Take 'n Bake!!!! And I helped! Not because I wanted to, but because I had to bake it myself

So, you would think if you went to a pizza place and ordered a pizza, you should be able to, you know, get a ready-to-eat pizza, right? Well, yesterday, I found out that this notion is apparently... wrong!

So, yesterday evening whilst spending the night in Wisconsin, Josh knocked on our hotel door after going out to pick up some dinner. I opened the door and found him with a sad face and a saran wrapped uncooked pizza. He had gone to a place called Papa Murphy's, a pizza place where they assemble a pizza for you, and then you are suppose to take it home to bake yourself. Josh, unfamiliar with the 'take-n-bake' philosophy, paid the $12 for the pizza up front, and once he received the raw product was embarrassed to return it. Also, there was another customer in the store who had engaged in conversation with Josh about staying at the 'Super 8,' which isn't known for their in-room ovens, and they guy didn't even mention that self baking of the pizzas was required.

I'm sure people who are familiar with the 'take-n-bake' phenomenon don't find it weird at all, and honestly, I can see it being a little fun. Sure, it's custom assembled, and you can bake it at home and claim you did it all by yourself. But I'm just like... c'mon, it's fast food! It should be completely made for you! You don't go to McDonald's to pick up bread buns and a frozen patty. There shouldn't be any effort put into fast food other than the eating part.

Anyway, after I laid eyes on this pizza with it's doughy crust and after we had a huge laugh, I was determined to find a way to make this meal work for Josh. We contemplated using the microwave for a hot second, but the pizza was too big to fit inside and, oh yeah, it's not an oven. I called down to the lobby in search of an oven in maybe a kitchen facility in the building. The front desk laughed at me. I even called Papa Murphy's posing as a prospective customer asking if I were to order something, was there an oven I could possibly use? Well, turns out that they do have ovens, but they don't cook pizzas in them.

After that, we gave up. And Josh called up another fast food chain, Pizza Hut, which delivered a cooked pizza, plus cinnamon bread sticks. I tired to make a calzone with the huge raw pizza by ripping a chunk it and rolling up all the toppings into a dough ball. I actually got the crust to harden, but the inside was nasty, so I threw it out.

Lesson learned: Whenever you go to a pizza place, before you order, ask if they cook it there for you.

A Lion King Neighbor or... Welcome back to the blogging world, Brian...

Well, after my hiatus/days of non-blogging laziness, I am back with 3 weeks remaining on this tour.

Anywho, we are currently finishing up a 4 day sit down in Lansing, Michigan. Yes.... 4 days!!!! What a friggin' luxury! We've been able to call the Wharton Center at Michigan State University our home for the last 3 days. We got to leave the set up for so many days!

At this theatre, we got to perform on our very first thrust stage, which has made things super interesting... For one thing, since the audience can see us from the side instead of just from the front, we've had to keep acting even when we went behind things. When I've had to go behind the fence to hide the froggie in my pockets, I've had to give the side audience the 'shhh, don't tell anybody' face so they wouldn't scream "He's putting the froggie in his pockets" to the rest of the house.

Also, the sister and significantly larger theatre in the same complex was housing the touring production of the "The Lion King." Backstage, we got to walk past Hyena puppets and heard 'Circle of Life' pumping in over the monitors. We joked about joining the opening animal procession as our 'Max and Ruby' animal characters. Picture us following the giant Julie Taymor elephant in our Bunny Scout, Cowboy Lobster, and Alien Green Gorilla outfits. We would have fit in perfectly!

So, the little Simbas and Nalas and crew members caught our show, so in exchange they snuck us into the show between our two shows today. And it was so much fun! When the giant elephant skeleton set piece spun, I turned to Lauren and said "It's like our spinning house!" I have to say, that stampede scene never ceases to dumbfound me. Right when their intermission started, we had to head back to prep for our show, but on the way we met up with little Simba and little Nala, and chatted with them about both our shows and exchanged compliments. Man, I want to be in Lion King!

Anyway, we are off to Wisconsin tomorrow!