deli of the gods

We spent last night in a less-than-luxury hotel in Summersville, WV. Quite charming, but I think one night was enough. This morning we managed a free breakfast at Chick Fil A (got there just after they stopped serving breakfast, so when I asked if they had anything left she just gave me the last couple of things of Chick Minis.) And on into Pennsylvania. Less snow here so far.

For lunch we stopped at Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh. They've been on a few Food Network shows, including Alfred's current favorite, Man vs. Food. They've got these big delicious sandwiches that are served with cole slaw and fries right in the sandwiches. I got a cheese steak (pictured) and Alfred got corned beef and pastrami. His was better. They were big, but not too big. We both ate ours comfortably. As in, I don't feel like I'm going to puke. The table of guys next to us were a bunch of wussies though. 5 guys, all in their early 20s, and half of them had to wrap up their leftovers. And then they gave the guy a $2 bill for a tip. Even we left more, and we had less than half the amount of people. Jerks.

Anyway, back on the road. About 3 more hours to go!

big T

It's currently 36 degrees wherever the hell we are on I 77 in North Carolina. Alfred's car has a thermometer read out in the dashboard. Pretty sweet. There's a light dusting of snow on the side of the road. What are we thinking, going to NY in the winter?

We stopped for a late lunch near Columbia, SC at a place called Big T's Barbecue. It was awesome. We got a pound of pork, 3 pieces of fried chicken, fries, cole slaw, and some banana pudding for dessert. All that for $15. Crazy! Chicken was fantastic, and the meal was called the TJ Special, so obviously I liked it.

It's not even 7:00 and I'm pretty ready to call it a night. It gets dark so darn early that it feels a lot later than it is. It's messing with my head. And that about sums up our day!

on the road again

We've been making up our own verses for the past 15 minutes, I think we've exhausted the possibilities for now though. We're listening to Christmas music, so Alfred's happy, and it's by the Brian Setzer orchestra, so I'm happy. We got a little later start than planned, but what else is new? We're taking 2 days to drive up so it's not a big deal. Our only plan along the way so far is to have lunch in Pittsburgh tomorrow. We're going to try a deli that we saw on some Food Network show.

So far, the drive has been relatively uneventful. Of course, we've been gone less than half an hour. We did see a pretty bad accident, a semi truck had practically disintegrated all over the road. Traffic was backed up for miles. Luckily for us, it was going the other direction.

I guess that's it for now, stay tuned for some more potentially exciting reports from I 95 and beyond!

meat off 2: porkin'

Last week was spent mostly in preparation for Christmas: buying and wrapping gifts, sending out cards, the works. I did manage to get out both of the packages I needed to, and possibly even on time. We still have, oh, about half of our gifts to buy. We're getting there, I guess.

Yesterday Alfred and Kevin had their second round of meat competition: pulled pork! Look at how lovingly Gara and I are gazing at the pork shoulder.

This time Gara and I made mashed and sweet potatoes, Caesar salad, and cooked apples to go along with the pulled pork. Once again, the sides were spectacular.

After the meal (it was much closer this time but Alfred pulled out the win in the end) it was time for some more serious drinking, including various games. Beer pong was rather popular for awhile. Brian was so good they had to handicap him a little, although really I think Dylan was probably giving him moral support.

Later it became flip cup, then a few keg stands happened, along with approximately 70 jello shots throughout the night. Alfred definitely took part in flip cup, he was pretty good at it actually. And Lucy's a freaking machine! Kevin and Gara's lawn got kind of torn up in a neat little circle around the table, as you can see rather nicely in this picture.

This girl had to go easy on the booze, because I had to work today. Hurray! Only 1 more day of work until a week off though, so it's not too bad. Plus we made a whole $1.74 today, so totally worth it!

birthday weekend!

Huzzah! Still thinking about my birthday! I love it!

On Saturday morning we headed over to Ben and Jerry's and were standing at the door, ready to go, the minute they opened. We had big plans to tackle the Vermonster, which is a massive sundae consisting of 20 scoops of ice cream and tons of toppings. There were 13 of us total, including Ellie (who didn't get to eat any ice cream) and Robyn, who is not in this picture. We made very, very short work of the Vermonster this time. It was delicious.

