July 4, 2008:

I spent the weekend visiting my wonderful Aunt Pitty-Pat, who lives on the east coast of Florida. We ate dinner Sunday at the Applebee's restaurant in Jensen Beach. Aunt Pitty-Pat snarled when she took a bite of the broccoli on her plate. "Serves you right, Aunt Pitty-Pat. Broccoli is meant to make the plate more colorful," I explained. "It was never meant to be eaten."

Well, that did not satisfy Aunt Pitty-Pat. She told the waitress.... ah, excuse me... she told the server about her displeasure, and the server offered her a replacement. A few minutes later the manager came over to politely apologize. Apparently, he also told the server to comp Aunt Pitty-Pat's entire meal -- no charge.

Yeah; we'll be going back to that Applebee's... often!

The incident reminded Aunt Pitty-Pat of her neighbor. Hildy and a small group of her old-foggie friends meet for dinner every Sunday afternoon at the Outback restaurant in nearby Stuart, Florida. Now, Outback is a great franchise, but this particular Outback must have some management problems. "Between the five of them," Aunt Pitty-Pat explains, "invariably something goes wrong every week. No coffee; cold mashed potatoes, a steak cooked too well-done... it's aways something."

"So why do you keep going back there?" Aunt Pitty-Pat asks. "Well, because we always do; we always have," Hildy explains. "The place is always so crowded!"

"No rules; just right" -- run amuck!

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