back in the dirty south

Ah, the warm, non-snowy, dirty south. Actually right now it's much cleaner than the north with all its salt and crap all over the roads. Alfred's car needed a bath when we got back, it was pretty disgusting. We got back Tuesday night just before midnight, it took us exactly 18 hours. That included stops for gas/food/restrooms, traffic in Charlotte and Jacksonville, an attempted beer run at 5:45am, and horrible weather in Pennsylvania. That's what this picture is from. This was a major highway, it hadn't been plowed at all so we couldn't see the road, and snow was blowing everywhere. Traffic was going about 30 mph. It was ridiculous.

Our trip was nice, except for the 3 cats that now live in my parents' house. Our allergies just love going there more and more every year. The new cat is cute, my nose and lungs just hate it. We saw lots of family, got some great gifts (including a bound book of our road trip blog, which includes all of our posts, pictures, and comments, it's really nice.) Most importantly, we played the new Mario Brothers game for the Wii. Alfred, Katie and I were the main players, though Dad and Uncle Ken helped out at times as well. We basically played for 4 days straight. And we beat the game! It was awesome. It's fun to play because when you play with multiple players you're all on the screen at once, so you can be nice and use teamwork or shove each other into pits and stuff. We also ate a lot of food. Like, a lot of food. But what else is new.

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!