When You Give the Kids a Camera

Last night, we enjoyed pizza and chatter at Dave and Lynette Cooper's house along with Janiece and Jerry. We were amazed that 8 kids of such varied ages (2-13 yrs) could get along so well in one tiny bedroom for the bulk of the evening. I left my camera at home, but my kids had taken our smaller one that we allow them to use. And use it, they did. When we got home, I thoroughly enjoyed the glimpse of "their" portion of the evening.

Have Food, Will Vacation

Because we had a full kitchen in our "cabin", we ate two meals in each day and one meal out. Most of the "out" meals were spent on ridicously expensive food (my only complaint about DollyWood) because it doesn't matter how recently you ate, the smells from all those food stands just makes you hungry! And even more frustrating...when the food looks and smells better than it tastes. Corn dogs and "tater twists" seemed to be the girls favorite there. The fries were quite tasty! My smothered red potatoes - not so much. All of us would highly recommend the ice cream stand at the top of the hill just before heading into Country Fair. The prices seemed very fair for a delicious waffle cone filled with homemade chocolate ice cream. Just be sure not to ask for a cone that the 70-something server can't reach (ask Jody or Travis about that moment :)

But our two most notable meals of the week were at The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge and Gondolier Italian Restaurant and Pizza (discovered by Johnson's on a previous visit). The latter meal consisted of fabulous pizza (and I'm pretty picky about my pizza!) and a huge slice of cake appropriately labeled "Seven Sins" because it was made with seven kinds of chocolate. Sorry, I didn't think to take a picture until AFTER it was gone. I did about have a heart attack though. When asked if anyone wanted dessert, I piped up and no one else did. The waiter showed me the choices in the display case and said that it would serve about 8 people. I didn't know if he meant one piece or the entire cake but didn't figure I needed to clarify since I was the only one ordering. A few minutes later he brough us a handful of forks and set them in the middle of the table. I looked up and there was a gaping hole where the cake had been sitting in the case. I just knew he was going to bring out 8 plates of that cake! I could see my entire monthly clothing allowance paying for this miscommunication! Imagine the big sigh of relief when he brought out one plate occupied by a huge slab of Seven Sins - definitely enough for eight people to sample. I still have money left for the girl's much-needed tennis shoes :)

Pizza King to Totino's in 60 seconds

Preparing for a house full of company this weekend, we decided to clean tonight and get groceries in the morning. After laboring for hours (on the computer :P Tony said that Pizza King sounded good. Now I am not a die-hard pizza fan - once a week is good for me - and I’d already had pizza once today. But knowing that there was little in the house to cook and knowing that I didn’t WANT to cook, I decided that Pizza King sounded good, too. Kerrigan brought me the number on Tony’s phone. When I dialed it I thought something seemed odd, but they answered "Pizza King" so I placed the order. Twenty-five mouth watering minutes later (at 9 pm) Tony drove three blocks to pick it up.

A few minutes after he left, I got a call on the home phone and didn’t get to it in time. When I checked the caller I.D. it read Pizza King but showed a different number than I had dialed before. I thought that was weird. I called the number back and told the lady that answered that I’d just missed a phone call from this number. Her response? “Your husband is on his way home. He tried to call. What Pizza King did you order from?” I paused momentarily then realized…I’d dialed the number for Michigantown which was 10 or so miles up the road. Ugh!

Tony wasn’t exactly, shall we say, pleased when he got home. I tried to defend myself and place the blame on him by saying that I dialed the number that was highlighted on the screen. We both decided that Kerrigan must have bumped a button in the transfer of the phone. I was glad we thought to grab some cheapy pizzas the other night to have in the freezer in case we needed them in a pinch. They sure don’t taste like Pizza King though :(