What To Do This Weekend?

Well, it's Thursday and that means I should start to think about what to do this weekend besides the usual ~ visiting with the parents, cleaning the house, and grocery shopping.  Dinner?  Movie?  Outdoor something or other?

My husband and I have seen some really good movies lately.  This past weekend, in honor of Halloween, we wanted to see either a scary movie or a creepy one so we watched Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo.  So creepy and good!!  A little graphic but the second half of the movie was better than the first half.  Really original and exciting!  A week or so before that we watched Gone Girl.  I had read the book so I knew how the movie would end but they did a fantastic job with it.  I'd recommend the book over the movie but just by a tiny bit.  Also, a bit graphic!  That surprised me...  I'd like to see Interstellar next although I hear it's quite long.

Last Friday were were busy handing out chocolate candy to the trick or treators.  Only half of whom were polite and said 'thank you'.  Lovely.  One little girl dressed up as 'the wind' and we had a couple of 'angels of death' with great costumes!  Those three young ladies all said thank you so they get two thumbs up from me.

I could pass up fun altogether and start painting our dining room gray and white but I think I might put that off until Thanksgiving week.  :-/

South Carolina X 3

View of Intracoastal Waterway from our hotel room's balcony

Hi all!  Long time, no post.  Again.  I'm not doing too well and keeping a regular schedule anymore.  Sorry about that!  I mentioned last time that I'd post about my trip to Charleston in April.  Figured since I've been to South Carolina three times this year (and never before that!) that I might as well post about all three trips to the Palmetto State.  Here goes!

The first time I visited South Carolina, my husband and I drove to Charleston.  In early July, we drove to attend a family gathering near Aiken.  A couple of weeks later, we drove to Myrtle Beach to stay at Marina Inn at Grande Dunes resort right on the Intracoastal Waterway (see photo above).  Talk about a lot of driving back and forth from Virginia to SC!

I had a lot of fun on all three trips but had to work remotely during our Charleston journey so that put a damper on the vacation.  We stayed at the historic Francis Marion Hotel downtown for one night and walked around the city a lot.  The location of our hotel was perfect!  We ate a lot of good food and really enjoyed the college town atmosphere.  Savannah Bee Company was a fun store to check out and we lucked out on the weather.  We moved to a hotel in the suburbs to save money after our first night in town and that was a really good decision on our part.  It put us closer to the beaches and we had access to a pool and more space.  I'd recommend the Town and Country Inn and Suites because we enjoyed our stay but I wasn't crazy about their breakfasts (too expensive).

I'd say one highlight of our trip was the horse drawn carriage tour of the historic part of downtown Charleston.  Another would be our ride out to Folly Beach.  Lots to do, the beach was gorgeous, and you can fish!  See photo below ~

We both loved visiting the Aiken area because it has a totally laid back vibe and it was less crowded than the coast.  Apparently, this is horse country!  I wanted to see inside of a Hobby Lobby store because I'm a crafter and it was overwhelming and fabulous.  A must see for anyone who loves craft stores!  We also ate some great barbeque and enjoyed wandering around getting to know the area.

Myrtle Beach was a must-see for me because everyone down South talks about going all of the time.  We stayed at a Hilton property that has its own private beach access and we LOVED the resort.  I'd recommend it to everyone.  The only downside is the traffic.  Eight million people on the roads and not enough traffic lights equaled chaos.  There was a wait everywhere we went (except for the beach) and it was loud, loud, loud.  We're older, quieter folks.  Myrtle Beach is great but not for us.  I'm SO GLAD we went and I can see why it's so popular but next time we are going to pick a less stressful destination spot on the water.  Here's the giant crab in front of one of the many seafood buffet restaurants (expensive but a must see):

We Love Lucy!

Well, so much for my intention to post regularly.  It's late May and I haven't posted in two months!  Yikes!  Sorry about that...  I have a very good excuse as to why, though!  Check out the picture.  How can anyone resist that face?  I now try to spend as much of my free time away from the computer and dedicated to my favorite feline, Lucy.  Playing and giving attention to a cat is the best kind of stress relief I've been able to find.

