Insane Random Ramblings

First let me say that I love IHOP. There are plenty of other places that serve pancakes and/or breakfast food, but none of them compare. I found out that they were here by accident. A coworker was talking about IHOP and mentioned that one had just opened in the Robinson Town Center. I looked online and sure enough it’s here.

I called and they had a 30 minute wait for a table. We decided to go for a drive and visited the one we usually go to in Ohio. After we got home I called to find out why we hadn’t heard about the restaurant. It was just like John thought it was. They had a “soft” opening last week. A soft opening is where they open and serve food but they don’t announce that they’re in the area. It’s mostly to work out the kinks before they do their big splash into the area. They’re going to do the grand opening in another week or so.

Even though we didn’t go there this week, I’m super excited that it’s a option for the future.

I ran out of lunch items. I have enough food for breakfast and I have food for dinner at home. But when we went shopping this past weekend, I didn’t buy any frozen lunches because I thought I had enough at home. It turns out I only had 2 left in the freezer.

We did buy other food like hamburger and deli meat. We also got cleaning supplies for the house, and we looked at acne treatments for John but he doesn’t really need them. He has pretty clear skin so this 1 pimple he has is driving him crazy. Meanwhile I’m rolling my eyes because I have teenager skin with zits all over.

Now that I think about it, we really didn’t buy much. I’ll probably head to the store today instead of waiting until this weekend. That way I’ll have lunch for tomorrow and Friday. I much prefer bringing my lunch with me. That way I don’t have to go out looking for anything, standing in those long lunch-times lines and trying to figure out what I have a taste for that day.

I do have a taste for a baked potato today so I’ll hit Wendy’s for that and some chili. That should be a pretty filling lunch.

I missed the party in my old department. In todays meeting, we were told that my new department is having a pizza party. We’re working on a special project and that’s there way of showing us their appreciation.

I feel kinda bad about participating though. I’m not on the project team and I’ve only been here 2 weeks so they’re not really thanking me. But my manager already said that it’s for everybody so I’ll go. Maybe I should go and pretend it’s a make-up party since I missed the other one.

Tomorrow is my last day in the area that I work in now. On Monday I start my new job. I won’t be in the same building. I won’t even be in the same area. Right now I work in the Strip District and on Monday I’ll be in our downtown building. Once I start the new job, I won’t see any of my current coworkers because our work paths won’t cross.

Today they threw me a party. We have a mini food fest going on right now. We had breakfast and lunch food. We also have a boatload of snack foods. My friend Jennifer knows that I love cookies so she made me some homemade Ginger Snaps. I really didn’t want to share them with everyone else but I did. I also had Spinach dip and donuts.

Although I can’t wait to start my new job, I’m really going to miss everyone here.

Woo Hoo! Last week we went to IHOP in Morgantown Wv. We found a closer one to us. It’s in Youngstown OH. It’s 60 miles away but it’s still closer than the one in WV. After we ate, we drove around Youngstown. The population of Youngstown is only 82,000 so it’s really tiny. The weird part is they have a different variety of restaurants than we have. In addition to IHOP they have a Perkins and a Burger King. There’s only 1 or 2 Burger King’s in Pittsburgh.

We need to get some gift cards for the various restaurants that we visit. We don’t spend too much but we do go to a lot of restaurants. I think our biggest expense right now is gas since it’s so expensive. It could be worse, we could be doing shots off of a beer pong table or something.

We’re going back to Ohio in 2 weeks to buy baseball tickets so I know that we’ll stop at one of their restaurants. The ticket shop opens at 10am. We’ll probably leave home around 8am and not get back home until 7pm or 8pm. As long as we have decent weather that will be an all day trip.

We eat at the same restaurant’s all the time. It’s usually Golden Corral or the chicken place. Last week we went to IHOP in Morgantown WV and I wrote a post about our trip. It was the first time I had been there in quite a few years. Now we might go to Shoney’s in a few weeks. We want to wait until the weather is more stable before we take that drive again.

There’s no Shoney’s in the Pittsburgh area so we have to go to WV to visit. I also want to visit their mall while we’re there. I want to look at their clothes and see how much they go for. As long as I don’t start trying to look at diamond rings or jewelry in general, I’ll be fine. I might get a new pair of sneakers for the spring. The ones that I wear every day are getting pretty old looking.

Hopefully Shoney’s will live up to the hype. I wish Pittsburgh would get some more restaurants. I hate driving to Cleveland or WV just to get something to eat.

We drove all the way to Morgantown WV to go to IHOP. We didn’t know what we wanted to eat and started driving aimlessly. Then John jokingly said that we could go to IHOP. I said ok and away we went. It was a hard drive because it’s very windy outside today. It’s also a mostly uphill drive which sucks. It took us over 2 hours to get there because we got lost.

John told me to call for directions and I kept saying “Oh we’ll run right into it”. Needless to say we didn’t. We finally stopped and asked for directions. The guy directed us straight there. We were way lost too. We were over 5 miles in the wrong direction!

Once we got there, John got an omelette and I got the classic breakfast. I had 2 of each of pancakes, bacon, hash browns, eggs and sausage links. I ate most of it too. John had 3 pancakes and the omelette. He ate all of the pancakes but only half of the omelette. Too bad they didn’t have espresso machines because that would have been the perfect ending to a great meal. Especially since it was so cold outside. The food wasn’t that expensive either, coming in at just over $20. 

I told John that if we go back, it won’t be in the winter. But we’re definitely going back.

I love giving my opinions about things. So when I was asked to try these Grey Poupon Mustards and give an honest review, I was more than happy to oblige. I got 2 different samples to try. Grey Poupon Harvest Coarse Ground which is made with whole mustard seeds. To be honest I wasn’t too geeked about trying it. It looked kinda like honey or something. The other sample was regular Grey Poupon Hearty Spicy Brown mustard. You know, the regular Grey Poupon that you’re used to seeing.

The first challenge was to find something to put them on. I don’t cook so I didn’t have any food. However my supervisor frequently takes pity on me and brings me food. She made a ham on Tuesday and gave me 3 pieces. Perfect! I brought some to work for lunch and brought the mustard containers with me.

I tried the harvest coarse ground first. It was good but it tasted different than what I was used to. I mean you could actually feel the seeds on your tongue which was kinda weird. However, the mustard was good with a slight twang. Then I tried the regular Grey Poupon spicy brown mustard. It was delicious. Spicy just the way I liked it. I love spicy mustard and I get it on everything from chicken to my personal favorite hotdogs.

I’m glad I had a chance to review the products but the even better part is that I have 2 containers of mustard at home to use. I plan on having John make me something to put it on this weekend.

I am addicted to these cheap frozen pizzas. I had a craving one week and bought 2 just to have a snack. That was over 2 months ago. I’ve been buying at least 1 per week since then. I ate 2 today because I was hungry. I was mad at myself because I wanted just a plain cheese pizza but I got a pepperoni and a combination.

It’s ridiculous how addicted to these things I am.

I have no snacks in the house. I really wasn’t planning on going out this weekend at all. Most weekend, I don’t leave the house and play couch potato. I didn’t feel like going to the store today so I didn’t buy any snacks. I don’t even have any juice or soda.

I guess I’ll be heading out tomorrow. I need my junk food.