Do you guys have Burger??

Apocalypse Mom, Redneck Widow, and Ginger Ninja all walk into a Walmart in the middle of the night. Sounds like the opening to a bad joke? Keep reading it gets worse.

So, many of us have problems with crowds around the holidays as people become rampant A-Holes and forget a little thing called mutual respect. So we avoid the holiday crowds in certain places. Luckily for us these places are generally open 24 hours a day. So, when we needed a last minute Wal-Mart trip, we decided to leave the house about 10:30 at night. No big deal, midnight wal-mart trips are usually cause for much hilarity around here. We put on our best PJ's, afix our worst southern accents and head out of the house giggling like crazy people. :) (Which is to say, we get up from wherever we're sitting and hop into the car.)

After about an hour and a half inside the Mart of Wal, we decide we have had enough but we should grab midnight munchies on the way home. Ginger Ninja has a craving for Burger King and there is one in the parking lot of our friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart... Handy that. So, we pull into the drive thru, commenting on how nice it is that they cover their ordering station. We listen to the opening pitch of guess what we have on sale, and we proceed to order.

"Hi, can we get an Angry Whopper with Chicken instead of Beef please?" I ask of the nice speaker that is blinking please order when ready at me.

"No!" It says back without hesitation

"Wait, what? Excuse me? Did you say No?" I ask, shocked.

"Yeah," Come this teeny bopper voice. "We're not allowed to do that, and I don't have any chicken. We turned off our broiler already."

"Your drive thru is open 24 hours, right?" I ask in confusion

"Well, Yeah," comes the reply, as if I am stupid cause I don't get it.

"Nevermind." I said as I pulled around and ignored her as we pulled away. Up the freeway we sped to the next Burger King between us and home. We pull in and are greeted by a friendly voice. I ask again:

"Can we get an Angry Whopper with chicken instead of Beef?"

"Oh yeah, but we're out of burger."

"What?"

"We don't have any patties."

"What do you have?"

"Chicken, and anything deep fried."

"Right, of course." I look at the girls expectantly, Apocalypse Mom shrugs while Ginger frowns at me, she has her heart set on a Whopper.

"Alright, nevermind, have a great night."

So up we drive to the very last Burger King between us and home, get to the drive through and ask my favorite question I have ever asked a fast food restaurant drive thru!

"So, do you actually have burgers?"

"Well, um... yes?" Answers the poor kid behind the speaker.

"Can I get an Angry Whopper with Chicken instead of Beef?"

"Yes, but we don't need burger to do that." answers who I assume is the manager. He sounds very amused.

"Awesome..." So then I begin to rattle off our order. To the nice man's credit, he got everything right.

So, kids, the moral of this story is that if you get midnight munchies and absolutely need Burger King, I wholeheartedly recommend the one at 122nd and Division! It is a good place and they are good at their jobs. Today, in cooperation with 99.5 The Wolf, a percentage of all their proceeds went to Dornbechers Children's Hospital!  So go there and spend money!

Christmas and the Holidays!

While running various errands and shopping it is inevitable that I am out of the house at meal time. Yet, with the holiday shopping I try to go cheap and fast... (no comments from the peanut gallery please). So there has been a lot of fast food lately. Which results in midnight drive through runs to all night fast food joints.... which leads to ridiculous questions... But that is another post.

So, we went adventuring and Apocalypse.Mom and I stopped at Pizza Baron. It is a cute little Pizza shop at 122nd and Division, in what is left of a dying strip mall. I had been there years ago with Painter Lady, and years before that with my parents. But memory often tricks me into thinking things are way better than they are. Unfortunately, that is how it went with Pizza Baron.

The service was accommodating to a fault, almost creepily so. They literally wanted to fix any problem we had just so we would order. And it didn't take long to figure out why. We were there for lunch, which consisted of pizza and salad bar. Pretty typical fare for a pizza joint now-a-days. We saw three other people come in, one was a regular. The place is decorated with team trophies and banners for all the youth sports in the area, and  they obviously back all of them. There is a big screen TV in the back room, an arcade on one side of the restaurant and a large fireplace in the middle.

It is a cute, quaint little place that looks to have been great at one time, but now is mediocre at best. Which is sad, it has so much potential. The food was ok... not bad, but not great either. It was an ok price for what we got, the salad bar needed a lot of help. But the service was good and quick and it was a quiet lunchtime retreat.

It is something I would like to see make a come back. I remember them being really terrific when I was a kid, and I would like it to be that great when I take my kids or grand kids (Someday, don't get any ideas boys) there. However, right now it is a place I would go if I didn't have anywhere else to try at the moment. And as it is surrounded by a Papa Murphy's, Burger King, Taco Time, and there is a Chinese place pretty close. I have a lot of other options.

But that is how my lunch at Pizza Baron went. What did you think Apocalypse.Mom?