My husband and I adopted a 7-month old kitten from the local SPCA at the very end of March.  What a wonderful addition to our family!  She's big into purring, running around the house at Mach-3 speed for no good reason, climbing the living room Ballard curtains which are luckily made out of burlap, looking out the window at the birds, and playing with her fake mice.  It's amazing how much more coordinated and athletic she is now that she has the run of the house and isn't in a cage anymore.  She's still a little bow-legged but it just makes her all the more charming.

Lucy requires heart medication and needs to be examined by a cat cardiologist once a year because she has a severe heart murmur but it hasn't slowed her down!  At first, my husband tried giving her her medication the old fashioned way which stressed both of them out.  A co-worker suggested Greenie's pill pockets in salmon flavor.   This is the best invention ever introduced to the pet marketplace.  Lucy runs downstairs every morning excitedly waiting for her pill pocket to be delivered to her.  Pill time is now Lucy's favorite time of day.  Well, kneading my sleeping body with her claws/paws is probably her second favorite. You should see all of my scratch marks.  :-/

My husband and I went to Charleston, SC for a few days in late April and my parents cat-sat Lucy.  It was a fun time for all of them.  Lucy learned new favorite past-times: lunging into a shower by crashing through a shower curtain, playing with her stuffed mice under a table around all sorts of chair legs, and hunting stink bugs.  She brought those hobbies home with her to our house.  I was definitely able to enjoy my vacation more not having to worry about the cat. I was more worried about my parents.  What if Lucy tripped them by accident?  What if she was too rough with her claws?  What if....  Anyway, I was being ridiculous.  They all really enjoyed each others' company and it was a fun time for all of them.  I'm so thankful for my wonderful parents.  They always come to the rescue.  I also love the fact that they know Lucy so well now.  I'm like a proud parent.

I'll try to blog about Charleston next time.  It was a fun vacation.  For now, my life seems to revolve around work, cleaning the house, and playing with Lucy.  I should really be devoting more time to weeding my new herb garden which is doing pretty well.  So far, turnips, Swiss chard, strawberries and the spinach are all doing well.  The scallions and parsley were an epic fail so I'm trying again with them.

Staunton and Old Friends

Staunton, VA

This past Saturday, I drove up I-81 to Staunton to visit with my two college roommates who I've known for a longgggggggggggggggg time.  We had such a great afternoon!!  One of my former roommates lives on the West Coast so it's not often that we get to hang out in person and enjoy a cup of coffee with our conversation.  The three of us hanging out was a really fun way to spend a sunny day and since we probably won't have this opportunity again for several years I'm so glad that I had a chance to make it so that the three of us could hang out.  We all saw each other last year for my wedding but before that it had been several years.  Way too long!

I had never been to Staunton before so it was fun to explore the city and I wish I had more time to look in some of the stores and wander down some more streets.  The four of us (we had a fun-loving four year old little boy along for the journey) went to a really well known local park called Gypsy Hill.  First of all, what a great name!  The park is large, was full of families, and you could tell the grounds are well cared for.  After the park, we had lunch at a pizzeria, visited several stores, and then had a cup of coffee before I headed home.

Barking Dog Charcuterie on Beverley Street sells wine, cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and various condiments like high end olive oil, pickles, and specialty peanut butter.  I'm not one for cheese or wine (I know...) but the place smelled wonderful and it was decorated like a high-end bar.  It was PACKED full of people. Made is a cute store a few doors down that sells housewares, clothing, jewelry, and fun knickknacks.  I bought a book on how to make healthier school lunches for myself because I have been trying to pack lunches for work and am in a rut.  Wish me luck.  We also went to a great corner bookstore called Black Swan (no Natalie Portman there) that sells lots of older and used books.  Normally, I don't like going in bookstores that carries a lot of older books because of the dust that seems to cover everything and the old nasty book smell.  What was awesome was this store has a lot of natural light, high ceilings, is painted bright white all over, and I didn't detect any bad smell.  It was a really great treat and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  The best part was I found a great Civil War book as a gift for my husband and it was less than $10!

