T
ool & D
ie page 28
D
umpster
D
iving
With Bone & Heidi
My day off starts with a crash of thunder
and a `woke up out of a dead sleep' gasp
from Heidi. Not a pleasant way to be
woken up on my day off, but more of-
ten than not, it's the way my day starts.
Forget a nice, slow groggy welcome to the
day - I guess my fate is an elbow in the
side, a thunder-boomer, or a cat pouncing
on my junk. It's 6am on Sunday morning
and I'm up. Shakin' off the fuzzies from
the night before, I ask Heidi if she had a
bad dream. She seemed a bit freaked out.
"Yeah...I just had a dream that I was mar-
ried to the lead singer from Krokus." I re-
sponded with a laugh and an enthusiastic
"REALLY?!?" "Yeah, and I was at
a video shoot where they were
filming their big `come-back'
song"...(this is too good to let
go) "Sooo, were you dressed
in red leather fringe? Was your
hair bigger than his `fro? Did he
have lifts in his shoes?" "Did his
`Long Stick Go Boom'?" I get an
un-amused "No". As I run out of
bad jokes, we suddenly realize
that Heidi left the windows and
sunroof open on the rental car
from the muggy night before.
She jumps up like a bat out of
hell and runs outside. It's pour-
ing. After spending the next
hour and a half toweling off the
soaked seats, and running the
car fans on high to try and dry
the car out - we form a plan for
breakfast. What a nice way to
start the day.
We decided to keep trying to
hit up Mothers Cupboard, but
just in case, we always have a
backup plan. We could deter-
mine whether or not to stop
in based on the number of cars
in the lot and if there's a visible
line of people out the door. We
figured either drive in and nosh,
or drive by to our alternate des-
tination - Stella's Diner. It's late
morning by the time we round
the corner from Thompson to
James, and we're thinking our
chances are slim to none. To
our surprise, there were only 6
cars in the lot and no line out
the door. We rolled the dice...
and we won.
Mother's Cupboard
Mothers' Cupboard is located next to an
old cemetery, and one would think this
might diminish a fair number of appe-
tites. Personally, I think it enhances the
overall experience of visiting this already
infamous greasy-spoon, and for me, a
graveyard is the perfect backdrop for just
about anything. Before you even make
it in the building, you're greeted with a
set of Mothers `rules'. This gives you an
idea of what you're walking into, although
they make the rule "Eat everything on
your plate" impossible not to break. I'm
always uncomfortable walking into these
uber-casual, intimate settings. As soon as
we open the door and walk in, everyone
stops what they're doing and looks up.
So...what do I do - smile and wave, look
like a tough guy, or stare at the floor? I
always choose the latter. A small table
by the door is waiting for us, so we seat
ourselves, and begin mulling over our op-
tions. Within a minute, our waitress, and
the only waitress there, manages to fill our
2 coffee cups without breaking her stride.
It was amazing to watch her and the cook's
unrelenting non-stop work ethic. There's
a frenzied pace from the staff, but the
place is cozy and has a familiar, relaxing
feel to it. Legend has it, that many moons