Something Interesting

I was going to write out an interesting thought provoking post but it looks like the baby is waking up after her stellar 45 minutes of sleep so I’m going to do that instead.  Rinse, repeat.  I’ll let you know if anything changes!

November

I cannot believe we are at the half way point for November!  November?  November!?  Where has this year gone?  Seriously?!?  

Mr. T and I spent last week in Pennsylvania among the Amish and the history.  It was a pleasant way to spend our anniversary.  We visited Lancaster (and all the oddly name little towns nearby…our stay was in Paradise, right up the road from Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse), Gettysburg, Baltimore, Valley Forge, and Philadelphia.  I had a lovely hour long bath with reading.  Heaven!  We went to the National Aquarium (Chattanooga is better, surprisingly!) and met up with Uncle Apple.  We ate a terrible meal which was disappointing and had surprisingly fantastic food at Attman’s Deli in Baltimore.  Overall, it was alright.  

One really, to me, hilarious sight were the “Occupy Lancaster” protestors.  Seriously?  I thought the “Occupy Nashville” people were really pushing it for legitimacy but “Occupy Lancaster” was over the top.  

AU now has 2 teeth and is practicing standing without holding on.  Very exciting stuff.  

Several times a week I think of what might be interesting blog postings but now here I am and cannot think of one of them.  Oh!  If you are local stay far, far, far away from Belcourt Taps and Tapas.  Gross and expensive.   Chuy’s downtown has opened and isn’t as crowded as you might think. 

See, lame?  I’ll end the misery now.  :)

CLF and Seattle

Thursday BFF, darling daughters, and I headed down to Atlanta to join my Mom and her BFF for a Country Living Fair at Stone Mountain Park. We stayed in a suite hotel nearby and were met by my Dad for dinner on Thursday evening.

It is always a little bit nerve wracking to go to a fine dining establishment with kiddos >1 and 1+. You never know when the meltdown from the long day of travel or having dangling feet (from highchairs that don’t have foot support) is going to rear its head. Fortunately for us and our fellow Feast (in Decatur) patrons we avoided drama among our small set. We did not avoid delicious food and slow service however.

The fried mushrooms and crab dip were table favorite appetizers. We also got fried chicken livers with cooked pears which I cannot comment on because I tried neither but I can say my little girl tore up the pears she was given. BFF and I shared a sausage and pepper pizza and a thick bone-in porkchop with green apple relish and chili potato mash. Both were good. For dessert? A sampler of coconut cake, blueberry cobbler, key lime pound cake, and a creme brulee. All were fantastic.

Friday morning we got up before “really early” and went over to Stone Mountain Park to enjoy our early bird entry tickets. Oh, and we did! At 10:30am when the masses were admitted it was very, very crowded for shopping booths with a stroller so we really appreciated the smaller crowd from being early. On both days we saw lots of pretty, pretty, pretties and bought things like sweater wreaths, new fabric and oil cloth, vintage linens, and got good ideas (like picture and Christmas ornament displaying). We also saw the “Fabulous Beekman Boys” and several craft book authors. It was a great time!

I will say, “For shame, for shame Country Living! The food at your cafe was AWFUL.” In fact, BFF who may not have the regular readership of CLM that I have commented that if this was how Country Living recipes tasted she wouldn’t be making any. Since I know for a fact she makes recipes from cookbooks that don’t have pictures that is a pretty harsh criticism.

On Sunday morning Mom, Au, and I got up early and went to the airport so that Au and I could fly to Seattle to meet my brother for a few days of fun. The flight was fairly uneventful. I was able to upgrade to business class which was awesome and significantly improved our experience. Coach was full, business class was full so the extra 6 inches of room might as well have been heaven. Plus the extra water was fantastic not only for hydration but because the only thing a baby like more than 1 half empty water bottle is 2. She did cry for the last 5 minutes of the flight but I couldn’t hold that against her. My brother was there to meet us, we got our rental car, installed the car seat and took off. We spent the afternoon walk down by the sound and through Pike Place market. We drove around and found the town of Madison down by Lake Washington. I knew if we headed back to the room dinner would not be an option…very tired…so we decided to eat at one of the more seemingly family friendly options in Madison rather than in our trendier (more bars) hotel neighborhood.

