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!!!

Farewell 2024

Welcome to (in all likelihood) the final post of the year!!! I had a few others in me, but they're not ready for prime time as of yet. So, what do I now have in common with my cat???

In 2024 we both have broken a bone related to walking!!!

On Saturday, 4 days ago, I was coming down some stairs, and on the last one I rolled my foot to the inside, and I swore I heard a pop (and, yes, I swore). It was painful, and I was limping around afterwards, but the pain wasn't in my ankle as I would have expected. I went to a local urgent care (which I'd been to once this month already, I had a cough that wasn't going away, and it turned out I had a bacterial infection. The stuff they prescribed did a fine job clearing it up!!!) and was told there was around a 3 hour wait. I expected as much, being a weekend, it wasn't anywhere near that long when I went on a Tuesday. Of course, I work in the evenings on Saturdays, and it was going to be close at best.

After a wait commensurate with the time estimated, they took me in and took my vitals and my story. After a quick visual inspection they took X-rays, and a bit later the doctor comes back and tells me I broke it. Displaced 5th metatarsal fracture, to be exact. They put on a splint (which feels loose to me) and gave me a pair of crutches and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for further evaluation. Oh yeah, they told me before they put the splint on that I may have to cut off my pants when I got home. No thanks, I'll just take those off now!!! My surrogate son had been driving us around, and I know he had his windbreaker, and I figured I'd fashion it into a kilt. I never did, but that's what I was thinking of doing.

Ended up 45 minutes late to starting work that day. I tried to contact the orthopedic surgeon they had referred me to on Monday, and it put me on hold forever, then put me through to a message machine, which told me it was completely full after it beeped. At any rate, I had been looking them up the day before on the map, and they aren't very highly rated. My wife happens to know a place that does some orthopedic surgery, so I contacted them. The soonest they could get me in is this coming Friday.

I never saw the X-rays, so I don't know exactly the location or extent of the fracture. Most of the information I found was it'll be 6 to 8 weeks if no surgery is required. It honestly doesn't feel that bad, unless I try and walk on it or put pressure on it. There are a few types of fractures it could be, avulsion, Jones, or dancer's. I found a couple of images of them, and one of them was actually from another guy on Blogger, and it sounds like his injury came about similarly to mine, but it looks like his was worse, with some swelling.

This is now my second broken bone, the first one I referred to when it had happened, back in 2005 around when I'd started blogging. I have a couple of mentions and links to the picture, but they were hosted on Geocities (now defunct, if you didn't know), and if I'd posted about it, it was probably on MySpace. You remember MySpace, don't you??? Maybe I'll post about it at some point, I tell people it's where my newest tattoo came from (they injected numbing agents in my knuckles through my greasy dirty hand, and the mark remains) and it's one of my many tales that my younger likes me to share with his friends.

I was thinking of making this into a random post with several bits of the aforementioned possible future posts, but not tonight. One of the things I would have had that carries over is my wife had broken some of her back rods again, and had surgery at the beginning of November to repair and reinforce things. She got out the day before Thanksgiving, and thankfully she's got a good amount of her mobility back, which works out since I now can't drive. It was on my right hand foot.

Still holding the title of Titanium Queen!!!

A Most Random Confluence of Events

Since the first time we went, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire has been an annual pilgrimage for at least part of the family. Interestingly, the younger has been the only one to hit it every year. Two years back both the boys and I went, along with the olders' girl. Last year was the first year since I've switched to working the Saturday shift, and it was shortly after the oldest shipped out to boot camp, so that year mom and the younger were the only attendees. This year, mom wasn't interested in going so much, so it was the younger and I. Good times!!!

While we were there, this happened...

We're walking along, and see an apple on the ground off to the side of the road. The boy says, "It looks like there's a smiley face on that apple" I look bit closer, and sure enough, there's indentations on the apple in the shape of a smiley face!!! Just then, an older lady in full Ren Faire garb holding two cabbages comes running up to us. To the boy, she asks, "would you like to play a free game???" Yea, sure!!! A cabbage she hands to him, and says to try and hit the apple with it. From about ten feet, he throws the cabbage at it, and scores a direct hit, fracturing the apple into at least two pieces!!! "You did it!!! Let me get you your prize!!!", she says, and runs off. Quickly she returns, and presents him with a radish!!!

As we were heading off, she has further inspected the apple, and calls after us, "You knocked the smile off his face!!!"

The Midnight Rambler's Random Post

Went out to dinner and a movie tonight. I usually don't drink much soda, but I had three glasses of Mr. Pibb with dinner and a cup you can re-use as a wastebasket of it at the movie.

I tried to sleep, but it wasn't happening. My mind kept going, so I decided to try and put my latest random post together.

If I start to fade, I've got the couch for sleeping. It seems to have sedative properties.

Ironically, I'm reading Stephen King's "Insomnia" at the time.

I've started tracking some of the statistics about my work. I was thinking I could make a new blog of that. I could title it the world's most boring blog. Besides, I hardly keep up with this one, how would I do with a second??? I imagine not well.

My latest Wheres George hit was from Winnetka. Ironically, that is where my IP address shows up as being from.

419'ed again!!! From England this time. His business patners (yes, you read that right, spellchecker, patners) will fedex or USPS me payments, and I should western union money transfer to him. Why would not his patners just do the western union him the payments???

After reading the first of The Gunslinger graphic novels, my firstborn started in on the books. He's about halfway through the third book, "The Wastelands", right now. Quite advanced for his age, I say.

I filled an order from Alaska today. The guy's name on the order was Axemann. I thought that was a perfect name for a guy from Alaska.

I was also thinking of starting a Dream Blog. I rarely remember my dreams, but if I were to do that I might tend to remember better.

How come I can't find Mr. Pibb in cans or bottles???

Itunes is working better for me than Windows Media Player ever since I got the latest version of the latter.

Humming birds: The crack heads of the Avian world???

I got an E-mail from Dean Koontz that they will be coming out with an Odd Thomas graphic novel. Can't wait to see it!!!

I think that back in the Golden Age of Cinema, they used to have intermissions at the movies. Seems to me that would be a good idea these days more so than back then, what with movies pushing towards three hours and drinks pushing towards a gallon.

My parents got a fiber optic phone, TV and broadband package last week. I forgot to ask them how that is working out for them.

I got three comments from people today (well, yesterday now) about my lunch box. I should do a post about that someday when I am challenged and want to make a post.

614 unique hits, 684 total hits. 10.47% percent. Those are my current Wheres George stats.

The sofa is getting a tad threadbare. Well, a tad more. I'm considering re upholstery.

My cell phone company is so cool. They have sent me a shirt, playing cards, a Tyler Hilton CD, and threw a bowling party for subscribers. Got my wife a new model for Mother's day, even tho she's not my mother.

I really like that show, "How I Met Your Mother". I also like reading blogs. One of these days I should check out Barney's Blog.

A week ago at lunch break, one of the girls spotted a spider on the other table's leg. It was fairly large and THICK!!! I took a closer look, and it turned to watch me back!!! Crazy looking, iridescent green eyes (I thought, we all thought, turns out they're it's fangs). The chef came out a bit later and was messing with it, and it was putting it's front legs up like it was ready to fight!!! I finally researched it, turns out it's called a Daring Jumping Spider!!! (Photo by Patrick Edwin Moran)

Fracture was a pretty good movie. Seemed to kind of drag for the last third or so, tho. I wonder if it wouldn't have so much if I hadn't figured it out at around that point.