Chris is thirty-two years and one week old. Last Wednesday (his birthday), I spoiled him more than I ever have. I treated him to dinner at Fred & Steve's Steakhouse, where I gave him his gift: a four-pack of golf lessons at Mulligan's Island. Between dinner and the gift, I spent my whole tax refund on him. I figured it was only fair, considering how well he spoiled me at Christmas.
Fred & Steve's is located at Twin River in Lincoln, RI (formerly known as Lincoln Park, it's a dog track turned pseudo-casino). It was officially the most expensive meal on a per-person basis that we have ever had, but it was so worth it. The food was phenomenal; the only thing we didn't much care for was the side order of macaroni and cheese that we split. The cheese they used had a sweet flavor to it, and I have almost obsessive-compulsive issues with sweetness in foods that are supposed to be salty. But, some salt and pepper made it bearable. For our appetizer we had stuffed mushrooms with Italian sausage, and I'm not exaggerating when I say the stack of sausage stuffing towered about three inches over the tops of the mushrooms. They were the absolute best stuffed mushrooms I have ever tasted. For entrees, I had a cut of prime rib the size of Brooskey's hind leg (no, I did not eat it all), and Chris had something called the "Cowboy Steak". Tenderest meat I have ever seen... just melts in your mouth. It's too bad that steak, especially prime rib, does not reheat well. I had a little bit of mine with my whole wheat pasta the following night, but it just wasn't the same (not to mention they didn't send any au jus home with it!). Dessert was a bananas foster cheesecake, which was a little weird with the juxtaposition of "sour" cheesecake against extremely sweet bananas foster sauce, but good all the same.
With his gift I achieved my goal: to surprise him with something he'd never expect from me. I owe some credit to his best friend Joe for the idea. Mulligan's Island (a sports and recreation center with mini golf, batting cages, a pitch 'n putt, driving range, nine-hole golf course, and golf and baseball instruction) is closed for the winter, so I e-mailed their golf instructor to find out if it was possible to purchase a gift card during the hiatus. Amazingly, he responded rather quickly and offered to do the whole transaction by mail. He even trusted me enough to be willing to mail the gift card to me before receiving my check (but it didn't happen that way as his printer ran out of ink). Despite my fears about conducting a transaction by mail from work, with the mail delivery track record we have, it all went smoothly and I was even able to sneak the package home, Chris being none the wiser. He never saw it coming, and had no idea how I had pulled it off!
So, since then, Chris has endowed me with an early Valentine's Day gift... his brutal stomach bug that he's been fighting for the past six days. I felt it coming on last night, but despite feeling really lousy, went to work today anyway. The thing is, if Chris' experience is any indication, it's going to get a lot worse. And if I'm going to have to miss work, I'd rather save it for when it's really bad... especially since I've already borrowed a sick day from my next employment year beginning in March.
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