook to come over. I’m trying to figure this out, thinking maybe Johnny’s gonna send me home with a box of frozen fillets for my pain & suffering. Rather I see this gorilla of a man walking over our way, he was a spitting image of Luca Brasi from the Godfather. Johnny introduces him as his nephew or something, I can’t remember, I was too busy trying to figure out how a person could grow to be that large. This guy must have been 6.11 or maybe even 7 foot tall and as wide as a refrigerator. Again, dead silence, hand on nephew’s shoulder. Johnny says, do remember that older senior citizen couple that use to come in, you know, the one’s with the bad dentures, that had such a hard time chewing their food? Do you remember how we use to puree they food in the blender? The big nephew replies yes! I remember them, gosh we haven’t seen them in a while, I wonder if they passed, or something? Meanwhile I’m listening to all this, with finger in nose look again. I know where he’s headed, he’s seconds from offering me a steak-shake, fillet mignon ran through a blender, one you can drink with a straw. So rather than wait to hear Johnny’s generous offer, I politely closed the conversation, telling the big nephew how nice it was to meet him. Said goodbye to Johnny – then left.

Had I known today's outcome then, I would have offered the big guy $20 bucks to just knock the tooth out. It certainly would have been cheaper, and much quicker!

Pam, the puppies are like having small children around, I can't tell you how much I enjoy them.

Take Care,

Sam

R-6324