Wednesday Laughs

From A:

We're halfway through the week!  Thought it would be fun to post a laugh from GraphJam:

Continuing with the Lady Gaga theme, how about a Totally Looks Like photo:

And I'll finish with one of my all-time favorite look-alike photos:

3/4 of a Year

From A:

Last weekend marked 9 months of marriage for us.  It's hard to believe so much time has passed since our wedding!  This seems like just yesterday:

Only 3 months until we eat our top layer of cake.  We're not really expecting year-old frozen cake to taste very good, but at least we'll gain some much-needed freezer space!  We'll also take a blow torch to our stubborn unity candle that wouldn't light during the ceremony:

And since it happens to be that special day of the year, Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Ways to Save

From A:

I was introduced to a helpful money-saving website by one of my co-workers.  It's great for those of you who have Publix grocery stores in your area.  The site is called "I Heart Publix", and it has information about weekly promotions, as well as printable coupons you can use to save even more money on sale products.  As a testament to the website, our grocery run last weekend yielded $90 worth of groceries, but we only paid $40 out of pocket!  Here is a link:

There is also a more generic "I Heart Saving Money" site, which includes freebies and good deals at other stores, such as CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, etc (see a list of stores along the top banner of the page).  Here's the link to that website:

Hope everyone finds these sites as useful as we have!

Clearwater Beach

From A:

The university is out on Spring Break this week.  We're not because we actually have jobs.

We were, however, able to get a taste of Spring Break at Clearwater Beach this weekend.  Sorry, no bikini or speedo pictures of our visit because it was cold and windy!  Here we are on the pier all bundled up:

Here is J with his Mom and Dad:

We saw this guy on the beach.  We initially thought he was a statue, but then realized it was an actual guy dressed up and standing extremely still (well, as still as he was able to stand with a 20 mph sea breeze).  I certainly respect him for honoring our military, but it's a pretty weird thing to do:

We also saw a guy dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, but he was too creepy for us to want to take a picture with him.  In case you're wondering, he basically looked like this:

 Our hotel balcony had a great view of the Gulf:

Our last morning on the beach ended up being warmer and less windy, so we went for a nice walk in the sand.  Overall, it was a relaxing weekend break from the daily grind!

Gastroblogging: The Varsity

From J:

High on my to-do list for Atlanta was a visit to The Varsity, the famed drive-in restaurant in downtown Atlanta, near Georgia Tech. According to wikipedia,

"The main branch of the chain is the largest drive-in fast food restaurant in the world, despite mediocre reviews of the quality of its food in comparison to other chains."

What did I think? My order: a #1 combo, containing two chilidogs with mustard, fries, and an obligatory Varsity Orange Drink.


The Chilidogs: 6/10. I am partial to a good chilidog, and these were decent. The chili had a good amount of flavor without being caustic to my digestive system, the mustard was classic yellow, the buns were steamed, I think, and the dog tasted like a normal hotdog. The strength of this was the chili's flavor, as everything else was pedestrian.

The fries: 0/10. Awful. Soggy. Limp. Flavorless. I should have clarified when I ordered that I should be served fries that had actually been placed into hot oil and cooked, not just, I don't know, immersed in lukewarm oil until they're no longer hard? Seriously, these things were terrible. I added some salt to try and get some flavor into them, but that's like waxing a car in a junkyard. The only redeeming factor was the use of Heinz ketchup in the dining room, not Hunts.

The Varsity Orange Drink: 5/10. Have you had orange Gatorade? Have you ever mixed it yourself with the powder, but added too much and ended up with a gritty drink? Yeah, that's exactly what this tasted like.

The Service: 9/10. Fast. No complaints.

The Overall Experience: 3/10. I've now been there. I will not go back. This place became famous for some reason that has nothing to do with the food.

Atlanta

From A:

Last week we traveled to Atlanta for the 2010 SHS/ASQ Conference.  This was my second time attending this conference (I went two years ago when it was in Orlando), and my first time as an invited speaker.  It was an enjoyable conference to attend, and I feel like my presentation was well-received by the various healthcare professionals attending the conference.

We also had some time to see a few sights in Atlanta while we were there.  Among them, we went to the World of Coca-Cola:

 

  

Here we are with the creepy looking red-eyed polar bear.  I guess if you drink too much Coke your eyes turn red?  Somehow, the person in the bear suit was able to make the eyes blink and the mouth open and close mechanically, which was strange:

We also saw some interesting Coke artwork.  Among the notables:

More proof that the Gator Nation is everywhere:

 

For dinner one night, we went to Glays Knight and Ron Winans' Chicken and Waffles.  We had seen the restaurant on the Travel Channel on Man vs. Food and just had to try it.  We got the Midnight Train, which is an original malted waffle with fried chicken wings.  We also got a malted buckwheat waffle to try:

It lived up to all the hype and was just delicious, obviously:

Minus getting stuck for two hours in a big traffic jam just outside Atlanta on our way home, it was a great trip!  I feel very accomplished for having been a presenter at a national conference, and I'm glad we were able to have some fun while we were there.