We didn't get a chance to check out Rule Forty-Two which apparently sells furniture, paper goods, and other housewares.  I saw a really awesome sewing table in Made and the owner told me that it came from Rule Forty-Two.  Maybe I'll make it there next time I'm in Staunton.  I'd like to go back and explore a bit more.

Shenandoah Pizza was delicious.  The three gals ordered a large pizza that was half meat and half Blue Ridge with red sauce.  Yum, yum, yum....I can't remember the name of the coffee shop we visited.  It was really good and they had sugar water to put in your coffee as an option which one of us found really fantastic. All I know was that it was near Shenandoah Pizza and on our way to an Amtrak station stop.

Well, hope your week goes well and that you have a fabulous weekend coming up!

P.S. - My husband and I looked at cats to adopt this past weekend and tonight.  I'll keep you posted on that adventure...

My Weekend: Art & Chocolate

Movie Poster

Hi all!  These past couple of weekends have been gorgeous in SW Virginia.  Sunny and warm; making me think spring will truly come after all.  No more polar vortex!  Yesterday was very pretty too but quite windy and today is cold and rainy.  Snow is forecasted for tomorrow.  Blah.  I'm hoping the nice weather returns quickly.  Yellow daffodils are popping up all over and I'm starting to see hints of pink and green on the edges of tree branches all over town.  Buds!

My weekend consisted of art and chocolate ~

My husband wanted to see the new Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel last night but it turns out it isn't being released in our region for another two weeks.  So, we decided to go to the Grandin Theatre and watch a documentary that my husband thought looked interesting in a newspaper review.  Tim's Vermeer is about a very successful American entrepreneur who is inspired by a book his daughter gives him to read about Vermeer and then sets out to see if he can recreate a famous Vermeer painting on his own to prove that Vermeer used some simple technology to help him paint back in the day.  In other words, Vermeer wasn't some savant who could paint super realistic paintings with amazing use of light in his oil paintings.  Tim is trying to show that Vermeer used tools to help him create fabulous works of art and that perhaps he was as much an inventor as he was a painter.  I know what I just typed probably makes no sense and/or sounds dull.  The documentary is really interesting, enjoyable, and intellectually stimulating.  I said "Wow" out loud several times which didn't bother anyone in the theatre since it was just the two of us watching the movie.  Hey, my husband's least favorite subject in college was art history and he loved the movie.  I really think it will appeal to people who love engineering, art, and/or Penn & Teller.  Go see it or rent it when it comes out on Netflix in a few months!

Today was the day for the second annual Roanoke Chocolate Festival at the Hotel Roanoke.  My husband and I went last year and ended up having a cameo on the local news station stuffing our faces.  This year, we thought the event was just as delicious and even better organized than last year (which was very good then too!).  Ironically, the local newspaper took our picture so I'm wondering if we will end up being the faces of the gluttonous people that go each year to this festival!  LOL  I'm still in a bit of a sugar coma and plan to do some vacuuming in the next few minutes to burn off a fraction of the calories I ingested (so much for my diet).  Here is a partial list of what we sampled this afternoon: chocolate enchilada, chocolate stout beer, cookies, candies, cakes, s'mores, gelato, brownie bites, Aztec chocolate (it was crunchy), etc....  Chefs were pairing chocolate with salt, chili pepper, cinnamon, and the other usual flavors you have witnessed over the past few years.  I saw a tricycle made out of chocolate.  It was all a bit overwhelming, I must say.  In a good way!
 

Snow Day (again)

He wants an apple...and for spring to come!

Well, I had off from work on Monday because we were supposed to get up to 6" of snow.  However, that didn't happen.  Instead, there was about 1" of snow on the grass and the roads were clear so I totally could have gone into work but hey, if you are going to give us the day off that's fine with me! 

Thought you would like to see a picture of a cute horse enjoying the winter snow and hoping for an apple slice.  My husband took this photo with his cell phone and shared it with me.  Love it!

