Iced Tea and Sandwich c/o Julia's Fine Foods

After catching up with the ladies, I caught a ride with D. and K. back to the homestead. Shortly thereafter Dad and I went to Julia's Fine Foods for lunch. It seems very strange that they have iced tea, but not sweet tea. But I won't bemoan that point.
I decided to go with the Cuban panini and was rather taken aback by the lack of panini-ness of it. It was, perhaps, toasted...but not pressed and grilled in what I consider the accepted fashion of a proper panini. Too much bread and not enough meltiness. I like the idea of Julia's and the options are definitely a bit more interesting than most food establishments around Sewanee could offer. So I'm all for them succeeding, and remember enjoying their true-blue paninis a good deal whenever it was that I had them. Go to this place because I don't want it to go under, but perhaps try to choose more wisely than I did.
Thanks to Dad for the meal, regardless of my gripes.

Hawks and Cats and Such

On Monday I had plans to meet up with some of my mother's old friends. Throughout the weekend I noted a lot of bird noise around the house. A different kind than usual. Hawk-like. And finally on that last day in town, I saw that I wasn't crazy - that there were three hawks all hanging around. You can only see one in this photo, but trust me there were more.
On my walk to J.'s this cat posed for me.
My mother's friend M. made date nut bread and then I think it was J. who made the orange creamy spread. Watermelon and iced tea were also available for the slurping or sipping.
Some cats just need to know your business.
It was good to see the ladies with whom my mother had fostered friendships over her time in Sewanee. Strange to, in a sense, be there in her stead.

Greeter Falls Excursion

On Sunday H. and C. and young miss H. picked me up and we drove on over to Greeter Falls. I had my zoom lens, so I didn't even bother taking many photos of people since they'd be all wackadoo, but here's H. with a little squinch in her face.
Unlike Foster Falls, Greeter Falls was doing quite well for itself. This was probably a result of two things: its smaller size and the fact that it rained quite a bit on Saturday. Usually Greeter's pool is clear, you can see the rocks you have to navigate before the hole gets deep; not so that Sunday. Instead it was quite muddy from all the recent run off. But nice and cold and with a proper flow of water. Here H., C. and H. make their way closer to where the water met the pool. It was difficult to get there, the water pressure was strong.


See that rock going into the water a little bit? In the foreground? I swam over to that there rock and enjoyed lying in the sporadic sun and looking at the light refract all while not being pounded upon by the full force of the falls. It happened. I also saw a giant crawfish doing its thing.

Margarita, Tortilla Soup and Burrito c/o Fiesta Grill

On Saturday K. left early in the morning. I then went through boxes for a portion of the day before my father and I sat down and watched three or four episodes of the new season of Treme, which has a better pacing than last season I think ... though the musical interludes got tiresome. For dinner we went to Fiesta Grill in Cowan. I ordered a margarita on the rocks with salt. It was a little heavy on the sour mix, but still ok by me.
We both had the tortilla soup, which I liked and that Dad had never tried before and ended up liking as well.
I had their grilled chicken burrito with spicy sauce on top. It didn't blow me away, but the taste of the chicken was above average, which is what I had remembered liking when we went there last summer with Mom and H. and C. Dad ordered the Baja burrito mainly because I said I had liked it the last time, and a tamale on the side. He wasn't as fond of the liquidy cheese on top as I had been.
Pico de gallo is officially one of my favorite things. I want to get some ripe as ripe can be, beautiful red tomatoes and some of them I just want to eat alone, with maybe a little salt or mozzarella....and the rest I want to turn into a delicious pico de gallo, which I will just eat all the time. It'll be great. Foolproof plan really.
We took one of Cowan's secondary streets for a minute.

Spaghetti and Sauce

After we returned to Crash Landing we had a beer and continued the game of Rummy that K. and I began in Jamaica. I had a good run, ending up ahead for the first time in a while. K. said she wasn't scared ... because, in her heart, she knew to be good and proper terrified. Dad fixed up some homemade spaghetti sauce, which we ate while enjoying a bottle of Chateau Caroline.
Then we went to bed at like 9:00 because K. and I are practicing for our old age.