We settled on a pizza place called “The Independent Pizzeria” and it was one of the best meals I have had in memory. Seriously. I know, I know, pizza? Best meal? I would not have put those words in the same sentence lightly. Oh, there was the spider incident (Brother felt something on his face, wiped his mouth, and dropped a black (with design on its back!) spider onto his plate. Yikes!!!) but even that didn’t dull the luster of the experience. It is a tiny place- 1 community table that seats 8, 3 tables for 2, 1 table for 4, and a couch with a coffee table. We had a delicious salad, a spiderific antipasto, and 2 of the best pizzas in the world. The crust was thin but chewy, had lovely dark brown bubbles, and just the right amount of delicious toppings. Bro got the “State Fair” with tomato sauce, mozzerella, shaved green peppers, and shaved sausage. I got the Florentine with tomato sauce, mozzarella, grana (don’t know what that is), spinach, garlic, and a soft egg on top. OH.MY.GOODNESS. Is was SO good. You know how yummy it is to sop the thickened yolk with toast–buttery, creamy–well it is even better on pizza. No joke. (And I’m proud of myself for being adventurous enough to try it!) For dessert we had chocolate pudding ice cream and salty carmel ice cream. Both of which were fantastic. Jeni’s Splendid’s dark chocolate is better but this did have the distinct chocolate pudding taste. But the salty carmel? I have not had better. As a clarification I feel I need to say that I’m not a big salty carmel fan. I just have had some that didn’t taste good to me. I don’t like Jeni’s. Too dark and too salty. But this? It was sublime. Just the right amount of burn on the sugar (it was surprisingly light) and a light hand on the salt. I’m going to try it at home with Jeni’s recipe and see how I like that.

Overall it has been a fantastic past few days…we are off to Top Pot Doughnut for a breakfast treat…

Not Brunch People?

I have always wanted to be a “brunch person”.  I’m not really sure what that phrase means precisely but I always pictured a “brunch person” to be someone who on Sunday morning after church goes to their local fabulous restaurant and drinks coffee (hot chocolate?), reads the paper, eats delicious food, does the crossword with their friend/spouse, has sparkling *and* important conversations with friend/spouse, and the weather is a perfect 40 degrees (if it is an indoor brunch) or 70 if is is outdoors.  All without hurry or worry.

Evidently though I am not this kind of person.  Sad but true.  Instead, I’m someone who goes to brunch on Sunday morning after church to what I hope is a local fabulous restuarant only to have to leave aforementioned restaurant after an hour and twenty minutes because Mr. T has to go to work.  Oh, did I mention the food we ordered never came?  Yeah.  That was bad.  So the dilema is do we ever go back there again?

Charleston was fabulous!  We went to the beach, the tea plantation, took a carriage ride (with two giggly hysterically at one another littles girls!!!), explored the city, shopped.  The only thing on the agenda which we didn’t really get to was “eating good food”.  Oh, well.  Au made out like a bandit between the outlet mall shopping and the fancy fall dress buying.  Mr. T got some souvenir tea from the tea plantation.  I got to have a great time!

Au and I went up to Indiana to visit my Grandparents and my Mom (who arrived to visit them a day after we did) and had such a good time we didn’t want to leave.  My cousin and her son, my other cousin, and my aunt came over to visit on Friday morning.  It was fun to see the kiddos play together.

I am really wanting to bake and cook right now but Au is sleeping next to me and I’m afraid if I move she’ll wake up.  She has discovered a new trick: screaming shrilly.  It is awful and goes all over me.  I’m pretty sure she scream if she wakes up so I’m going to resist the call of fresh baked bread and chocolate ooey gooey bars– for now.  I made pumpkin ooey gooey bars last week and over the weekend made scratch caramel apples.  I <3 fall!