I saw the movie Her this weekend with a friend and it was really good but a bit strange.  I was happy that I was able to get in one more movie before the Oscars telecast on Sunday evening.  Did you watch it?  I saw part of it but couldn't stay awake long enough to see all the major categories.  I had seen a bunch of the nominated movies but haven't seen 12 Years A Slave or Blue Jasmine.  I don't know anyone who saw either one of those movies.  They got great reviews but the previews made them seem extremely depressing.  In winter, I prefer a comedy!

Hope spring comes soon for all of us!

A Blind Date With the Library

My surprise selections

Poem on package

For Valentine's Day, my library offered a 'blind date' program where you could enter your name in to participate and they would lend you a DVD and bestselling book of their choice as your 'blind date'.  What a great idea!  Valentine's Day we were snowed out so I got my selections this past Monday.  They were gift wrapped in bright red paper and tied up with white ribbon.  On top was a poem (see above) and a Dove chocolate heart candy.  Yum.  Anyway, my DVD was As Good As It Gets with Jack Nicholson and my book was The Song of Achilles.  I saw the movie in the past which is amazing if you haven't seen it.  The book I had heard of but didn't read.  I'm about 50 pages in and it's FANTASTIC!  So, the library did a great job and my 'blind date' was a success.  :-)

What I Baked On A Snow Day: Black & White Cookies

Look yummy, right?!  They tasted amazing...

Being from New York, I can't resist a black and white cookie, bagel, bialy, giant sprinkle cookie, good Italian food, and/or fruit tarts.  Part of the reason I'm thinking about food is because I'm still on my Weight Watchers diet so thinking about food can be entertaining.  Ha!

Anyway, during last week's massive snow dump I baked a dozen regular and poppy seed bagels from scratch and also three dozen black and white cookies from scratch (I made the icing from scratch too!).  In both cases, I used recipes from King Arthur flour's website and I highly recommend ALL of their recipes. 

You'll be proud of me. I gave away most of the cookies and some of the bagels as gifts so I didn't go completely off my diet.  The Valentine's Day candy is what did me in but we won't talk about that...

"Power Hour"

I was doing my grocery shopping yesterday and wasn't able to stand in the self-checkout line like I normally do because all of the lanes were full.  I stood in a regular cashier line and that led to my usual impulse buy: magazines.  I can't help myself.  So, I picked up three and one of them was Good Housekeeping.  I haven't read Good Housekeeping in over two decades but the blue cover looked good.  I am hooked!  Really good magazine although I am not sure if I am the target audience because there was a full-page ad for anal leakage pads.  For real.

I highly recommend that you read Good Housekeeping Magazine's March 2014 article about the "power hour" here.  The article's author, Gretchen Rubin, really nailed it.  Thank you, Gretchen!  Essentially, it talks about all the little tasks that add up over the months and slowly drive you insane and how if you dedicate one hour a week to getting these little things out of the way and accomplished that you'll feel so much better.  I gave it a try today and it was really successful.  Finally got rid of some clutter in my kitchen and living room and gave myself a foot scrub.  Oh, I'm so relieved!  Plus. the foot scrub smelled really good.  Mmmmm....

Okay, gotta run and watch Downton Abbey.

Happy Valentine's Day! (here's a song)

Happy Valentine's Day!  Hope you are enjoying it.  :-)   I sure am because I'm reveling in Snow Day # 2!!!! I cannot remember the last time I got to enjoy two snow days in a week.  It has to have been years and years...  My area of Southwestern Virginia received anywhere from 17"-21" of snow over the course of 24 hours.  This meant that the hubby and I had to shovel the driveway multiple times and a snow plow still hasn't visited our neighborhood even though it hasn't been snowing since yesterday afternoon.  Thank goodness for 4x4 pick-up trucks.

We ventured out to Red Robin for lunch at the mall and their food is very yummy.  We heard a really good song playing while we ate and the singer sounded like Tom Petty to me but we weren't sure.  Great song.  I Googled the lyrics and found out that it is Johnny Marr's "New Town Velocity".  Check the song's video out above - it's a really good song, in my opinion!

Well, off to try to be productive!

