I'm back!!!  Hopefully I will continue to write this blog and not be so overwhelmed by other things.  I really do miss writing little tidbits that I experience or notice on a daily basis.  This one is about our trip to Applebees for lunch yesterday.  The neighbors gave us a very generous gift card to use there and when my hubby suggested stopping for lunch somewhere, I brought up the card.  I enjoy eating out wherever we go and that's why I usually leave the decision up to my hubby.  It's not because I want to take a back seat or anything submissive in nature but, after 39 years of marriage you learn when and where to assert yourself.  However, he was the one who wanted to go to Applebees and after initially trying to get him to go somewhere else, we ended up there.  From my perspective the meal was great.  This was the type of meal I wish more restaurants would offer.  By this I mean smaller quantities or portions along with smaller prices.  I ended up having the soup and half sandwich combo which was more than enough for me.  What bothers me about other places is that the sizes are so big that I have to take half home and usually it dries out before I get a chance to eat it or reheating it is not a very good option.  The sandwich was well filled with meat, cheese, bacon and condiments and the soup was full of fresh vegetables.  I probably shouldn't have ordered the diet coke because that always fills me up too quick.  The last thing I noticed was the dessert menu which intrigued me.  Two things on it were the brownie bite for a dollar and ice cream shooters for $1.99.  My hubby had the brownie bite and I had the hot fudge sundae shooter and both of us got more that what we expected and it was delicious!  I read somewhere that you only need 3 bites of something to satisfy a craving for it.  I think it was true.  Anyway, lunch was a success, in my opinion and the bill only came to $25.29  -  only .29 over our gift card.  All in all the day went very well, money wise because I took back some things from Christmas, found other things that I needed and got a free lunch to boot.