Happy (almost) Halloween!

 

Are you impressed with this very fancy Jack-O-Lantern that is gracing our front porch?  My husband did most of the work but I carved out one eye, the nose, and half of the mouth.  He did the dirty work of gutting it.  I didn't like that part too much...

 

We're ready with our Snickers, Twix, and other candy goodies in case we get any trick-or-treators in the neighborhood on Thursday.  I should have posted a picture of the cute Halloween scene we have in our front yard by our little Dogwood tree.  It's a bale of hay with a scarecrow sitting on it and various pumpkins and gourds of different colors hanging around.  It's cute!

Awesome Video of NYC Sights From the Eyes of Tourists

 

Yet Another NY Travel Video from Ofer Rozenman on Vimeo.

Back from the Big Apple!

I have to say, my butt looks cute in this picture...

Hi!  I'm back from my whirlwind trip to New York and Connecticut.  I left very early last Friday and flew in late Monday night.  It was soooooooooooo great to see my friends, sister and brother-in-law, and the city.  I normally always went straight back to work in my previous voyages but not this time.  I had Tuesday off to recuperate and it was a great decision.  I slept in until 9:15, caught up with my friend Cathy by phone, hung out with my retired parents for a time, and ran some errands.  One of those errands involved picking up holy water to bless our new home with and to give some to my parents.  I had been meaning to do that for a long time...

On Sunday, I saw two great high school buddies for brunch.  We ate at Montmartre in Chelsea which was eh but I had a wonderful time with the ladies.  The walk to the restaurant from Penn Station was fun.  I passed a shop called Nasty Pig with a window display that stopped me in my tracks.  Hipster mannequins walking pigs with leather spiked collars.  Okay.  The tag line on their website is "Fun clothing that gets you laid."  Uh huh.  I also saw a 60+ year old man who was looking haggard.  Gravity hadn't been kind to him.  He was wearing a black trench coat and was unsuccessfully attempting to be a transvestite.  His wig and powder blue eye shadow made him look worse and his outfit wasn't very good.  I think he needed some help from RuPaul - big time.

After brunch, we saw some Banksy graffiti art, a sheep at a gas station installation around the corner, and the Yoko Ono exhibit pictured above which was free and open to the public on 10th Avenue.  The Yoko Ono one was a 'wishing tree' where you got to write and then hang your wish on a white tag.  I enjoyed reading what other people wrote like "I wish to play John's guitar" and people wishing for loved ones' health to improve and for others to find happiness.  There were a lot of "I wish all the wishes on this tree come true" messages.  Much more generosity of spirit was on display than selfish wishes.  That was nice to see!

The 10/18 Banksy art - on the left wall it had a message which I forget ("What will you leave behind"???)

I ate a lot of bagels which didn't help my waistline.  I now believe that Bagel Master in Syosset is better than Bagel Boss in Plainview/Hicksville.  I rode the LIRR without incident.  I drove a cute black Dodge Avenger from Dollar Rental Car which was a lot more affordable than Enterprise has been and the car was a lot cleaner.  Note to self: use Dollar in the future.

The big adventure was I treated myself to a new cell phone.  My first new phone in five years.  When I pulled out my iPhone 3 at an Apple store in Farmington, the employees marveled at how old it was and how new it looked.  Apparently, I'm a good cell phone mama.  I'm now the proud owner of an iPhone 5C in bright yellow and I love it.  :-)   Haven't tried Siri or FaceTime yet.  Need to do that...

I had an epic bagel fail.  On Friday, I bought bagels, bialys, and black and white cookies to overnight to my hubby.  Neither UPS or the Postal Service overnights on Fridays.  *sigh*  So, stale food arrived on Monday.  Oh well.  I know more about overnighting now than I did before.

