About To Turn A Corner

I am currently enjoying free wireless access in the Huntsville Alabama airport. The pizza below was 'Hawaian' (sp?) with ham and pineapple...bacon too I think, but strangely no sauce. This was care of Papa Ron's (or John's? it's not a chain) in Monteagle Tennessee. The writing below is from a post I never published a few days ago. I'm going to try to get as many posts as I can published before I get on the plane (which has yet to arrive at the gate). Onto NYC!

What a bad blogger I have been. So many days, so few posts. I'm trying desperately to catch up and in this way I am omitting many of the meals I ate...against the whole spirit of the blog. The blog's soul is being seriously compromised by this vacation...this excellent, seventy three degrees outside vacation. Brag brag brag. Gloat gloat gloat. The boyfriend, his cousins and I have been watching episodes of the first season of Lost and I'm sorry to say I've gotten mighty addicted. In fact New Years Eve will be spent, predominantly, doing a marathon of lost and maybe drinking champagne...oh and fireworks we musn't forget fireworks.

Oysters Rockefeller

Well I have tried to upload more pictures but it takes a pretty long time. So I've given up on that front. Yesterday I went hunting but didn't shoot at anything let alone hit the target. The day before I was shooting at skeet and hit quite a few, this is pretty cool as I haven't held a gun in a year and the last time I held a gun was pretty much the first time. Well look at that the upload took. The above picture is of the Oysters Rockefeller I had at High Point Restaurant in Monteagle, Tennessee. They were very hot and good, though the Hollandaise sauce was a little too thick for my refined sensibilities (ha).

The Cross From The Valley

A picture of the cross from the valley. Though due to the long upload time (I'm talking more than five minutes) I've made all the images small...thus making the cross almost impossible to see. Alas alas...it's sixty five degrees outside. Boo ya ka sha!

Eating My Way Through The South

Yee haw, Georgia has wireless internet. It's a bit slow on the uploading so forgive me if I don't type much. Many meals must be made available to the masses...this is a meal I had in Tennessee: Lamb Chops, Potatoes Anna and Steamed Spinach. Yummy yum yum.

The Nun Bun

The biggest story on our local television stations (which aren't so local, ie. Chattanooga and Nashville) is the story of the nun bun. Two days ago someone broke into a Nashville coffeehouse (called something like Zongo Coffee...or Jumpa Coffee or something else entirely) and stole only one thing and it wasn't money. No ladies and gentleman, someone took the door off the small coffee establishment and stole 'THE NUN BUN'.

For the last two and half days each and every news broadcast has dedicated a good two to three minutes on the story of the nun bun....found by the coffeehouse's manager nearly nine years ago, this cinnamon roll bore a striking resemblance to none other than Mother Theresa! Supposedly it was national news...it's even made its way onto a Trivial Pursuit card. But some grinch up and stole it Christmas morning. So both our six and ten oclock news tells us. The coffeehouse manager who found it and the owner are saddened and can't understand why anyone would take the nun bun 'from the community'. It's astounding how much I now know about the nun bun. By god when I get access to images I'll be posting one of the now lost nun bun.

I think the coffeehouse people did it themselves for publicity.

No Images Hurt Me Unimaginably

Yes folks, I continue to be unable to offer you the photographic lushness you are accustomed to and I have a pretty good feeling that I care a bit more than you.

Christmas meal included a standing something kind of beef, very tender rare and tasty. Fresh August corn, Spinach, Buttery Mashed Potatoes (why am I capitalizing all the food?)and delicious Gravy. For dessert there was pumpkin pie and freshly made/spiked egg nog. Last year we hosted about fifteen or more people, this year we were a subdued group of six.

Today we went to Chattanooga to take advantage of sales. I got a good number of shirts and nothing I was actually truly looking for (well the shirts kind of count I guess). I couldn't handle the mall for very long due to a)hating myself b)punkass kids c)humanity. But I'm rebounding nicely.

I'm leaving for Georgia in two days and that's pretty exciting. On the day I arrive it is estimated to be 71 degrees. Yee ha.