Plated

Saturday night's dinner ~ steak chimichurri

I was reading a blog that I like a couple of weeks ago and the blogger posted about how she tried a new food delivery serviced called Plated.  I had never heard of this company before so I checked out their website and thought, "Hey, this looks like a fun and cool idea!"  Essentially, you order two nights' worth of meals and Plated ships the ingredients to you via FedEx in a refrigerated box.  You assemble the ingredients to make a delicious dinner using their colorful instruction sheet.  It looked like fun and they were having a sale so I thought I'd give it a try!

Saturday night was steak chimichurri and it was DELICIOUS although my breathe was very garlic-y for a full 24 hours.  I had a blast cooking and the results were restaurant quality yummy.  I realized that I don't season as much as I could and it was fun to get an idea of what I could be doing to improve my own dishes when I was following their instructions so closely.  My husband helped out too and became a fan.

The box contained almost every ingredient we needed, including the meat.  I just had to supply the labor, olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper.  Easy. I added brown rice on the side for a carb.

Sunday night we had meal # 2 which was fish in parchment paper with baby carrots.  Really good but not as yummy but tasty enough that I'd definitely order it again. 

I'm giving Plated another try.  Two meals coming this weekend and two more in another week or so.  It's a fun adventure if you like to cook!

I Need a Cupcake

Viva la Cupcake's yummy gems ~ my wedding favors

Soooooooooo, I'm on a diet.  Doing the Weight Watchers thing seriously for a week and a half now because I put on some newlywed weight.  You know....15 pounds.  Ugh.  I'm not very proud of that and it's been driving me nuts every time I try to button my pants.  It's bad when you are sitting at your desk with your pants unbuttoned because you are so uncomfortable.  It's even worse when you get up from your desk, walk down the hall, and forget that your pants are unbuttoned.

I miss being able to eat certain foods like bran muffins (11 points!!) and fabulous cupcakes and cookies and Cook Out chocolate cherry milkshakes.  You can now see how I put on weight...  Before the diet, I purchased some special ingredients to make New York style bagels with (ex: malt syrup) and I keep toying with the idea of "should I still bake them or shouldn't I".  If I decide to go through with it because I feel like I have enough willpower I'll post a picture of my creations.  Yum.  Bagels with cream cheese!  Or loads of melted butter!  Or a bialy with butter!  Mmmmm....  Okay, back to the diet.

 

Snow? Yes? No?

I expect snow in January and February even as far down South as I'm now living.  I just didn't expect the forecasting to be so poor.  I'll hear on the local news "It's going to snow 3" starting at noon tomorrow!  Take cover!" and then nothing happens.  This occurred a lot in December.  The weather folks would predict snow and we'd get rain or nothing at all.

Tuesday and yesterday, snow wasn't forecast for my area and we had two and a half inches of snow which surprised everyone around.

Now, they are saying we might have a major snow event next week.  If they can't figure it out our weather day-by-day, why should I believe that?  Or should I?  Is everyone going to run to the supermarket?  Should I stock my freezer?

Aside from that, it's been about 20-30 degrees below normal for the past few weeks.

Is it spring yet?

Decision Height in Roanoke

Advertisement from Hollins.edu

My husband, a good college friend, and I saw a really excellent student-penned play last night at Roanoke's Mill Mountain Theatre.  Decision Height is a drama about six women who train to be U.S. Air Force (civilian) service pilots during World War II and became very good friends along the way.  The play shows how the women grew and changed and the dangers of their new "careers".  All three of us really enjoyed ourselves and were impressed by how good and original the story was.  The screenplay was written by Meredith Levy who recently graduated from Hollins University and her script can be read here thanks to the Hollins University library.

Years ago, I used to enjoy going to Winchester's Little Theatre and Shenandoah University's brand new (back then) theatre for musicals and comedies.  I've seen a lot of Broadway shows over the years as well but until last night I hadn't seen any good theatre in Roanoke.  I'd tried but...

So, it was a fun evening and I'm glad we braved the super cold air and enjoyed a night out on the town.  Roanoke is doing major construction on the Farmer's Market area so downtown is a bit of a disaster area right now but hopefully that will change before the nice weather shows up.  I love the Farmer's Market in every season except winter.  When is March going to get here?!?