TOOT Part 3: Earthquake Cake

Being from New York, I had never heard of Earthquake Cake much less tasted the fantastic-ness that is this cake until yesterday at TOOT.  Ohhhhhh it's so good!  I just Google'd some recipes and didn't realize that it had coconut in it.  No wonder it's so good!  The Rudy's Corner Grill folks told us that German Chocolate cake was the anchor.  Here are some of the recipes I found some on various blogs thanks to Google:

• South Your Mouth blog (what a great name for a blog!!) ~ recipe on her 07/16/13 post
• Cheryl's Recipe Archives blog ~ recipe on her 12/11/09 post and she has a handy dandy alphabetical listing of all her recipes on her homepage's right side bar so you can get to it quickly
• Sweet Treats & More blog ~ recipe on her 04/20/12 post

TOOT Part II

Hi,

So, I just posted about TOOT earlier this morning.  Forgot to mention that I treated myself to an awesome purse from a really cute store called Studio 40 in Lewisburg on Washington Street.  The purse is bright red and made of marine vinyl with a wooden bottom and various pieces of hardware.  I love it!  I don't treat myself to a purse too often because I find it hard to locate soft leather pieces that droop just right and that have enough space to fit in all of my crap.  This purse and my last one that I get a lot of compliments on aren't even leather.  Go figure.  Anyway, the brand is Hardwear by Renee and here's a photo from her website of the bag:

 

Happy Weekend!

Hope you all are having a fun-filled and relaxing weekend so far!  Weather-wise, it's been dreary, cloudy, and drizzly here in SW Virginia for several days.  On a more positive note, the leaves are starting to change colors and I think in a week or two they will be at peak foliage color!

I took this picture of downtown Roanoke last weekend from the third floor of the parking garage on Campbell Street.  You can see the Market Building and light traffic in this photo.  That guy crossing the street was probably coming from the farmer's market because he's walking in the opposite direction of it.  That's where I went after I took this shot.  I bought some fresh green beans and tomatoes from one of the farmers' booths and then went into On The Rise bakery to buy some bread and desserts for my parents.  It's so nice to be able to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and bakery items from some other place besides a supermarket.  I'm going to miss that option this winter.  :-(

Yesterday, my man and I drove to Lewisburg WV to experience their annual "Taste of Our Town" festival ('TOOT' for short) which benefits their Carnegie Hall and other local charities.  We had a BLAST!  There was really good live music, the food vendors (and there were tons of them) were amazing and all the stores and galleries downtown were open and fun to explore.  It was crowded but not so much so that we weren't able to get around and enjoy ourselves.  Luckily, we planned ahead and got there early so we could buy our food tokens before any lines formed and walk around and check out all the booths and stores before the streets became too clogged up.

I ate a small pork bar-b-q sandwich and a small steak sandwich for lunch.  Each were from separate vendors and the steak sandwich was a lot tastier and warmer than the bar-b-q one.  For dessert, I ate a piece of Earthquake cake from the Rudy's Corner Grill folks' booth which was our favorite of the day (German chocolate cake on top, cheesecake in middle, pecans w/ caramel on bottom) and bought a variety of cookies and a slice of pecan pie to take home.  We also hit up their farmer's market and bought two fruit pies and some fresh pears.  Yum!

The last time I was in Lewisburg was for the West Virginia State Fair in the summer of 2012 so it was nice to go back and explore the main drag and see all the cute stores and homes that we drove past last time.  Lewisburg is really cute and was voted "Coolest Small Town in America" a couple of years back by a magazine.  I can see why.  It is charming and clean and the people are really polite and friendly.  We enjoyed sitting down in the park in the center of the festival and just people watching for a while.  Very relaxing...

Well, off to get ready for the day.  Going to visit my parents and get some work done around the house.  Hope you have a great weekend too!

Gravity

It's nice to see George Clooney's handsome face on my blog.  Hi, George!

I used to see at least two or three movies a month during the peak summer and autumn movie seasons in years past.  Since I moved to Roanoke, where the movies aren't any cheaper, I haven't kept up with that movie watching rate which kind of surprises me.  So, I'm excited that I have seen two movies in the past two weeks!  That's been unusual for me and I'm happy to say that they were both worth the money.  Woo hoo!

