Last Friday Mer and I met up with our friends Matt and Liz. Matt had just completed his doctorate, and won the best dissertation award in the process. So, we decided to celebrate with Dr. Matt and Liz, and so we went to one of Dr. Matt’s favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse. Mer and I had never been before – we had figured it was mostly a steak place (which it is), and we rarely (ha!) get steak. Still, we figured it should have good burgers.

Turns out they have a lot of great food. Too much good food. While Dr. Matt and Liz both were veterans and skipped the appetizer, we decided to try the loaded chili-cheese fries. The chili was a bit bitter but was very good. We should know since we also got cups of chili as one of our two free sides with our meals. I got fries as my other side (I refrained from topping them with cheese).

I was getting quite a lot of grief from my table-mates since I ordered a strawberry drink. Normally this is not a deal for comment, but they had to make it at the bar, and it came in a large beer glass. So, at first everyone was threatening to turn me in to CVCA (we can’t drink according to our contract), and then they decided that the reddish-pink drink was not manly, and I got a hard time for that. It was pretty good though.

Mer got a country-fried steak that was the size of a small nation, and I got some really excellent “chicken critters” – Texas Roadhouse’s chicken fingers. Needless to say, neither Mer nor I finished our food, but since we live only a mile or so from the restaurant we were able to dash home and put the leftovers in the ‘fridge. Dr. Matt and Liz both managed nicely with their steaks (both rare – ugh!).

After the food drop-off (where we got to give Dr. Matt and Liz a tour of the house), we headed to Akron to go to the Coach House Theater to see a comedy called The Nerd. I really like the Coach House – it is a small theater built in an old coach house, and it can only seat about 90 people, so it is very intimate. On Friday, there was an audience of about 20. I felt a little bad for the actors for playing to such a small crowd, but at least we were a very lively crowd (in a good way – lots of laughter). The actual play was really really really funny. The actions of the nerd made my skin crawl – he was oblivious to everything going on around him, and just ran roughshod through the entire play. Since the nerd had saved the main character’s life in Vietnam, everyone had to put up with him. It was a great play; very funny.

After the play, we headed over to Mary Coyle’s ice cream parlor. It is in one of the about three blocks of Akron that could pass as a northside Chicago neighborhood. The ice cream parlor is old-fashioned, and is only about four blocks from where I lived back in 1995-96, although oddly I never made it until last Friday. Meredith and I were pleased that something in Ohio was open past 10:00 (it was about 10:15 when we got out of the play). The four of us got sundaes, and had a good time chatting. We finished the ice cream and conversation (zeugma!), and headed to our separate homes. Congrats to Dr. Matt!