Cunningham Falls

We heard this song on the way to Cunningham Falls, and immediately decided it had to be the song for this Blost.

So, Cunningham Falls. It took us far too long to find it. And not because of my expert ability to get lost (we did take an unnecessary detour through Frederick, compliments of my inability to get anywhere). My GPS figured that the address I found on the internet was a big rock on the side of the road, where it told me there was no parking any time. So we stopped at the closest parking area, which happened to be for a mostly frozen over lake, where some old dudes were fishing. This was less than interesting, we've seen our fair share of completely and partially frozen lakes, so we got back in Gizmo and turned around and backtracked to where we saw a visitor center.

We saw no signs pointing out the falls, so rather than ask in the visitor center, we just decided to follow the first stream we saw. This turned out to be less than wonderful, as we walked up to Blue Blazes Still, which was just lame. No moonshine. Just a couple of leaf filled barrels, and the path ended. We tried to continue to follow the stream, but that also ended.

Then we went up a big hill, and when there was nothing but more hill up top, we went back down. Then we went across the road to another, bigger stream, saw some more fishermen, both found different ways to cross that stream, followed it for a bit, skipped some rocks, skipped some more rocks, followed it somemore, found some big rocks, and didn't really do anything. We were about to call the day a bust, but then, we got got back in Giz, and drove a little bit farther until we saw signs promoting the falls we were there to see.

Good thing we did to.

The signs said swimming was prohibited, and walking on Maryland Route 77 is not allowed, but clmibing the rocks by the falls was only not advised. So of course we did.

I climbed up onto the huge rock in the middle of the falls, and, when realizing the tremendous view, beckoned for Ben. He got that I wanted him to take a picture of me, and did so, and then we proceeded to have a lengthy pantomime conversation, where I attempted to get him to come over and take some pictures, and he thought that it was too far away to be worth it. He finally came over, and admitted that I was right, which usually isn't the case, and even if it is, he usually won't admit it.

There was a picture somewhere of the falls, and they appeared much more impressive, but still, the ice everywhere had a cool effect. We'll have to return when it is warm. It was cold, and we had not had the forsight to dress more appropriately, and it was too cold to even consider doing something dumb enough to get me wet, which is where most of the fun usually comes in.

Also, I fell, somehow, and while I managed to avoid killing myself on that branch next to my head, I did stab myself pretty good on my thigh, and hit my bad shoulder. It hurt, a lot. Ben was quick to photgraph me on the ground in pain before helping me up. Admittedly, I would have done the same.

Roy Rogers Restaurant Review, Really!

That's some decent alliteration.

And we really did review a Roy Rogers.

We fully intended to review someplace better that a Roy Rogers, but on the bright side, it wasn't a Burger King. We went with a classier fast food establishment. Anyways, we were in Thurmont to see Cunningham Falls, and we were starving, so it was decided that we should check out the local diners and see what's what. But after driving up and down Thurmont, and having really only the option between Fast Food, and places that were both way too classy and way to crowded, we went to Roy Rogers.

Anyways, as far as Fast Food goes, Roy Rogers is the way to go if you want fast food that doesn't make you feel sick afterwards. It's a bit on the pricey side, I spent $7.52 on the double bacon cheeseburger combo with fries and a soda. Unfortunately, we were not at the one in Frederick where our FCC student ids would earn us a sweet %15 discount.

The food was pretty good. I guess our review would be a little better if we had ordered different things, but selection, not wonderful at Roy Rogers. To be fair, I specified that my double bacon cheeseburger not be a cheeseburger, since that don't offer a comparable meal without cheese, but that's pretty general across the board, and something, as a person who doesn't like cheese on most things, that I have learned to live with. I will note that it appears that they started to put cheese on it anyways, and then remembered and took it off, as I could see cheese on some of my bacon. That, or they took that piece of bacon off a different burger, one with cheese. I like to think that's it, but there's no way of knowing.

The fries were much better than most other fast food fries. I have much praise for their fries. They aren't too salty, and they have a seasoning on them that I couldn't place, but was rather good on fried slices of potatoes.

Also, the Roy Rogers in Thurmont has the soda fountain behind the counter, so if your looking for the refills, this is not the place for you. Also equally inconvenient for making building designs out of cups, lids, and straws.

