Flowers and Ferraris

On a rare day in which I could spare a few hours, I decided to make my long-awaited return to the Ferrari Club. And since I would be getting up early, I also decided to make the most used of my time and go take some pictures of the sunflowers. When I got out there at about 0650, just before sunrise, I found them to be in the absolute perfect condition. 

The sky was beautiful as well.

I decided to shoot a brief time lapse.



While that was going on, I had time to kill, and since it was such a beautiful morning, I took a Sunflower Selfie.

Eventually, I stopped my camera from taking any more pictures, I packed it up, then I got in my car and headed for Overland Park. It was there that I found these:

On my way back home, when I got close to home, I passed the exit ramp that leads to the sunflowers, and I saw this:

I know it's hard to tell, but every lane of the off ramp was backed up from the toll booth all the way to the interstate itself. That's pretty crazy.

As I approached the road that the field itself (and also our house) is on, I could see nothing but cars.

From this exact spot, the field is still more than a half mile down the road, and there were cars the entire way. That is crazy.

When finally did get back home, I realized that I hadn't eaten anything this morning, so........

Later in the night, Sidney and I did a lot of baking. A TON of baking. Literally, we probably baked about 2,000 pounds of cookies, muffins, and brownies. On the way back in to the house, I saw this little guy out enjoying the nice night.

I then took advantage of the extreme generosity of whoever brought Subway for everyone. I complemented the sandwiches with some more bread. I also got some more watermelon in an attempt to not waste it.

But these things looked pretty good!

And they were.

The Calm Before the Apocalyptic Storm

Alright, alright. I'll cut to the chase. I had a brotein bar for breakfast. But I also got this warm greeting:

Isn't that beautiful??

Look at that caramel!!

Anyway, I had a chemistry lab to get too, but I drove by the famous Grinter Farms to see how many people there were. You see, the sunflowers began to bloom on Wednesday, and this is when we get inundated with humanity.

But really, there weren't as many cars as I was expecting. There were still quite a few, but it wasn't too ridiculous. This was surely the calm before the storm. We'll see...

When I got to my lab, I found this on a chalkboard in the hall.

I guess someone gave up. Apparently finding homeomorphically irreducible trees of size n=10 was too hard for them. Simpleton.

When I got back home, I payed a visit to Sidney's mom's store and found these:

As good as they looked, they weren't for me. They were for the customers. Sidney's mom is the main proprietor of Sunflower General.

Fortunately, though, she had some leftover crumbs that I was able to gain access to!

For dinner, I pretty much vamped what I had last night, minus the fried apples.

Seriously, barbecue chicken thighs with cheddar on a toasted brioche bun is very hard to beat.

I had some watermelon to balance it all out and add some color.

But seriously, this is like the best dinner from a taste and simplicity standpoint.

Chicken Grillin'

Guess what I had for breakfast this morning. Wrong!!! I had a brotein bar? Oh, that's what you said? Oh well...

I was also crystal clear what I would be having for lunch.

And for dinner, I would be putting that balloon enthralled sale to good use. I grilled up those chicken thighs and slathered them with barbecue sauce.

But I didn't eat them plain. Ha! Amateurs...

Step 1:

Step 2 (THICK cheddar cheese slices):

Step 3:

Finale (doesn't it look kind of like a face??):

Ohhh yeah...

Sidney made some fried apples, and I added some sourdough with butter, some extra chicken, and a salad.

This was looking to be a great meal.

The salad was really good. I really do love the Caesar salad kits. Lazy, yes. Delicious, yes!!

The bread was also good. The butter was alright too!

The chicken was super good too, but it's hard not to be good when it's chicken thighs and a lot of good cheddar cheese.

For dessert, Sidney was sweet enough to bring me one of her brownies and a mug of milk.

This is how you end the day right!

Cheese MacBurger

In keeping with yesterday's tradition, I had a brotein bar for breakfast this morning. This is obviously not shocking news.

On my way out of our parking lot, I noticed a large fungus growing off to the side. I stopped and said good morning.

And then I was off! Another day at school, another day closer to (hopefully) graduating. I ran across some encouraging school spirit in the stairwell of Haworth.

For lunch, I wandered back to the Budig computer lab and delighted in my second brotein bar of the day.

After lunch, I headed off to my plants and landscapes class where we went on a campus plant identification tour. One of the most intriguing plants we came across was this:

Little did I know I was standing mere inches away from one of the banes of my existence. This is ragweed, and I never knew what it looked like until now. But now that I know, I see it everywhere! It's also now clear why it causes so many people (like myself) so many allergies.

After class, I headed up to Sprouts to see if they had any good sales going on. Well, they had this one:

In what was essentially a half price sale, they seemed incredibly excited about it. Notice: balloons.

Well, the balloons seemed to have done their job. They were almost cleaned out!

Luckily they weren't completely out, so I grabbed up a few packs and headed home.

When I got there, I warmed up a slice of leftover pizza.

I ate it quickly, then I had an interesting idea. I scampered out to our second kitchen in the garage and got started boiling some water.

Isn't that just the cutest little kitchen you've ever seen??? Anyway, I then proceeded to carry out the rest of the steps required to make boxed stove top macaroni and cheese. I then went back inside and fulfilled my interesting idea.

You already know. Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Finale:

I had an extra burger patty that I didn't want to not eat, as well as some extra macaroni and cheese that I likewise didn't want to not eat.

But here we go:

It was pretty good, but not as good as the pizza burger from a few nights ago. I finished up dinner with a bowl of plain Three Cheese mac and cheese.

Low class, but I love it.