SIMS

Being at my parents' house, I took the opportunity to eat something different for breakfast. Not wanting to suffer a nervous breakdown from too much change too quickly, I kept the format of my breakfast in bar form. It just wasn't a brotein bar this morning. 

As good as this bar is, I only had one. I also didn't eat anything else until dinner, because my mom and I would be going to Artego, which is a pizza place right next door to Q39 (where we went for my Mom's birthday).

We started out with the Buffalo wings, which were pretty big! The appearance reminded me of the wings from The Peanut.

Hopefully the taste would, too!

While I'm not sure they were as good as The Peanut, they were still really good!

Our pizzas were then brought out. I ordered a pizza with thin crust topped with mozzarella, bacon, sausage, onion, and cream cheese! Doesn't that just sound amazing?! Here, take a look:

Doesn't it just look amazing too?!?! My mom ordered a pizza with chicken and Alfredo sauce, and also with cream cheese!

In all honesty, I could not tell which one was better. My mom tried mine, and she was leaning ever so slightly towards mine. I tried hers, and on first bite, I was leaning ever so slightly toward hers. But as I ate, I really could not come to a decision. They were both good, though, so it didn't really matter! It might make choosing next time more difficult though.

The SIMS part of the day arose just after we left Artego. Earlier in the day, I was explaining to my mom that used cars can be a better value than new cars due to depreciation. Without going into any detail, I pointed out that one car that is a great buy is the Lotus Elise, since you could buy it now and sell it in five years for probably the same price if not a little more. Well, as soon as we left Artego, we drove by the med center, and across the street at Vietnam Cafe was this:

It's actually a very cool little car, and one that I'm becoming more and more infatuated with.

On the way home, we stopped at Freddy's. I saw that they had something called something along the lines of a funnel cake sundae. Of course, whenever I see anything related to funnel cakes, I simply must get it. So I did. I got one with cookie dough on top.

The funnel cake was situated underneath the ice cream.

Due to my communication deficits, I didn't specify that I didn't want the strawberry topping that it originally came with. This lead them to make one incorrectly by mistake. They then remade one with just cookie dough, but they offered to give us the messed up one too. I gladly accepted.

I genuinely felt bad about the trouble I caused, but I ended up with two funnel cake sundaes. There are worse things in the world.

Butter Chicken Again!

This Friday I didn't have school, so I didn't have to eat a brotein bar for breakfast. But I did anyway! This time, it was in the face of many a pie. 

For lunch, I made some butter chicken, because butter chicken. I also made some rice (microwave) and some naan (prepackaged).

This time, it looked much better and more along the lines of what butter chicken usually looks like.

It was, however, not nearly as good as the last time I made it. It was still alright, but it was just so much more bland than last time. I obviously still haven't perfected my technique, but that just means I'll have to keep trying!

I then bought some cinnamon rolls for my parents and myself and headed to their house. When I got there, we ate them!

My mom then took me to Wendy's for some happy-looking food.

I also got this drink thing that was way too sweet, but the food was good! (alright)

I got some ketchup for my fries, and I was good to go.

I will say that one of the sandwiches I got was the spicy chicken sandwich, and while good, it's not nearly as good as the one from Mrs. E's. Way to go, Mrs. E's. I'm proud of you!

Where is the trust?

Today I had a peaceful morning to eat my peaceful brotein bar in peace. It was nice. 

A couple of classes later, I was waling to the computer lab while eating my brotein bar lunch.

When I got back to the computer lab, I reunited with an old friend. I spent many long days this summer with this friend, and without this friend I wouldn't have made it through the summer. But when I sat down and tried to log in, found that my old friend didn't trust me anymore.

 I don't know what I did to lose this bro's trust, but there was nothing I could do to regain it. I moved on and found a different computer to use.

Once settle in to a computer that actually trusts me, I ate my lunch.

I couldn't help myself so I ate both brotein bars I had left.

After a couple more classes, I found some dog treats in Sunflower General.

Doing what anyone would do, I tried one.

Not bad. A good way to get my carbs in!

I also gained elicit access to a piece of Sidney's frozen fruit. I'm not exactly sure what this, but it'll do.

For dinner, I cooked some more chicken thighs and covered them with barbecue sauce. I also cooked some rice. I found out that it is possible to put too much salt in rice.

This rice wasn't as bad as the Ghengis Khan experience (the rice was still edible), but it was just about the saltiest thing I've ever eaten, not including Ghengis Khan, obviously.

Pizza Pizza!

I went out and took some sunset pictures this evening.

But of course that's not how the day started! It started with banana bread!

And a brotein bar! Of course I couldn't not eat a brotein bar for breakfast!

