OTP

For those who are not familiar with Atlanta lingo, OTP means Outside The Perimeter.  And the perimeter is Hwy 285 that circles Atlanta and is a beast to navigate the traffic.  I very rarely have any reason to cross that line.  That being said, a couple times a year it happens.

Saturday, we trekked out to Lilburn, GA to pick up my/my dad's 1971 VW Beetle from one of the only repair shops willing to work on them.  But the planning immediately got tricky-- too many cars and not enough drivers.  I was in my Jetta, my dad was in his Highlander, and my mom doesn't drive any more.  My uncle Dan was supposed to join us, but he got held up at home on a different matter.  And Peter lives in Lilburn which is not at all close to the house where the Beetle is going.  Dilemma.  For starters, we put my Dad in the Beetle, Peter in the Highlander, and my mom and me in the Jetta and got all cars to Peter's house (Peter also has 3 cars of his own).  Then Dan and Susie arrived, in another car.  So to get everybody back home, me in the Jetta, Susie in Dan's Acura, Dan and my mom in the Highlander, my Dad in the Beetle, and Peter stays home.  The amount of time used to come up with this arrangement was ridiculous.

In the mean time, we decided to get dinner.  But first, a tour of Peter's house.  A house tour for me involves the rooms and furnishings.  A house tour of Peter's house for Uncle Dan involves toys.  Lots and lots of toys.  Peter is a car collector.  He has rooms and rooms of model cars, trucks, a bedroom of airplane models, a wall of car medallions, and rooms (yes, plural) of car literature.  Dan was in heaven!

Boys of any age and toys

The rest of us were mostly hungry.  So we hung out with cats.

Muldoon

After about an hour, we were fed up (or not litterally) and forced the boys out of the basement of more toys to go to dinner.  The options in Lilburn are limited and Peter's recommendations were Chili's or Red Lobster.  Fortunately, after pressing him, he recommended a small, noisy restaurant called 3 Blind Mice.  Normally, with a group of 6 at 7pm on a Saturday, we expected a wait.  But they had the one large table ready for us.  And in a quiet corner!  Sometimes it all works out.

3 Blind Mice reminded me strongly of the Hayes Valley version of Citizen Cake.  The banquet tables, bar, and menu were very similar.  The style of the menu was very northern Cali, but unfortunately, the actual food did not live up to its promise.  It was all fine, but I was expecting excellence.  The winter soup and short ribs came in as the best, but my crab cakes and the scallops and the brussels sprouts disappointed.  Ah well, I wasn't going to be driving back out there just for dinner anyway.  We had good company and good dinner conversation.

After dinner, we all piled into our various car assignments and trudged back to civilization (oops!  Sorry Peter, I mean back to ITP).  Whew, made it home safe and sound.