Papa Murphy's Pan Pizza

Anthony and I tried the new Papa Murphy's Pan Pizza tonight for dinner.

We both like their pizza.  It's reasonably priced, delicious, and you bake it yourself so it's hot and ready when you want to eat.

The pan pizza is the first thing I would recommend you do not order... unless you're a fan of oil.  They do something pretty odd with it:  They coat the cooking tray with oil.  LOTS of oil.  I am going to make the assumption that it keeps the crust from drying out when it cooks but it turns the pizza so oily that it's barely edible.  You could wring liquid out of it after taking it out of the oven.  If you add in any meat toppings (we got pepperoni and sausage), you'll have enough oil inside of you after eating it that you may be in danger of trying to avoid Exxon oil exploration crews wanting to drill into you.

Every other kind of pizza Papa Murphy's offers:  Good.  Pan pizza:  Not so much.

Meeting Ali Vincent

I met Ali Vincent today.  She was the first female winner of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" (I believe it was in season five), and now stars in "Live Big With Ali Vincent" on the Live Well Network.

She is a very interesting and nice woman and kind enough to pose for a photo when she visited the TV show today.

Ken Carr and Ali Vincent.
She was the season 5 winner of The Biggest Loser
and now stars in Live Big With Ali Vincent on the Live Well Network.
One of us has fabulous hair... I'll let you decide who.

The first time I saw mechanically separated turkey

Anthony and I did our usual Sunday evening routine today:  Dinner and grocery shopping.

Tonight's dinner was at Culver's at Broadway and Prudence.  He had chicken tenders and cheese curds and I had a chicken sandwich.  It was one of the rare Sunday nights we've gone there where the restaurant wasn't full and it was also a rare occasion that Anthony didn't get ice cream.  I had to check when we left to see if it was a full moon.

We went to Walmart Neighborhood Market at Broadway and Camino Seco for the grocery shopping part of our excursion.  It's a good location to go to on Sunday night because it's not crowded, but they have less of a product selection than the store we go to most often on 22nd Street.  I also spotted two products I had never seen before in the frozen foods section:  Mechanically Separated Turkey (it actually said it on the tube) and pork chitterlings.  I had never heard of pork chitterlings until today.  I had to look up what they were on Google and it turned out they're the small intestines of a pig, and apparently popular in the southern states of the U.S.  Since we don't live in the south, I wonder if they will sell very well at that store.  I know I wouldn't be buying any.

Culver's after dark at Broadway and Prudence

Anthony kindly removes the pickle from the top of my chicKEN sandwich.
I don't care for pickles.

Anthony looks mysterious and slightly sinister behind the cheap paper napkin

One of the paper menus at Culver's...
which apparently may stain surfaces if it's wet.
Sounds like a date I've had.

Buzz Ballz at Walmart Neighborhood Market
They have alcohol and are in cute little ball shapes.
Not the kind of thing I'd picture an ax wielding hairy biker drinking,
but who am I to judge?

Sneaky photo of Anthony in the snack cake aisle

Festive brand taco seasoned mechanically separated turkey
The turkey at least has some help from soy protein to make this delicious.

Five pound bags of Queenella pork chitterlings (which are pig intestines).
All natural, no additives!
That's what we all should demand from our frozen pig intestines.

Dole Dippers -- strawberry halves covered in dark chocolate.
A perfect dessert after a five pound bag of pig intestines and a pound of
mechanically separated taco seasoned turkey.

Peeps!  It must be getting close to Easter.
This year, you can choose between the regular Peeps and exciting
flavors like Party Cake, Sour Watermelon, Sweet Lemonade and Bubble Gum.
Anthony spotted these and wanted to hump the display.

Magic Eraser from Mr. Clean -- with my cartoon like picture on the box.
(Except for the blue eyes, grey eyebrows, and muscular arms... details, details)

I spy with my little eye Anthony eating a piece of pie

I rewarded Anthony for not being blind at his eye exam with lunch at Village Inn on Oracle Road today.

I had chicken fried steak and he had eggs and pancakes.  It was 2 p.m. so it was kind of a brunch.  Anthony ate like a rockstar and he was able to save room for pie.  Village Inn has wonderful pie.

They used to have a location near where we live, but it's closed now and a store called Mattress Firm is in it's place.  (I refuse to eat mattresses so I don't go in there).  The Village Inn we ate at is on the other side of Tucson.  I like the food there, so it was fun that we were over there for his eye exam and didn't have to make a special trip.

This table remained full of dirty dishes near us for about an hour.
I started thinking that maybe it was an art exhibit.

Mr. Perfect Eyes waiting for his food at Village Inn.
The table of dirty dishes photo bombed this picture.

I have a fork, now give me my food dammit!