After class, I went to the store to get some garam masala, which I found to be inconsistent between brands.

Oh well, I'm sure either is fine. I also found some ghost peppers! I did not, however, buy any of  these.

For dinner, though, I warmed up some macaroni and cheese and chicken.

I also found that someone had so generously brought us pizza!

This is the first time that I had ever tried Little Caesars. After years of hearing those "Pizza pizza" commercials, I would finally be trying the pizza itself.

What I can say is that it was pizza. Nothing special about it. On the bright side, I was looking incredibly vascular tonight, so I must be doing something right!

Now if only my biceps looked like this!

I then found a little guest inhabiting my body:

No doubt a straggler from my day in the field with my plants and landscapes class, this bro had to go.

I then got back to eating my pizza, of which I had three slices.

Again, I got huge. End of story.

"Special" Macaroni and Cheese

With Labor Day here and gone, it was back to work for some and back to school for me. That also means that it was back to brotein bar breakfasts.

See the resemblance?

When I got to school, I found a moped that said "Aprilia" on the side. Interesting.

I then ventured into the Budig computer lab where I ate lunch.

After a long day of school, I came home, threw some chicken thighs into a pan, covered them with Italian marinade, and threw them on the grill.

Meanwhile, I made some macaroni and cheese to go with the chicken. It was the Original flavor, though, which isn't the best. I decided to "spice" it up by adding in various other cheeses. I started off with some sharp cheddar.

I then threw in some preshredded cheddar.

And finally I added some shredded Parmesan.

I made two boxes, so all  together I added one powdered cheese packet and the real cheeses.

I added a slice of bread to go with the chicken and mac and cheese.

And I'll say that the macaroni and cheese was actually very good. I would make the same thing again. Sidney wasn't in the mood for chicken, so I also ate her two pieces.

I also gave her too much macaroni and cheese and bread, so I gladly accepted what she couldn't eat. ;)

All in all, I got huge. End of story.

The Apocalyptic Storm

This morning was a little torturous. I came downstairs to find more cinnamon rolls, only to be denied yet again. I ate my brotein bar in tears. 

It was ok, though, because I found a doughnut!

I also found some prunes, which I actually like.

The real news for the day came when I looked outside at our once peaceful pasture. This is what it looked like:

This is what it used to look like:

Do you notice any differences??? Apparently, people really like sunflowers and baked goods. Who knew? The shear amount of people was absolutely insane. And this wasn't the worst of it. Not by a long shot. The actual sunflower field was a million times worse. Sidney's dad cleared 15 acres for parking, and that didn't even begin cover it. It got so bad that at times traffic was backed up on I-70 from the Tonganoxie exit all the way back west to Lawrence. That's at least 13 miles of interstate. That is sheer madness. It was taking people an hour to drive the half mile from Sunflower General to the sunflower field. The infrastructure of the area simply cannot accommodate that many people. Nor can common sense. Even with sheriffs and others out directing traffic, there were several traffic accidents, and it got so bad that the roads were temporarily shut down and no one else was permitted to enter. This lasted for a couple hours, during which a large amount of people had left, but it was still very busy. It's just amazing to me to see a part of the country that for 50 weeks out of the year is quiet and peaceful turn into the center of attention for so many people. People literally come from all over the world to see this.

Eventually, I went back inside to find this:

Apparently, it was "over cooked." I couldn't tell, but I wasn't about to argue, because in the world of bakeries, "over cooked" means "we can't sell this so I don't care if you eat it." Well, you don't have to tell me twice!

I tried what was considered the "most burnt" part of this peach cobbler, and it definitely tasted horrible. In fact, it was so bad that I felt the need to punish myself by eating another piece!

Yep, just as horrible! Of course I'm only kidding, as this was an extremely tasty peach cobbler. I am not kidding, however, when I say that I could've eaten the whole thing.

I then ventured out into the sunflowers to collect some data for my Biostats class. While doing so, I happened across this beautiful monarch.

What a picturesque little guy, and what a picturesque setting.

The data I was collecting relates the heights of sunflowers that end up facing east compared to those that do not. I could get into the mechanics of heliotropism and how sunflowers fit in there somewhere, but I'll spare you of that. To illustrate my point, I wanted to see how flowers that faced different directions than the majority differed from the majority, like this:

My parents then came out to the field and we took our now traditional family sunflower portrait. Afterward, we went to Johnny's. I got what I always get, which is the chicken strip platter Buffalo style with a lot of ranch.

It's just so good.

My parents got one of the pizzas.

Sidney got the tenderloin, and I "helped" her with some of her fries!

I also "helped" my parents with some of their pizza!

It was really good with ranch.