Banana Pudding

 

There's 294824 different banana pudding recipes on the internet, so I took 2 and made a Megan version because I was worried that one would be too sweet for Teh German (and it also contained Cool Whip, which I don't eat) and the other wouldn't be sweet enough for me.  Soooo I fixed it!

Fret not, I was supervised.

Ingredients

Pudding, step 1:

2 cups cold milk

1 (5 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Pudding, step 2:

1 pint heavy whipping cream

4 tablespoons confectioners/powdered sugar

Assembly:

1(+) box vanilla wafers

10+ bananas

Directions

1. Mix sweetened condensed milk and milk together.  Adding pudding packet and continue mixing for 2-3 minutes.  Mash 1 banana and mix into pudding.  Cover and refrigerate for 3+ hours.
2. When ready to assemble pudding, after pudding has set: beat heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar (and vanilla extract, if using) together until stiff peaks form.
3. Mix pudding and whipped cream together until there are no streaks left.
4. Slice bananas (I did one banana at a time because I wasn't sure how much I needed).
5. In a container of your choice (I used a 9x13 dish), place a layer of vanilla wafer on the bottom of the dish.  Then add a layer of banana on top of the wafers.  Add a layer of pudding mix.  Repeat this step until dish/container is full/ingredients are used/you are satisfied.  You could also make this in individual portioned containers.
6. Cover and refrigerate 4-8 hours.
7. Serve!

Megan Tips

• Mixing a mashed banana into the pudding mix was a delight.
• I used ripe but barely bananas to avoid them turning brown.  I don't like green bananas, so not green, but definitely no spots.  Also, my recipes called for 14 bananas and I bought that many and didn't end up using them all.
• I don't use Cool Whip.  I'd much rather make my own whipped topping and it's super simple if you have a mixer (it's quite tedious by hand, but doable with enough dedication (yes, I have hand mixed whipped cream before because there weren't mixers in 1792).
• I was worried the whipped topping wouldn't be sweet enough for me so I added powdered sugar.  I would consider skipping this next time to see what a difference it makes.
• I sliced my bananas as I layered them in the dish because I didn't want them to turn brown.  There are ways to help slow oxidation (which causes the bananas to turn brown), but I was too lazy for all that.  I just made sure to quickly add the pudding on top of the layer.  My slices were not too thin (I didn't want them to just fall apart) and not to thick (I wanted to be able to recognize a chunk of banana in my bite).
• I like A LOT of bananas and A LOT of vanilla wafers.  Obviously, you can use how ever much you want.
• Crush up some vanilla wafers (less than you would expect) and write on your pudding!  Just place some wafers in a ziplock bag, crush the wafters so there are minimal chunks, then cut the tip of the bag off and use like an icing piping bag.  This was the most fun part!
• I made the pudding mix the day prior to serving and let the mixture set overnight because I didn't want runny banana pudding.
• I assembled my banana pudding at 9am on the day of serving it, knowing I was going to be serving it after 7pm. I wanted to give it time for the flavors to mingle and the wafers to soften.  I'm sure that you could prob serve it immediately, but would recommend at least a few hours of flavor melding.
• Make sure to let your dogs help with clean up, since they've probably been fastidiously supervising, by letting them do the dishes.  Pax and Meri were both super dedicated to cleaning the pudding and whipped topping bowls.

Weekend Review {2/10}

FRIDAY

Birthday do-over day.  It was shaping up to be a great day, then people started dropping out of the already paid for by me birthday event I had planned.  My intention was to just have people give me money, splitting the cost evenly between the participants, but I had already told people the price with 10 people and felt bad adjusting it for 7... sooooo NEVER.FUCKING.AGAIN.  Also, when you tell someone you can't come to an event 3 hours prior, that leaves them with no way to replace you because no one else has time to be able to arrange to come.  Fun facts.  I ultimately just swallowed the money loss because we all had fun, but still, it was more than I had anticipated spending and it stressed me out.

Nonetheless, fun was had.  We were all sweaty and exhausted when we left.  Next time, I'd definitely only do 30 minutes or so.  By 45 minutes, most of the stuff we'd been given was completely busted, which is the point.  The problem becomes that when you keep hitting stuff that is made of steel and isn't going to budge, you are only hurting yourself.. as proven by everyone's soreness the following days.