After ice cream some of us headed to lunch, because somehow we weren't too full, and filled ourselves up with pizza, wings, beer, and other goodies. We lost some more at this point (Kevin and Gara had to get ready for a wedding, and Ilya and Mercedes left to go visit a puppy!), but the last few of us rallied and moved on to another bar. Ellie enjoyed a deliciously buttery dinner of mixed veggies while we (mostly) stuck to beer (my stomach wasn't too happy with me). From the bar we went back to Lucy and Phil's house, then joined back up with Kevin, Gara, and Bill for a rousing evening of drinking and speed Uno. Gosh, it wears me out just typing it all out!

We ended up spending the night on Saturday, and went out to brunch the next morning to an awesome little diner. I went to town on some pancakes, bacon, eggs, and home fries, since it was the last day of my birthday weekend and my last chance to eat like a pig. After brunch we headed home for the first time in days. Laundry needed to be done, bathrooms needed to be cleaned, and then some TV needed to be watched. It went by so fast, but it was such a fun weekend!

week in review

Let's recap!

Monday: still in Boston and returning home, please see previous post

Tuesday: alas, back to work. I was a little surprised to find that we had a school group that morning, but luckily I had a costume in my car from Friday so I just got changed there. Better than the other girl, who was late and forgot a costume. That night we had a couch surfer arrive to spend a couple of nights with us. He's been traveling for 4 years so far. Yeah, 4 years. And we thought we had a long trip. We were up until after midnight looking at pictures. I sort of dozed off a bit during the slide show, although I really tried hard to stay awake..

Wednesday: Work again, although I got to meet our couch surfer for lunch, so that mixed things up a little. We managed to go to bed a little earlier this night.

Thursday: Gara's birthday! After work we joined her and Kevin at Peterbrooke for a chocolate dipping birthday party! They showed us how they temper and prepare the chocolate for dipping, then showed us how they make their chocolate covered popcorn and other goodies, then let us loose to try it out ourselves. Then we each got a big gift bag full of our finished products to take home! It was awesome! And delicious! After chocolate making we went to the local brewery that Alfred and Kevin go to (almost) every Friday for some pork sandwiches and beers. Good stuff.

Friday: My birthday! Somehow no one at work knew it was my birthday for the first hour or so which is odd because I know I mentioned it at least 2 or 3 times in the last week. Weird. Anyway, one of the girls at our downtown office made me an ice cream cake, and the day went by quickly because we were busy. After work Alfred and I went out to dinner at an Italian place that I've been wanting to try for awhile, then headed over to his parents' house for cake (made with Kahlua!) and presents. Overall, an excellent birthday. I think 29's going to be a good year. Stay tuned tomorrow (or maybe Tuesday) for our weekend update!

boston!

It's been a busy week, to say the least! But finally, a Boston post!

I left work a little early on Friday and met up with my girls at a bar after a mostly uneventful journey. They had already had a few drinks, so they ordered me a cocktail to help me catch up. We stayed out for a few more hours, catching up, then eventually made our way back to our respective hotels and homes and crashed for the evening.

Saturday started out pretty cold. Katie was busy with her conference, and Steph had to take care of her dog, so Katherine, Rosemary and I headed out for breakfast. We ate, wandered around Beacon Hill for a bit, and then ended up going back to the hotel for awhile. Some of us had been bitten pretty hard by a rattlesnake the night before, so we needed a little rest to gather our strength for another evening of excitement. Katie and Steph joined us in time to walk through a snowstorm for dinner.

We went to an Italian place, which was good but not fantastic. Then we walked back to the hotel, through the same snowstorm (it was snowing and blowing and wet and cold and gross) and were greeted by this:

They had gotten cake and champagne for Katherine and my birthday! We all got decked out in some robes and slippers (lovingly provided by the housekeeping staff) and ate and drank our little hearts out. At some point Rosemary and Steph decided we needed more booze, so they braved the storm again for some more wine and champagne. We played some speed Uno (because of course I always carry our Uno cards in my purse) and polished off a few more bottles. Katherine and I decided we wanted a snack, so we headed out in the snow to find the CVS that was apparently a block away. We walked in various directions for awhile, then gave up. By the time we got back to the hotel, the other girls had decided to go meet Ingo (Katie's husband) at a bar nearby. On our way, we walked right past the CVS that had eluded us moments before. Curses! But we got some appetizers, and a couple more drinks, so it was all good.

Sunday was still cold, but dry, so it was a good day for walking. We wandered around Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, then went over to the Paul Revere House, then hit up Mike's Pastry for some cannolis!

They were just as good as I remembered. After a pretty full day of walking and sightseeing, Rosemary had to leave to catch her flight, and Katie and Ingo had to spend some time at their conference. Katherine and I headed out to Steph's current home, where Katie joined us later for some homemade soup for dinner. We turned in relatively early (by midnight!) since Steph had to work the next day.

