Burger #8

The girl child was feeling better today although her eyes still looked red so we let her stay home again today. By 10ish her eyes were actually looking a lot better so we decided to do a short road trip. C needed some paint from a gaming store in a town about an hour away so we climbed into the car and off we went.

Of course when we got there the gaming store wasn't where it was. At that point we realized it was almost lunchtime and we were hungry so we pulled up the Burger Love list to see what was available in the town we were in. We found one we wanted to try - Let It Ride:

The patty itself is 6 oz but it seemed like more to me because it was very densely packed. Because of that it wasn't as juicy as some of the other ones I've had. C said it almost tasted like it was cooked from frozen. I hope not because I thought all the burgers were suppose to be made from fresh meat. The dryness of the burger was a counterbalance to the messiness of the rest of it.

As you can see from the picture, things were oozing out of this burger before I even took a bite. My first bite sent all the messy stuff squishing out all over my hands. Those messy things started with a bacon and sweet onion jam, which was tasty. The cheese is a 2 year aged cheddar which I had trouble tasting - it got lost in all the messiness. 

There was also a rustic tomato chutney on the burger - that's the stuff oozing out on the plate in the picture - and a black pepper mayo. Both had good flavour but contributed to the messiness of the burger. There was also a spiced Parmesan crisp on the burger but with all the sauces it lost it's crispness. The lettuce on the burger was fresh and crisp though.

The bun is a pretzel bun and it held up very well to all the sauces on this burger. It was fresh, soft, and definitely tasted like a pretzel. The bottom of the bun was cut thick enough to support the burger. Overall, it was a good, middle of the pack burger.

What wasn't good was the wait for the food to come. I understand it was lunchtime and it was busy but the restaurant wasn't huge. The wait for our food was long. It's the second time during Burger Love that we've encountered slow service while waiting for our burgers. This isn't the first year that Burger Love has happened so restaurants know that if they are going to participate in this they need to step up their service. I'm not expecting my burger to come out in 5 minutes, but a 30 minute wait for a burger seems excessive to me.

In dental news, I thought my gum was healed where that damn tooth came out so I started chewing carefully on that side because I need to get back into chewing normally. Of course that's when I discovered that I don't think it healed correctly and could possibly have a small area of dry socket going on. Lovely, right? Of course it's Friday evening so the dentist isn't there anymore. I'll have to wait until at least Monday to call them. I have an appointment Wednesday so they'll probably tell me that if I can tolerate it to wait until I come in then to deal with it. Thankfully over the counter pain meds dull the ache enough that I can tolerate it. Let's hope that continues.

In knitting news, I am one flame shy of finishing my Solar Flare shawl. Here's what it looks like unblocked:

I really like how it came out. I will finish up that last flame - it's the smallest one so it will go quick - and then I'll start weaving in all those ends. I'm going to try to get them all finished up by tomorrow so I can block it and get my final picture up so people can start voting for it on Ravelry. I want first prize! :-)

Thursday Round-up

Today is Thursday and we all know what that means - the new Star Wars trailer came out! So, if you haven't seen it what are you waiting for? Go watch this! R2-D2, Chewie, Han, Luke's voice. I am hopeful that this movie will be good because I grew up watching the good Star Wars movies and I so want this new one to be like those and not like the crap they made recently. We can hope, right?

In other news, J was home sick today. It seems that his sister has decided to share her cold with him...and me too. J had a grumpy day at home because he didn't feel well and he's on a video game break right now so he kept saying he had "nothing to do". Of course he has toys, books, drawing supplies, etc. But no, he had "nothing to do." I'm hoping he'll feel well enough to head to school tomorrow because another day of him home sick may end the video game break.

While J's cold seems to be in his throat, mine has settled into my nose. Lots of sneezing and snuffling for me today, which is soooo much fun (insert sarcastic voice here) with my healing gum. It seems to be healing from what I can tell. The gum itself doesn't hurt but that little area in the way back of your mouth where the top and bottom jaws come together, where they give you novocaine injections, hurts when my pain med wears off. I'm hoping that will be better tomorrow. Oh, and I thought it was awesome that the dentist's office called me today to just check up on me and make sure things were going okay. I really like this dentist and his staff, and I don't like dentists.

I was actually able to eat a regular meal this evening. No, no burgers yet, but I did eat chicken, broccoli, and noodles and with little to no pain. Of course I kept all my chewing to the non-hole-in-my-gum side of my mouth but I was able to eat which made me very happy. I will continue to avoid hard/sharp things for a while but I should be able to go back to eating fairly regularly, just with cutting things up for a bit. It makes it easier keep food on the right side of my mouth.

