It sounded like a good idea

[SteveDallas]

By hallowed Dallas family tradition, when one of us has a birthday, we go out to eat, and the birthday person chooses the restaurant--more or less. (Mrs. Dallas and I try not to intentionally pick something we know the kids will actively dislike.)

This year, I chose to forgo "dinner" and instead head to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch. It's been literally years since I've been there. It should be fun.. we can walk around, see the different vendors, get something for lunch. Oh, yeah, well, today is Sunday. The web site informs us that none of the Pennsylvania Dutch vendors operate on Sunday. But about 2/3 of the shops are open--a good cross section of what's available.

My daughter has been hankering for a cheesesteak, so we stop by Rick's Steaks. Umm, closed. There's a long line at the hoagie place opposite, but they don't have cheesesteaks.

Moving right along.. Chinese wouldn't be bad, she says. Oh, the Chinese place is closed.

Oh. The other Chinese place is closed too.

Thai? Closed.

Mexican? Closed.

Brick oven pizza? Closed.

By default we end up at the Down Home Diner after examining the menus and deciding we can all deal with it, including Mrs. Dallas, who is teetering on the edge of vegetarianism these days.

They then seat us and proceed to plop down a menu for a Sunday brunch that was not outside and bears little resemblance to what was outside. They do, however, have cheesesteaks. My son gets the strawberry French toast, and I got biscuits and gravy. Mrs. Dallas didn't have many choices but went with the chicken Caesar salad--with dressing on the side, please. "Oh, I don't know if they can do that." "Umm, why not?" "Well, they're really busy today. But I'll ask and find out." It turned out they did, but we were not clear why such a simple and common request was such a big deal. (Unless they simply pre-made the salad by the tub--surely not!!)

Well, the Middle Eastern place was open. We can at least pick up some hummus to take home. Oops, they're out of hummus.

So, back to the car. Wait... our validated ticket is supposed to scan for $3.00. Instead it goes for the full price ($20). It's all automated.. so there's nobody there to complain to. What to do? I decided to pay the $20 (not much choice) and complain about it later to the garage management and if necessary my credit card company.

I kind of wish I had stayed home for a PB&J.