the best laid plans...

My mother has always wanted to go to French Laundry, except that it's so hard to get a reservation that we've never had a chance.

I thought it would be a nice gesture on my part to secure a reservation for my parents' 30th anniversary, which is coming up in two months, so I blocked out my calendar starting at 10am for four straight days. (The reservation policy is that you can call starting at 10am two calendar months before the date of the reservation.)

Yesterday, I got through to a "reservationist" at 10:23am, and all the tables were already full for dinner on Thu 3/29 (lunch is only served Fri-Sun).

Today, I enlisted my sister as well, and the two of us dialed and redialed four phones (two cell, two land) until I finally got through at 11:08am. The good news was that there were actually some tables left for Fri 3/30. The bad news was that the tables were 4-person tables, not 2-person tables. I made a reservation anyway, since I had spent all this time already, and anyway my parents might enjoy the company.

So, I was somewhat satisfied with myself, until I got a totally unrelated email from my mom, in which I learned that my parents are going to be out of town that day. Argh!!!

Now I'm trying to decide whether to sell the reservation, invite some friends to go (unlikely, at $240 a head), or what.