I drove by one of the “occupy” protest on Saturday evening.  I wanted to show my displeasure at their inane protest and so I rolled my window down and gave them a thumbs down as I passed.  Harsh, I know but someone has to be truthful.  I adamantly support their freedom of speech and protest but why not occupy Hollywood?  Or, even better, stop putting words in my mouth.  Ninety-nine percent?  I don’t think so.  You don’t speak for me.  Anyone with a 401K, 403B, mutual fund, or who appreciates innovation and invention would be wise to not demand the collapse of wall street.  Do I agree that money is the problem?  Sure!  The government shouldn’t be taking so much of our money and redistributing it.  Gonna stop not before I start soapboxing…

Tomorrow Au turns 8 months old.  I can hardly believe it.  My how fast, how fast the time does fly!!!  Next week she and I will head down to Atlanta for the Country Living Fair.  I’m so excited!!!

A Whole Month!

Time has really flown by!  I cannot believe it has been a month since I posted last.  Sorry about that!

So, about this time a month ago we were packing to go to Mr. T’s Grandfather’s funeral.  :(  We were very fortunate that we had visited with AU the week before and she got to snuggle her Great Grandad and Mr. T got to visit one last time.

We were supposed to have a “practice” flight to my grandparents’ during that same time but wound up driving up there after the funeral.  We had a nice visit and even got to spend an extra day together which was great.  But not getting in the practice flight before AU and I flew to Calfornia made me nervous, nervous.

We spent Labor Day weekend with my parents in Chattanooga.  We had a really low key, pleasant time hanging out, napping, eating, and only did a little sightseeing.  We went to the Sunday market which was big fun until some unpleasant weather rolled in.  Fortunately, we had the foresight to leave when we noticed the temperature rapidly falling.  We made some stellar Pioneer Woman grits–used jalepeno bacon and added a few jalepenos too for good measure– and some Jeni’s ice cream.  Decadent for sure!

A few days after returning, AU and I packed up and flew to California to visit Jenny and Scott.  AU did wonderfully on the airplane.  She nursed at all the take offs and pretty much slept the rest of the flight.  Things could not have gone better on the way out there.  On the way back I was violated by TSA.  AU and I came through the metal detector fine, our stuff x-rayed fine, and we moved over to one of the tables to get reassembled (I was carrying AU on my front, had a purse and a diaper bag, and the carseat on my back, had medications to put pack along with the one quart bag, oh, and I had to put my shoes on!) and just as I was finished I was approached by a female TSA agent and told that the “rules had recently changed” and she would have to give me a thorough pat down.  I said okay.  She proceded to frisk my back.  No problem.  Then she said she was going to do my leg.  She started at my knee and patted up, up, up, up.  I jumped from surprise which seems to me be a normal reaction to having one’s outer labia touched by a complete stranger in public.  But,perhaps, I’m a bit of an old-fasioned conservative woman?  Immediately after I jump, the TSA agent says, “I told you what I was going to do.”  I said, “That wasn’t my leg.”  She proceeds to ask in a very aggressive voice tone if we need to move to a private area.  I assure her that we don’t, that she can finish, that I’m being an obedient sheep who is willing surrendering her rights to privacy in order to fly home.  Okay, that last part was the demeanor I was attempting to affect in order to compensate for my knees shaking and to avoid further issue.  She did the same thing on the other side and when she moved to the front she even gave my mons a little squeeze.  Yuck.  Yuck.  Yuck.  The whole situation was just infuriating especially when I cried then on the way to the gate.  I don’t know why she was so aggressive and hostile.  I’m not sure why TSA believes that touching my private areas makes flying safer.  I brought a whole bag of medications–mostly over the counter– that could have contained any number of compounds.  People who want to hurt us are going to get around these ineffective procedures.  But the soapbox position isn’t beneficial either.  So, moving right along!

AU is growing like a weed–she is in 12 month sizes already!  She is clapping, pulling herself to stand in the bathtub, army crawling here and there.  Although, poor baby!  She must be allergic to fish as for the second time in three times of eating fish she has vomited it up, hours later.  She is laying by me all puny right now.  Poor thing!

Tomorrow we fly with BFF and LittleMissE to Chareston, SC to have a girl’s weekend.  I’m really looking forward to it.  We plan to hit the Janie and Jack outlet, the beach, the new market, wander through the historic district, and thoroughly relax and enjoy ourselves!  Hopefully the rental car will be big enough!

