I'll Take The Big One!

In the theme of the last couple of postings, yet another story of my eating abilities. This time its 1989, my wife and I had been dating for about 2 months. As told in a past posting, I was not the most welcome of suitors when in came to my wife's family. Well, we're living in Chicago and my wife's parents want to come down from Milwaukee to take their daughter and her new boyfriend out to dinner. My wife's folks have good taste and want to go to a nicer restaurant in Chicago. My wife mentions THE PALM at The Drake Hotel right off of Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Ave. THE PALM is known for being a place where local celebrities dine and really fine food, notably lobster. I'm 24 years old, not making a lot of money and definitely not eating at restaurants like this. (Fine dining to me was more like McDonald's or Taco Bell). So I'm pretty pumped knowing that I'm going to get a really great meal. The folks arrive at my wife's apartment at around 6:00, a little small talk and then we get going to THE PALM. I'm really excited and really hungry.(Really dangerous considering I'm 24 and have no restraint on food intake at this point in my life). We get to the restaurant and get a nice booth for the 4 of us. My wife's parents are still looking at me like they did the 1st time they met me, like I'm a science project! They're not sure what to make of this strange, loud boy and why their nice daughter is dating him. I'm good with that because I'm focused on the menu and thinking how much food I'm going to eat. The waiter comes by to and tells us about the menu. He also has in his hands 2 of the biggest lobsters I've ever seen. I love lobster and the only way I could eat lobster back then was if I gave blood for about 2 1/2 years so I could afford it. Well, I ask "How big are those?" The waiters says "This one is 5 lbs and this one is 6 lbs" I respond "I'll take the big one" My wife and her parents order normal human size meals and her father is giving my wife the "You do know this is the last meal I buying for this putz" look. My wife and her parent's meals come first. 3 normal size plates of food. Then my meal comes. The 6 lb pound lobster comes on a silver tray that could double as a satellite dish. I proceed to knock out this ginormous crustation in about 10 minutes. Still hungry, I ask my wife if she's going to finish her veal parmesan. She looks at me like I'm a death row inmate eating his last meal and says "Sure, knock yourself out"
We leave the restaurant and take a little walk. I say "Wow, I feel like I ate a small dog" My wife's father says to my wife "He did!"

So, a few weeks go by and my wife and I are having lunch. We get into a stupid argument about who's family has spent more on each other for meals.(This is not going to end well for me-stay tuned). I say "Well, my brother has taken us out to dinner a few times" She's biting her lip for some reason. I say "What?" She finally can't take it anymore and says "How much do you think that 6 lb Lobster from THE PALM cost?" Me being an idiot with no sense of how much things cost says "I don't know, $35" She says "Try $85!" Inside I'm thinking "Holy !*&^#@* Moly!" but I reply with "Well, they better get used to it!" We both then laughed

None the less, I have bought my in-laws a number of very nice meals in the last 19 years but there's rarely a time when I'm at a restaurant with my in-laws when my father-in-law won't say "Hey, Danny you should see if they have lobster on the menu"

Touche