Melinda Lou and other meanderings

We ate at Melinda Lou's yesterday, where there are currently vinyl clings on the door so you can pretend you have fabulous Melinda Lou hair. And Carl was all too happy to make me giggle by lining his mug up with those famous red locks.

What? You didn't know that???
Yes, it's true.
Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's fast food chain, named the chain after his daughter "Wendy", whose real name is Melinda Lou.


Carl commented that we haven't heard any other facts about her, other than having the fast food chain named after her, so he came up with his own conclusion about Miss Melinda Lou.

"Isn't it odd that we've never heard much about her? She probably went on a 12 state crime spree and now has a few chains of her own."

After I quit laughing, I vowed I would track ol' Melinda Lou down. I discovered she's had her hand in the business since her dad died. Now, the next time you're out and need a quick bite to eat, do consider stopping at Wendy's Melinda Lou's.

And while we're talking about food, you'd think we wouldn't have to eat out after what I put Carl myself through in the kitchen several nights ago. It was past the hour when the carriage turned back into a pumpkin, when I suddenly got the urge to fire up the kitchen. I was simultaneously baking a cake (a horse cake for my daughter's birthday, which was in, um,...July), boiling eggs that were nearing their expiration, and frying up chicken for my freezer stockpile. Carl was too tired to argue happy to help. Actually, "happy" might not be the best word, as he did state, "Could you start anything else at midnight thirty?"

It was all worth it the next day though, when we sang, "Happy horse cake to you," (well what would you sing?) as Olivia beamed ear to ear over her "three month anniversary of my 8th birthday" surprise cake (as bad as this very late cake sounds, she did have other cakes for her actual birthday).


This past week also brought a little holiday surprise. While driving down the road looking at Halloween decorations, I found myself simultaneously listening to 93 days of Christmas music on the radio. 93.1FM apparently has a very festive bunch of listeners. How else do you justify their liberty of taking 3 months air time and allotting it for Christmas music? I just can't believe that anyone can stomach NINETY THREE days of Christmas music. Carl said it could have been worse though. 107.9 could have come up with the idea, which means we would have had to listen to 2 more weeks of it. Oh, the insanity.

Finally, my kids entered the fun spell round of our local spelling bee today. They got to experience what it's like to be in the official bee without being, um, official. My Reece is 5 years old and he was the youngest person in the bee. And what a hoot he was. They had to stand in line, then step up to a mark on the floor when it was their turn. Reece would HOP HOP HOP onto the mark every time. The announcer even said, "I'm looking to see if I can give you the word hop, but it's not on here." Oy vey! Then, when he correctly spelled a word, he would flash that Grinch-like smile of his as he headed to the back of the line, causing giggles to break out in the audience.


And here I thought he was going to be too shy to raise his voice above a whisper. Sigh.

Toni