Okay, gotta go and watch Downton Abbey.

Hump Day!

Farm landscape in SW Virginia

Happy Wednesday!  We got our first real snowstorm of the winter last night which left us with about two and a half inches of snow and some ice.  It was only 12 degrees when we went outside to shovel the driveway around 7:30 AM.  I had to go to work but there was a two-hour delay which meant that I was able to get a yummy pancake breakfast at Famous Anthony's before work.  It's the little things that make the day good, ya know?  Apparently if I still lived in New York I'd be shoveling out from a lot more snow...  That part I don't miss.  I do miss the abundance of plows and salt spreaders!  Trying to get out of my neighborhood was stressful and involved riding in a 4-wheel drive pick up.

I look forward to Tuesday evenings now because ID channel's "Homicide Hunter - Lt. Joe Kenda" is on.  Love that show!  If you haven't seen it, definitely give it a try.  I also just started watching "Orange is the New Black" on Netflix.  Only one episode in but the characters are amazing and the story is unreal.  I have a Netflix DVD waiting for me ~ "Homeland" which I haven't seen yet so hopefully that show is good too.

Hope you are enjoying your week!

Greenhouses, Gardens, and Birds

Cute mini greenhouse for sale at Black Dog Salvage

Yesterday, it was in the mid-50's here in SW Virginia which got me and everyone else thinking about how spring is only a few months away.  Okay, so that is weeks and weeks away and it's now snowing but I'm daydreaming about it anyway.  Since my husband had Monday off from work for the holiday, he went ahead and rented a tiller and got our backyard garden plowed up and semi-ready for planting when spring does finally arrive.  It felt so good to come home from work (no day off for me) and see the plot of dirt sitting there looking big and impressive and full of promise.

The garden is large - over 20' x 10'.  Our plan is to plant corn, tomatoes, green beans, squash, and one cucumber plant.  I'm also going to have an herb box and all of those seeds were purchased at Fresh Market on Sunday.  Can you tell that I'm super psyched?  I got fennel, rosemary, chives, dill, basil, swiss chard, scallions, and turnips.  I'm forgetting two more that I can't recall...  I also plan on buying a strawberry plant to stick in there along with some scented geranium and lavender to deter pests.  I'm hoping all of this hard work isn't lost to deer.

Southern dirt is so totally different than the New York soil I'm used to.  Growing up, I'd dig into soft, chocolate brown soil that had a lot of sand in it and drained well.  It was easy to dig and work with and full of nutrients.  It was easy to have a garden.  This red clay which turns into a brick when dry and is impossible to work with when wet will be a major challenge for me.  I'll try to figure it out.

Isn't the picture of that mini glass greenhouse above really cute?  I went to Black Dog Salvage in mid-December to look for a bathroom wall hook with multiple, swinging arms and was successful but saw this along the way.  It was several hundred dollars so there was no way I was going to buy it but it was so cute and made me think that one day I could possibly create one of these myself if I had nothing else to do with my time.  I always wanted a glass greenhouse.  Probably because they seem romantic and full of Old World charm.

Best Work Out Song

 

This Sleigh Bells "Bitter Rivals" song makes me want to kick box or run a few miles or something.  Love it!

The Garden

 

Happy Weekend!  Thought I'd add a little video of Billy Joel performing for the hell of it.  My good friend, Miriam, saw him in concert this week and that brought back memories of when I saw Billy Joel in concert back at Madison Square Garden several years ago.  He was fantastic!  I treated my sister and brother-in-law to the concert and we had amazing seats off to the side that were close to the stage.  Besides Billy, I've seen George Michael, U2, Madonna, Duran Duran, New Kids on the Block, and The Who at MSG.

 

Of all the different concert venues I've been to over the years, Madison Square Garden is my favorite.  Not because of its looks ~ it's old and kind of nasty inside ~ but because the acoustics are wonderful, the energy can't be matched, and the location is fantastic.  At every concert I've seen there, the Garden seems to take the crowd's energy, amplify it, and push it back to make the experience even better.  Also, how convenient is it to walk down a few flights of stairs to the Long Island Railroad for the trip home?!

