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Reporting late from Halloween…we were stocked to the gills and were giving away gummy Crabby-Patties from Spongebob Squarepants, as well as mini-canisters of Play-Dough. We thought that was a good combo – candy and creativity! However, we were stunned that we only had roughly 25 Trick or Treaters. I mean, where are all these kids? Reportedly our friend Chris had over 100+ knock on his front door and he lives a mere 4 blocks or so away, and I’ve heard that others had upwards of 200-300! Now that’s awesome.
While I don’t have a current report on what T-O-T looks like up north these days, down here there is some ambivalence or awkwardness attached to it because people think it’s pagan or somehow against religion (I think). Churches in the south do things like “Hell Houses”, and have Trunk & Treats for the kids which is fine…if you go to a church. Halloween used to be a fun time to trek around with friends, while wearing somewhat uncomfortable costumes, know what it’s like to beg for food (i.e. candy) and have a TON of fun doing so.
While times have changed, I don’t want this tradition to go away. We were excited to see some “old-school” costumes including a traditional Old-Hollywood version of Dracula, and a girl dressed as Glinda the good witch from the MGM classic “The Wizard of Oz”. However, major changes mean that you really now can’t walk around without a parent or guardian (to think of how much trekking we did without adult supervision), and some people get driven from house to house (even I’m not that lazy). I just don’t want to lose this moment of childhood merriment for generations to come. It’s fun. It’s part of being a kid.
We did have an attempt by the friend-squad of Pete, Maria and Chris attempt to motivate us to check out the Haunted Cave…but we were being old fuddies for a few reasons. Jim had some work to do, and I’m terrified of fake-intentionally-scary-jump-out-scream haunted houses. I hope that they had fun and Maria faced her mild fears somewhat – she’s a braver lass that I! Instead we waited and hoped for more doorbell rings.
Now, if anyone can suggest the best way to rid ourselves of an excess of gummy Crabby-Patties – we’re all ears!
Wow…last post was on the 18th of October. My how time flies and life changes. I have come to realize that when I’m dealing with a dose of the blues, stress and the cold that never ends – I don’t write. Go figure.
Here’s a brief highlight reel of our lives since 10/18:
My husband rocks at anniversaries! We’ve discovered joy of the Ipod-Touch thanks to the Hubby. It was part of our anniversary extravaganza! I thank him for helping feed my insatiable lust for high-tech gadgetry. He also put some elbow grease into finishing my secretary desk from IKEA. My hubby rocks the party that rocks the house!
We went to a Halloween party thrown by our friend Rob and some of his friends. It was fun. Jim dressed up like a member of DEVO (complete with energy dome and glasses – thanks Mitch), and I like a gypsy. Actually, I read tarot for 5 hours for the party guests. It was good and allowed me to practice. I hope that my “clients” found it fun and worthwhile. I had a lot of fun doing it…however, after 5 hours of tarot reading, the muse-energy hurts your head. Thank the cosmos for creating Excedrin.
The Northshore Brasserie is a good restaurant; but it’s NO Brasserie les Halles. There is a reason why Tony Bourdain is who he is. Still, I think Jim and I would go again – it’s a tad pricey but it’s nice to know that Knoxville continues to expand its ethnic palate!
We also got to see “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in 3-D with good friends Pete, Chris and Maria! The men had been-there-done-that; us ladies enjoyed our first full viewing of the movie and I really quite liked it! The music is catchy and it’s amazing that anyone would take the time to do stop-motion animation. Sadly, there is not enough patience in this body to cope with it.
All in all, things are okay. Life is full of moments that you enjoy and moments that matter. I think it’s actually what we do with these moments that counts the most. Catch you all later…but in the meantime,
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!
Well, today Jim and I celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary! Yea!!! We’ve been through so much together in the past 5 years it’s kinda just flown by. We had plans to go to Le Parigo tonight (but transferred those plans to Saturday due to me still being sick and wanting to actually TASTE expensive French cuisine), and our decision to unfortunately cancel our camping trip this weekend (since Jim’s unfortunately starting to catch a head-cold – sorry hon – and we didn’t want me to head into pneumonia-ville if the temperatures dipped too much at nights).
So, we’re going to have a low-key night which is fine with me. I think I’ve conned Jim into helping me put together the 2nd part of my desk from IKEA. Thanks for all the positive thoughts and remember, we plan to have a big shin-dig on our 10th anniversary – so mark your calendars (HA HA).
The rallying cry came on either Thursday or Friday from Chris (of Chris’ Paradigm), “IKEA this weekend? Anyone?” In my sick, antibiotic and Nyquil haze I thought – “Hey, the doctor said the virus should run its course by Friday or Saturday.” So, I RSVP-ed for Jim and Me. It’s funny, the first husband of Anna (CC – a good guy, we both agree), used to have a witty comment about IKEA. He used to say, “I go to IKEA to visit my money.” In other words, Anna is an IKEA-GIRL. I married Jim who’s an IKEA-GUY. It works out and we like it that’a way!
Needless to say, Anna is still sick with half a voice and we load up both cars (full of friends, and with plenty of room to bring goodies back), and we both set out for our 3 hour trek to IKEA, hopefully to only spend a few hours, and return to let the dogs out before their bladders burst. For the most part, everything went according to plan!!!!
The trip to Atlanta actually took 3 1/2 hours because there was an inordinately large amount of people out on the highways…where they were all going, I have no idea – but they were in our way. We were at IKEA with the group of friends for 4 hours (about 2 hours longer than we expected), but somehow we managed to get the furniture we set out to buy, plus some extras (there are always extras – I dare you to walk through the MARKETPLACE section and NOT leave with some extras), and a belly or two full of Swedish meatballs.