After smashing, we went to Kaminsky's for desserts/beverages.  Teh German and I had dinner prior to breaking stuff at Sesame, so I wasn't really hungry, but I've been wanting to try the brownie sundae for ages, so I finally did....

My opinion: I can make a MUCH better brownie sundae.  The brownie was super dry, which I don't like and any monkey can put ice cream and caramel/chocolate sauce in a bowl.  Soooo, next time I'll stick with the beverages and make my own brownie sundae.

After desserts, we headed home and went to bed.

SATURDAY

Teh German had to work on Saturday and I could have gotten up and went on a run or done productive things, but I did not.  Meri and I snuggled.  Then when Teh PT Wife messaged me and asked if I wanted to bring the dogs over to play with the Great Dane they were dog sitting, I said yes.  Of course, my retard dogs did NOT play.  Meri just avoided the Dane the whole time.  Pax was only interested in chasing the Dane when he'd run to fetch the balls that Teh PT Husband would throw.  /facepalm.  This is my life.

Since the dogs had been at doggy daycare on Friday, they were already tired.  In addition to being outside for a few hours on Saturday, Pax pretty much dropped on a dog bed immediately when we got home for a nap.  Teh German was home when we came home and we ended up deciding to be lazy and not productive for the rest of the day.

We watched The Ranch and paused for dinner and finished The Ranch and the watched the Caps lose in an epic way against the Flyers.

After the game, we went to bed.

SUNDAY

I handled the dogs on Sunday morning, trying to give Teh German the opportunity to sleep in.  We had discussed that Sunday was productive day since Saturday was not.  Teh German ended up getting up soon after me.  I showered and had breakfast and was headed to the grocery store by 0900.  I had to get mushrooms for my spaghetti sauce and some other groceries.  Since I needed the sauce for the lasagna I was making for dinner, which still had to cook, I had to get to the store early so the sauce would have time to cook + time to build and cook the lasagna, blah blah blah.

A few years ago, I bought an electric can opener as a white elephant Christmas gift.  The recipient left it at our house.  Then I brought it to work as a white elephant Christmas gift.  It ended up back at the office and stayed in the kitchen waiting for a home for over a year.  Within the last 6 months, I finally brought it home and decided that when I do my crockpot dump recipes, I'll just use it to open all the cans instead of cramping up my hand to open a millionty cans.  After having to open all those cans of tomato paste/sauce, I have ZERO regrets about finally homing the electric can opener.  It feels like 1993 in my house since I grew up with an electric can opener, but I don't even care.  My forearms and hands are/were especially sore after smashing shit on Friday, so having to open all those cans manually would have been a form of torture.

In addition to cooking productivity, Teh German handled the backyard and also made medal boards for Teh PT Wife and I.  As soon as he was done sanding them, I wiped them down and painted my board.  I used the cricut and cut out a quote for my board, put it on, painted over it after the first coat was dry, then waited.  I peeled off the stickers while Teh PT Wife was making her color selections.  While I was making lasagna, Teh German drilled the holes for the hooks and put the hanging devices on the back.  After dinner, I hung the board (no measuring took place, kthx).

I'm pleased with how it came out, imperfections and all.  For Teh PT Wife's board, we are doing a single color and just putting the stickers over it, rather than the 2 paint layers.  This will ensure clear cut lettering.  She already picked out her quote, but I'm waiting on Teh Bestie's white vinyl to arrive to cut it, since I also have a project for Teh Bestie to cut on the white vinyl.

I had so many options for something to put on the rack.. and as Teh German was sanding the board, I came up with this idea.
Other options included:
Sacrifices were made.
It was a good idea at the time.

After all the sauce and leftover lasagna was partitioned out in bowls and my kitchen mess was cleaned up, I packed my backpack for Monday, and then headed to the couch for screen time.

______________________________________________

Overall, a great weekend.  I wish I could motivate myself to go run, but it's just not there right now.  I'm using the cough as an excuse, I know.  I also know that I would ENJOY going on a run.  The weather this weekend was perfect, but so was laying in the bed with Meri.  This week it's going to be in the 70s again (blech) and that's just rude.

Next weekend is Teh German's last weekend having to work at the German company.  It is bittersweet.  We have our birthday/valentine's day couples massage on Friday, but otherwise, it's a quiet week, which has me on alert.