 

Madison Square Garden is being forced to close its doors and move to a new location by 2023 because the New York City Council wants to renovate Penn Station which is located directly underneath it.  Here's a NY Times article about the situation.  I think it's a mistake to move the Garden to some other space and it may just a ploy by some politicians to take valuable real estate and sell it off to the bidder most willing to give them a 'reward'.  Maybe I'm being overly cynical but that's just my opinion.

He Really Really Was Craving a Banana

Photo courtesy of Newington Police & NBC New York's website

So, you need to read this article from NBC New York because it is so bizarre and funny and highlights what makes New York local news so fascinating to watch.  Not that I wish stuff like this happened in SW Virginia (no!) but it's certainly entertaining.  :-)

It's Sad When You Don't Know How to Cook a Vegetable

I found this really interesting recipe in the local newspaper (Roanoke Times) on Sunday.  It was for twice-baked potatoes with fennel and zucchini and onions and cheese and it sounded really yummy.  I've never eaten fennel to my knowledge but I found one at Kroger for cheap so I was excited to get started.  Except I had no idea what the hell to do with the fennel once I got it home.  Is part of it not safe to eat?  What part of it DO you eat?  The leafy green part or the bottom part or what?  It's kind of embarrassing that at my age I have no idea what to do with a vegetable.  I had to resort to a You Tube video to teach me.  In fact, I watched three videos.  Is that not sad?  In case you are curious about fennel yourself and you don't want to be kept awake tonight wondering, one of the videos is below.

P.S. - the recipe was DELICIOUS!

 

A Fun Quiz About Language and Accents

The New York Times recently published an on-line interactive article about linguistics that you can click on here.  If you answer 25 questions, the website will process your personal dialect results in the form of hot zone maps.  The redder the zone, the more likely your dialect matches that geographical area.  It's neat!

Obviously, my test results indicated that my dialect comes from the New York/Yonkers/Newark area which is 100% correct.  My husband got deep South results which surprised us.  I think we were both expecting that he would end up in the Virginia/N.C. area on his hot zone map but so many Northerners have moved into Virginia that the local dialects have become diluted.  You can walk around Virginia and hear fewer and fewer Southern accents these days.  I love a good Southern accent...

Anyway, it's a super fun way to spend 15 minutes of your time!
 

Why This Was My Worst Christmas Ever

Hey there!  Long time no blog!  My bad...  The holidays crept up on me and I got very distracted.  I'd think about the blog and then not actually get to a computer to post.  Here I am!  Happy New Year and I hope 2014 is full of happy surprises and only good things ~

Okay, so this Christmas was absolutely awful.  It started out good.  Saw the Roanoke Children's Choir at the Jefferson Center in early December and THEY WERE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!  If I had to estimate, the choir was made up of more than 100 very talented young singers, male and female.  The variety of traditional songs they sang and the quality of the program blew me away.  It didn't hurt that I had second row seats, of course.  Hopefully, I can make this an annual Christmas tradition with my hubby.

Then, it started to unravel.  Mom got sick with the stomach virus that everyone is getting and was in and out of the hospital all Christmas week.  We're on day 11 of this thing and it's still going on.  Can you believe that?!  My big sis flew down to help out, thank God, but we're all exhausted and my mom is still not back on her feet.  It's been a depressing and exhausting couple of weeks.  Add to that a wicked head cold for me and you get the idea - awful Christmas.  I didn't even make it to church which kind of blows my mind.  Didn't get to bake any Christmas cookies.  That's highly unusual and I normally give them as gifts.  My parents and I still haven't exchanged gifts although that's low on the totem pole right now but still.  I pray 2014 will be better.

On a happy note, I got a chance to assist my hubby in feeding horses some apple slices on Christmas day.  Here's one spunky fellow who thought my cell phone was food and he started towards me with that 'please let me eat it' look.  Doesn't he look like Black Beauty?