We arrived back home by midnight and miraculously our little Uli (we know Easton can hold it), managed to hold on and had to RUN like the wind to relieve herself when we arrived back home. It’s great to have such fun friends who can make a mundane trip to buy put-it-together-yourself furniture into an adventure. Even though Jim drove the Tacoma, and I drove the Matrix – the conversation in each car was good and made us realize that it’s nice to have people to just pick up and go buy hip Swedish Furniture with.
For Anna’s full account of the joy that is IKEA – check out her blog Born Up North, Dye Down South…I’ll post in the morning, it’s almost 1 AM and I need to go to bed!
Much to Jim and my dismay, I woke up last Monday morning with a sudden onset of a pretty bad cold. I felt like poop – to say the very least. I was hopeful that a few doses of COLD MD would knock it out. I called in sick and promised myself I’d actually (for once), stay in bed and sleep it into oblivion. Alas…no.
I woke up on Tuesday. Worse. So bad, in fact that my tonsils were so swollen the back of my throat made me actually choke on my epiglottis. Not pretty imagery, I know, but it was my reality. I choked a few times and felt I needed to go to the doctor. I went. He said if the swelling in my tonsils hadn’t gone down, I’d be rolled in for surgery. Thankfully the swelling did go down. I was diagnosed with acute and viral pharyngitis (a exciting sore throat), and hastily prescribed some antibiotics. Best news was that the doctor said it should clear up in about 5 days. I’m here on day six, with barely no voice and congestion to the point that I want to call out dead!
I’m one of those people who rarely get sick…so when I do, it is usually a grand event. This is no exception. I was out sick for 4 days and limped along on Friday and the rag-tag event that was today’s Youth Empowerment Party. I just guzzled a good shot of NyQuil in hopes that it will knock me out.
Jim has been good to me and reminded me that I often need to take care of myself. I however, don’t know how to do that well…or effectively.
NO…don’t go there! We had our super SMALL Oktoberfest party and had a LOT of fun and food yumminess. We had 11 brave souls come out and roll the barrel (okay, that’s a bit much), but seriously the food was great, the company was great and from what I heard, the beer was great too! Seriously, I keep thinking the German Gang will come and strip me of my heritage badge when they find out I don’t like beer. Riesling…bring it on!
Anyway, we got Frankfurters, Bratwursts, Knackwurst and Bock-wurst flown in from Karl Ehmer Meats in NY, and they did not disappoint – however, even with Jim’s warning that I over-buy, we had more meat than was eaten. So everyone was able to leave with a sack of Sausage if they wanted to! Now that’s a parting gift!
We also had geworfener salat, spatzel, P’s AMAZING kartoffel salat and all the dense German breads you could eat! If it weren’t so expensive to buy all the accoutrements we’d have a HUGE Oktoberfest. One day…one day…we will be able to feed a small army with WURST – but for now we’ll have to just throw a huge holiday party – stay tuned!
We’re a bit stunned. Jim even pointed it out. We’re hard-core HBO, Showtime and Bravo show viewers…however, ABC is surprising us.
Their Wednesday night line up is pretty good:
- Pushing Up Daisies
- Private Practice
- Dirty Sexy Money
Check em out!
We’re having a SUPER SMALL Oktoberfest this weekend, complete with real German food shipped directly from a German-butcher from New York. We’re only having a few friends over, and blessedly – everything arrived in good condition.
To save me cooking time, the beautiful and talented Paula will be making the German Potato salad, which is good because I get to have it again at Thanksgiving, lovingly handcrafted together with my Father.
Plus the most amazing woman, Sheena at my workplace, managed to make me a German Chocolate cake for good measure…wow, it’s going to be a great weekend. I only wish I had enough money to invite all our friends and family – perhaps someday!!!!
Last weekend, Jim and I found ourselves at Tai (which incidentally used to be called Tao – for like a month), due to a craving for some succulent sushi. We were hopeful. The place is beautiful inside with a nice metropolitan vibe to it, and while the food is good…”Overpriced,” was Jim’s 1 word to describe it. In his opinion, you can take a short drive up the hill to Wasabi and get good sushi for less. I do tend to agree. We had a really nice and accommodating waiter, and ordered:
- Shrimp Tempura Appetizer
- Crunch Shrimp Rolls
- The Crab-cake Roll
First of all, the prawns were really good…and we’re big fans of shrimp so we know! The majority of the veggies were good to as part of the tempura appetizer (zucchini is also really good fried). The crunchy shrimp rolls were good, but not remarkable. The biggest double-edged sword was the Crab-cake Roll. Crab-meat, Cream Cheese and other items, but….um….deep-fried. It was tasty, but WAAAAAAAAAAY too heavy for sushi. The main menu might be a better showing of the restaurant’s skills, but trust me – good food can be found without a stiff price-tag. Perhaps they should have selected a smaller location for their restaurant, and passed the savings onto their patrons…but please, for the love of Pete, don’t go as small as NAMA.
Just our two cents.
Okay, so it sounds more elaborate than it really is right? This is our little slice of internet nonsense, which basically is our on-going effort to keep our friends and family up-to-date on our lives, our love and our continuing pursuit of pomegranates. In this modern age of movement, we’ve realized that distance is not an excuse to not keep everyone posted, so please - stop by anytime - in person or internet-ly and know that you are all never far from our thoughts.