Fun fact: the best solution for an incessant cough is being in the room when an old printer is being "Office Space"-ed (aka beat to shit) and there is a toner cartridge in the printer that breaks open.  Not only do you have interesting snot for 12 hours but you'll cough and cough and cough and cough (and pee) and then the next day, you'll notice that you're almost not coughing compared to the week prior.

Weekend Review {05/13}

FRIDAY

After class on Friday, I went with some schoolmates to lunch at What's Beef, a burger place with these crazy milkshakes that I'd seen on Yelp and knew I had to try.  Thankfully, I continue to be the person that finds the places to eat (I'm sure that will get old soon enough).  I have zero regrets about any of the calories I consumed.

Obama with my fave filter made me LOOOOL

The burger

A Nutella covered churro(ish) donut on top of a milkshake, which tasted kinda like cookies and creme.
Yes, it's ok to be jealous.

Thankfully, my schoolmates shared the dessert with me, since we were all pretty full from eating our messy ass burgers.  After lunch, we went back to school.  I peed and then headed to the train station to catch my train back to the flat so I could chill at home before my 4:00 massage appointment.

After getting settled in and checking in on work things, even though Friday is not a work day, it was time to leave.  The massage place is less than 1 minute from door to door, so I wasn't super worried.  I arrived about 5 minutes early and a lady led me to a room and left me for a bit.  I could hear that she was with another client.  She came in at 3 minutes after apologizing that she was late and would need a few more minutes.  I told her (in German) that I had all night.  There were a few more times she had to leave the room during my session, but I kinda chalked it up as a difference.  When I was finished, I had booked a 2 hour session because it was only 60€, she only charged me for 90 mins.  I tried to give her the 70€ I had planned on giving her (because that was all the cash I had and I wasn't sure of the tipping status for massage in Germany) but she gave me back the 20€ and I made an appointment for a 90 minute session after the run at the end of the month.

After, I went back to the flat and chilled in my room, fucking off on the internet and listening to Alexa and smelling of Patchouli.  When I finally decided to buckle down and do my German HW, I was so distracted by the smell, that instead, I went and took a bath and drank my tea in the bath.

After I got out of the bath, I did most of my HW and then I got ready for bed since it was almost time to talk to Teh German.  Teh German texted that he was leaving work, which means it's time for our chat, and we chatted while he drove to the gym.

Sometimes we also text throughout the day, but these calls are really critical for my survival.  I'm a strong, independent, woman, but being away from my person is difficult.  I enjoy our pre-bedtime/post-work chats because it's like our normal evening chat after we get home when we catch up on the day and discuss what is coming.  I know I'm missing out on things and I don't get to see/hear the dogs, but THIS consistency (or at least getting to talk to Teh German once a day) is very important to me.  Adventures are great, but this is me pulling out my long-distance relationship rule book again.

After our chat, it was my bedtime.

SATURDAY

I did zero productive things on Saturday and it was awesome.  At one point, I tried to self-guilt myself because I am in Germany and I should do awesome things!... But no.  Yeah, I'm in Germany and I should do awesome things, but I've also been sick for a week and it was supposed to rain all day (and then it fucking didn't, rude).

I woke up and had some toast for breakfast and then came back to my room with some tea to watch Ken Jeong's standup on Netflix.  It was super underwhelming and I only actually lol-ed one time.  After the movie, I was briefly tempted to download World of Warcraft (because FREE TIME!) but then didn't feel like dealing with the download that would take half my life on this godforsaken internet and so I played Paperclips instead.  And then I took a nap.

I had told myself that after my nap, I'd get up and go on a run.. buttttt Teh German messaged me while I was asleep and asked what I was doing.  When I woke up, I told him I had been napping.  He asked if I wanted to video and I said yep.  We videoed for a while and he showed me his new toy (a drone) and we chatted about things that were going on and he encouraged me to get out of the house and discover things.. and I strongly considered it..

And then, I didn't.
Because, y'all, I don't really have plans for any more do nothing days while I'm in Germany.  I'm thinking of taking a trip next weekend to Amsterdam.  The weekend after that is my run and Teh German arrives.  The weekend after that, we'll be headed south for family time.
And... I have been annoyingly sick.  I didn't feel bad, per say, but the runny nose/clogged sinuses/annoying cough is old and I'm over it.
Also, it would have been after 6pm when I arrived to the destination I wanted to go to.. and they were only open until 7..
(Insert more excuses here...)

