Musings

Sometimes, when you’re on the road, you stop at a local cafe or restaurant and…it’s yummy. Sometimes it’s less than yummy. Today, we got lucky and had some good pit-cooked BBQ (monstrous portions), with excellent sides. And a sauce bar—four sauces. We both liked the mustard better than the sweet or spicy tomato sauce, although we both found the vinegar mixture pretty good, too—just a bit overpowering (the vinegar not the heat).

And gorgeous sunshine ushered us out of the mountains….

Posted at 9:00 PM | Comments Off on On the move

One of the things we came to WNC for was to see for miles and miles. We found it from a couple of overlooks and tree-openings along the short section of the Parkway that’s open. I especially loved the visual effect of the white-crested tree limbs. Had I been more winter-hardy, I might have walked down among them….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on …and windchill

We must note our second snow event of this winter.

First, of course, was the seven or so inches we got over several days when we were in the UP last month.

This one was on some high ground in WNC, an abbreviation used nearly everywhere around here—for Western North Carolina (we’re pretty sure). Of course, temps in the high 30s meant that snow-in-the-air almost instantly became water-on-the-windshield/road/etc. Still, it counts as a snow event/sighting.

I mention this because we are not even mid-way through December, and we may get another snow event before the month is finished (probable WI trip).

We are tough…and brave and clean and reverent. And coping!

Posted at 10:00 PM | Comments Off on Count ’em!

I had great fun assembling a spread for the Book Club group this evening. The biggest hit was the PAMA pomegranate liquor in the upper left by the tea lights. The ginger cake in the center wasn’t very pretty looking, but pretty darned tasty (I got several ladies to take samples home, some to share with spouses, some, no). And there in the foreground are the bourbon balls mentioned yesterday.

I enjoyed the group, smaller than usual…and always fun.

Posted at 11:15 PM | 2 Comments »

We’re easing into the holiday hubbub. Made a double batch of bourbon balls today. Not sure how many other flavors of sweets we’ll get to….

It’s not quite relevant, but I got a new flavor of spam today courtesy of gmail—the flavor? in Vietnamese. Yeah, I’m liable to click on that!

Posted at 11:14 PM | Comments Off on (Basically) irrelevant

We headed out to stretch our legs and stop at the library so I could ransom myself (or whatever direction that is), and I thought: weather is grey, overcast, and moist—not raining, not spitting, just…wet.

We did the lib (only $2.20 from me to them, and I’m even!!), and got onto the Beltline…and set off southward toward the skate park. Then we looped up to follow the ex-Pres-way, and looked back, and we could see the sky was clearing over downtown.

Soon, we were walking in sunshine and I found myself overdressed. Pant pant. Home safely and happily. Glad when the weather is such a plus.

Posted at 8:01 PM | Comments Off on Out, about

Entertainment: an a cappella group, of course—high schoolers from Decatur, if I got it right.

Did a social Fri night thang, a book release/signing. Our favorite independent bookstore, A Cappella, put together a book honoring owner Frank Reiss and the bookstore’s fine history. It’s called “A Cozy Infinity: 25 (Mostly) Atlanta Writers on the Never-Ending Allure of Books and Bookstores.”

In terms of venue, it was a twofer, first the Carter Center, then Manuel’s Tavern. We are so urban.

Posted at 10:05 PM | Comments Off on In-town fun

This morning there was a bit of rain and I thought that meant there’d be rain all day, but I got lucky—most of the day was bright and sunny.

Posted at 6:19 PM | Comments Off on No blues

Interesting, there in the freezer at TJs, at the end away from the Asian Indian food and near the turkey meatballs, I found bottles of frozen water—for seventeen big American cents.

And I remember only a few short weeks ago, paying as much as $4.30 in Euros for a bottle of cold water…Roman prices…. Maybe they were bigger than 500 ml, not sure….

Posted at 7:42 PM | Comments Off on Location (times three)

Sunny day filtered through venetian blinds; not sure what caused that purple-blue tone….

Last night was gnocchi and tomato sauce. Tonight we had split pea soup. We’ve been enjoying entrées with no turkey and (almost) no meat—not to be wholesome so much as to experience a big change from our multi-day turkey menus…. Uh, what for tomorrow? The menu creation never ends….

Posted at 7:34 PM | Comments Off on Dualities