Time for Dairy Queen

Every summer since we have been married Holly and I have made a bit of a tradition of going to Dairy Queen on occasion for a fun little treat. There is a DQ sitting right down at the bottom of the hill from us and is about a 10 minute walk each direction, so we've walked down there a couple of times from our apartment in Wymount. This year we commemorated the start of spring by taking Jack on his first Diary Queen adventure.

Yes, I did give him ice cream, and yes, he did love it.

Three Meals a Day

Most days I don't eat three meals. I seem to skip breakfast because it just eats up time I can better spend doing things like taking my shower in the morning or sleeping a little longer now that sleep is at a premium with Jack around. I used to always eat something from breakfast, usually a bowl of cereal or some waffles, but at some point in the last three or four years I totally lost that habit entirely. I don't really remember when I started skipping breakfast, but now it is just a part of my daily routine.

Today however I ate all three meals, and all of them at a pretty normal time of day as well. I had two cinnamon Pop-Tarts with a big glass of tropical punch for breakfast before riding the FoJ in to campus, and for lunch it was two bean burritos and some free water from the drinking fountain, and Holly was craving Marley's for dinner so I stopped by on the way home and grabbed a few of their "sliders" for dinner.

It's a little strange to eat three times in one day for me now, but I didn't mind not feeling hungry at random times during the day because I was inadvertently starving myself.

Brett's Birthday

Yesterday was my boss, Brett McInelly's birthday. Since it was Sunday we couldn't really do anything for him, but Jennifer, my other boss had the secretary from the main department office whip up this cake from a picture that Brett had in his office. I just wanted to share it because I think it looks pretty cool.

Yes, This is That Good

This is the italian dressing made specifically for Olive Garden restaurants. I live for this stuff. If I could go to eat a salad at Olive Garden every day for the rest of my life I would never grow tired of it. Last night we used an Olive Garden gift card that Grandma had lying around to have some late night italian food after Holly and I got back from a movie date. Grandma Chatfield and Julie were here as well to enjoy the food and the good times.

The best thing? I still have half the bottle left to eat tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Break

I've been slacking a little bit with my blogging over the Thanksgiving break, but all is well, I promise. It's back to the grind starting tomorrow, but at least it is only 15 days until the semester is finally over. It's been an up and down semester for me, but I'll come out of it okay I'm sure.

The break started Tuesday afternoon after I got out of my British literature class, and I made it a personal goal not to deal with anything work or school related until at least Thursday because I needed a bit of decompressing. So, Tuesday afternoon we went to see Twilight, and liked it well enough, although I think it was a tad overacted at certain parts.

Wednesday was spent getting the house ready for the arrival of Jack. The crib was already built, but we needed to pack up some things and take them over to the storage unit and bring back the two dressers we had stored there for our clothes and Jack's clothes. I thought things would be a little more cramped after we brought it all back, but with putting the bed up on the bed frame again, moving a small bookcase upstairs, and the fact that the smaller of the two dressers will fit inside our closet, things turned out pretty good.

Now we are just looking to sell our love seat to make room for a rocking chair and free up a little extra space in the living room.

On Thanksgiving we spent the entire day over at Shyla and Russell's and had a great time watching the dog show, eating some delicious food (I ate far too much), playing a couple games, and learning the trick to Guitar Hero. It was an excellent holiday I think.

Friday I worked on projects for school and Conquer Club all day and got caught up, and Saturday was spent cleaning the house one more time and working on some schoolwork. I'll be doing the same schoolwork today, but at least I can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Paul and Molly Burkinshaw

Last night Holly and I had the chance to go over to visit Paul and Molly Burkinshaw for a nice little dinner of some delicious chicken and vegetables. I mention the food because it was completely delicious and I want to eat it again today, unfortunately I don't have the means to do so.

Anyways, Holly was ecstatic to see the little twin girls, Aislee and Olivia, and she made sure to get some good, quality snuggling in while we were there. I think that Paul and Molly were only too happy to let her hold Olivia for a while as it freed their hands up, something I'm sure doesn't happen a whole lot nowadays.

I enjoyed the chance to catch up, share a few stories, and see how each other were doing, and now I think it is our turn to have the two of them over. Get them out of the house for a change and all that.

The World of Waffles is Getting Better Day by Day

About 2 weeks ago I was enduring one of my very long days on campus and Holly was off doing her thing and running some errands. My mother will attest that I've always been a very big fan of the Eggo Waffle brand of waffles and that I can eat them like they are going out of style. Well, Holly was on the phone with me while she was at the store and all of the sudden she exclaims, "Crap!" I asked her what was going on and she said "They have Transformers Eggos, I'm going to have to buy those now."

Of course she was going to have to buy them! Upon my return home later that evening the following glorious waffle greatness was awaiting me. Seriously, coolest waffles ever!