So instead, I played Paperclips for the rest of the evening until I beat the game, and then I went to bed at midnight.

SUNDAY

Sunday was tourist day.  I met with two of our German friends and we had brunch (and watched several people have coffee spilled all over them by a server).

After brunch, we headed to Düsseldorf's Altstadt (old town) for some touristy things.  After parking, we walked the Rhine and we headed to the Düsseldorf Media Tower as our first stop.  GREAT views of the entire city.  It was awesome.

After walking the Rhine "boardwalk", we went into the Altstadt and then to Königsallee to walk by the ridiculously expensive shopping places (Tiffany's, Chanel, Louis Vitton, etc etc etc).  They were all closed since it was Sunday, but that didn't make a difference to us.

Art is a huge part of Düsseldorf culture, so there are many art museums and statues around town.  I had seen this statue on Google when searching for things to do in Düsseldorf, so I had to make sure to get a photo.  PS.  There were many photos taken, but they are on the camera and that's a project for another month.  🤷

After we'd walked through Altstadt, we got bored and decided that we'd go to Köln (Cologne) and do touristy things.

Our first stop in Köln was a SUPER huge church called Dom.  Fun fact: I didn't realize until after I got home and was talking with Teh German that "the Dom" was the name of the church we had went to.  I thought the church had a name that I hadn't heard or didn't see and we were looking for an actual dome of some sort that was a tourist attraction.  #LanguageBarrier looool

I got plenty of good camera photos of the Dom, but not a single one with my phone.  #Yolo bitches.  I did find a book store!  Of course.

We weren't really hungry, but I explained that I hadn't had a "real" bretzel yet, since I didn't count the one from the train station as a "real" pretzel, so we stopped and picked up a pretzel to share.  Köln and Düsseldorf are rivals so we also had to stop and get a Kolsch beer, which Köln is known for (while Düsseldorf is known for Altbier (a dark beer)).  Teh German Runner and I agreed that we both prefer Pils(ner) as our beer of choice.  I say that, because Pils is usually what goes into a Radler, which is the "beer" that I drink (it's really beer + Sprite).

After our snack time, we headed towards the Rhine (yep, again. The Rhine runs south through west Germany, then back east on the border between Germany and Switzerland, to Bodensee (which we visited in 2016), and then goes south into Switzerland) to walk along the water again.  We trekked over the bridge with the love locks, through a park, reaching our final destination: the Köln gondola.

We rode the Gondola to the other side of the river, then we took the rain back to the city center area and eventually headed back to Düsseldorf for dinner.  We did do drive-by of the Media Tower in Köln, which has been closed to visitors for a long time, so we didn't go inside...

Someone had made a suggestion to eat at the oldest Altbier brewery (in Düsseldorf) for dinner, so that's what we did. 

My pig knuckle with sourkraut and mashed potatoes.
Those are tomatoes, not cherries.

Dinner was heavy (as expected), but delicious.  After dinner, we decided to walk to a place I had discovered on Yelp named "Zum goldenen Einhorn" (the golden unicorn).  The menu seemed pretty good but we were full.  So we headed back to the Rhine and then back to the garage where the car was parked.... but not before picking up an ice cream for the walk back..

Erdbeere Eis ist lecker!
Strawberry ice cream is tasty!

Thankfully, I didn't have to take the train all day, despite my offers to take the train, which meant no getting lost and having to deal with the train situation that is always a debacle.  German friends dropped me off (and they picked me up in the AM) at the flat.  We made plans for Tuesday evening to have dinner at Zum goldenes Einhorn.  Then, we have our run on the 26th, and we'll do something with the 4 of us once Teh German arrives in Germany.

I will say that I haven't felt lonely in Germany.  I mean, I could let myself get there because there's a lot of things I don't know, but I know I have family here, and that is a HUGE comfort.  Mama G and Auntie P and Papa G and some of our German friends have reached out to me before I came and while I've been here and it's a comfort to know that if I do need anything, a translator or getting found after taking the wrong train, there are people here who can help me.  Obviously, I have Teh German too, but his capacity is limited when he's across the pond.