I’m way behind on the ice cream blog but made some delicious rocky road last week.  I’ve been sewing some–stiched up most of a new winter dress for myself and a jazzy apron dress for AU.  I’m rereading Anne of Green Gables.  Last night for dinner we had our first official fall meal–grilled chicken, sauteed veggies, and pumpkin ravioli in brown butter sage cinnamon sauce.  It was glorious!  I’ve been nominated to head up the fellowship committee for my Sunday School class.  We had a planning meeting last week and came up with some great things I think–wreath making, chocolate tasting, camping out.  Should be good times!

Okay, I promise to post back about the Charleston trip and other tidbits in the next few weeks!

Travel: Love and Hate

First the high, high praise to Southwest Airlines!  I have always liked Southwest–great fares, fair seating, friendly service–but today, my like turned to full grown, head-over-heels LOVE.  I bought 2 round trip tickets during a recent fare sale but will probably have to change plans at the last minute.  I called to find out what the fee would be to make the change and found out that, it isn’t just my sparkling personality, for ALL of their customers changes are FREE.  Yep.  We get every penny we paid as a credit for future travel.  Yahoo!  In this day and age of “travel insurance” and “non-refundable” and poor customer service this was awesome.

Now hate.  I used to be a fan of Priceline.com and used them multiple times per month to book travel–air, hotel, rental car.  Never again.  My last and awful experience involved placing an offer on a hotel, winning the bid, and being assigned to a hotel ADJOINING A STRIP CLUB.  Um.  That’s not okay.  Not okay.  I immediately called Priceline to work it out and they were completely unhelpful.  I even got my credit card company involved and Priceline was still unbending.  I understand that it is nonrefundable but there is a certain standard of care that one expects in a travel bid situation with a major company.  There is a level of trust that the hotel will not be a place where rooms are rented by the hour, that has air conditioning and heat available, that has electricity.  If there is a possibility that a hotel might adjoin an adult facility, not have basic American lodging standards, that ought to be disclosed as a potential risk.  I understand that the economy is bad but seriously I should not have to worry about my Dad seeing Starla Sparkletits walking to her car after her shift while enjoying the complimentary breakfast.  Priceline, shame on you for supporting the adult industry, degradation of women, and not being family friendly!  So, please join my boycott of Priceline.  If you love opaque travel as much as I do, you might try Expedia and Travelocity which are now offering opaque options or Skyauction if it is the bidding that gets you.  If Priceline makes this right for me, I will post a retraction and how they fixed it.

Lost?

No, I haven’t been lost.  I have just been non-stop and I think about writing and either I’ve got to post to my ice cream blog or sleep.  It has been a hectic 4 weeks or so, shew!

At the end of July Little Miss and I made the journey to Indiana to celebrate my Gramma’s 90th birthday.  It was fun!  It was good to see everyone. Mr. T went as far as Louisville with us.  We stayed at a hotel and had a good time.  Although it was that night that AU decided that sleeping from 10pm-2am is for the weak.  Giggling, grabbing her toes, moving from side to side.  What a trip!  Except it was midnight and we were really, really tired.  She cried all the way from Louisville to Indianapolis instead of napping.  That was not great fun.  BUT being there to celebrate with Gramma was excellent.  As my brother pointed out, not many people can say they celebrated both their Grampa and Gramma’s 90th birthdays!

Miss A and I were home for about 15 minutes (okay maybe 3 days) and it was time to go to Illinois to help celebrate BFF’s daughter’s 1st birthday.  It was a good time.  It is so funny to see our kiddos play together at 6 months and 1 year old.  They poke each other, trade toys back and forth, smile, drool, and seem to really enjoy being together.  Very cool to see.

As we were driving back from Illinois I got a strange phone call from my Mom.  She probably had a small TIA.  That stands for Transient Ischemic Activity.  Basically a tiny part of her brain lacked blood and died.  Made her a little looney and resulted in a 30 hour hospital stay.  No sleep for me but AU conked right out and lit up with smiles and good cheer from all the attention from nurses and strangers.  She did really, really well!

