The Mammals with Whom I live

Earlier this month, I took Milo to see the farmers' market in the parking lot of Mr. Smith's office. I had been told that there was a kiddie train that Milo might like.

Unfortunately, when we arrived there was no train. 

So instead of doing that, we went to a fancy restaurant in Wheeling called Tramonto's. It is inside the Westin Hotel, and man is it ever nice. This is the type of restaurant that I used to go to BEFORE I had a kid.

But, now I have one and we go to places like Steak N Shake. 

Regardless, this is a rare occurrence and only happened because Mr. Smith had a gift certificate-hooray for village golf outings! (I was also overly excited about the large bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing he got in his goody bag. Inexplicable, but that shit is YUM.)

I didn't recognize the name of the place, but it is a steak and seafood place developed by Rick Tramonto, who is like...the MAN of steak. 

Or something. 

We sat right behind the bar, which was separated from the rest of the place by a glass wall of cascading water. Of course Milo was thrilled. 

I didn't take photos of the food because I ate it too fast. The shrimp tempura appetizer was incredible. Perfectly cooked but could have used a BIT more spice. I will say that I wolfed it down. Shocked that I used a fork and napkin. I ordered the chopped salad as an entree and Mr. Smith ordered the roast beef sandwich with crispy onions and horseradish cream with fries. 

We told the server we were going to share-purplosely NOT using the term 'split'. Sometimes restaurants will charge you up to $5 to split an entree onto 2 plates. Kind of bullhonky, but whatever. Just eat off the same plate. 

But they split them for us, even bringing the salad before the sandwich. It is little things like this that make a restaurant visit memorable. 

And! I ate a few grape tomato halves! Anyone who knows me knows that raw, undressed tomatoes generally sicken me. As my palate has matured, I almost wish they didn't. The way people talk about them is nearly convincing. Then I see the gooshy, slimy interiors and I gag. 

Anyways, I figured that TRYING some in this AMAZING salad wouldn't kill me. And it didn't. 

We ordered a fancy drink for Milo. He liked it, as you can see.

Cheese!!!

We also introduced Milo to Play Doh. He loves it, especially through the garlic press.

And for the final photo in this post, I give you:

Our two cats, Squishface (on the left) and Mona. Squishface was Mr. Smith's alarm clock for over a year. Now that we have moved and Mr. Smith has switched jobs, he no longer needs Squishy. But if we are not out of bed by 7:30 am, we are awakened by this cat. Because, you know...its actually HIS bed that he so graciously shares with us. 

Mona is just lazy. 

Well, now I have to go exfoliate and apply self-tanner. Can't really pull off a tangerine bridesmaid dress when you are white as a sheet. (ghost? paper? white as...white?)