Chocolate Castles as wel

Peter has reached an all time low. We had just finished mailing off some packages when RC  announced that since I had had a great lunch sitting outside Corner Bakery with a good friend after art class, he deserved at least a $1 drink from QT. My sister in law has been telling me about  QT and all the different tea flavored drinks. They have absolutely any flavor of tea, coffee or soft drink imaginable, allowing you to mix any flavor in any drink, all for $1.

Peter Pumpkin, being in the groove of the Fall season, had been out running errands all morning while I was in art class and never stopped for lunch.  I told him that I wanted a drink also, so in to QT we go. We don’t like to think of ourselves as retirees that stop in at Micky D’s for afternoon coffee and apple pie or that cute little ice cream cone they have, so we think that it sounds much more “hip” to say we stop at QT to get refreshed.

I head over to the tea dispensers and decided on Black Current-Mango flavored tea and turn around to see what he is choosing. He had disappeared. I walked all over the drink section, but no hubby in sight. I take my giant $1 drink and proceed to go looking for Mr. Excitement.

As I neared the hot dog counter where they are turning over and over and over, just to get the perfect doneness (how perfect can they get, we are, after all, in QT) all the while looking up at you and saying, “pick me, pick me”. I look over to see my husband who will not go to a buffet because the caliber of the food he says, is not quite up to par. He is standing over the turning hot dogs just waiting for the perfect hot dog to come along. Who is this person? He has gathered his clear plastic hot dog holder and is loading up the bun, which you take from under the counter, and loading it with mustard out of a little packet, chopped onions, that have probably been there for 5 days and then tops it off with pico di gallo (I’m sure that’s not how it is spelled, but I’m too lazy to go look it up).

This is truly a Candid Camera moment. We have been married for 18 years and this is the first time I have seen him get a hot dog from a convenience store. Apparently, the line we had to wait to check out tells me that other retirees have caught on that Micky D’s is not the “in” place for seniors who are out roaming around in the afternoon.  I was so disturbed by the time it took us to check out that I told him I was craving ice cream. We decided that maybe McDonalds wasn’t so bad, so we headed over there and treated ourselves to hot apple pies, ice cream cones and him a “free” senior coffee All that after the $1 drink and $1 hot dog. So now, Peter is excited that we have found  yet another place in town that he can get a lunch under $2.50….sometimes even heading over to Costco to get our free samples to go with our 3:00 senior coffee.  He says that he is going home to google QT and map out our food stops for when we are on the road next week. He did promise that he will alternate QT, Micky D’s,QT, Micky D’s, so as not to get bored with our meals along the way. I’m hoping that maybe he will splurge while traveling and treat me to a  from Taco Bell  meal…but he informed me  that would only be if our retirement check comes in before we leave.  Love this new retirement season, it just keeps getting more and more exciting!