I also have a picture of me 'making out' with a seventy plus year old which is so funny that I'm going to give the blog a one time only allowance for showing my face...I am a dumpling. But who knows when that might happen...probably NYC...I mean really.

No Photographs Make Me Sad

Yup. I have plenty of images but no way to upload them. So this is going to be a big block of text...and I know what happens with big blocks of text, they get skimmed like clarified butter. Oh well.

First off. I've been sleeping way too late. Today I got out of bed around 10:30 okay actually it was 10:45. The father was looking out our big (and I mean really big, taller than seven feet) window into the woods. There were about eight deer just chilling. Usually we can see deer around her but during the winter months it becomes kind of crazy...this is because the town allows bowhunting and, in more remote parts of the mountain) shotgun hunting in order to cull the deer population. These deer seemed rather smart because the bowhunters aren't allowed to let those arrows (or whatever) fly near houses. The deer looked almost grey.

Tennessee. A good place to read. Since arriving here on Tuesday I have read Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty a book about her friendship with writer Lucy Grealy. I read it in about twenty four hours. As a writer I think I found the trajectory of both their careers to be the most interesting part...Iowa-->fellowhips-->publication-->fellowships, etc. But it is also the story of Grealy's face, a face destroyed by radiation treatment for jaw cancer. Overall it's not a very happy book and it made me think about what friendship really is, without coming to any conclusions.

I also read Ian McEwan's Amsterdam. A very quick read and very much a modern parable/farce. Enjoyable and a little bit unpredictable....though ultimately I felt like I had seen the end coming for too long.

Now I'm reading, simultaneously, Lucy Grealy's account of her life and face and another one of Sara Paretsky's lovely V.I. Warshawski novels.

Last night I made artichoke dip for company and they loved it.

Meals you will eventually see:
High Point Restaurant: oysters rockefeller, salad, salmon
Papa Ron's: Pizza
Home: Lamb chops, spinach and potatoes Anna.

Happy Holidays and shizz.

The Cross

So the town my parents live in is pretty small and on a mountain. Here is the cross you can see from the valley, as well as obviously from on top of the mountain. I told a friend who lived in Indiana about how we had a big cross and she scoffed saying she saw big crosses everywhere in Indiana. But when she came to visit she was properly impressed by how large this cross is...hopefully I've given you some sense of it, if not believe you me, it's pretty big.
This is the view the cross has.
I drove to the cross in my old volvo. How I have missed her with her nonfunctioning radio/tape player/speedometer/odometer. Seriously though, she (Lola) is a wonderful car even if challenged in more ways than one.

Cornbread And Dog Bites

For breakfast/lunch the father made corn bread and thick cut bacon.
The Monday before I left Chicago one of the dogs at work bit me on the bottom, puncturing the skin but not enough for blood to flow. But a mark is very present and on Monday and yesterday the bottom hurt a bit. I showed my bottom to my parents and now they're making me go to the nurse practitioner for a tetanus shot...and I, for some reason, really don't want to go. It may be the entire showing my ass to a stranger thing...or my feeling that I am not going to be getting lock jaw so why waste the time/money on the visit? Waah. Not a big deal actually.

This isn't the dog...but the dog looked like this. I will add that the dog did this while in an excited state of playing ball...not a malicious bite...unless it wanted to do it before and waited for the right moment...dogs, they sure are tricky.

Brie On Bread

After driving the hour and a half home...over a state border no less...we had lobster bisque bought at Costco (much better than you might think, actually) and melted brie on french bread.

Welcome To The South

So yesterday I left Chicago. I flew to Cincinnati and then on to Huntsville, Alabama. Within fifteen minutes I saw this:
And within forty minutes I ate this:
This extremely cheap and also disappointing barbeque pork sandwich was brought to me care of Mullins Restaurant...the largest independent food buyer in Alabama...I don't even know exactly what that means. But their coleslaw (which I never like anyways) didn't have any mayonnaise and I thought that was pretty unsouthern...but maybe it's exceptionally southern. I'm confused.