After getting settled, I video chatted with Teh German for a bit and then it was bedtime. 

______________________________________________

A very good weekend.  I mean, can a weekend that starts with a massage (that was so thorough I had to take advil the following day because I was so sore) be bad?  Maybe, but not this time!  Lol.

A lazy day and a busy day was exactly what I didn't know I needed.  I'm finally feeling almost 100% again.  My nose isn't as clogged as it was and I am still hacking shit up, but it's not nearly as persistent as it was last week.  Teh German even noted the difference Sunday night about how much better I sounded and how little I was coughing.

This week is full of activities.
Today: Study like a fiend day.  Do the HW I didn't get to over the weekend (not super important, but OCD says I must do it).  I also checked out some books to start studying for the final exam.  Also, my host lady and I will be cooking Reibekuchen tonight (it's like potato pancakes).  Woot!
Tuesday: Dinner with German Friends.
Wednesday: Stammtisch
Thursday: Game night at Goethe
Friday/Weekend: Amsterdam?  IDK about this yet, but I'm leaning towards yes.  Fear is saying, "But you're alone and have boobs." But I've looked at articles online that say that it's safe for solo women to be in Amsterdam.  I'm trying to talk myself INTO this and not out of it.. as I'm known to do, which happens to be super annoying.  I've never done a travel by myself thing, so this would be a good opportunity and Amsterdam speaks good English, so I'd be fine, but the unknown is a scary place.

Also, I really should get some runs in before like.. the actual race day. 
Just walking around on Sunday made my knee supppper achy.  So achy in fact it woke me up in the middle of the night on Sunday and I had to get up and take some advil to get back to sleep.  #OldAF

Panna Cotta

I've posted a few times about panna cotta on Teh Blog.  The first time I had it was Labor Day weekend 2014 and I've been craving it ever since.  I was sure it was going to be difficult.  I looked up recipes a few months later and I got overwhelmed at the mention of gelatin.  I gave up the idea for a while.  Then one day I really wanted some freakin' panna cotta so I looked up all the recipes I could find and decided to mix and match to make the easiest one.

A pretty picture of panna cotta I didn't make. (Source)

I wanted to share my recipe with you since it's UNBEARABLY easy to make.  Seriously.  Stupid easy.  I've made it twice and didn't make it the same way and it still turned out perfectly both times.

I scoured the internet for panna cotta recipes and finally settled on this one since it seemed to have the most information on everything panna cotta and so many options to make it easier.  Some of the directions are straight from that link.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups half and half
1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
1 packet of gelatin
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
little bit of salt

Directions:

1.  Pour the half and half into a pot.  Empty the gelatin pack on the milk relatively evenly BUT DO NOT STIR!  The gelatin will start to get a bit wrinkly after about 5ish minutes.
2.  Turn on the stove to low heat to slowly heat the milk and finish dissolving the gelatin, stirring "frequently" (which I took to mean constantly).  The mixture should NOT boil or simmer.  If the mix starts to steam, remove it from the heat.  After about 2 minutes, check to see if the gelatin is dissolved by rubbing some of the mix between your fingers to make sure it's smooth or dip a spoon in the mixture and check for granules.
3.  After the gelatin is dissolved, add the sugar and dissolve, stirring frequently.  The process of dissolving the gelatin and sugar shouldn't take more than 5ish minutes.
4.  Remove the mixture from the heat and add heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and salt.  Mix together.
5.  Pour into whatever containers you've set aside for your panna cotta.  I was super classy and used mugs because a ramekin is something I neither comprehend or own.
6.  Let the panna cotta set in the fridge.
7.  Eat your delicious noms.

