Phil called me up last weekend and exclaimed that he had just made the world’s ugliest birthday cake and was glad to know that his mother’s love would over look it.  I was curious what the cake looked like, so I made him take a short video of it.   In my mind, I had expected it to look a lot worse.    I think Phil is right, though, he should definitely stick to computers because cakes sure aren’t his thing – even if they taste really good.

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When Phil and I were in Atlanta some years back, we stopped by a Chick-fil-a to have lunch before going to an Atlanta Braves Game. The sandwich Phil got has to be the largest Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich I have ever seen.

Do you agree?

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For those of you who don’t know me too well, I absolutely love Cookie Monster.  And it is not because we share a birthday or anything.  I didn’t even know we did until I wrote a paper on him in high school.  Yes, I wrote a paper on Cookie Monster.  The teacher said I could write about anyone famous.  She didn’t say the famous person had to be of the flesh!

Several years ago, my mom got me a Cookie Monster cookie cake for my birthday.  It was so pretty, I had a hard time eating it.  Well, that and the icing was super sweet. I think it was the most awesome cake I have ever had.  I’ve got a picture of it on my other computer.  I’ll try to post a picture of it later.

If anyone wants to make my year though, just send me a dozen of these cupcakes on November 2nd.  It would be the sweetest birthday present ever!  I’ll be waiting patiently for your delivery. 

The Noms say it all.

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On Saturday, Phil, Holy, and I went to the South Carolina State Fair.  Holy had never been to one, so we thought he may enjoy it, especially the food.  Fair food is the most fattening food in the world, but it tastes so good!  The food is the main reason why I go the fair every year, even though a foot long corn dog costs $6.00.  Yep, 6 buckoroos for a stick, a hot dog, and a light coating of fried bread.  I understand its the fair and all, but geeze, 6 bucks?  Anyway, when I was younger, though, I went mostly for the rides.  I can’t count the times I got sick riding them.  I remember riding Starship 2000, now called Starship 4000( year 2000 came and went, baby), until the world felt like it was spinning 10 minutes after I had gotten off the ride.  Ah, good times.

It was a little bit cold on Saturday, which is a bit unusual for October in South Carolina.  The wind was kicking and the skies threatened us with dark clouds all day, but thankfully never gave us a shower.  Our fall is usually more pleasant than that.  I’m just glad the day wasn’t a bust.  I would have been sad had Holy not had the oppurtunity to go to the State Fair.

Here are some pics and videos.  Enjoy.

I found this in the art building. It appears to be a bird made out of paint brushes. Strange.

I've been to the fair only about a half a dozen times, and I have never seen this sign. It made me laugh.

I just love this picture. It didn't take long for Holy to decide what food he wanted to try at the fair.

My favorite part of the fair, besides the food, is the animals. Once the chicken eggs hatch, they put them on display. The food is put almost out of their reach, so when they go to stretch, they lose their footing and fall down into the stream of water.

I don’t know what to say about this other than I think it is creepy.  The kid screaming in the background makes the video ten times cooler. 

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On Saturday, I went to Dunkin Donuts.  I like the donut holes(Munchkins) they have.  Phil and I usually go in and eat, but since he was not feeling well, I left him at home and decided to go through the drive through instead.

I decided on the 50 Munchkins, instead of 25, not because we are pigs, but because I figured we could eat them over the next several days. (As I write this, we still haven’t finished them.)  The price difference wasn’t that big either.  For 50 Munchkins, it cost $5.99, I think.

When I got to the window, a young black man asked if I wanted all the flavors.  I told them yeah, and off he went to fill my box with assorted Munchkins.  A few minutes later, he came back to the window with a bulging box.

“Be careful,” he said.  “It’s stuffed for you.”

I told him thank you, and drove back home.  When I opened the box, I knew immediately that I had more tan 50 Munchkins.  Phil thought I should count them.

Would you believe that for $5.99, plus tax, I ended up getting 106 Munchkins?  Yeah, 106.  I totally think I got my money’s worth.

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Yesterday, Phil and I went to McDonald’s, not because we particularly like eating there on any sort of regular basis, but because we were tired and hungry and it was convenient.  Cooking at home was not an option.  We wanted food to be prepared and handed to us.

A few days before this, Phil’s mom had given me a coupon for one of McDonald’s chicken sandwiches.  All, I had to do was purchase a medium or a large drink, and the sandwich was free of charge.  I couldn’t remember if I had ever had one of McDonald’s chicken sandwiches, so I thought it was a good time to try one.

When I stepped up to the counter to order, I told the lady standing behind the register that I had a coupon and went to hand it to her.  Before I even was able to move my hand forward, she promptly told me that they did not accept coupons.

This confused me.  I looked down at my coupon just to double check that I was holding a McDonald’s coupon and not one of their competitors.  I wasn’t mistaken.

“What do you mean, you don’t accept coupons?” I asked.

