Olive Garden

 It's another Sunday and Tom and I have gone to Olive Garden for lunch. I haven't been there for years so it was a nice treat.

 I chose the one across from the Dayton Mall. Mom needed an item for the nearby health food store - and I wanted to stop at a Miamisburg hardware store, too - so the location fit into our plans. "We could have met at the one in Middletown," Tom said. He'd have stopped there on his drive north.

Tom's perusing the menu, trying to decide what strikes his fancy.

We know we want the salad and breadsticks. I particularly like their Italian house dressing. And I love that they add a couple of hot banana peppers to the mix. I've already got my eye on that one at 11 o'clock. We ate that salad and had another brought to the table.

Behind and above us is a display of wines. I wonder if they'd miss a bottle?

Family ... indeed!

 Me? Fettuccine Alfredo. What else? This is my standard order whenever I go to Olive Garden. It's heavy (and high calories, I'll bet) but creamy and delicious. This is why I walk/jog ten miles each week ... so I can eat well.

Tom? Ravioli - pasta pillows - filled with chopped portobello mushrooms, beneath a wonderful cheesy sauce, sprinkled with bits of tomato and seasoned with Italian herbs.

 It's just after noon but I'm still looking a little sleepy. In this shot, our waitress is in the distant left.

 Dessert? I figured we'd skip dessert because Mom made a wonderful key lime pie that very morning. But Tom remembered Olive Garden's tiramisu which he only had a chance to taste in the past. "How about we share one of those?" Tom asked. It's a light coffee-flavored dessert ... lady fingers dipped in coffee and buried beneath a semi-sweet custard.

 Good day. Good food. Now for our two shopping stops and then back to Pinehaven to play cards: a game of Rummy (I won) and to finish to a game of Canasta which we started two weeks ago (I won that, too). But Tom still has to help me so much I won't count that one.