AU and I came home on Wednesday, Mom came here on Thursday so that Friday I could have a skin tag removed.  Oh!  But before that happened on Thursday Mr. T and I got to entertain a wonderful 4 year old.  We had such a great time!  We helped her make dinner for her family (she is excellent at rolling enchiladas!), then we went to lunch at a Thai place, and then went swimming.  It was nice to have her around to talk to and to see her interact with AU was great!  Then Mr. T and I went to see a double feature of Cowboys and Aliens/Captain America at the drive-in.  I actually think I liked C&A more than Capt. America.  I had really high expectations for Captain and they just didn’t pan out.  I felt like the important meat of the movie was “montaged” and that this was executed in such a way as to get it over with so the Avengers movie could be made.  Disappointing.

So, Friday Mr. T and I go to the doctor’s office, Mom stays with AU.  I have aforementioned skin tags removed.  I am okay.  No big deal.  We are home about 5 minutes and then pain medicine wears off.  OUCH!  Mom stays and visits with AU and I until Monday helping to lift AU, change her, and take care of me.  I decline that 3+++ soaking baths I’m supposed to take each day for 15 minutes a time after I realize the affected area probably isn’t even getting wet.  I don’t hurt too badly though until I decide on Monday to go to the Y to workout.  Yeah.  Evidently, I needed a little more recuperation before I added much exercise back in.  Live and learn.

Then this week Mr. T and I journey to visit his Grandfather who is dying.  It is a long trip, especially to go there and back in one day, but very worth it to see him smile at AU and tell Mr. T he loves him.  On Friday, Mr. T’s parents are in town and get good news at his Mom’s oncology appointment–just calcium deposits, not cancer!

I listened to an interview with Warren Buffet today.  I wish I had his phone number.  I’d give him a call.  You know what I’d say?  I’d say, “Warren!  What the heck!?  Don’t you know there is a difference between *income* taxes, *payroll* taxes, and *capital gains* taxes.  Plus if you want to pay more tax, you can, there is a little line on the 1040 form where you can pay more.  No one is stopping you.  Please, stop saying that income taxes need to be raised until you get your facts straight.”

Also, I’d like to call President Obama and have this conversation, “You know, the media hammered President Bush for playing a round of golf while we were at war and so he stopped playing golf.  The economy is falling apart, we are still at war, and you are taking a vacation at freaking Martha’s Vineyard!  Don’t you think now isn’t the time for spending my money (taxpayers money) on vacation?  Maybe some of that balance and sacrifice could be demonstrated?”

Oh, and I had 4 little skin biopsies this week.  Ouch.  I didn’t realize a skin check would result in a razor slicing off some of my favorite freckles.  I’m fully anticipating the results to be non-dramatic and then I can complain in earnest about the scabs!

I am half way through the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series.   I guess I’m probably the last person in America to read them.  They are pretty good though.  I read the first book out loud to Mr. T while he drove us to and from his Grandfather’s.  The second one is getting a little depressing though.  Hopefully there is some redemption or happiness afterall.

Last night I got super inspired and stitched up an apron dress for AU.  It is pretty in primary colors with floral, polka dots, and a graphic print with letters.  It is fun and twirly.  I tried to make it big enough so that in a few months when she is standing/walking/actually able to twirl it will still fit.  She is growing so fast though!  She is completely off the chart for height for 6 months!  It is amazing!  She is cutting a tooth this week (I hope it hurries up!!!) and it out of sorts, fussy, and clingy.  Hopefully she will sleep okay tonight.  I need it!

Speaking of sleep…when I went to be with my Mom at the hospital I went about 36 hours without sleeping.  I went to bed around 7pm and didn’t get out of bed until about 11am the following morning.  AU woke up 4 times in those 16 hours, ate, and went right back to sleep.  My brother calls her a “magical little person” and I have to say, that night, he totally sold me.  She hasn’t spent 16 hours straight in bed ever.  It was completely amazing and I am so thankful that I was able to get good rest so I could drive us back home.

So, it has been busy, busy but with fall fast approaching I don’t anticipate it lightening up.  AU and I have lots of traveling to do.  I’m looking forward to it!  I’ll try to keep better posted here.  No, really!