Yesterday evening before bed S announced to me that she wanted to get her ears pierced. Now, she and I had discussed that topic many times and she had always said no. Last night was totally unprompted by me so I said sure we could do it today. I reminded her this morning that when she got home we'd go do it and she said okay. When she got off the bus she didn't throw her usual want-to-go-over-to-someone's-house fit but hurried home to go get her ears done. We drove to the local mall and found the store that did ear piercing. S had some nervous tears which I think came from just not knowing how it was going to go but she never once said she didn't want to do it.

The very nice women at the store were wonderful with her. They got her calmed down and distracted her while they were getting ready to do it. Once they actually "pulled the trigger" there was about a minute of crying afterwards. Some cooling cleaning solution, a view of her new Rainbow Dash earrings, and two lollipops soon cleared up her tears. By the time we paid and walked out to the car she said her ears were feeling normal. Now we have 6-8 weeks of cleanings and earring turning before she is considered all healed. She is very excited to be the only girl in her class that has earrings.

Today was a big day for S. In addition to getting her ears pierced, S lost not one but two teeth today. She had two baby teeth that had become fused together at a very young age. We didn't even realize that they were loose until C was helping her brush her teeth this morning and out they popped (she has been slacking on the brushing because of loose teeth). So tonight she gets a visit from the Tooth Fairy and since technically she lost two teeth, she gets double the normal money. I'm thinking that the Tooth Fairy may have to leave her a note saying how fantastic her new earrings look in addition to the money. I think S would totally love that. :-)

I think now I have to go watch the Star Wars trailer again because it is awesome!

And It's Outta Here!

Warning - if you're squeamish about the dentist, don't read any more.

Today was the day that the dentist extracted that troublesome tooth. It has caused me so much trouble over the years and I was glad that he wanted to take it out. I had wanted it gone for years but my previous dentist wanted to leave it in. I don't know why. I understand wanting to keep your teeth for as long as possible but with all my troubles I think I would have been better off without it.

I was a little nervous going into the dentist's chair this morning but I thought everything would be okay. He said it would be fairly easy to get the tooth out. HA! My tooth had other plans for him. First, it took forever and pretty much the maximum amount of "freezing" (aka Novocaine) for me to get numb. I had two shots (two top, two bottom) in the back of my mouth and we all thought I was numb until he started poking the gum around the tooth. Then he discovered two spots where I wasn't numb so he injecting his freezing stuff directly into those parts. Sounds fun, eh?

So once I was finally numb he started out by removing the crown. Oh yeah, that was fun. It didn't want to come off at first. He did a lot of pulling until finally it popped off. Next he had to remove the tooth. Since the tooth was broken, he had to take it out in pieces. He used the drill on it although I'm not sure exactly what for. With the drill and a mirror in my mouth it was hard to ask questions. The first part of the tooth he removed came out fairly easy so we all expected the rest of it to be the same.

Alas, no, that was not meant to be. He had to pull and drill and it still wouldn't come out. He was beginning to think the root was wrapped around my jawbone. My mom said my dad had that happen with one of his teeth - the root was hooked on to the bone. Finally, just when I thought I'd be stuck with part of my tooth still in there, the damn thing came out. I think the dentist cheered but I'm not sure. At that point I was trying very hard not to cry because even though there wasn't any pain there was a lot of pressure and pulling.

Once he got everything cleaned up I was given gauze to bite on, which is fun to do with a numb mouth and an open wound in the very back of my mouth. No hard foods or hot liquids for today (at least), no straws, no swishing or mouthwash for a while, and an antibiotic to make sure it doesn't get infected. No pain meds - just over the counter stuff unless it gets really bad. I have been trying to eat what I can - yogurt, soft fruit, stuff like that. I did have some soup at supper and that was a mistake. Even though I didn't make it very hot, it was still too hot and made the injection area hurt. Or that could have been because my pain med was wearing off. Either way, I will have to avoid hot things for a bit. Ice cream, anyone?

As far as I can tell, it's actually where he stuck me with needles that hurts. The pain seems to be focused at the back of my mouth where my jaw flexes. Ice seems to be helping until the pain med kicks in. So, what I think both of us expected to be easy turned out to be a pain in the ass. I'm glad that this is the last major work I have to have done - at least for now. In a few weeks I go in to have some fillings redone but he looked at them and said they should be a piece of cake. Mmmm...cake. I think we have some cake. Yes, I'm hungry. This stupid soft food/liquid diet is not fun. I can't wait until I can eat a big, juicy burger again. Hopefully that will happen in a few days.