Bob W steered us to Barbie's, one of his haunts, for
breakfast. I don't know what happened, but this was a
singularly unshining effort on the restaurant's part.

Service was friendly enough but excruciatingly slow.
Bob said that this was the first time he'd ever been
there when Barbie wasn't - that might have had
something to do with it. Presently I noted to the
air that we could have gone to the store, picked up
the groceries, and cooked our meals in the time we
had been waiting.

Lilli ordered hash browns and eggs over easy; when
these finally came, over half an hour later, the
potatoes were as seems to be the custom here, cooked
only on one side, but the eggs were cooked on two
sides. Her starch was an English muffin - it came
approximately raw. Otherwise everything was fine,
except that when the bill came she was charged for
hash browns and eggs and meat.

Bob, perhaps sensing potential disaster, just had a
biscuit and gravy: I presume it was fine, as he ate
every scrap without offering anyone a taste.

I ordered hash and eggs over easy; these were really
quite good, the hash being crispy on both sides and
the over easy being over easy. Until I found embedded
in my hash what looked suspiciously like an old
person's pubic hair - gray and wiry and definitely of
animal origin. As my immune system, though not so good
as Swisher's, is pretty decent, I was only momentarily
put off by this. My English muffin was well done and
crispy, so I gave half of it to Lilli.

Back to Bob's to prep for the picnic, for which I did
assorted tasks.

I'd prepped the tri-tips (too lean) with a pepper rub
and studded them with garlic slivers, after which Bob
slathered them in Worcester sauce, which I'd not have
done but which had the interesting effect of making
them eventually taste just like restaurant tri-tip.

Then I skinned two trays of chicken breasts, and as
they were gigantic, cut each into thirds. Bob W was
going to toss the skins; I rescued them, saying I was
going to be making "chicken chips," which I did, only
to find the marauding later arrival Big Chris scarfing
almost all of them down. I rescued a few crumbs for
myself and Lilli.

Presliced mozzarella made the caprese into easy peasy.
My dressing this time was one part balsamic, one part
regular Filippo Berio EVOO, and one part Hilton Rome
EVOO that Bob D had gotten as a welcome gift not a few
months ago. These were shaken with a crushed garlic
clove, a lot of basil stems (the leaves went into the
dish proper), and a dollop of mustard.

Snacks included many kinds of chips served with guac
from the supermarket and Pace medium salsa from Costco;
salted almonds; green tea Kit Kats; and these giant
cheese corn sticks, which were like mutant Cheetos with
less cheese but with the addition of umami agents seaweed
and possibly dried shrimp or squid.

Then there was this monster couscous salad (Bob E and
Francine), which I didn't partake of, and a monster
Mediterranean salad (Jonathan), which would have been
okay for me except that as always someone dumped a whole
bunch of feta on top.

Coleslaw and potato salad, both store bought, both
reported as good, but I didn't waste my stomach space.
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