Eating Out

Free Iced Coffee Day

We took advantage of the nice weather to ride the tandem to work today. The kids are all off of school this week because of that little golf tournament in Augusta that is named in honor of the car club we’re in. This made the ride in and the ride back at lunchtime doubly nice as the traffic was very, very light

I got lucky and got a free small iced coffee late this afternoon, but only because Donna wanted to get something cold after our yearly eye exam.

One of our local DD shares the same building with a Baskin Robbins. We went in because we had a coupon that was going to expire soon for a Buy One Get One 50% Off ice cream cone. While standing there waiting to get our cone Donna asked the fellow behind the counter, “Has it been busy today because it is Spring Break?” He replied, “Its been busy, but probably more because it is Free Iced Coffee Day.” Then he offered us one. I accepted.

30,000 Particles Of Dust

Construction here continues at a slow pace while the Purple Whale racks up miles at a fast pace, 30,000 miles in about 22 months.

Because the kitchen is a mess and unusable yesterday we had a rare weekday trifecta of dining out. Breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, natch. Lunch at Betsy’s on the Corner and dinner at Cracker Barrel.

New Year’s Day Trifecta

I ate breakfast for all three meals of the day. Two at home and one out. One of the at home meals was bought on the way home from work on New Year’s Eve.

7:30 AM – 1 Cranberry Pecan Muffin & 1/2 Banana.

11:30 AM – Fried egg on top of a hash made from sweet potatoes, Gala apples and maple flavored breakfast sausage.

5:30 PM – Pecan pancakes & a side of bacon at Cracker Barrel.

26,000 Granules of Sugar

We took a little trip to Florence to visit Cousin Laurie and current beau Harold. With one cup of coffee each for Laurie and I, plus a refill or two, between us, we used 8 little creamer containers and about 26,000 granules of real sugar. The little bowl for the creamer cups was empty and the sweetener packet holder was left only holding those blue, yellow or pink packets of synthetic stuff.

Maybe because it is past the summer I-95 Florida tourist time and not late enough for the I-95 Snowbirds, the Cracker Barrel was not really busy. As a consequence of this we ended up with an overly attentive waiter which became a source of both amusement and irritation.

But somehow attentive didn’t translate into efficient. We didn’t get our food to us in a very timely manner, it seemed to take longer than usual and when it arrived nothing was outright cold, but nothing was really hot, just warm. Plus Harold’s breakfast meal came without any bread (everything at Cracker comes with biscuits), when he asked for some toast, it came very quickly, so much so that it almost didn’t look toasted. No butter or jelly came along with it though. Now, suddenly, the guy that was asking how everything was, seemingly between bites, was nowhere to be found.

After we parted ways, Donna and I did a little geocaching (9 for 9) on one of the sections of Florence’s wooded trails that is near the Mall. On the drive home the Purple Whale passed by the 26,000 mile mark.

Big Mac For Breakfast

Here is the nutritional information for the Big Mac from the McDonald’s website:

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Big Mac 550 260 29 10 75 1000 46 3 9 25

This morning we didn’t go to McDonald’s for breakfast, but our usual haunt, DD. I have made no secret for my love of Dunkin’s Coffee Cake Muffins and coffee here. Also, Donna is a big fan of their hot chocolate and a toasted bagel, so there is no resistance when one or the other suggests we get our morning meal there. I’m betting we average eating there twice a week. Doesn’t hurt either that it costs us less than six bucks. It is no wonder that muffin is so good; here is its nutritional info from the Dunkin Donut’s website:

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Coffee Cake Muffin 590 220 24 8 65 480 86 1 51 7

Pretty close, huh? The Mac is way over top with sodium, but the muffin is way ahead in sugar (the new nutritional evil), but otherwise almost a tossup. Add in my small coffee with cream sugar and we have a winner.

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Big Mac 550 260 29 10 75 1000 46 3 9 25
Coffee Cake Muffin w/ Coffee 710 270 30 12 85 500 105 1 68 8

Of course you can’t get a Big Mac for breakfast, but you can get a Sausage McMuffin and a small coffee with cream and sugar:

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Coffee Cake Muffin w/ Coffee 710 270 30 12 85 500 105 1 68 8
Sausage McMuffin w/ Coffee 500 270 29 11 290 940 39 2 11 21

For comparison, my usual at home breakfast of Frosted Mini Wheats, 1/2 a banana and a 1/2 cup of 2% milk.

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Home Breakfast 303 34 4 2 10 51 66 8 21 10

Neanderthals Developed Tools

Finished watching the last episode of TBBT tonight. Kind of schmaltzy. We had stopped watching the show after Season 3 because of the direction it was taking. We then restarted after catching a couple of Season 4 re-runs because we caught ourselves laughing at it anyway. But now I sense another break in watching coming up for Season #6.

I have one brickbat for Dunkin Donuts. They have (re)started a Coffee Club Punch Card, you know, buy 8 cups and get number nine free. The trouble with the card is it is about a 1/16 of an inch to long to fit in my wallet’s credit card slot. Took a couple missed punch opportunities before I took some scissors and trimmed its length enough that it fit right in front of my DD gift card.

To balance things out I have a bouquet for them as well. Donna and my favorite spot for dining at DD is on the bar-like tables with tall chairs that face out towards the parking lot. Breakfast goes so much better with some people watching thrown in. Trouble is, our view is frequently blocked by those opaque giant cups of coffee and breakfast sandwich static clings. Much to our pleasure, last week we sat down, we could see right through them. They finally adopted the kind that are full of holes making them appear solid on the outside and slightly darkly tinted on the inside.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1153

15,000 Calories

Miss me?

Spent last week in Matthews/Mint Hill, NC “learning” how to program our new Mori Seki NTX100-SZ to turn, literally, raw steel into parts that in turn go into valves which make the world go round. I was not alone in this endeavor, thank goodness, a real CNC programer (Hi, Mark!) and 2 guys that are going to be the machine’s operators came along with me.

We drove up early Monday morning and spent the next 5 days in class soaking up all we could about how to use a CAM program called Esprit. We can only hope it was enough…

Between all that learnin’ we did a whole lot of eating. There were four breakfast buffets at the hotel and you know me and buffets, I eat a lot at them to make sure I get my money’s worth, even though Uncle ASCO was paying. The school provided all 5 lunches from local places and they were very good and all of them were larger than I normally eat. Of the four evening meals, two of them were at Razzoo’s, where it is impossible to stop eating once you start in on their over-sized plates of food. Plus there were Rat Toes to consume as an appetizer.

Somewhere just north of Columbia, SC the Purple Whale passed the 15,000 mile mark.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1126