Sunday, January 11, 2026
We picked Alexander up and headed for lunch at Dickey’s. It came up yesterday that there was still one Dickey’s in the Twin Cities – there are none left in Madison. Benjamin said he was so happy to be back in a Dickey’s he was smiley. We had a scrumptious BBQ meal, including the free soft serve for dessert. Alexander has been on a very strict diet of apples, bananas, chicken breast, and asparagus the last week. The goal was to get in the habit of not overeating, knowing that that diet was unsustainable for any length of time. He just needed a kick out. Friday night he was delighted to be eating “fried” and said it was okay, because the diet was just a crazy kickstart. He wasn’t going to just start eating whole deep-dish pizzas or anything. Obviously, we didn’t give him pizzas, but we put just about everything else in front of him. He was so happy about ice cream, because (as he says) ice cream is a problem. He used a ketchup cup to have several tiny portions. We stayed and talked a long time, but as we finally got up to go, he took his big yellow cup (apparently the soda was ordered for this eventual skullduggery) up to the soft serve machine and filled it up. He put a lid on it, rushed back to the table, and joked, “Drive!”
One of the things we talked about was our upcoming anniversary and possible party. I asked the boys to think of what makes a party fun – what could we do that would make an anniversary party fun? Benjamin immediately suggested having it on a paddlewheel boat. What a great idea. I don’t know if we have that budget, but it sure would be fun. Alexander started with, “Hear me out.” It is always very interesting when he says, “Hear me out.”
“Okay. You get two hot air balloons. You give everyone 50 darts. Up they go. Fire when ready. First to land loses.”
Keith said the ripstop nylon would not be bothered by any number of darts.
“Okay, hear me out. Two hot air balloons and javelins…”
I don’t think so.
They both got really excited about having a car shoot. Don’t know what that is? Because it should NOT EXIST. They know about it because Benjamin’s coworker’s wife got shot in the leg at one. You chain a car to the ground, put a brick on the gas pedal, and then shoot at it with your gun as it goes in circles until it is dead. In the case of the leg shooting, they “armored” the car in some way to keep the car going longer and the bullets ricocheted off the car and hit the woman in the leg.
We will not be having a car shoot.
Then they were on to food. A pig pick! A what, you ask? You all go to the farm, pick a pig, and have it roasted.
NOOOO! We are not having a pig pick.
The cup of ice cream happened then and we ran away. No party ideas were confirmed.
Tonight we went on a year-before-40th-anniversary outing with Dan and Stacy to Crooners to see the Adi Yeshaya jazz orchestra with singer Jennifer Grimm (her brother Reed has performed with Keith several times. I am a big fan of his). Adi is the piano player for the group, but more importantly he is the composer/arranger. He has been an arranger for Whitney Houston, Doc Severinson, Aretha Franklin, Burt Bacharach. and Prince. Lately, he has been doing the arrangements for The Voice. So, he’s good.
We arrived a few minutes after 6 for dinner before the show. There was a sandwich board that said, “The menu is limited tonight. Thanks for understanding.” It’s a supper club kind of place – steaks and chops. I had been pondering having a filet, but given my continued (but reduced) nausea, I thought a Cobb salad might be the way. They might be out of sirloin or prime rib, but they would certainly have a salad.
I was right! They had a house salad. They had chicken wings, bruschetta, a flat bread, a Caesar salad, a house salad, soup, and a breadbasket. That was it. We turned the piece of paper over and over and looked for more and wondered what was going on. It could not be possible that the whole menu was cut to this. Our waitress showed up after quite a long time and confirmed that was all they had. We said, “Oh, the kitchen must have had a big problem.” She concurred, then added, “We don’t have anyone to work.”
Whoa. That’s different than a power outage or a fire. No one is working. Is it ICE? Are people afraid to come to work? Is it just the general hell of 2026? People don’t want to work? I have no idea,
We ordered. After a few minutes, she came back and told Dan that they were out of chicken wings. Things were really not going well. He and Keith ended up with cups of soup and Caesar salads, Stacy had a margherita flat bread, and I had the salad that would be served with a steak dinner. It was really lame – super curly greens that boinged all over the place while I tried to eat it (oh my gosh, seriously! It was SO DARK in the dining area once the band started, I couldn’t see to eat. I was stabbing at my greens and they were going everywhere. I got some on my fork and it was a lot, so I was stuffing it into my mouth rather aggressively. I was glad it was so dark because no one could see me. Funny times), 5 half pieces of grape tomatoes (I wondered what happened to the 6th one. Didn’t they start with three whole ones?), two circles of red onion, three circles of cucumbers, and at least a dozen croutons. I think if you are serving next to nothing, you should really try to make it a decent nothing. The soup was good, but nothing else got a good review, but it still cost $80. Oh, funny thing. When our food came, there was bruschetta. We sent it away as we hadn’t ordered it. It was on our bill. Keith pointed it out and the waitress said she would take it off. She brought back the bill. Bruschetta was scratched out with a red pen, but the $16 was still on the bill. Mmm. At that point, it was just hilarious. Keith eventually got it taken care of correctly.
Now, on to the highlight of the day. First – it is not the POTD because I wanted a picture of us at the table with the band behind us. I assumed I could take it during intermission, but then there was no intermission! I totally forgot after the show was over. Gahhh!
The band started and they were good. It was a good song, but I was sitting there with Keith and Dan thinking that I would rather be listening to Keith and Dan. The next song was really good and I was head dancing along. (There were listening instructions on the table – no talking, no dancing, no doing anything else distracting. I think head dancing was probably distracting, but they gave me a lame salad, so there). The next song they brought out Jennifer Grimm and she was FABULOUS. So good good good. She did a thing on All of Me called Vocalese. I have never heard of it and don’t know how to spell it. She explained that sometimes someone does a solo on a tune that becomes so famous that someone else writes words just for the solo and it becomes a new part of the song, or becomes a song by itself. What? I didn’t quite get it, so whatever. Then she sang and it was freaking amazing! She followed the famous saxophone improvised solo (by saxophonist Illinois Jacquet) with words that zoomed up and down and all around the scale. Wow wow wow. She was terrific on everything else, too. There was a tenor saxophone battle on Air Mail Special that had me mesmerized. What was happening? Tenor saxophones!? They played several original charts and I was really taken with Shimmer Jam or Jimmer Jam or something like that. I never like new music. What? Wow.
So, the meal was odd, the company was delightful, and the concert was terrific. Perfect.