Fried Food, Flu, and (Somewhat) Free Flights

After the 20-mile run last Sunday, Cliff and I went to Boo Ray's for some electrolyte replacement.  While I chowed down on a side salad and red beans and rice and washed it down with two yummy Bloody Marys, the guy next to me went to town on some fettucini alfredo WITH FRIED CHICKEN ON TOP.  So I judged him for a second, and then I had food envy.  That looked goooooood.

On Monday Cliff and I had a lunch/movie date.  We had planned on eating sushi, but the restaurant in Lake Worth has obnoxiously bad customer service at times (and this was no exception).  So we mosied on over to Ginger Brown's Old Tyme Restaurant with an expired Groupon in hand (we ended up paying $1 plus tip with the $20 expired Groupon).  We each ordered the "Chicken Forever."  The meal came with rolls (I had two), two sides (I had mashed potatoes with gravy and macaroni and cheese), and a big, gooey cinammon roll.  For $8.95, you would expect a few little chicken strips, but instead we were faced with this... an entree-sized plate stacked with fried chicken.

And the movie "Argo" was just as good as this scrumptious artery-clogging lunch we ate!

I had been really looking forward to the Tempe/Las Vegas trip with my friends to see our buddy, Betsy, finish her first Ironman.  I woke up on Friday morning, fed the dogs, and got sick (repeatedly) in the kitchen sink.  Then I might have shed a tear or two because I had a 3:00 flight that afternoon and I knew that would be next to impossible to pull off.  After I slept a bit more, I headed to the doctor's office (with a bowl in hand... and then the doctor asked what the bowl was for... really, doctor?!?!).  I had a strep test (negative) and flu test (positive... what the heck, flu shot... way to let me down) and headed to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions for Tamiflu and some sort of anti-nausea medicine that dissolves on the tongue.  I figured, "no big deal, I can just pay the $150 change fee and change my flight to Saturday."  So I called American Airlines, got the new flight set up so I would arrive in Tempe at the same time as my friend Stacy, and then the customer service representative says "that will be $400."  UMMMM.... WHAAATTT???  Not only was there a $150 change fee, but there was also a $250 increase in the cost of the flight.  So I had to cancel it.  I stewed for a day and had a hard time seeing all of the fun Facebook posts from my friends in Tempe.  I played around with flights to Vegas, but they were pretty expensive on such short notice.  So then I had the genius idea to try to redeem AA miles (which never seems to work, by the way) and I was able to use 25,000 miles (plus pay a $5 transaction fee and $75 late booking fee) to head to Vegas for a few days.  Woohoo!

So I'm hanging around the house today and creeping on Facebook and Ironman Live to track Betsy's progress.  And in the meantime, I'll steal some of Sarah's photos and pretend like I'm really there in Tempe cheering Betsy on.  GOOOOO BETSYYYY!