A Tale of Two Pricey Meals

Last week I had another follow up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He took another X-ray, and said it's progressing, but... with such a wide break, it could take up to 12 weeks, maybe more... so I've got another appointment in a month. I had to take off work an hour early to do so, and because of that, my break times got moved up. My lunch break is usually the entirely too early for me 10:45, but since I was leaving out early, it was moved to 9:45!!! Didn't really bother me, it actually spaced out my breaks more evenly. However, when we were waiting for the doctor, my stomach was speaking up!!!

We had been busy on actual Valentine's Day. I had offered to take my wife out to a late night diner in our area, be she declined. I was quite hungry after the appointment, so I suggested that, since it was just the two of us we could have our Valentine's dinner!!! Not far from there is a really nice steak house, and at first we headed over there, thinking that at the late afternoon time on a Thursday it might not be too busy. We got into the parking lot, and it was very full. There were a couple of spots quite far away, but we decided against going there. Nearby on the map, there's a place I'd seen and heard of before, Pie 'N Burger.

It has a much smaller parking lot, but they'd saved us a spot!!! Inside, it wasn't too busy. It's not too big, and there were a few open tables, but the counter isn't that tall which is often an issue for my wife, so we sat there. First thing, my wife orders a chocolate malt. Not a lot of places where you can get an actual malt anymore!!!

Burger is right in the name, and that's what I'd been thinking. They have several sandwiches on the menu, and then I saw they also have chicken pot pie. Oh, that sounds good!!! Whenever we go to a new place, I'll ask the waitress or waiter if they have a recommendation. She said the burger is really good, but one of her favorites is the chicken pot pie. I'm torn. Then my wife says, “Why don't I get the burger, you get the chicken pot pie, and we'll split both???” Genius. That's why I married her. Also, very Valentine-ey!!!

My wife told me to re create the quesadilla and burrito attacking pictures, and there you go!!! Both the chicken pot pie and the burger and onion rings were delicious!!! Oh, and since it's called Pie 'N Burger, chicken pot pie is also totally a pie, anyway!!! Oh, and the chicken pot pie came with a salad, and I got bleu cheese dressing. It was very chunky, awesome!!!

Of course, a place with pie as the first word in their name, gotta get a slice of pie!!! After everything we'd had we were nearing the limit, but the pies were one of the first things I'd looked at. They had a peach pie on the list that sounded pretty good, but then I saw they have a butterscotch meringue pie, I've never heard of such a thing, and butterscotch is one of my favorite, not often seen flavors, so that's what we got, once again to split. We even had enough left to take some home for the younger to try.

All of that totaled almost $70, plus a generous gratuity for great service.

Last night I had tickets from my work to a Kings game. We've been to several, and it's one of the younger's favorite sports. It was a lot of walking for a guy with a spiral fracture to the 5th metatarsal!!! Of course, I'd gotten the tickets well before that had happened. I was a little achey in my shin and where the break is after getting to our seats.

Every time we're at a stadium, we always get something to eat, and this was no exception. I thought we'd gotten some awesome nachos there before, and so when the menu had Super Nachos listed, that's what I was going to get. The younger got a tray of tendies and waffle cut seasoned fries, we both got sodas, and a pretzel to split. The nachos were underwhelming, it was a good sized bag of Tostito's and a cup of cheese and jalapenos, they were OK but not what I'd been thinking. I went through about half of them, and the boy had gone through the chicken and had some fries, and we swapped for the rest. The fries were a bit on the spicy side, but they had ranch, and it was great together. The pretzel had a split, making it look like a mouth!!!

It was Japanese Heritage night, and I just happened to take this selfie where we were both squinting pretty hard. I swear, it was not intentional!!!

The Kings were up against the Golden Knights, and it came out to be a great game for the home team!!! Kings scored first, in the first period. The Knights scored twice in the second period. Right at the start of the third, the Kings evened it up. There was a fight between a couple of the guys, and they both ended up in the penalty box at the same time, I'd never seen that happen before!!! Lots of action, and very physical with a lot of checks into the boards.