Adventure to the Cannon Center

When I was a freshman at BYU back in 2002 the cafeteria was pretty old. Known as the Cannon Center, it was pretty decent as cafeterias go, but it certainly wasn't anything to write home about. There always seemed to be trouble finding enough places for you and your group of friends to sit, and the decor was pretty bland. The food was pretty decent though and I didn't go hungry during that first year.

All things come to an end at some point through, and this fall BYU opened up the new Cannon Center, which isn't just a remodeling, it is an entirely new building. Twice the size, twice the seating, and twice as fancy.

Holly has wanted to go have lunch there since the semester started up again and on Thursday we finally had a chance. She was giddy the entire time and loved every minute of it. I had to admit that the place was much better than when I was living in Helaman Halls, and it would be an entirely different thing to have to eat there for three meals a day while living in the dorms.

I think Holly has plans to take Julie and Roxy to lunch down there sometime soon, and who knows, perhaps once or twice this semester I'll make my way down again too.

Ice Cream Deliciousness

The other day when Holly and I were at the grocery store I decided that I wanted to get some kind of frozen treat to make my day complete. So, when we finally got to the frozen food section of Wal-Mart, I made my way straight for these:

These are Orange Dream Bars, and they are far and away the best type of popsicle on earth. They come in a box of 20, and I will usually eat them all within a couple of days, normally 2 or 3 at a time, which is probably not the best thing in the world. I don't care though because I really like to eat them.

However, there are a couple of times when I can't find these delicious things, and so I have to settle for something else, which is when I go for these:

I can't get enough of these as well. I like ice cream sandwiches, but these ones are the best I've ever had. The chocolate outside parts are nice and soft and chewy unlike most ice cream sandwiches, and the ice cream tastes pretty good too.

Popcorn of the Gods

Growing up, we never really used microwave popcorn. I can remember popcorn being one of those things we had only as a special treat when we would go to Blockbuster, rent a couple of movies, and then come home and watch them together as a family. Those were certainly the days, and rarely in my teenage years and even now do I get to do such a thing. Before microwave popcorn really became a popular pastime we used Mom's old school popcorn popping machine with the ugly yellow top and we had to melt our own butter to put on top. It was always a lot of fun because Mom had this super huge green Tupperware bowl, and it would hold something like 6 bags of today's microwave popcorn.

I got to melt the butter a lot and then help drizzle it on while Mom stirred the whole thing with one of her wooden spoons. I miss eating popcorn like that, but I always though a popcorn popper would be really expensive. Of course, I never went looking for one either.

BUT, thanks to slate.com, which is one of those fancy news websites that compiles all of the really good stories for you, I found this article: What's the Best Popcorn Popper?

As it turns out, a good popcorn popper is not really all that expensive, about $20-30 for the most part, and they work pretty good. I read through the above article and came to the conclusion that for my anniversary present I want Holly to get me the Presto PopLite Hot Air Corn Popper so that I can not only enjoy popcorn like I did as a kid, but also be a bit more healthy, and save some money. Smart, don't you think?

The #9 Scenario

It's no secret to anyone who knows me very well that McDonalds is by and large my favorite fast food restaurant to eat at. I've been known to eat there several times a week on many, many occasions, especially now that they have transitioned over to the all white chicken breast meat for the famous chicken nuggets.

Well, about 3 weeks ago, Holly and I were going through the drive-thru at the McDonalds on Freedom Blvd. here in Provo, when something completely unexpected took place. Something I had never even thought possible. You see, I always get the same thing at McDonalds, the #9 Value Meal in the large size with Hi-C Orange to drink. Unfortunately for me that day, McDonalds had pulled a fast one on me. I present the almost entirely verbatim exchange between myself and the drive-thru person for your enjoyment:

McDonalds Employee: "Welcome to McDonalds, what can I make for you today?"
Caleb: "I would like a #9, large size with Hi-C Orange for the drink."
McDonalds Employee: "Would you like that with the 3-piece or the 5-piece, sir?"
Caleb: "What?"
McDonalds Employee: "The Chicken Selects meal is available in 3-piece or 5-piece."
Caleb: "I'm confused, I don't want the Chicken Selects meal, I want the... oh, you went and changed the numbers on me, what did you do that for?"
McDonalds Employee: ... silence
Caleb: "I want the 10-piece chicken nuggets, so a #10, large size, with Hi-C Orange to drink."
McDonalds Employee: "Okay, please pull forward."

Talk about extremely disorienting. Holly always makes fun of me for being "large and in charge" when I go through the drive-thru, but this time I was a bumbling idiot because I never actually read the sign anymore, it has been the same for 10 years or something. Why on earth would you go and change something like that? Now, whenever I go, I have to sit and think about it to make sure I don't screw it up again.