Subway Sandwiches, Lethargic Falls and Butterflies

On Friday K. and I made great progress in terms of making choices about what to keep and donate of my mother's clothes. Once all the decisions had been made, we got ourselves together for a trip to Foster Falls. We stopped off in Monteagle for sandwiches, then stopped in Tracy City to donate Mom's things. Then finally we made it to Foster Falls. We ate our sandwiches once we got to the bottom. I had a veggie foot long. Tasty in that way that subway sandwiches can be.
The water was disappointing in its overall levels, as was the case when I stopped by last August. I understand why. If it doesn't rain, then there is a clear problem with a water fall's supply/demand ration, but it was still a bummer. Foster Falls at its best is bracingly cold, clear as can be and moving at a nice pace. The Falls so thunderous that though you can manage to swim right up to where the falling water meets the pool, it's a work out. The day we were there, however, the water was barely moving in the pool, allowing tree debris to lie on the surface in a slightly less than pleasing way. A touch stagnant. Didn't stop me from getting in of course ... just stopped me from staying in for very long. K. did not go in but she was a good sport about it.
Seems that this here is called puddling.
Pretty butterfly I will not think about your unseemly and terrifying origin story.
You can see that this hardly even counts as a water fall, whereas this trip to the falls in 2009 is proof that Foster Falls does indeed fall from time to time.
fro

Opposite of Good

Last Wednesday I was robbed at perhaps gunpoint. I will write about that at some point. I'm fine. On Thursday evening I took the R1 to the Philadelphia airport for a long weekend in Tennessee. I was hungry and had time to kill, so I went to the Wendy's in the food court. You know how sometimes you find yourself at a fast food place, and you actually want to ruminate on the menu for a minute before you decide just how unhealthy you're going to be? I didn't have that time. So I ended up with the worst. In terms of being good for me or even my really wanting it. Double cheeseburger with medium fries and drink, which I scarfed down in rather record time at my gate.
It's fine. My metabolism is amazing. <------ Not an accurate statement.

Gold Leafed

Soon I will be enjoying one of my favorite restaurants. It will be delightful, I have no doubt. I have decided to go with a gold theme. I am gold leafed. Gold leaved?

In this one you might notice a slight wind through my hair. I don't have air conditioner. If I'm home, the fan's on ... and now I know just what it can do. Ha.

Gay-Locked Traffic and Eggs Chesapeake c/o Philadelphia and Gigi

Months back I purchased a Groupon for Gigi Restaurant and Lounge's brunch. I'd never gone, but their menu looked decent and the price was right. Months passed, and finally I asked J. if she might like to join me for some kidless brunch, she said yes. So two Sundays back J. picked me up in her car and we began wending our way from my neighborhood to Gigi's 3rd and Market address. We hit so much traffic, you wouldn't believe it. At first I thought it was just one street, and a result of a bus accident (I saw two buses in the distance and made the leap), but once that set of gridlock should have dispersed, we were even more immersed in non-moving traffic in an area notoriously difficult for finding parking spaces. We had been in the car, I kid you not, for an hour. In ideal traffic conditions it would have taken us 20 minutes, max, to get to this part of town. In the end I came to the realization (with a little help from my phone) that the reason so many streets were closed off and cars were simply inching was because it was Philadelphia's Gay Pride Festival/Parade day. I love the gays, but damn them. In the end we 'secreted' a parking space (by that I do not mean a parking space came through our pores as much as I began chanting when we saw one open up a few car lengths in front of us ... and no one took it), and finally arrived at our destination. The parade was over at this point, but festive celebrants wearing everything from many-ballooned orange hats to skimpy blue underwear promenaded past us and our outdoor table. So, the air was festive ... but the staff was harried. First we were given dinner menus. Then we finally ordered bloody marys to be told they had run out ... before seeing another server walking by us with bloody marys. So we inquired again about the bloody marys and now they had more. The bloody marys were awful. Really, really awful. Thin tomato juice, the only additional spice seemingly tabasco. Perhaps they didn't have time to make a real batch so they improvised, but seriously ... they were really bad.
J. and I both ordered the eggs Chesapeake, which came on English muffins and crab imperial with a bearnaise sauce on top. The crab element wasn't overly full of filling, and the eggs were generally cooked well - though I don't really like it when there is still clearness to the egg white, even a little.
J. ordered a coffee, which didn't come and didn't come and didn't come. Then it did. She said the coffee was not so great.
So, my conclusion: the food itself was good and the menu had promise. The service was not so good, but perhaps that was a result of the parade crowds (though yelp would suggest otherwise). And stay away from the bloody marys.

Distracting Myself With the Inconsequential

So I have to testify in court tomorrow. Or maybe I do. It's up in the air. But in order to not over think it, and to save all the drama for one gargantuan poorly written post. I thought it would be interesting to compare the list Shmitten Kitten recently posted about what she's looking for in a man, to the post I came up with 'lo nearly two years ago. I'm stealing her graphic and then you can go to my link if you care enough to bother.
My list hasn't really changed, and air conditioning wouldn't make the cut. I thought I had more to say on this topic.

