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August 23, 2015 - 12:36 a.m.
"i am officially a better driver than dan" or "welcome home mikey party"

Hey Journal!

We got up this morning at 8:45 and quickly threw on some clothes to go out to breakfast with Kristen. Our weekly Relish visit! As I may have mentioned before, last week they had a Funfetti French Toast special and none of us were brave enough to get it. We all thought it sounded amazing, but didn't want to stray from our usual favorites.

Then, earlier this week, I was really regretting my choice. I was craving this mysterious funfetti breakfast and I wished I had given it a try. Well, today I was pleased to find that sometimes opportunity DOES knock twice!

We arrived and the parking lot was pretty empty! We had our choice of several open spaces...almost unheard of! We went inside and had no wait for a table. As we were being led to our seat I noticed that a woman, wearing all purple, was hovering over her large plate of FUNFETTI FRENCH TOAST! I was filled with excitement.

We sat down and the waitress asked if we wanted to hear the specials and for the first time, I was actually interested. Two specials down... and then I heard the magic words... FUNFETTI FRENCH TOAST! BAM! SOLD. As a safety net, Dan ordered the Kingsman so that we could share the eggs and ham and potatoes.

I really enjoyed it. It was a very interesting recipe. First, I'll say that it was better in the beginning than in the end. It starts out warm and cakey and it has whipped cream on top. It was delicious and had a really unexpected taste. As it cools off it gets kinda gloppy and weird inside.... so I guess the moral is that you need to quickly eat your funfetti! (aka Phone-fetti.)

I think this may be the entry with the longest content related to one dish of food!

After we ate we walked over to the bakery. They recovered well from their drive-thru experience a few weeks ago but they still don't have a real front door. Or, perhaps, they DO have a REAL FRONT DOOR. They literally have a house front door instead of the glass one they used to have.

Kristen dropped us off at home shortly after that and then Dan and I had a mission to get new suits before we had to head to Mikey's "Welcome Home BBQ" later in the day.

We went to the mall, and on the good authority of Dan's friend Joe, we went to look for a suit at H&M. They actually had some nice suit jackets but I couldn't find any pants in my size. They really only had 34s and like one 33. Nothing close for me.

That whole thing fell apart so we wound up at JCPenney. I had gotten a suit there several years ago and it was a much more formal process at the time. It was actually a really long time ago... possibly 10 years? I remember the woman who helped me saying that the suit I got should last me a few years and I was like "WHAT? I wear this like twice a year....it should last me TEN YEARS!" Well, I think it did. I mean, it's still a nice suit but it's not really fashionable. It's too big.

Anyway, at the time this woman helped us and picked out a whole suit for me and measured me and when we purchased it she put it in this big zipped up bag. Now, you just go up, browse through the racks, find what you want, and take it to the register. It's MUCH more self-serve. I think it was cheaper, too... and I liked it.

It was 60% off before 1pm (50% off at other times) so we got a good discount and then I found a coupon online for an additional 15% off. When we went to pay for them, the line upstairs was insanely long so we went downstairs. We wound up with the same woman who rang up Kristen's $20 dress last week. She was REALLY nice. She gave us nice hangers for the jackets and pants and she also spent time putting them nicely into a bag for us. I like her a lot.

When we got home, folded some laundry that I had put in the dryer right after breakfast, and then we had to get ready to head out to Mikey's "Welcome Home" party! We left here at about 1:50 and the party started at 2. We arrived around 2:30.

On the way there, I finished my THREE months of the Right Track device in my car! I'll tell you the results in a bit, but it was a real relief to finally be finished worrying about every move I make! I took that thing out and started driving like a normal person again!

The party was good... It was at Teresa's mother's house, so there were a lot of people there we didn't know! We basically made our own little section of the party and hung out together.

At one point, Mikey told my cousin Ryan that he could go have some food from the buffet so he went up and started filling his plate. He came back and spread the word to my Aunt Karen and my mom, and they made a mad dash for the food. Just then, Teresa's mother came running out and told them that she hadn't put all the food out and she wasn't ready yet!

The came back to the table with their half-filled plates in shame and I just sat there shaking my head. I told them, "We aren't going to get invited back here again!"

Dan and Jackie arrived a little after we did and I had fun playing with Evelyn! She wanted to ride around on my back and she made funny noises. It was really cute.

A few months ago, Linda had sent me a photo of a Christmas Tree Shops advertisement with a crazy chicken coop on the front! Well, would you believe it... they had one in the backyard today! I immediately took a picture and sent it to Linda. They have four chickens in it! Wild!

I named them.... Cutlet, Nugget, Parmesan, and Francese.

We headed home around 6:45 and we were feeling pretty exhausted from the busy day!

On the way home we stopped to get gas in the car at one of the cheapest stations on Long Island. It was the one that we stopped at last summer, just off the expressway, when Dan's back window shattered!

When we got home we took a 2.5 mile walk! I wanted to make all my daily goals and I did! Wahoo!

After that I was EXHAUSTED and I started to get a headache because I don't think that I drank enough water during the day!

So, back to the Liberty Mutual car thing... I can't believe that the three months are up! I feel like it was just yesterday that they arrived and we said that when it was time to take them out, the summer would be ending. And here we are! Here's my review of it all now that it's finished. It's weird. I mean, I love the opportunity to save on my car insurance and I think it's great that you get 5% off just for trying it. The max you can get is 30% after the evaluation period but that's all but impossible.

I feel like the "fast acceleration" demerits are way too sensitive, though I only got a handful of those. The hard braking ones are, as well... and that was what I got the most of. I wish they were a little less sensitive but counted more if you got them.

In some ways it made me more conscious of my speeding up, especially when it wasn't necessary, but in other ways it made me a bad drive as I coasted through stop signs to avoid a hard braking OR to avoid having to accelerate SOOOO slowly that the people behind me would be pissed. I mean, it really makes you drive in a strange way.

But, it's over now and I got 16%. Dan got 13%. That's pretty crazy because he started off so much better than me but I think he kinda gave up on it halfway through! He always says he's undisputedly the better driver and now I have proof to the contrary! :)

Alas, before bed I made myself a nice big box of Rice a Roni. I used the new pan we got and it's AMAZING. THis is the first time I think I've ever made it and not had the small little pan with way too much Rice a Roni, trying to make sure it all gets browned, and then when you put the water in it's almost overflowing! It was like a dream. This new pan has really high sides, two GREAT handles that don't get hot, and the food just slides off of it! Nothing sticks at all. This is how the other half live!

I ate my perfect Rice-a-Roni while Dan and I watched the Carbonaro Effect and now it's time for bed!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)