A high school buddy, Ehab, posted on Facebook that he saw Gravity and he wrote "Oh.My.God." on his post.  He didn't give anything else away and since all the movie reviews were so positive, my husband and I decided to give it a try last night at The Grandin.  The screen wasn't huge and we didn't see it in 3D but that didn't really matter.  The movie would be amazing on a small TV screen because the visuals are that good and just suck you right in.

Without giving anything away, Gravity is supposed to be an allegory about dealing with grief from sudden loss.  The screenwriter also sprinkles in a few bits about faith, the need for a human connection, and isolation in the face of loss.  When I think back on certain scenes (like those in the trailer above), I think about how when grief first hits it leaves you feeling like you are spinning out of control, full of fear, alone, and you just want to grab onto something or someone who can make it all better.  How do you come back from that depression and sadness now that life has changed?  Can you?  The stages of grief and the journey are all included in the movie but it's wrapped up in a super-exciting adventure where you can just ignore the symbolism and enjoy the ride.

The visual effects are amazing and the story is riveting, suspenseful, and really exciting!  I didn't think the acting was 'the best acting I ever saw' or Oscar-worthy but it was very good.  I had trouble hearing what the characters said at times and that was frustrating and the ending left me wanting more.  The ending was brilliant and came at a good time but there are too many loose ends for me...  I suppose that's a compliment to the writer and director that I left with questions and wanting to talk about the film with someone.  I hope you get to see it in the theatre or on DVD.

Today, I need to go and plant a bunch of flower bulbs that arrived Friday night.  The flowerbed is mostly prepped but I have some old nasty mulch to get rid of and the planting will take me a while.  It's supposed to rain a lot on Monday so I need to get them in the ground today.  The squirrels better leave my tulip bulbs alone or else their lives will be in jeopardy!!

Paint Bank, Virginia

Pics I took after dinner...

Saturday evening, my man drove us about an hour Northwest through Roanoke and Craig counties to eat dinner at The Swinging Bridge restaurant in Paint Bank.  The town is teeny tiny and the restaurant is housed in a old fashioned general store and has a ski lodge feel inside.  You know ~ lots of wood and stuffed animal heads and cute little signage.  There is a swinging rope bridge on the second story that we walked across and the restaurant had a SUPER nice bathroom which is always important in my book.

We both really had a great time and enjoyed walking around the grounds afterwards.  There's a large fish pond outside with giant trout (?) swimming in it and a mill wheel that water spins around.  Not sure if the mill actually does anything or if it is just there for looks but it was a very romantic little walk that we had.  The pictures I took above really don't do it justice.

Across the street and down about 100 feet is a bed and breakfast.  There is a caboose out back that you can rent as your room ~ totally adorable!  The far left picture above is the view behind the caboose - a little creek with a wooden bridge.  Not a bad view to have with your morning coffee, right?

We both enjoyed our meal.  He had a buffalo burger and fries and I ate trout, mashed potatoes, and homemade apple sauce.  The best part was the apple sauce!  So chunky, delicious, and sweet ~ more like a dessert than I would have expected and it was nice and warm.  Since we had an appetizer too (fried green beans) we didn't have room for dessert which was a shame because that's my favorite part of any meal but I could stand to lose 10 pounds so it's not the end of the world.

The commute to the restaurant involved a lot of twists and turns up and down some mountains so I took Bonine before I went so I wouldn't get motion sick in the car.  The Bonine worked great as usual but I was EXHAUSTED for the next 24 hours.  We're talking sloth-like tired!

Our friends, Nancy and Jim, told us about Paint Bank and Jim mentioned how on the way we might see some people gliding in those glider planes that don't have motors.  Apparently, there is a gliding... What would you call it?  Not a school or a store.  I can't really think of what to call it.  A place people go to glide?  I'm blanking here.  Anyway, sure enough we saw two giant and silent gliders in the air.  We also saw a lot of pretty scenery, Confederate flags, and a tree that had about 200 mugs of different colors hanging from it in someone's front yard.  Not sure what that was about.

The Swinging Bridge bathroom's cool sink area