BBQ and Flip Cup

I think it was two Saturdays back that C. and R. threw a barbeque. My roommate and I arrived fashionably late, but not so far away from the starting time that the first wave of people had left, or that food was running low. That said, Brutus was already beat.
I don't know what my problem was, partially it was drunkeness to be sure, but I didn't take photographs of half the food I ate. I did, however, make sure to record this brownie. It had PEANUTBUTTER in the middle of it! The middle! It was amazing. Now I want one. Let's move on.
A round table of mostly coworkers/friends. But I imagine they were not talking about work.
C. also made some powerful mango etc sangria, of which I only had one glass because I knew what trouble it could cause if I had more. I also had a burger grilled by R. and I think I may also have had a hot dog, but that's a little less of a certainty.

Later on Brutus made sure to stare down some pretty flower bushes. What are they? Hydrangeas? I can never remember.
I may or may not have played flip cup. Well. I did.
I look about 45 in this photograph but whatever, the other one of C. and myself is even sillier.

First Ever Banh Mi

On some day at some time I tried my first ever banh mi sandwich. I know. It's shocking. My love of pho would naturally lead you to think that a Vietnamese sandwich of such fame would be in my food wheelhouse. The problem was simply one of being more committed to my love affair with pho than an interest in trying something new. But I knew the day was coming, and that day did come. I went to Ba Le, the address and hours of which you can see above. I forget exactly what I got. Grilled chicken maybe? It was good. Filling. Cheap. I also had perhaps the most sweet Vietnamese coffee of my life. It was almost unbearable.

Meanwhile. I am in the Charlotte airport. I was supposed to have a five o'clock flight direct to Philly from Nashville but due to a late pick up by the shuttle, I ended up missing my flight by about 15 minutes. So then I had two hours in Nashville to kill before a 7 o'clock flight with an hour's layover in Charlotte. Except that when I got to Charlotte I learned that my flight was delayed. And it's been delayed again. So I got here at 9:30 but my flight isn't scheduled to leave until 1 AM. Blurgh. So here I am, plugged into a wall by a women's bathroom. Blogging. I could potentially watch a movie on my computer, but I don't want to put my earphones in for fear of missing an announcement that magically makes my flight way sooner than it is. Or canceled. At this point I would prefer canceled. Then I could go to bed. This whole series of days has not been without their trials and tribulations. I've been using my time in Sewanee to accomplish things and to go to bed ridiculously early. I'm talking 9, 9:30. And so not only is it legitimately kind of late ... it's super late for me and my recent bed time choices. I'll give this to Charlotte: at least they have the decency to have free wireless.

Omelet c/o Sabrina's

Just to keep the theme of the blog a little bit alive, here's a food post. At some point not last week but the week before, my old friend G. and I went to breakfast at Sabrina's. I went with a spinach, cheese and pico de gallo omelet with homefries and wheat toast.

It was definitely above average. Eggs were fluffy, pico de gallo fresh and flavorful. I probably could have omitted the spinach without incident. I went with the wheat toast while G. went with the white, which late into the meal he realized had a little bit of mold on it. They comped his meal, as they should have, but I paid for mine.

Found and Love

So actual progress - as far as consolidating and donating - has been arrested after dealing with my mother's clothing. Photographs and letters are simply going to have to wait. Though I am inspired to go home and more properly deal with the things that I have been saving and yet not using for some time. Among the papers was this email I sent my mother in May, 2001. A masterpiece it is not, but its sentiment is true. I'm going to break it up with some photos I found. The email heading was 'an early mother's day thought-o-gram' and then the writing was titled 'why i love my mommy.' No capitals because I was avante garde (bull).

i love my mommy cause she's so cute
i love my mommy cause she's so cute

i love my mommy cause she's not just cute
she's smart and funny and never locked me in a closet when i was little
i love my mommy cause she's smart
i love my mommy cause she's smart

i love my mommy cause she never hit me in the face or rear
i love my mommy cause whatever she did
she made me cool (author's note that is now in question 2011)

i love my mommy cuz i laugh like her
i love my mommy cuz sometimes (not all the time) i think like her
i love my mommy cuz she gave me space
i love my mommy cuz she didn't make me go to church
i love my mommy cuz she does judge my character
but she keeps her verdicts to herself
i love my mommy cuz she doesn't mind the fact that her daughter's crazy
self centered weird strange artsy fartsy driven and plain ol' bizarre
i love my mommy cuz she took me to the bus stop
i love my mommy cuz she didn't freak out when she came up to visit and i tried to make her smoke pot
i love my mommy cuz she let me sleep in her bed
i love my mommy cuz she tried to get me motivated
i love my mommy cuz she gave me an appreciation of getthing things done in a timely fashion
i love my mommy cuz she let me ride horses

i love my mommy cuz she so cool
ah, ma, you rule!!
But it's actually father's day. So Happy Father's Day to daddy-o!!!
One handsome son of a gun.