For years after Bill and I married, we frequented a family-run Mexican restaurant in a shopping center known as Loehmann’s Plaza.\u00a0 It was the kind of place that didn\u2019t take reservations.\u00a0 If you showed up with a group on a Friday night\u2014our family was automatically a group\u2014you gave them your name, got in line, and waited.\u00a0 Eventually, for reasons I don\u2019t know, the restaurant operation moved from the Factoria area to Bellevue Square, and we followed it there until that branch closed down as well.<\/p>\n
The next time they resurfaced was in Kirkland on 85th in a restaurant called Tres Hermanos. (Do not try to dictate the words Tres Hermanos to Siri.\u00a0 She does NOT speak conversational or even restaurant Spanish!)<\/p>\n
Tres Hermanos showed up in Kirkland about the time my daughter and her husband moved into the neighborhood, and they were a haven for Jeanne T. and Jon while they duked it out with Jon\u2019s melanoma.<\/p>\n
The people who run the restaurant know their customers and they care. During one of Jon\u2019s hospitalizations, one of his friends showed up in town for a visit, and Jeanne T. took him to Tres for lunch.\u00a0 The service was appalling\u2014for the first time ever.\u00a0 Finally she realized what the problem was.\u00a0 They thought she was there two-timing Jon.\u00a0 When she set everyone straight on that score, the service improved immeasurably.<\/p>\n
Our grandson, Colt, was nine months old when we lost his dad to the Big C.\u00a0 Three months later, when it came time for Colt\u2019s first birthday celebration, that\u2019s where we went\u2014Tres Hermanos.\u00a0 It\u2019s been the same story for Colt\u2019s birthday every year since, and today\u2019s the day he turned eleven.\u00a0 When we go there, I\u2019m not NYTimes<\/em> best selling author, J.A. Jance.\u00a0 At Tres Hermanos, I\u2019m Colt\u2019s Grandma.\u00a0 Or Cauliflower Ears\u2019 Grandma which what Miguel Pi\u00f1a usually calls him.<\/p>\n Two years ago, Colt joined a bowling league.\u00a0 Our daughter was delighted that her son had found a sport that a: He loved and b: Didn\u2019t require sun screen.\u00a0 Grandpa told Colt what when his bowling scores topped 100, we\u2019d get him a ball.\u00a0 When it came time to deliver on that promise, the only ball that would do was a Seahawks Super Bowl ball.\u00a0 And he got one.<\/p>\n He\u2019s been bowling ever since, winning tournaments here and there along the way. This past week his high score edged up to 208, and a new ball was called for\u2014a viral ball this time around.\u00a0\u00a0 Back in the old days, freshman and sophomore students at the University of Arizona were required to take PE.\u00a0 As a consequence, my checkered past includes pulling out a barely passing grade for a semester\u2019s worth of bowling.\u00a0 Based on that, you can be sure that my knowledge when it comes to bowling balls is \u2026 well \u2026 limited.\u00a0 A viral ball?\u00a0 Does that mean it\u2019s contagious?<\/p>\n So I asked Colt why his coach thought he needed a viral ball.\u00a0 \u201cBecause it\u2019s less responsive.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what he said.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s what he meant.\u00a0 It seems to me that you\u2019d want a ball to be more responsive rather than less, but maybe that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n At any rate, the viral ball arrived yesterday.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an official Seahawks ball, but it has the right color scheme.\u00a0 Today we drove up to Kenmore Lanes in Bothell to have the ball drilled.\u00a0 Tonight we\u2019ll go to Tres Hermanos to celebrate.<\/p>\n Hold the Tacos al Carbon!\u00a0 And for dessert?\u00a0 Cupcakes topped with bowling pins, of course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For years after Bill and I married, we frequented a family-run Mexican restaurant in a shopping center known as Loehmann’s Plaza.\u00a0 It was the kind of place that didn\u2019t take reservations.\u00a0 If you showed up with a group on a Friday night\u2014our family was automatically a group\u2014you gave them your name, got in line, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-kZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1301"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1304,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions\/1304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}