Cheaters may never win... - Days 18 & 19

...but they sure do finish 30-day blog challenges in less then 90 days.

Tonight we combo up and speed through some of the murk and muck (is that a thing?).

Day 18: Favorite place to eat

Well, let's be honest, I love eating anywhere I don't have to do the cleaning. So I guess I'll pick a KC favorite: Grinders. They make an amazing Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich (I like mine with banana peppers, mushrooms and both kinds of cheese - provolone and cheese wiz).

You can also order a New York Style Chili Bomb Pie, which is a pizza of your choice with tots, chili-cheese and scallions plopped on the center of your pie. It looks and sounds more disgusting than it tastes. That being said, I don't have the kahones to order this myself, I just sponge a bite off someone else.

I'm also pretty sure there was one night, when Aisha and I were on the verge of being over-served and under-feed, where we had the funky dough and it came directly from heaven. DEEEE-LICIOUS.

To wash it all down they have about a million beers.

So, come see me sometime and we'll go eat there.



Day 19: Something you miss

In general, being a kid. I don't necessarily pine to relive any stage of life, I just miss being carefree and blissfully obvious to "real life."

More specifically, I miss staying with my grandparents when Mom and Dad went away for a weekend.

I loved staying at Grandpa Joe and Grandma Jeannie's house. I always got to stay in the back bedroom across from their room where the fancy smell-good powder for "powdering your nose" was. Along with a dresser full of Archie comic books that I read at night.

Grandma would always have some kind of cookies in the third drawer of the kitchen and make real fried chicken. Grandpa would play Slap Jack with me and act like I hurt him when I hit his hands. When we'd go driving, they let me sit in the middle between them and if I asked Grandpa to drive fast, he'd pull his hat down real low in front and make "fast car sounds" and act like he was steering an out-of-control vehicle. I'm not even doing it justice, but at the time (and still now, in my mind) it was the funniest thing ever. He probably never really went any faster, it just made me drunk with power :)

Staying with Grandma Jane and Vic was a different kind of fun. Probably because being with each other was less of a novelty since they only lived about 15 minutes from my house, we talked almost everyday and they lived on an actual working farm where there were daily chores.

I was even less into manual labor then than I am now, so I could usually complain/whine my way out of doing actual outside work. Although, I always liked watching them feed calves, especially when some were bottle fed. That is something every little kid should get to do.

But like I said, I could get out of outside work (let's be honest, a bored 10 year-old with an affinity for daydreaming would probably just be in the way of any actual real work getting done anyhow) and help Grandma make lunch and supper for the boys. I loved cooking with grandma, I'm not really sure why, but I liked it. There was also the extra bonus of getting to watch Days of Our Lives with her after lunch. Mom didn't approve of me watching "that trash", but grandma always let me watch with her. I think that's what made it so fun. When I was in college she would call me for updates if she missed a few days.

I also now have a piece of my childhood memories from the farm in my own house. It's a copper garage with moving car music box that plays "King of the Road" as it circles the building. I used to play that thing all the time when I was out there and that song always makes me think of the farm and Grandma Jane.