The service, well, it oversteps its bounds. We knew walking in that we were at a Roy Rogers, and not some classier restaurant, so we were a bit taken aback when one of the staff came to our table, told us she would have asked us how our food was, but we hadn't started eating yet, and then offered us an after dinner mint. It was just an awkward moment. We didn't go to a restaurant where we expected to be waited on, we were not obligated to nor had any intention of tipping this woman, and we already had our food, so having someone check up on us was less than desirable. The mint was good though. I will give them that. I wouldn't be opposed to it being commonplace to have a basket of mints on the way out the door like they do in most pizza places, but I don't want someone to bring it to my table.

Roy Rogers is also a apparently not getting on the going green bandwagon. For my meal, I got four receipts. One that tells me what I ordered, one that tells me what I ordered and that I paid, the customer copy of my credit card transaction that's also on the other receipt saying I paid, and the store copy of the credit card transaction. I think I would have been fine with the one with everything on it, but you know, wasting paper is cool too. Not to mention the paper they lay down on the tray. I'm pretty sure, well at least I'm hoping that they have washed the trays and they are safe to east off of. I'm already in the restaurant, eating, so there is no need to advertise themselves further. I just ate off of it, so I'm not going to take it home (well I might, if I use it to design something awesome, not unlikely). While some people can get annoying in their showing off about how much they're going green, saving the earth is not something I will be too upset with you for.

Also, the fake flowers take some serious inspection before you are %100 positive that they are indeed fake. It adds an almost cheery atmosphere. The country music playing was pretty terrible. What made it better was Ben's imitation of all country music. (Look for it in the near future! Ben's putting out a country album) The western cowboy theme seemed a little too much, until I saw that they have fry holders shaped like holsters, that you can actually wear! I didn't enjoy this idea at first, for some reason, but it grows on you, as I'm sure all sorts of molds, bacterias and fungi would be growing on your hip should you actually wear a holster full of fries around. Brilliant.

Roy Rogers also leaves this handy comment card on the tables. I suppose if I were to rate it based on the standards they set down, it would be like so:

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being poor, 3 being good, and 5 being excellent

1. Taste of Food: 3
It was pretty good, but a far cry from excellent.
2. Speed of service: 4
It's tough to say, but I was pleased because my food was ready by the time I came out of the bathroom. And you don't want your food ready too quickly anyways, because then you have to wonder, how long ago did they make it?
3. Order Accuracy: 2
Yeah, I definitely saw where they had started to put cheese on my burger, when I specifically said, multiple times, no cheese.
4. Attentiveness & Courtesy: 3
They greeted us once we came in, but not as we were walking in the door, which is nice, but then, as I said, they overstepped their bounds.
5. Cleanliness: 4
Their bathroom was pretty clean, and I liked how it had both the air dryers and paper towels.

Well, I saved the best for last. As enjoyable as the fry holster is, the regular shaped small fry container is even more wonderful.

The Roy Rogers small fry holder.


You're going to want to open it up along the seams.


Fold the little side lip thingies down.


Fold it in half longways.


Fold it in half again shortways.

And BAM, you have a cardboard frog, curtesy of Roy Rogers. Good for hours of fun. I'm sure this is totally feasible with most any fry holders, but I would have to see them. Anyways, enjoy.

On Comments and Following

Nothin' much, just thanking you for reading, and encouraging you all to comment more if you are already doing so, and to start if you aren't commenting at all. Because, after all, only about 70% of this blog is for Ben and myself. And of that remaining 30% or so, 2%, of that 30% mind you, just might, maybe, be for you.

Point being, we read and appreciate the comments. Feedback, be it on my many typographical errors, questions, or suggestions for us. Just today, we decided we needed to do something (turns out we most likely can't, sorry to say, at least not something that would involve leaving Mount Airy) but we were at a loss for what to do. Suggestions, ideas, events we are unaware of, all these things would not go unrewarded. Even recognition of an obscure reference is cause for commenting.

On a related note, according to "Blogger Buzz," someone is following a blog every second of every day, which I took to mean that someone follows a new blog every second. And yet, despite these incredible numbers, we've been stuck at seven, for like, awhile. Pretty much since we started anyways.

So, thank to you who are following, but we're going to have to ask a bit more of you, and that's to encourage others to get in on this; it's going places. I can't say where, or even when, but you know you'd feel guilty if it left and everyone you knew wasn't on board and you hadn't put forth the effort. And if you are reading this but haven't committed to following, get on that. You get out of it what you put in.

A Real Vampire Slayer

It's a pretty fair assessment to say that, of all the people I interacted with, I hated at least 50% of them. A few of them, I had a reason for. My aunt says that hate destroys the vessel that carries it. And while I'm pretty sure I was in no danger of destruction, it was doing me no favors.