Adieu Wine Night, Adieu

The last wine night of the season was pretty excellent if you ask me. There was spiked hot cider, cookie decorating and Amy Sedaris showed up. If that's not a wine night, well, I'm confused as to what a wine night should be.
There was cheese and crackers, very tasty. And of course the aforementioned cookies...mine are the ones with slightly anxious looking faces.



I also played ninja...then purple bowling ball face did too. Or maybe she was just dancing?

Goodbye

One more google search until I go....to the river below. Actually that's not true, I'm not going to any 'underground river'. Instead I am soon to take a plane to a land of dial up internet. I hope to find some wonderful lovely spot for all my blogging desires (which will grow. because I have no friends in this dial up world). But I thought I would say 'goodbye' to Chicago and the people who I havee met here.
Goodbye like two dogs holding bags between their teeth.
Goodbye like something from an airplane.
Goodbye like what the f*ck?
Ditto.

Don't give up hope. I will find you. Or, rather, don't stop reading or believing...and certainly, under no circumstances, go to the river below (it's just sewage).

Salad It To Me

Last night I made myself a little salad: bibb lettuce, cherry tomatoes, avocado and goat cheese with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper as dressing. Oh yes, with a side of raspberry kefir.

Dim Sum c/o Furama Part 15

Oh Furama, what a steady presence you and your steaming carts have been. I will be back. And don't take it too personally when I go to the Golden Unicorn in NYC...I gotta get my fix on.

Yesterdays dim sum was attended by me, the boyfriend and two as yet unnamed or colored bowling ball heads (both Furama first timers) a lovely time indeed.

Pizza c/o Laurie's

A few nights back the boyfriend suggested pizza. I suggested yes. We ordered a pizza with green olives from Laurie's Pizza on Foster and the boyfriend went and picked it up. This pizza was disappointing. The cheese never had that sublime liquidy moment...you know, when you pull one slice up and the cheese from the slice next to it follows? Nope that never happened. And the crust was funny. I miss Village Pizza III.

There Ain't Nothin' Like A Summer Pig Roast

These are Tennessee photographs, centered properly and everything. Most of these were taken at a cousin's annual (or semi-annual?) summer pig roast. My cousin lives in the valley and there's a cave on his property that goes into the mountain. There's a spring (or maybe creek?) that flows out (or maybe in to) of the cave. People spelunk in the cave. There's one chamber called 'the fat man's squeeze' and another one called 'the mud room'. I have never spelunked. But I'll tell you this, because of the cave and the water, the general vicinity of the cave is always about the same temperature. I think this temperature is 52 degrees, but I could be wrong. Point is that you can go down there in the summer and cool off and in the winter you can warm up a bit.




This is Meow Cat stuck up a tree. She got up there because a friend's dog...we'll call the dog 'raccoon' to protect its true identity...wanted to say hi to her and she wanted none of it.
This is from the pig roast...those deviled eggs were made by yours truly.

Where I'm Off To

Ah me. With my first graduate semester behind me I have a southern sojourn and eastern escapades to look forward to. Below are photographs of Georgia, where I will head after spending time in good ol' Tennessee. I have some good photographs of Tennesse but I haven't found them yet. Georgia is beautiful and last year it was 65-70 degrees in January and I loved loved loved it...it was super magical.

Georgia...is so very warm and lovely!
I'm a little worried about how all this traveling is going to effect the blog. In Tennessee wireless internet/not my parents' aol dial up can only be found in the university's library...which of course will be closed most of the time. Georgia is a pretty much an 'internet free zone'. So I apologize in advance for a certain lack of posting in the coming weeks. But don't you worry...meals will be eaten, horses ridden and every bit of it documented.