The Kings scored three more times in the third period. I feel like the Golden Knights were demoralized towards the end, but they never gave up. Oh, and since they switch ends every period, every single goal was on our end of the rink!!!

And here's a much better selfie!!!

There's the mascot, Bailey, taking a victory skate!!! He's always an entertaining character, in one part they had the camera on him, and he had a huge bag of popcorn and was throwing handfuls, and finally grabbed it by the bottom and helicoptered it!!!

On the way out, there were the ubiquitous hot dog carts with bacon wrapped dogs and grilled onions. I had been thinking of getting one before, and as soon as I smelled it, it was a done deal!!! It was glorious, but I really overdid it.

The stuff I got inside came to over $70, including a not as generous gratuity (it's nice that they deliver it right to your seat!!!), and the dog was another $10, so they both came out almost the same!!! Good times!!!

'Mon Shots

Always playing Pokemon GO, and part of it is taking pictures. Sometimes they're pretty good. One of the places we end up going a lot is the entrance to the Southwest Museum on the next street over. The entrance goes straight back into the hillside, and used to feature some very cool dioramas on the way in, then it has an old style elevator with the accordion door, and the shaft going straight through the rock, up to the museum on the top. Anyway, there's a gym there, and for most of the time I've been playing, it's almost always dominated by my team, so we go there often to put a 'Mon in the gym.

It's got great architecture, so it makes a great backdrop for getting your buddy out for a picture. This is right after I got my shiny Qwilfish to best buddy, right before I evolved it to Overquil.

While we were on our Catalina vacation last year, I had my 4 star Absol as my buddy. I had enough mega energy to mega evolve it, and making it your buddy after mega evolving gives you more mega energy, so that's been the impetus for several of my buddies. Anyway, we'd gone on a route while we were waiting to board, and there's the ghost ship Queen Mary in the background. Actually the same place that the first picture of the vacation post was from!!!

Also on that trip, if you don't have the AR function turned on, they've started having more detailed backgrounds that mimic the area. While we were there, this was one of the land and sea backgrounds, complete with animated waves.

Another vacation, another 4-star mega evolvable buddy!!! This time it was a Gengar, at the Cabazon Dinosaurs!!!

And yet another vacation picture, this time in Ventura, with my shiny Feebas, right after I'd gotten it to best buddy!!! As was the case with the Quilfish, this is another 'Mon you need to adventure with before you can evolve it. I evolved it into Milotec shortly after this. In both cases, I could have evolved them earlier, but I always get 'em to best buddy, so you get to see where the badge ends up before the evolving.

I think this was from our '22 Catalina vacation, when they were having Fashion Week. The younger caught the shiny costumed Absol, and made him his buddy. He has a naming convention for his buddies where he names them after food items, and this is named Cherry Jam. I love the look of this picture where he's on the pier. On a later Fashion Week, I finally caught a shiny costumed Absol of my own. Named him Marley, on account of Jammin', get it???

I think this was from the same vacation, my Palkia on the steps going up in our normal hotel, the Hotel Atwater. I'd made mention when we were there in '23 there were only 2 routes, and I'd submitted mine, Old Ben's Beach Walk. The one that wasn't straight back into the canyon at the back of Avalon was from the central plaza to the Casino, and the reception was always flaky right when you get close to the Casino. The route I submitted goes from a park as you're coming from the wharf (that has a statue of Old Ben, a sea lion that would greet tourist and was a local fixture in the early days) along Crescent street, to one of the places that are over the water on the way towards the Casino, but not to where the reception goes out. It has a Leaping Tuna statue as a stop, and the end point of the route. The text I put for the route is “Show Ben some respect! (and some of that tasty tasty tuna!) and months after the trip, it was approved. On our most recent visit, one of the nights I hadn't done a route yet for the day, and it was getting close to midnight. I asked the guys if they wanted to go with me to do it (bonus, it's only a short distance from our lodging to the park) and they both declined. I went on my own, finished it before midnight (which was my goal), and waited a few minutes until it was after, and did it in reverse!!!

And also from last year's vacation, another AR picture. Here's another thing it does, changes the lighting as the sun is setting, which is what I was getting the picture of. Then the Whismur attacks!!!