The Adventures of Krystal Kid: My dogs are barkin'!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

My dogs are barkin'!

For those not fluent in Southern Redneck, the phrase "My dogs are barkin'" means your feet are sore/tired. Dogs means feet, and you can figure out the rest. I seem to recall my sister in law, Amy, refers to it as "my peats is crackin'!" but you'd have to confirm that with her. I suspect I'll get hit the next time I go visit.
So why are my feet sore? Well yesterday I officially got my butt back in the classroom again. And for the record I never sit down while I teach a class. No offense to anyone else who teaches, but I find it rude to "teach" while you sit on your butt. Standing while I teach allows me to roam the room. This keeps sleepy students awake. (Unless they're in class in a roasting hot classroom on an Air Force base but that's another story.) It also allows me to quickly get over to a student who is having a problem to lend a hand if needed.
As you might recall I have 3 classes on Mon/Wed. I got my rosters last Friday and the first class had 3 students. Second class had 4 students. Third class had 5 students. Those who know me know that just is NOT my dream class. on the flip side, I have 2 classes on Tue/Thu. First class? 21 students on the roster. Second class? 22 students listed. this is also not my dream class size. I prefer around 10-12 students. So I spend the weekend preparing myself for feast and famine.
Yesterday, my first class had 1 student (one) my second class had 2 (two). Apparently a lot of students have't paid for their classes, or have dropped since I got my roster printed. Thankfully the 3rd class yesterday had some walk ins and sits at 6 students. Not great, but better than 1 or 2. Today's classes were around 15 and 18. The roster-run-around is supposed to be done soon. Yesterday was the last day to drop/add. If they haven't come to class at least once by the end of next week they get dropped automatically.
While it sounds messy and confusing, it still feels really good to be in a class where I actually hand out a syllabus, review attendance and grading policies, and talk about tests. I've missed this so much!
Back to my poor feet... five classes over the past two days wouldn't be too bad except I have had roughly a month off and my dogs aren't used to this kind of abuse. And yes, you know where this is going.
In honor of PETA's posterboy, Michael Vick, I decided to go out and abuse a few dogs myself this evening. (For the record, I do not care for the way PETA tries to get their message across, however I do agree in principle with what they stand for.)
For dinner this evening I returned to Trolly Stop for dinner. This time I brought my camera along.

As you can see there's a rather long (and at time nasty) assortment of dogs, I'd consider well over half of them to be "Abused Dogs." Last week I got my usual, which is the American Hot Dog (mustard, chili and onions) and I add cheese. I was feeling a bit frisky, and decided to go with the "Loaded" chili cheese fries. I asked them how messy they were and the reply was simple: "How messy do you want them?"

I think I love this place, in spite their obvious abuse of poor defenseless dogs.
Looking at the menu I decided to start near the top and work my way down.

Since the North Carolina dog and the All-The-Way dog are roughly the same I skipped the former and went straight for the All-The-Way dog. I also got a Surfer Dog. I had seen one previously and really couldn't decide if Baco Bits on a cheese dog would be a good or bad thing. From the look of them if I had to guess I'd say these were the Betty Crocker Bac-Os or some generic type. Now we all know how much I love BACON!! And yes we all know that Bac-Os are not really bacon. But then hot dogs are not really dogs, are they? Did you know Bac-Os actually qualify as vegan?!! (Remind me one day to tell you about when I, briefly, dated a vegan.)
I also got myself a drink and ate in for the free refills. I was unsure if the Surfer dog would go down without a fight, but I was quite sure the All The Way would be a struggle. And as of right now, I can feel that I have a small Michael Vick style dog fight going on in my tummy. Like Mike, I plan to drown them, except with a frosty bottle of Sundrop!
In all honesty the Surfer Dog was unremarkable. The Bac-Os only provided minor crunch, but their flavor was overwhelmed by the cheese. Or in the spirit of a SURFER dog, I should say the Bac'Os were wiped out by the tidal wave of cheese.
The All The Way dog was just strange. Normally when I eat a hot dog, I bite the toppings off in one bite then get the dog in the second bite. For this reason I usually put some "toppings" under the dog, and some on top. Even condiment distribution is essential for all foods. For the chili slaw dog I had to alter my normal eating style to try and get the "true" taste. I was, and am, less than impressed. Mentally I couldn't get past the idea that there was slaw on my hot dog. Gastronimically, the taste confusion was never resolved. My body was left unsatisfied, having been essentially jipped out of a chili dog, with a side of cole slaw.
As you can see from their menu they have no fear of throwing slaw on anything. I can also produce menus from other places around here where they put slaw on hamburgers and barbecue pork sandwiches. For now I refuse to defile my Krystals with slaw to produce a "North Carolina Style Krystal."
Slaw is a side dish, not a condiment. Ketchup is a condiment, not a side dish. Apparently they do not understand that up here. I am not against slaw, I happen to love good slaw. In fact this past weekend while visiting my parents, my grandmother made slaw. No one at the table put the slaw on anything and they're all from North Carolina. Must be all these people from out of state moving here and their first real plate of REAL barbebcue accidently got a little slaw on top of their barbecue, so they assume that's "North Carolina Style."
I have not yet found a cole slaw pizza, so I hereby trademark and copyright that idea. Knowing my luck, one of those California pizza nuts has already done it. I am also thinking North Carolina should change from being The Tar Heel State and just give in and be The Slaw Heel State.