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Last night we went and met our friends

blue_micha,

perrin_o_ravnos,

yebo,

zosh & Snoozewadler at The Melting Pot about 15 miles east of where we live.

Our reservations were for 8. So, my wife and I got there about 6:20. Yeah. The traffic reports had said it was all jammed up, so I left lots of extra time. The traffic reports were apparently totally wrong and we got there VERY early.

The good news is that just behind the restaurant is one of the biggest furniture stores in New England. As my wife and I are planning on replacing our 25 year old couch with out tax refund this year, we decided to go up and look while we waited.

OK. This had always been my plan. The only difference was we had 90 minutes instead of 60. But, as my wife’s pseudo step sister works for a competing furniture chain I hadn’t advertised the fact first. (What’s she going to do, unfriend me on Facebook. I’ve only met her once and in 8 months has not come through with the photos she promised my wife. But, I digress...)

We sat on several dozen couches. Some nice, some strange, some really uncomfortable. It was a slow night at the furniture store. Personally I think their animatronic Village People might have scared everyone else off.

Due to it being slow, a gaggle of sales people followed us through the four show rooms of couches we examined. We told all we were waiting for our tax refund and just looking. They sadly nodded and told us they were ready when we were.
Finally, I sat in this chair and loved it.

It was the most comfortable place I had sat in the whole show room. It had another chair and a couch with it.

As I sat there, very comfortable, a new sales guy came up.

“I’ve been told that you’re just looking,” he said. “But, I wanted to let you know that the furniture you’re sitting in has been discontinued and we only have a limited amount left in stock.”
“How many?” I asked.
“Three. When they’re gone, they’re gone. But, the set is on sale for $400 off and I can set you up with a free line of credit tonight so you don’t have to pay anything to reserve it. Then, when you get your refund, you can just pay it off all at once, no penalty or interest.”

So, our new furniture will be delivered next month.

blue_micha says she will skin our old one and make clothes out of it. We'll see.

Anyhow, we went back across the parking lot, waited for our other friends to show up, and started dinner.

Our waitress was from Uzbekistan and worried about her English. I know folks who have grown up in the area and do not speak it as well as she did. She also seemed very surprised that all of us had heard of Uzbekistan and at least knew where it was on a map.

We all got the four course meal. The first one is a cheese course, so I did not partake.

I’m told it was quite good, and appeared to be a lot of fun.

The second course you cook food in oil or broth.

I liked the method they had for bringing out the hot pots.

I got a meal that came with a wide range of things to cook.

(There were lots of vegetables too.)

Each of the different things took a different amount of time to cook. Plus there were different batters, and sauces that went with different things.
The waitress did her best to explain it all, but we made her write it down for us.