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!