Gluttony

Today is National Junk Food Day. As if America needs a junk food day. I am choosing to believe that Matty and I were simply celebrating a little early this weekend.

We took a train Friday night out to Lancaster. It is a nice ride. I enjoy the train. I wish it was a more affordable and convenient way to travel. When we got to Lancaster, Dan's dad picked us up and brought us to their house. For dinner we had barbecue pulled pork of which I was forced (ok, not forced, but kinda scared into) having two servings, carrots (those are healthy right, you know if I didnt dip them in onion dip), Good's chips (fried in lard, if you notice the nutrition facts part of that page doesnt work) and cole slaw (not for me because they actually remembered that I dont like mayo! We were there 3 years ago!). It was all very good and we had a good time talking to his parents. They remind me a lot of Matty's parents. But more low key. And of course there is less pressure. For dessert there were Rice Krispie treats, brownies, peach ice cream, peanut butter cup ice cream and red velvet cake! So much food!

Saturday morning we woke up early and got ready and then had breakfast. Cream filled donuts from Oregon Dairy (it was angel cream instead of a custard cream. FABULOUS!), sticky buns, and Matty's blueberry muffins. Then off we went for Pottsville. It is about an hour and a half NNW from Dan's parents place to Pottsville. A nice ride. Pottsville is a tiny podunk little town except for one thing. The country's oldest brewery happens to be there. And that brewery happens to make our favorite beer, Yuengling. Just Lager to Philadelphians. The brewery has been in Pottsville since 1829 and at its current location since 1831. It has been continuously operating there ever since. Including during Prohibition when they made ice cream, near beer (.5% alcohol), and a prescription ready 1% porter (for anemia and lactating women). Interestingly, the day after Prohibition was repealed, a shipment of 100 cases of lager (missing 73 of them) arrived at the White House, even though lager takes 4 weeks to make. the brewery doesnt looked like it has really been touched much since the turn of the century, or earlier. It was pretty cool. Recently, the underground caves that had been originally used for fermentation and storage before refirgeration have been reopened to the public which was pretty cool (literally ~50 degrees nowadays). After the tour we got some free samples (I tried the Light Lager which isnt THAT bad, fro a light beer) and went to the gift shop (I got a Yuengling cookbook). After we had sucked up as much lager history as we could we headed back towards Lancaster stopping for lunch at a Cracker Barrel in order to increase the gluttony and country-ness of the weekend. We wanted to eat a local place. However, there were no local places. For miles. On the way back we also stopped at the outlets and did a little shopping. Then back to Dan's parents' for dinner. Grilled chicken, corn on the cob, baked potatos, dinner rolls, cole slaw and watermelon. With all the leftovers from the night before and breakfast for dessert. By the time we left for the train Matty and I had eaten more sugar in those two days that we had in a normal week. It was all SO good but So unnecessary. The train ride home was uneventful. Once we got home we turned on the AC to mitigate the extremely uncomfortable heat and watched I Am Legend. We hadnt seen it before. I wasnt really sure what to expect. It wasnt quite as scary as I feared. I would be interested to read the book because I know some people were a little concerned about the novel to movie transistion. But to anyone who liked The Stand or Children of Men I would highly recommend it I think.

Sunday we got up and headed to Primo's for lunch. Unfortunately Primo's are now all closed on Sundays. So since it was hot and I was hungry we went down the street to Potbelly. I hadnt been since it came to Philly but I had in DC. Unfortunately their AC was broken but at least they had fans. Then Matty said "Gelato?" Because we hadnt had enough dessert in Lancaster. I said "No!" So I had sorbetto. Sigh. I cant refuse Capogiro! I had lime and cilantro and black fig. The lime and cilantro was more limey than actual limes I think. It was awesome! And fig! Who knew I liked figs? I didnt. Apparently I do. We couldnt decide that going to University City to see Wall-E at the Bridge was a good idea so we went to the Gallery and bought Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the Wii instead. Then we went home to the AC and played Star Wars for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner I made a salad (cucumber and pepper from the garden) and a buffalo chicken pizza with Purdue Short Cuts grilled chicken, mozzarella, provolone and Buffalo Bleu Cheese dip. It was awesome. We watched the second disc of Season 1 of Entourage. So far still a fan. Then we played more Star Wars.

Went down to the mouse colony again today. My little runt is still alive. And a fighter! She jumped from the cage today!

Gigantiwords: Fill in the blanks to complete the word below.
_ M _ R _ S _ I _ N _ B _ _

Find four women's names, eash six letters long, hidden in the sentence below. (The letters are in consecutive order.)
The strange lad with an earache loses it, and rants and raves throughout his archery lesson.