Tag: Lettuce Entertain You

Those Darn Geese are Leaving and Other Good News!

I told you about our anti-goose dog silhouette project. Most of you doubted it would work. People regaled me with their own experiences. “The phony dogs won’t keep away the real geese,” our readers honked.

But guess what. It has been two weeks now. And our driveway is poop-free (most of the time.) There have been two exceptions, but those have been on days that I didn’t have a chance to relocate the silhouettes. (The instructions state to move them daily.)

As long as I follow the rules, the geese do seem intimidated by the black cut-outs as they rotate in the wind around their wooden stakes. The foul fowl will still approach our driveway but not venture onto it for the purpose of leaving a deposit.

As a secondary benefit, the geese seem to be spending less time in the subdivision. They are making less of a racket and not snarling as much traffic. The feathered freaks haven’t evacuated the area entirely–two phony dogs aren’t enough to clear a couple of hundred acres. But the Homeowners Association may consider adding a few more of the silent sentinels around the neighborhood next year and turn our little corner of Riverwoods into a goose-free zone.

Follow-up #2: The Lettuce Entertain You Dining Points. Our hosts on the evening in question read the original blog. They graciously suggested I contact LEYE and claim the points for my own Frequent Diner account. I did, and I have received a tidy number of credits. Thanks, Cara and Ken, the next time we dine out it’s on us!

Follow-up #3: The producers of Jeopardy! have made their selection. It takes two–Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik–to replace the late Alex Trebek. As for me, I am still waiting for my phone call for a tryout. I guess I will need to create my own game show in my quest to be a TV quizmaster. Does anyone have any suggestions?

And on a closing personal note, congratulations to our daughter and son-in-law Laury and Alex on the birth of their beautiful baby daughter. This is grandchild #4 for Barb and me and we are thrilled. Being Nana and Baba is such a wonderful part of our identity.

To all our readers, be kind, get vaccinated, stay well. Talk to you next time.

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This Dining Dilemma Points To You. What would you do?

Wildfire, Lincolnshire. The place where it happened!

You have helped me negotiate modern ethics before. You all gave me permission to accept a prize for being a top fundraiser for the annual SEABlue Prostate Awareness run*. Barb appreciates the very high-powered cordless electric broom. So I am hoping you all can help me out one more time.

As COVID and its aftermath have collapsed everyone’s world our dining-out choices have become more limited. A quick perusal of my credit card charges confirms that about 90% of our dining-out dollars are spent at one or another of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises’ many restaurants.

And that is OK with us. Wildfire has been one of our favorite restaurants for years. Di Pescara and Saranello’s are just minutes away for tempting fish and Italian fare. I even chose to celebrate my last birthday at L Woods, the Lettuce restaurant a short hop down the Eden’s Expressway. I considered it a tribute to my late parents, who loved Sunday family dinners at Bones, the LEYE restaurant that preceded L Woods in that Lincolnwood location.

And…drumroll…Lettuce Entertain You restaurants give points. Their Frequent Diner Club awards bonus points for every dollar spent. Sometimes special deals award double points or more. Points add up to dollars off future visits. I usually accumulate enough points for a few macadamia nut-crusted halibut and horseradish-crusted filet dinners a year. Yum.

Which leads to my social dilemma. Some dear Florida friends of ours are spending the summer in Chicago and invited us out for dinner. The little celebration was a thank-you for Barb’s assistance in setting up our friend’s Chicago residence. A second helpful couple was also invited.

Our host’s restaurant choice for the evening? Wildfire.

It was a lovely evening. And as our hosts paid the substantial bill, I realized that being out-of-towners, they were not Frequent Diner members. All I could think about was those potential points floating away into the kitchen miasma!

I knew Lettuce is usually very lenient about letting anyone in the dining party claim the points. I knew all I would have had to do to get those award dollars would have been to ask our hosts if they minded my putting in a claim. But… I froze–I couldn’t do it.

So my question to you, my knowledgable readers–if I had asked for the Frequent Diner points to be credited to my account, even though I did not pay for the meal, would have I been committing a major social faux-pas? Or would it have been absolutely fine after a relaxed dinner with great friends? Yes, I know it is a typical “first world problem.” But I want the answer!

Let me know your thoughts–leave a comment here, or email me at les.raff@post.com.

Your voices have spoken! Follow up here.

——————-

*more on this year’s run here.

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