“We don’t accept coupons.”

“Okay,” I replied, “that’s ridiculous.”

“Our manager told us not to accept them.”

At about this time, another lady approached the register.

“McDonald’s is not corporate,” the new lady said.  “Each restaurant is individually owned, and the owner makes the decision on whether or not coupons can be accepted.”

“Well,” I said, “I want you to tell your manager/owner that he has made a very poor decision.  Because you can’t accept my coupon, I am going to take my business else where.”

“That’s fine,” the new lady said.  And with that, Phil and I turned and walked out and headed to the fast food joint next door – Hardee’s – Phil’s favorite place to eat.

Yeah, I know, I sounded like a complete bitch, but I don’t care.  It’s just that I don’t think I have ever had someone tell me I couldn’t use a coupon before – especially a legit, non expired one.  I once had a Domino’s take a coupon that I found in a city hundreds of miles away.  All they asked was where I got it from and then took it like normal.

And just so you know, it is the McDonald’s located at 7011 Parklane Rd Columbia, SC 29223.

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Yesterday, when I stepped outside and looked at my cherry tomatoes, I thought for one second that I saw a hinge of red, but then discounted it as wishful thinking.

Today, when I went out to look, I spotted two little red cherry tomatoes.  Well, they aren’t quite red, but they are getting there.  They must have turned red over night.

Hopefully, the rest will turn red soon, so I can actually make a salad out of them.  Right now I must have something in the neighborhood of 200 flowers along with 50 already grown tomatoes.  I am going to have cherry tomatoes coming out of my ears!

Technically, I think they are called Grape Tomatoes, but since I have been calling them Cherry Tomatoes this entire time, that is what I am going to continue to call them.

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So, my garden has gone a little wild.  Just a little.  You can view the progress by clicking here and here.  Phil actually took a pano of my garden.  I’ll put that up as soon as he puts it together.

My nine cherry tomato plants look like one giant bush! I’ve got all sorts of tomatoes, but like my beefsteaks, not a single one has a hint of red of them.  I’ll cry if they don’t turn.

These here are my beefsteak tomatoes.  Some are bigger than others, but not a single one has turned red.

They don’t look quite like they do in the grocery store, but eh, as long as they taste the same, I don’t really care. I can’t decide if I want to pick them as green or red peppers.

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Here’s an update on the garden, if you’re into that sort of thing. I had thought that it hadn’t grown that much in a week, but when I looked back at the old picture – I could see the growth.

Grow Garden Grow!

I was a little too happy to find this tomato.

This little cucumber must have been growing for days, but I didn’t see him because he was hiding under a leaf. He’s about two or so inches long.

My blackberry bushes have flowered and are now starting to produce berries. They are all green berries at the moment, but they’ll turn red and then black soon. I can’t wait. I love blackberries.

My little kitty, Morgan, is always hungry.  She climbs the screen on the door when she’s starving.

Another self portrait. I think I look better in black and white.

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I thought I would go ahead and put up some of the pictures of the garden that Phil helped me put together. Well, help is an understatement. He practically broke his back getting the soil prepared for my baby plants. Gardening is hard work, that’s for sure. It took us the better part of two days to get the garden up and running.

Phil keeps reminding me that this whole garden idea was supposed to be a few plants on his patio, not a freaking farm. My response to him is that he shouldn’t have encouraged me as I held three greenhouses capable of holding 216 seeds(and then some) in Lowe’s one Saturday afternoon. Everything I do, starts small and then grows into something completely uncontrollable. I know this, and so should he. It’s all a part of being Gabe and in some cases, knowing Gabe.

Phil dug and that entire plot of land and then decided that a tiller would be a good idea. We rented ours from Home Depot for four hours and it ended up costing something like $40.00. Not too bad really. And had the tiller died, I would have only had to pay $3.00. Also, not too bad.

I don’t work him hard to kill him. I work him hard to make him strong! You should have seen him working that tiller. It shook him like he was a rag doll. His muscles hurt for a week.

Ah, everything is planted. Well, the plants that would fit that is. When I took this picture, there were probably another 100 plants sitting behind me. Yes, 100.

A few weeks later . . . I was afraid that my plants might not do very well in the clay, but I think they’ve done okay. I’m sure next years crop will do even better.

This is where some of the extra plants went, but I still have some more, about another 30 or so. If you live near me and you want some tomato plants, contact me and they are all yours.

Morgan Rose Ireland Yvette DeWitter. I love my kitty! She won’t eat dry food anymore. I’ve now got to shell out the money for gourmet wet food. She’s 15 years old, she deserves it.

This is Dopple, one of Morgan’s boyfriends. She has two more that visit her pretty regularly. Dopple is an enormously fat cat that reminds me of Garfield. He’s very adorable and loves to get his belly rubbed. I just hate that he constantly tries to steal Morgan’s food.

Me. I think I look a lot like my father in this picture.

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