Catchy Name Needed

I am sitting here eating quinoa, which I have never had before in my life, to my knowledge. It's pretty good, really. Like rice with a little more body, or something. I cooked it (and almost scorched it) and then I didn't know what to do with it, so I just threw a little garlic butter in it. I'll have to look for some alternate uses for it. (I guess any recipe with rice would pretty much be a candidate.)

I tried it because it's on Weight Watcher's "filling foods" list, which is sort of a new thing they've come up with this year. I like it, because I am not good with the meal planning, but I can get down with "eat a lot of fruit" as the basis of a diet plan. - That's not all that's on the list, you understand, but I like fruit, generally, so that's the piece of it I gravitated to.
( More about food, and an illustration! )

Notes from the road:
-- Stuckey's is apparently not completely dead. On the way up we saw several "Stuckey's Express" places (Tennessee-ish, but I won't swear to which states exactly that was) but today we saw what was apparently a full-fledged Stuckey's in northwestern Missouri. We didn't stop to verify this, though.
-- There are actual bluffs in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
-- There is a chain of convenience stores - we mostly saw them around Des Moines - called Kum & Go, which utterly cracks me up. I can only think that they have been around long enough to pre-date porn culture - it just seems like one of those names you can't really get away with any more. I think it would have to have been grandfathered in, so to speak.
-- In Illinois there were Burma-Shave style signs in several places for several different things - many of them were for a pro-gun site called (I believe) gunssavelives-dot-com. (No way I'm linking to it directly.) Unfortunately I didn't think to write down any of the jingles.
-- We saw a big wind-farm apparently in the process of being built in central Iowa. I had seen a truck pass us earlier carrying one of the rotating arms for the things, and I was wondering what that huge white thing was, but I had no idea until I looked at the assembled one and noticed the resemblance. They are actually sort of creepy because they're so huge. I am sort of hoping we will see some that are actually functioning when we get into Kansas and Oklahoma tomorrow.
-- In the pantheon of chain restaurants commonly found along interstates, we have decided that Bob Evans is the star. And Cracker Barrel seems to be sliding further downhill. (I can't vouch for the rest of Bob Evans' menu, actually, but the crepes are stellar. So all I ever eat is the combo with sausage, eggs and a crepe. I have tried the crepes out in blueberry, strawberry and apple varieties and they are all good.)
-- Iowa was much prettier than I expected - I think I thought it would be flat. It's pretty because of the hills. Monotonous, but pretty.

Oh, also, we crossed the river into Omaha, mostly just so we could cross a state off our list (Rob has entered into this nonsense too, btw) and we saw Rosenblatt Stadium, where they have the College World Series. So we thought that was cool.

Tomorrow? KC, Topeka, then take the turnpike down towards Oklahoma. I believe our hotel reservations tomorrow are in Ardmore. And we may start buying some of those fun necessities from those lists we posted earlier (mosquito repellant, etc) before we get to Texas.

I wrote this at 1am last night - for some reason I had a sudden urge to update, although my dialup threw me off and I didn't post it then. So here was my day yesterday. (Is it necessary to say that all the times are approximate?)

9:15am - Wake up. Decide I don't need to get up yet and roll over.
9:45 - Wake up again, but now I'm running late. Get up and put clothes & makeup on. Make Rob go to office and check for packages in case Mom's package is there. (It's not.)
10:15 - Leave for baseball game. Listen to UT-OU game on radio.
11:15 - In general vicinity of stadium. Cuss because normal (free) parking space is full. Drive around looking for parking that's not $10. Park in garage which is miraculously charging only the normal price of $5.
11:30 - Fight crowds flocking into baseball stadium. Stand in line so that guard can glance into purse (ostensibly looking for bombs, really looking for food, as far as I can tell). Go up to lower-nosebleed seats. View is actually ok. Guy sitting next to me is taking up more than his allotted seat, though.
12:10pm - Pick at Rob's BBQ baked potato as game starts. Decide I'm not hungry.
12:30ish - Carlos Beltran hits homer to put Astros up 2-0. Yell and scream a lot.
1:00 - Braves tie score. I feel sick.
1:30 - Astros score 3 more runs. Jump up and down a lot. Suddenly I feel much better.
1:30-2:30 Astros score more runs. Score now 8-2. (UT-OU score occasionally posted on Diamondvision shows UT losing by increasing amounts.)
2:30 Andruw Jones hits 3-run homer to make it 8-5. Now I am very nervous.
3:15 Brad Lidge strikes out the last batter. Astros win. Much screaming ensues. Suddenly very hungry.
4:15-4:45 Go to Wal-mart; go in through garden center and find pansies (finally!) and then find - the actual reason for this visit - cards for the birthday people and a gift certificate for the one who is not my mother. Dissuade Rob (at least temporarily) from buying another rifle.
5:00 Meet for birthday celebration at italian restaurant. Explain to my mother why her gift has not arrived. Try to pretend we didn't buy the cards 15 minutes earlier. Eat very very well.
6:30 Go to my mother's house. Admire new quilt that she made this week (while sick). Watch Yankees come back and tie game against the Twins, dammit.
7:30 Go to cool new grocery store. Spend too much money.
9:00 Get home. Water plants. Help Rob clean up bottle of pasta sauce he dropped on floor.
9:30 Watch "Lima Time" aka the Dodgers-Cardinals game. Log onto computer.
10:00 - Go into chat. Stay for approximately 2-1/2 hours.
12:30am - Leave to go to bed but play computer games instead.