So last night, we venture out to eat

It was SOF's birthday, so we went to the Outback Steak House for the blooming onion and assorted other features. While we were there, a few minor events happened that were blogworthy (at least in my mind). One annoying, and one cute.

For the annoying, let me set the scene. Anyone who has eaten at Outback (or any other big chain restaurant, for that matter) knows that they are loud and approaching louder. No baffling on the ceilings or walls--I guess they want the place to always sound full. Anyway, we are in our booth, enjoying the deep fried onion (or whatever the hell it is) and the woman behind SOF receives a call on her cell. No big deal, it is a common occurrence now days. Hell, later that meal, SOF got a birthday call on hers. But back to the woman in the booth. Again, remembering that it is loud, this woman cranks up her own (quite impressive) volume and starts to share her phone conversation with everyone around her. Especially us. Imagine how loud she had to be to disrupt us and the people around us.

So, SOF stands up on her seat, faces the woman and says very firmly, "if you don't quiet down, that cell phone will be your desert!"

No she didn't. She threw our blooming onion at her. No, she didn't. Actually, she turned around and asked her nicely to tone it down. I do believe the woman was shocked. How dare we interrupt her private phone conversation like that?

.....

Now for the better story. Or at least the one I like better. Our waitress was quite nice and she was breaking in a trainee named Chris. Nice guy. She had him trained well to crouch down at our table to take our orders. I understand given how loud it is, but it must take a toll on their quads by the end of the night. I ordered the ribs or something, and they came with "Aussie chips." Evidently those are fries, but they have to call them "Aussie chips," even though people like me ask what the hell are "Aussie chips?"

Given the blooming onion and salads, I couldn't finish my ribs, so we asked for a box. While Chris was fixing our "togo plate" for us, she asked if I wanted any of my "ff, er Aussie Chips?"

I grinned and said, "You are required to call them that, aren't you?" She smiled and nodded. I asked if she called them that when she ate at other restaurants. She said no, but that she did have a habit of calling out "corner" (as they are trained at Outback so they don't run into each other) when she shops at Walmart. She said she gets a lot of funny looks.