Anthony had an OCD moment -- lining up everything he needed to eat his food.

Anthony's eggs, taters, bacon and pancakes with peanut butter chips

I had chicken fried steak on texas toast with eggs and bacon on top.
It was KENtastic.

I don't know why they polluted my delicious food with that chunk of fruit.

Anthony's chocolate peanut butter cup pie.
After eating this, I rolled him out to the car.

Anthony's first eye exam since 1994

I accompanied Anthony (I drove him actually) to his first eye exam in 20 years today.  He was a little nervous and it didn't help that I told him I was going to take pictures.  I'm helpful like that.

We went to Accent On Vision on the other side of town.  It's the same place I get my eye exams.  They have a nice staff there and we were in and out in about 45 minutes.

He has perfect vision.  His complaints of the occasional headache isn't apparently due to eye strain.  It's more likely it's a result of having to put up with me.

Anthony fills out the new patient paperwork at Accent On Vision

Reading the eye chart one eye at a time

Anthony looks into the eye health examination machines.
It's a good thing they don't require socks.

Considering the look on Anthony's face while peering into this machine,
I'm guessing it must show cake.

The map of the inside of Anthony's eye.
One wrong turn and you'll end up in Albuquerque.

The back of the inside of Anthony's eye.

It looks like he's being fitted for Robocop headgear

Anthony asked me to take a selfie of us together.
One of us has perfect eyesight, the other perfect hair.

A high flying cheerleader and busted box

A couple of unique photos I shot during this week's shows:

Some of the crew from the Chaos Elite cheer squad do a lift in the studio.
Not only did they lift her up into the rafters with the studio lights, but she
did that leg extension thing to take it up a notch.

We had a couple of movie / TV stuntmen on this week.
One broke a wooden box over the other one's head.
I cranked the shutter speed up on my camera and nailed a pretty good action shot.

The Seasoned Woman isn't covered in salt

I went to a video shoot for an upcoming segment at a store called Seasoned Woman yesterday.

It turns out that while there are women in the store... they don't have seasonings.  It's a gift and nick-nack type of store.  I offered to get some salt to season the women that were in there, and they laughed.  It's a good thing they didn't know I was semi-serious.

Inside of the Seasoned Woman store

Another interior shot of the store

Lovely (but fake) flowers

The store smelled really good thanks to these candles

Purple soap, perfect for Barney the dinosaur

Get a bag and matching lamp

Production team shooting a segment at the store

More video, different location inside of the store

I found one of my relatives at Monkey Burger

Anthony and I did our normal Sunday evening thing today:  Dinner and grocery shopping.  He almost didn't go, but after assuring him that I would buy he changed his mind.

We went to Monkey Burger in the Williams Center at Broadway and Craycroft.  I've heard about this restaurant before and someone posted yesterday that they were there on Facebook and I thought it would be fun to try.

It was the best burger and fries I've had in a long time.  It's not cheap (9 bucks or so for a burger) but you do get your money's worth.  Both Anthony and I ordered the "Kitchen Sink" which has the meat, bacon, French fries, pickle spears, lettuce and tomato.  I gave Anthony my pickles (I don't like food that has been soaked in vinegar).  We also each got an order of fries and they were really good.

Bottom line:  I'd recommend eating there.  One odd thing:  The sign on the door said they closed at 7 p.m. on Sundays but we were one of the last customers they took orders from.  They started telling people that came in after 6 p.m. (we got there just before) that they were closing. Flaky move, Monkey Burger.  I hope it was a one time issue.

After dinner, we went to Walmart Neighborhood Market for groceries.  I found Butt Seasoning and Nut Topping.  Now my inner 10 year old is satisfied.

My stomach still hurts three hours after dinner from eating so much at Monkey Burger.  It was totally worth it.

Interior of Monkey Burger at Broadway and Craycroft in Tucson

It appears they knew how old I am

Anthony sucking on a straw while my long lost relative
photo bombs the photo (near the door on the right)

If you don't like the food or the people at Monkey Burger,
you're provided a weapon to murder them with.

The Kitchen Sink burger at Monkey Burger with fries in the silver cup

Open wide big boy!

Like a boss, Anthony finishes the whole thing.

Monkey Burger has a statue of one of my relatives.
The resemblance is amazing, isn't it?

Two days after Valentine's Day, and the Easter candy is already out at Walmart Market.

Anthony, the sassy Easter candy eater

Is your butt kind of bland?
Now, thanks to Kernel Season's, you can get Butt Seasoning.
And, it's made with real butt-er.

To go along with the Butt Seasoning, try some Nut Topping.

Tim McGraw Gift Cards for Outback Steakhouse
Apparently a popular gift... there were only a few left.