Lobster Surprise

We went to our young friend C's house for dinner last night..... her mom had invited us for dinner last week before we went to Savannah. C's dad is back from his job in Louisiana, and he'll be home now for two weeks, before going back to his job again. It's a two-week on, two-week off schedule, and no one is complaining about that any longer, considering that they almost had to move to Las Vegas a couple of months ago for the dad's job. C still talks about their trip to Vegas to look at houses there....... and she still swears she'll never set foot in Vegas again. She's only 15, however, so I'm sure she'll be easing up on that oath at some point in her life.

We got there last night to find lobsters boiling on the stove, which was a surprise to us. We thought we were going for a "simple Saturday night dinner," as C's mom had told us. C's dad S was boiling the lobsters for just a few minutes, then he wrapped them in foil and let them finish cooking on the barbeque.

As soon as we walked into the door last night, C ran to me and gave me a hug, telling me that "Those lobsters were alive! I named them all, then Dad killed them!" Apparently, she hadn't seen that part of the lobster-dinner process before, even though she's eaten lobster many times over the years. I reminded C that the meat for the hamburgers that she loves was also once alive, but she quickly told me that she'd never seen her dad kill a cow in their kitchen. (Which is a good point, of course.)

C pointed to the breakfast room table, which had been set for dinner. Not only did C set the table, but she pointed out the placecards that she had made for all of us. White placecards, each with a picture of a lobster that she had colored with red pencil. Not only did she make placecards for each of us, but when she realized the fate of the lobsters, she made smaller placecards for them as well, printing their names on each. C is reading "Romeo and Juliet" now, and the names of the lobsters were taken from the book. (My lobster was named Romeo, and my husband's was Mercutio.) I was very flattered that our young Miss C thought of making placecards. I saved our placecards (both ours and the lobsters') and brought them home, just as C has saved all the placecards she's had at our house over the years.

The other surprise was that C had searched on the Internet for lobster trivia and jokes, and she had a print-out of what she found next to her dinner plate. C learned that idea from my husband because he will do the same thing before our Charades parties or smaller dinner parties, the only exception being that he'll memorize what he finds on-line. C's dad told us that his daughter is picking up interesting habits from us, and he said that was "a good thing." We laughed and asked him if he had been listening to Martha Stewart lately.

C will get her learner's permit when school is out this coming week, then her parents are enrolling her in a driving school. They'll get a break on the car insurance if she takes lessons from a school, but C also reminded me about my promise to teach her to drive. "A promise is a promise," is what I told her. She's going to be a good driver, I'm sure of it. She's responsible, alert, and self-reliant. And she makes very pretty placecards. What a kid.... she just makes us smile all the time, I swear.