Sushi c/o Matsu Yama

This afternoon the boyfriend and I went to Lakeview and had sushi for lunch at Matsu Yama.
Their menu has a lot of great specialty rolls. And their miso soup bowl really did seem larger than the norm. Our waiter seemed vaguely and then crystally familiar. I became convinced he works at Furama and has, on occasion, tracked down shrimp toast for us. As we left the boyfriend asked him if this was so, and it was, I felt proud of my recognition.
We also had tea which was soothing and earthy.
Overall I was a little disappointed. My specialty roll (California sunset maybe?) had a sauce on top of it that had bananas in it (I have strong negative feelings about bananas). My yellow tail and scallion maki was a bit too fishy somehow. The wasabi tobikko was good, but not as chock full of the green lovelies. Upon leaving my stomach did a few weird turns that made me feel ooky. No vomit or actual sickness resulted but, well, it's never good to have an ooky stomach after a meal. I don't think I'm going to be giving it a second chance but I'm not sure I feel comfortable telling anybody else not to give a first one...though I would recommend a few other places before it.

Raging Good Time

Last night a party was thrown by purple bowling ball face and her apartment mates. I stuck mainly to beer, though I did try one 'blue drink' which was blue-a-licious.
Buckeyes were made and eaten and loved and enjoyed. Fun was had in large and unwieldy quantities. Thanks!

A Moment With Yarn

On Meow Cat is the scarf I started yesterday on the train...then continued working on throughout my class and hair doing. It's not done but I'm pretty proud of the progress...it's longer than it looks. It's some synthetic bulky boucle stuff that I've had for years and a strand of yarn that I dyed and spun back in my yarn shop/sheep farm days. I don't know who it's for so I think it's fine for it to be in color.
And...woo hoo, my knit picks stash arrived yesterday and is absolutely everything I hoped it would be!

Salon Em

After my last class of the semester I went to Salon Em. I went because my hair had not been cut or colored for six months. I went because I did. See, what I really want to talk about is the power of a good cut and color to make you (me) feel better about whatever size clothing you (I) wear or any other form of self loathing ( you (I) may be having. But it's a fickle power the hair power...also there's the entire sitting in front of a mirror forever while getting the power, so if anything you can feel worse about yourself after going to get your hair done.
But I digress. I don't actually want to write about that at all. I want to write a little about Salon Em. Salon Em is on Clark just a little north of Belmont. Here is what I liked about it, my hair guy (I think his name was Frank) sat me down asked me what I wanted, I told him and then (get this) we didn't say a SINGLE word to each other for almost an hour! It was amazing...no 'so what are you doing for the holidays' or (this one really freaks me out) 'are you married? have any kids?' etc etc. Just silence. I knitted away and he foiled away and it was nice.
What I didn't like about Salon Em--constant techno music. Now if I was a man just getting a quick cut I'd have to hear, probably, about four songs...but as a young lady getting color and a cut I think I had to listen to, my goodness, at least twenty songs with bad female singers and that bass beat that won't quite leave your head, it's like a worm...or an aneurysm.

Because it was my first visit I got 20% off which was pretty sweet. I also like the new colors. He circa 1996 Friends/197? Charlie's Angels-ed me which I got a pretty big kick out of...I was way feathered. But the feathers unfurled within seconds of being outside in the windy city.

That is all.
Oh, isn't that, like, the scariest photograph ever? Photoshop doesn't quite do what I tell it to. Sigh.
Oh yeah, so if you go to Salon Em, mention that I sent you and I get a discount (this is both for guys and girls, this place, in fact I saw far more men getting their hair cut than women). Also if you mention it's your first time they'll give you a 20% discount...sweet.

The Sovereign

After dinner in Evanston we headed back south for a drink or two at The Sovereign...which I kept wanting to call Souvenir. This picture has nothing to do with the post, but doesn't it keep everything interesting?

While the boyfriend was parking the car pigtailed purple ball face and I stood at the bar waiting for our turn for drinks. I had never been to Sovereign before, she had...she was surprised by the number of people in the place...all seats were taken, she said that usually there weren't more ten people. A guy asked us if we had just arrived, we nodded, and he bought us our drinks without an iota of sleaziness (he had just purchased a round for the entire bar). The boyfriend came, we waited patiently and eventually got a place to sit, I finished my beer and needed another one. So I went up to the counter and asked for two bottles of PBR (high class I know...my first beer was a Heineken is that any form of redemption?). The bartender came back and said if I could guess the suit and number of the playing cards that were underneath the bottles' caps, he would give me the beer for free. I guessed jack of hearts and two of puppy dog feet...and got the two of puppy dog feet correct! I will take a picture later.

