On taking the afternoon off

One of the great advantages of being your own boss is that, every once in a while when you really feel like it, you can take the afternoon off. Do it too often, of course, and you’re either retired or unemployed.

Yesterday afternoon my wife and I went to lunch at Benihana’s out in Schaumburg. Somehow my wife had gotten ahold of a coupon for two free yakisoba lunches there and we took advantage of it. If you’ve never been there, Benihana’s is a highly Westernized teppanyaki restaurant (one of those places where the diners sit around a stainless steel cooking surface while the teppanyaki chef prepares your meal before your eyes). Our chef had the standard repertoire of teppanyaki chef tricks—knife twirling, spatula tapping, making a smoking “volcano” from a stack of onion rings, and so on—and, as in so many Japanese or, as in this case, pseudo-Japanese things the total experience is what counts rather than just eating your meal. It was fun.

After lunch we went shopping for flooring material. My wife is interested in putting Johnsonite down in our basement as part of the dog washing and grooming area she wants down there. Mid-America Tile, Johnsonite’s Chicago-area distributor, was on the home from Benihana’s in Elk Grove Village. And, yes, Elk Grove Village does have a herd of elks in one of the parks there.

The people at Mid-America Tile were absolutely charming and very helpful. They gave us some literature and Johnsonite color samples for us to look at in the actual setting in which we plan to use the product. While we were there we also talked about flooring for our kitchen. It currently has a 25 year old Bruce wood flooring installed by our predecessors in this house. If you want a testimonial for Bruce flooring, we can furnish one. Try as we might we’ve been unable to destroy it. It’s as ugly today as the day we moved in.

We also lectured the people at Mid-America Tile on buying dogs, canine agility, and dogsledding.

All-in-all a very nice afternoon.