I left that here, along with most of my other tendencies that I was sick of.

That's not totally true. there was one person that I hated, and I focused all of the rage that was normally spread out among hundreds on this one woman.

Stephanie Meyer.

If the name doesn't strike a bell, let me give you something with which to associate her.

Twilight.

I used to work with books, so the initial annoyance came from having to stock hers books. I'd get in boxes and boxes of them a week, and yet I was still out of at least one of them at any given time. The premise, a girl who falls madly in love with a vampire, seemed awful, but it was only after they announced a movie that it became a real problem.

Other people began to realize that people were reading this stuff, and there was a nonstop flow of books very likely even worse than Stephanie Meyer's list coming in every week, books about vampires and undead, and their love stories. It was more than a little sickening. Every summary on the back read much the same thing. Some teenage chick has met the man of her dreams. There's only one problem. He wants to suck her blood.

Some awful Vampire romance novels. My favorite, the one of the right, with the tag line "Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea..." She got paid for that book.

My problem with Stephanie Meyer wasn't so much her books, though I won't read them. Any book you can pump out in less than three months can't be all that great. I hated her because she opened the door for countless other hacks to write books that suck. I'm sorry, but when, and more importantly, how, did it become acceptable for teenage girls to fall in love with vampires. I remember watching blade as a kid, and that, Wesley Snipes, is what vampires are supposed to be. Terrifying, bloodsucking demon spawn. Not vessels of teenage angst. I suppose Joss Whedon is also partly to blame, but I'm willing to let him go by the wayside, as he is responsible for the creation of Firefly as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

How are these two even comparable. One is clearly overflowing with awesome. The other is a pasty teenager. And yet people want to pass this ugly kid off as a vampire.

Anyways, the point of this is, recently, this hasn't been too much of an issue. The movie is no longer in theaters so its popularity has fallen a bit, and more importantly, I no longer work in books. However, on Tuesdays, my workload brings me through entertainment, and so I can usually get a little worked up once a week.

Yesterday was different though. I scanned all of books, and nothing. There were plenty of new vampire romance books, there were still a thousand copies of every Twilight novel, and I really didn't care.

I didn't mind hating Stephanie Meyer. I knew where all that negative motion was, and I could account for it. Now though, what's happening with all that emotion. Because hating things, unlike some of my other old habits, hasn't come back as soon as I found myself back in Maryland.

So do I really not hate anything now. It's hard to imagine me as a person who doesn't hate. It provided balance, offset my overly compassionate side. Is that, too, going to go by the wayside?

Then again, it could just be because I'm sick. I haven't been feeling any strong emotion all week. We'll see.

Makin' Bacon

More specifically a bacon and cheese omelette. And just because we like music on this here blog, this is a sample of what I was listening to while creating this delectable fuel.

See, unlike my juice loving counterpart, I quite like food. I like making it, and I especially like eating it. It was only recently that I decided to learn how to make on omelette, and before that I had only eaten one. That was in a hotel no less. Before I get too off topic the point is omelettes are tasty, and it is well worth a try if you haven't made one before.

This particular omelette will consist of two eggs, two thick cut bacon slices and some cheese. Chesse is pretty much a nessesity, it is the gule that holds the omelette together. Aside from that pretty much anything can go into it. Vegtables, meat, mushrooms, whatever goes with eggs.

First thing is first, I'm using two pans, one for the bacon, one for the eggs. The bacon is made to taste, so you can figure that one out. The egg pan should be at a medium high setting, greased in whatever fashion you desire.

The eggs go into a mixing bowl with about 1/4 cup milk and that gets mixed until it is consistent. That mixture goes into the pan, and you can leave it sit for a while.

Once you see some white spots and big bubbles forming in the eggs it is time to give the pan a swirl. The idea is to get a filmy skin of egg around the edge of the pan. Let it sit for a couple more minutes and then repeat the swirl, by now most of the egg should be solidified.

Now you stick a fork between the skin you make earlier and the pan, slightly lifting the egg. Slide the fork around the edge of the pan and then you are ready to add the innards.


As I said before the cheese holds it together, so don't skimp on it. Everything other than the cheese should be situated on one side, for ease of folding.


The next step is to fold the egg over, ideally this would be done with something other than a fork, as you can see I ripped my egg a little.

Leave it sitting long enough to melt the cheese and get everything to a nice warm temperature, flipping it at least once. And that is it.

Delicious Omelette.

I have nothing more to say to you for now, go make an omelette.