I can't affordz cheezburger!

If only my scanner weren't giving me fits, I'd have a rather irritating addition to Wordless Wednesday, but since I seem to be hardware-challenged today, I'm stuck with the worded version!

Monday evening, after a nice day of browsing Heidelberg's Holiday Bazaar, we toodled off for what we *thought* would be an early dinner at Burger King on base. We should have known better. BK in the PX Food Court was CLOSED......at FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE EVENING!!!! Why, you ask? Well, it was Columbus Day. Sounds like a good enough reason to the management, I guess! Anyhoo, we got a bit disgusted and decided to try the other Burger King that Heidelberg has, next to where the Bazaar was being held. Lo and behold, they were open "late" that evening--till seven! A quick giggle should have sufficed, but we'd had some growing annoyance with Burger King as of late, so the nagging irritation with it didn't go away so easily. By the time we sat down to eat, I'd pretty much decided that we'd be boycotting Burger King the rest of our tour here in Germany. Pete was THRILLED to say the least.

I'm fed up. No pun intended, because for Heaven's sake, "fed" is not what I consider myself when I eat at Burger King lately. Inevitably, something we've gotten each time we've visited has been barely room temperature. I've been uber-sensitive about the temperature of my fast food for a long time, but come on...have you ever even tried to eat a cool BK onion ring? BLECH!!!! Monday night, my onion rings (the one weakness I have at Burger King) didn't have the slightest hint of warmth. I'm sorry, but when I'm paying $1.99 for ten onion rings, they'd best be hot, crispy, and finger-licking good!

What really beat all was the cost. I was so sick about the cost that I couldn't bear to part with the receipt, odd as that sounds. I somehow felt the need to have proof of how much the price of fast food has gone up over here in our "We save you money...everyday!" AAFES Food Courts. It's insane. See, when we left Germany the last time we were stationed here, I remember distinctly having to pay for the first all-adult meals, as the kids had finally gotten too big for kids' meals. Jon was ten, Kelsey eight. And that meal, for four, cost us $22. I was floored. I never imagined not being able to feed four people at a fast food joint for $20, and two days after we landed in the US, the cost was back under $15 for the same food. I knew it was going to cost more to feed a family of seven. Trust me, I'm not completely unrealistic. But see, the thing is we only buy ONE more meal now, as Morgan and Jamie still don't eat enough to justify buying two kids' meals.

So what was the tally that got my knickers so twisted? Here's the rundown of what we ordered:

1 Chicken crisp sandwich value meal $6.69 (for Pete)
1 Chicken crisp sandwich value meal, minus tomato $6.69 (for Jon)
1 9pc Chicken fry value meal $5.19 (for Kelsey)
1 Big Kids' 6pc chicken nugget meal $5.09 (for Morgan and Jamie)
1 Big Kids' double cheeseburger meal $5.09 (for me)
1 Large onion ring $1.99 (to share with Pete)
TOTAL.........$30.74

Inflation MY HINEY!!!!!!! You mean to tell me that at BURGER KING, the cost of just ONE additional kids' meal in TEN YEARS raises the price of a family's meal ticket to thirty bucks????

I truly can't affordz cheezburger.

Oh, and in case you have no idea what the deal is with the 'cheezburger' (since those of you who know me well know that I detest deliberate 'cutesy' misspellings), go check out this hilarious website! I laughed till my side hurt!