Davis Street Fish Market Part 2

Last night the boyfriend, pigtailed purple ball face and I went to Davis Street Fish Market. The boyfriend and I shared a dozen oysters...wonderfully cold and delightful in my mouth...though I wish they were a little more New Orleanian (sp?) in their horseradish portions.
I ordered the Baltimore crab cakes and, as always, realized that I should never order crab cakes from any restaurant because they always (and seriously folks I mean ALWAYS) pale in comparison to the crab cakes my mother makes. These weren't horrible but they were disappointing. See, when I think crabcakes I think whole lumps of tasty crab...not shredded and over seasoned until you can't actually be sure it was crab in the first place. Ah Me.
I still think Davis Street Fish Market is a great place. But I think for the best possible dining experience there you should stick to the more straight forwardly cooked fish (like lobster or oysters) and stray away from fish that have too many ingredients tacked on to them.

Et Voila! A Scarf

I'm no yarn harlot (her productivity is astounding), but I have finished the scarf I've been working on for somebody. I wanted to take pictures of it but as I mentioned earlier the color combination would give away who the recipient is...so I didn't take any photographs. Then last night while in a chasm of despair and sickness, I thought about taking pictures in black and white...here they are.
This scarf is quite the treat...made of bulky alpaca and a strand of mohair, it is thin in width but thick in feel...and soft oh my goodness is it soft...I used a twisted stitch motif and now alls I have to do is weave in the ends. Makes me want to knit more. Makes me wish that my knit picks order would arrive...I'm rather terrified that it won't come before I leave thus I will not have the capability to make Christmas presents for anyone (I didn't place the order until last week...but my god the prices are incredibly cheap for really great yarn). Poor, poor planning on my part.

BLT c/o BB

After the successful (though how successful really I don't know) presentation, I met up with the boyfriend for some grub. This was not planned. I had actually planned on a completely different afternoon than the one I've ended up having. But first the 'grub'. We went to Beef n' Brandy (I chuckle) where I had a BLT with cheddar cheese (had I known it would be shredded cheese I would have gone with the more tried and true American slice, alas alas) and the boyfriend had a Reuben.
The boyfriend, with good reason, disapproved of a few things about his Reuben. First off, he asked specifically for no french fries. The waitress asked if he would prefer a whole litany of potato like substitutes, as well as fruit. The boyfriend opted for fruit. But when the meal came, french fries were the name of the game. The boyfriend, being the boyfriend, didn't say anything but was also astounded to find that his Reuben came sans thousand island dressing...this could not stand...and did not, the waitress (after being asked) brought out a side of the dressing.

The end.

Oh yeah. I think thousand island dressing is gross.
Also. I thought my day would go like this:
1)wake up on time
2)have a presentation
3)go home, drop off the computer and take off the second pair of pants I had put on in the morning
4)shop for clothes
5)go home and get ready for dinner with purple pig tailed ball face
6)something else.

But at present my day has gone a little like this:
1)wake up an hour late
2)have a presentation
3)lug my computer around and meet the boyfriend
4)attempt shopping at H&M but quickly become thwarted by the idea of trying on clothing whilst wearing two pairs of pants (I lasted about sixty seconds)
5)have lunch with the boyfriend
6)take train home...see that it is snowing
7)take off second pair of pants and make hair appointment
8)drink tea and blog
9)something else

My Class's Hands...Sideways

This is my popular art and culture class's hands. I think the presentation was a raging success...look at all the jazz hands...they loved me! They really really loved me!
They're actually all watching me write this as we speak...they're laughing uncomfortably...that got a bigger laugh. Okay I'm going now.

Hello Popular Arts and Culture!

Hello Popular Arts and Culture class...along with all y'all regulars...this is what I ate last night. Yet another rendition of sausage (Italian and Smoked) and peppers (red, orange and green) as well as onions (white).


My alarm didn't go off today so i'm a bit frazzled. Wish me luck!