Katherine left for the airport after a last breakfast with me and Katie on Monday morning, then I wandered around for awhile by myself. I wandered over to where Steph works and had lunch with her, then had to head for the airport myself. I ate dinner at the Five Guys that was in my other post, and got in about 15 minutes early. And then I had to go back to real life. It was a great weekend!

Coming soon

We're hosting a couch surfer tonight and tomorrow, so I may not have time to blog for a couple of days. As soon as I get some pictures of Boston I'll work on it though!

Winter wonderland

I don't know how well this picture turned out, but it's snowing!

Coolest airport ever!

I'm at Reagan national airport in DC (which I just discovered, I knew I was in DC but wasn't sure which airport) and this terminal has a 5 guys! Which is a super delicious burger place, for those of you who are not familiar. Alas, I just ate a chicken salad sub in my last airport and am not hungry. Alfred bought it for me for dinner. He got it just the way I like it, banana peppers and pickles and everything. He doesn't do that when we share. I was considering puking it up so I could get a burger, but that would kind of be a waste of money. Plus I think we start boarding soon.

I'm on my way to Boston for a girls weekend! Steph lives there now, Katie (and Ingo) were flying in for a conference, and Katherine, Rosemary and I decided to join them! I found a super cheap ticket, so this is my birthday gift from Alfred. What a guy. I'm there till Monday, so I even get a day off of work, which is awesome. Not so awesome for the other girl, who was alone for 2 hours after I left today and has to go in both tomorrow and Sunday for groups. Figures. but I'm pretty pumped! Everyone else is already there, but I'll be joining them soon enough. It's actually the first time all 5 of us will be together for something other than a wedding since Katie and I graduated in 2003! It's gonna be awesome!

another tale from the road

The place: Vancouver. Just to refresh your memory, we had blown a tire on our drive there from Seattle. So our morning was going pretty well. We spent a couple of hours wandering Granville Market and eating a bunch of food (like that's a surprise), then unfortunately had to leave when our parking meter ran out. We were walking back to the parking garage and neither of us could find the car keys. This had become kind of a running joke by then, or if not a joke then just a thing, that neither of us ever thought we had the car keys but that the other person had them. So I said I didn't have them, Alfred checked his pockets but didn't have them, so I started checking my purse. Couldn't find them. Checked my pockets. Not there. Alfred checked again. Totally not in his pockets. By this time we were back at the car, so I started searching through my purse again. The purse I had on the trip was pretty tiny, so it's not like there was a lot to look through, but still. Not there. Somehow, maybe in setting my purse on top of the car to look through it again, I noticed the keys: right on the roof of the car, where I had apparently left them when we parked. It's a good thing Canadians are honest (or just unobservant). Also, just as a side note, Vancouver taught me that I don't hate Canada. Just Ontario.

pie recipe

I hope you've all been over to Mike's blog and voted on this week's poll. Usually his polls are opinions, but this week there is very clearly a correct answer.

Nothing much has been happening the last couple of days. I'm mostly feeling better, although I had a coughing rampage that lasted for a good hour this morning. I've been watching more TV. We have over 72 hours free on our DVR right now. This is the most we've had since we got the thing. Usually we hover around 20, breaking 30 was a big deal a couple of weeks ago. The new TV should be delivered tomorrow, and our new HD satellite service is set up on Thursday. Alfred's a man with a mission, he's not messing around. Right now he's heating up milk to make yogurt. He's asking me what I'm writing about. Not much, obviously. Today's picture is from when we went to Ichetucknee with Mercedes and Ilya back in September. I was making bread dough sticks like we used to make when I went camping with my family. I was drunk from my multi-colored Russians. You can see some of the bread dough on my toes. Also, there are about 20 pictures of me with that flashlight wedged under my chin like that.

So, the aforementioned pie recipe. A couple of people commented on my last post asking for it, so here it is. It's the one my mom uses and that my grandma and great grandma used to use. History, people! Anyway, use 3/4 cup Crisco, 2 cups flour, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Mix it all together, adding a tablespoon or so of ice water as you need it. Then just roll it out and bake it at 375. I used to go wrong with the water, I never added enough, then I watched my mom make it and saw that she adds at least a couple tablespoons. It's simple but oh so delicious. I can eat it plain by the pound. This recipe makes 2 crusts, although I usually need to add a little more of each thing to make sure I have enough. Mmm, pie...