Notes:

• The notes on the source explain that she sometimes uses half and half for both the milk and whipping cream so it doesn't separate.  I use half and half instead of milk because I didn't want to have to deal with the possibility of separation with the milk and heavy whipping cream since we only have 1% milk in the house.
• The last batch I doubled and my pot was too small.  So bigger is better when trying to contain liquid.  One would think this is common sense, but nothing about me in the kitchen makes much sense.
• I've messed the original directions up both times.  The first time, I stirred in the gelatin to bloom it.  Oops.  It still bloomed just fine.  The second time, I bloomed the gelatin on top of the milk, but when I stirred in the gelatin, I also stirred in the sugar.  It still was fine.  I did at least wait till the end to stir in the whipping cream and vanilla.
• The original recipe calls for greasing the ramekins but I skip this because I'm not classy in anyway and just eat my panna cotta straight from the mug instead of proudly displaying it on a plate or some classy shit that classy bitches do.
• I topped the panna cotta with sweetened strawberries.  I actually could have just used the strawberry juice from the strawberry mix, because I felt like my strawberries were just getting in the way of my panna cotta.  
• I calculated the nutritional content (at the end) because I'm glutton for punishment and really I just needed to find out how many calories were in each cup so I could know how many cups a day I could eat.. DON'T JUDGE ME.  I learned I needed to limit myself to ONE cup per day.
• I usually make this before bed/after dinner so that way it can set overnight and I'm not tempted to check it all the day long.
• I'm definitely not a professional food photographer... don't judge these photos, just be proud that I took them for you before I ate all the panna cotta.

It tastes way better than it looks in my photos!

Vacation Recap (part 2)

Our first day of driving was south on I-5 to get to I-40, which pretty much meant being in CA for the entire day's drive.

I get a bit nostalgic over windmills because of the GTMO windmills and the scenery was gorgeous.

We stopped for dinner at a BBQ place.  I utilized lots of urbanspoon and yelp to find places to eat that weren't fast food chains close to the interstate.  This place was definitely a winner.  I couldn't eat all of my food and we got a box, but ended up leaving the leftovers at the hotel the next morning.  Oh well.

Apparently, there was a super moon.  It was crazy bright.  There was definitely no need for street lights.

When we came out of Death Valley, this was the price of gas at the first exit.  WTF!
We opted not to get gas here and moved on to the next exit where gas was more reasonably priced.

We tried to stop in a larger town to find a hotel the first night, but we were unlucky.  There was some river festival thing going on and every.single.hotel was booked solid.  We checked at least 4 different hotels for availability and were only disappointed each time.  We hit the road again, overly tired, and went to the first hotel we could find.  A super cheesy Route 66 hotel with the super awesome Route 66 theme as well.  The bed was so hard, we could have probably slept in the bed of the truck and been just as comfortable.  Since we didn't arrive till almost 1am, we didn't make it a goal to get up early to get on the road.

We had breakfast at The Roadkill Cafe, next door to our hotel, where the sizes for all the things were enormous.  Since I knew we would be driving and we hadn't picked up snacks, I consumed all the foods again, not knowing when we'd be stopping for lunch/dinner.

That is a quart size mason jar full of soda.
This explains so much about America.

Gettin' my toe tan on.

The first time I was allowed to drive the truck.  I just moved it up to the pump, but still, HUGE deal.

Teh Sister had requested that we make a stop for her in New Mexico if we took I-40.  She's lucky and spoiled.  We stopped at St. Clair Winery to restock Teh Sister's wine collection since this winery isn't allowed to ship to NC for some reason.  We also had dinner there since we were already there and they served food that Teh Sister said was pretty good.  We started sitting outside, but when I heard thunder and saw lightning, you can bet your ass we moved inside.  This girl doesn't play.

9 bottles of wine later..

Brownie dessert = NOMNOMNOM

More super moon.  It was hella big and the cloud was cutting it in half.
It only got better.

We left Albuquerque, NM and kept driving.  Mr. Mystery wanted to make it into Texas, but I talked him into stopping at a town a little bit before the border.  Our hotel wasn't Route 66 themed, but it was still pretty sketchy.  Whatevs, we were just tired and needed a place to sleep.

We got gas before heading out the next morning and I spotted a silver Yurtle!  Yurtle's were few and far between the entire time I was on vacation.  I told Teh Roomies that Finding Yurtle was a better game than punch bug.

We stopped for lunch in Amarillo, TX.  Mr. Mystery had wanted to get tacos in NM, but we had failed at that mission.  I think that Joe Taco definitely hit the spot.  Or at least it was good for me.

2 pork tacos and 1 mushroom-spinach taco.
OMFG DEEEEEELIIIGHTFUL to my belly.

After lunch we got back on the road, determined to make it to Little Rock, Arkansas that night.

The cleaning cart was just sitting there, no one was cleaning.
It was like the gas station was trying to deter people from using the restrooms, although from the state of the bathrooms, I could see why.

Cool sculpture in Oklahoma City.

We stopped at a brewery for dinner just outside of OKC.  I had looked for somewhere more interesting on yelp and urbanspoon, but we were tired and just wanted to eat and the brewery was right there.  It ended up working out nicely because there was an ice cream place right down the road and we got milkshakes for the road.

I asked Mr. Mystery to get a pic of me and the first sweet tea I was able to order since I started vacation.
He said beer was more important.

But seriously, the sweet nectar of life is imperative to this southern girl.

Nomnomnom, steakkkkk.
This was the same steak that ended up leaking out of the box and got on the uniforms that were hanging in the back seat.  I freaked out!  I was doing emergency stain removal with water with my ass in the air while I was trying to reach things in the backseat.  We definitely made a pitstop at Walmart that night before we got to our hotel for some Shout in efforts to not have 2 sets of stained uniforms. 

We stayed at a decent hotel in Little Rock and it was much needed after the crappy beds we'd endured the prior nights.  Apparently, neither of us wanted to get up, because when my alarm went off at 0630 or 0730 or whenever it was, I told Mr. Mystery and he didn't really rouse, so I snoozed it and woke him up again when it went off.  Then I turned off the alarm, thinking that his alarm would go off in the next few minutes.  Nope.  I woke up at 0820 and informed him that we had overslept.  Coincidentally, his alarm started to go off within moments of me informing him of my revelation.  I just giggled and giggled.

Our driving goal was to reach home, home, NC, which was going to take 10ish hours plus stops. 

I'm not even sure who came up with this gas station name, but the perv in me always giggles when I see this.

Remember that one time when I was all like, I'm moving to Millington, TN?  Yeah well, we passed through Memphis and gave Millington the finger.  It was full-o-win.

Name that skyline:
Memphis

Thank Allah this wasn't the end of the roadtrip!

Teh MD Teenage Roomie made sure to ask me how the 1.91" of snow was in TN.  I definitely sent her back a sad face photo.

We stopped in Memphis for lunch and we opted to eat at a Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives restaurant called Three Angels Diner.  It was pretty delicious, but there were other restaurants on urbanspoon and yelp with better reviews. 

On the way to the diner we saw this.
Interesting.

Pinup girls in the women's bathroom.

And the record wall, which was pretty awesome.

After lunch, we got back on the road and booked it to home, home.  We stopped in TN for some adult beverages since we knew the stores were going to be closed when we got to NC.  Mr. Mystery got a good laugh at the guy running the register who was a redneck with a full southern accent.  Mr. Mystery had pointed out the MoonPie Moonshine sitting on the counter and the guy commented that it tasted like shit, but then added, if your moonshine didn't taste like shit, it wasn't good moonshine.  We walked out laughing and I almost tripped over the guy sitting at the door in his rocking chair smoking a cigarette.  We got out of there quickly.

We made it to home, home by midnight and I quickly realized that I was locked out.  /sadface.  I had left my keys in MD since I knew I wasn't going to need them.. except that Teh Dad's house key was on my keyring anddddd he was out of town visiting Teh NY Family which meant that all the doors were locked, even to the garage, which was my backup plan for getting in the house (we go into the garage and get the house garage door opener from the car and get in the house that way). 

So at midnight, I called Teh Dad unable to get in.  I was lucky he even answered because historically, we don't have cell phone coverage where his family is from.  He informed me there was no hidden spare key.  I'm not even sure who this man is anymore.  We always had a hidden key.  ALWAYS.  2 people had keys to Teh Dad's house.  The first person I tried apparently sleeps like the dead and didn't hear me banging on his door and he turned his phone to silent at night (which I can't even fault him for).  The 2nd person was Teh Dad's neighbor and he said that he hadn't even been asleep yet.  Nonetheless, I apologized over and over and over.

Mr. Mystery and I finally got in the house.  He made beverages for us and we decided to melt off our skin in the hot tub that Teh Dad insists needs to be kept at 1 million°F.  Unable to stay awake any longer, we both finally called it a night.

CA to SC adventure!

Part 1 - California

Part 2 - CA to TN

Part 3 - NC to SC

Part 4 - South Carolina