Biltmore Sans House

Christopher and I went up to Asheville yesterday. We decided to go to the Biltmore estate, but not actually go to the house. It takes so much time to go through the house, and we had been in three times in the past year, so we decided to check out more of the grounds this time instead. It was a beautiful day! We went downtown first and got some lunch at Salsas then stopped at Mast General Store where Christopher got a new pair of running shoes...like Vibrums, only not heinously ugly! WIN!

Then we headed to the Biltmore and walked through the gardens. Christopher got some GREAT pictures!

(I love this picture! It's a plant potted in an old travel makeup case. You can see Christopher taking the picture in the mirror of the case!)

(This was in the azalea garden. It's some sort of zombi hybrid that grows brains (or at least that's what it looks like).)

(awesomest bridge ever)

(This is a "Bare Cedar." Craziest tree I have ever seen. It grows all these crazy "bare" roots out of the ground. They looks like petrified gnomes.)

(close up on the petrified gnomes)

This tree was in the conservatory. It was beautiful! It was kind of like a Chinese Lantern tree. The flowers on the tree are amazing - like tiny little lanterns. After we left the conservatory we went into the garden shop and there were two tiny little trees just like this. We picked one up, and when we got to the cash register the lady checking us out got really excited and told us all about the tree. It's a special hybrid called "Biltmore Ball Gown" that they created at Biltmore. They have had a waiting list for it for 18 months. They just called everyone on the list and told them this past week that they were ready. They have one person driving from Indiana just to pick this tree up. They happened to have two extra that they had just put out, and we got one! How cool is that?

(tiny little lanterns)

(our very own biltmore ball gown!)

(I thought this was one of the prettiest plants there. I'm not even sure what it is, but it has these huge flowers that grown towards the ground. Very pretty.)

Next up we went to the barn. I was a little bummed this time: my sheep were out in the pasture and on the other side of the fence. I couldn't get to them!

The awesome part about the barn? There were BABIES!!!

(baby sheep)

(prettiest baby goats I have ever seen!)

So that's it - another trip to Biltmore! It was awesome and I can't wait to go again!

Baaaaaaahye! hahahahahahah

Used Book Sale!

My next favorite day of the year after Christmas might be the Shepard's Center Used Book Sale. I went for the first time last year and it was AWESOME! I got a ton of books last year, and I could hardly wait until this year.

Christopher and I took a long weekend this week so we could go to the book sale (okay, so that was something I wanted to do a little more than Christopher, but he was a willing participant), do some yard work, go to Biltmore and relax a bit.

I didn't get as much this year as I did last year, but these are my awesome finds! Included in there is a book on Lincoln for Keith and a copy of Pride and Prejudice for Megan. (She is going to wonder why I am sending her another copy...I got one for her last year too. What's better than having a copy of your favorite classic book? Having a collection of your favorite classic book!)

(bleak house

drowning ruth

the forgotten garden

someone like you

the kite runner

ford county

an old, pretty poetry book

firefly lane

three cups of tea

the st. nicholas anthology

roughing it

a connecticut yankee

61 hours

the road

cracking the da vinci code

the lincoln reader

the baby animal zoo

pride and prejudice

hannah's dream

homer's odyssey

breaking dawn

eclipse)

Miss Tuesday and Her Kittens!

Miss Tuesday and her kittens are going to be blogging from one of our spare bathrooms! You should follow them! http://misstuesdayandherkittens.blogspot.com/

Brilliance From Heinz

(holy crap!)

Christopher and I went to Chick-fil-A for lunch late this afternoon. It had been a while since I had been there, so I don't know when they did this - but they did this. It's the most adorable, fancy fast food ketchup packet I have ever seen. I felt immediately compelled to grab 20 and put them in my purse, but I resisted. Man, I love Heinz!

Go Team Timmons!

Famed auto-tune video producer and friend, Bryan Timmons, along with wife, Ruth Ann, recently shared a video on their new blog, Go Team Timmons. I must say...this is the most creative and fun way any of my friends have ever shared that they are having a baby! Check it out!

CHEESE!

Amy and I decided to start Weight Watchers a couple weeks ago. (We actually started a week ago today.) We knew we wouldn't be able to gorge ourselves on cheese in the near future, so the only reasonable thing to do was to have a cheese dinner the night before we started.

(to note: a pizza stone really doesn't make for a good cheese board. the knife on the stone is almost unbearable. (we had so much cheese, I didn't have a wooden board large enough!))

Below is our sophisticated dinner: cheeses from around the world, crackers, wine, chocolate covered figs. Amy and I know how to dine.

This is Corey and Christopher's dinner: pizza from Ronnie's in Clemmons, wings, mozzarella cheese sticks (not from Taco Bell) and ranch.

I did take some notes on the cheeses we had. Some were old favorites, some were new! And, yes - I know we didn't exactly use sophisticated terms to describe these cheeses.

Dubliner Cheese: Amy and I both liked it. It was dry but somehow very creamy at the same time. It had kind of a parmesan-y flavor.

Provolone Mandarino: this one was kind of grainy. We liked it as well. It had a much more smoky / aged flavor than your standard provolone cheese. Corey tried this one and stated, "it's better than Subway provolone."

Gouda Meadowkoas: We likey! It's very creamy.

Farmers Gouda, 5 years aged: ugh. I could hardly swallow this. Just as I was about to put it in my mouth I decided it was the color and texture of what I would expect 10 year old ear wax to be. I almost vomited. Amy didn't like it either. She also did not appreciate my description as I she was chewing.

Cave Aged Gruyere: we liked this one too! Another "dry and creamy" anomaly.

Drunken Goat: two thumbs up! Very creamy, soft and kind of tangy.

Gorgonzola Piccante: Christopher noted, "it smells like feet." Corey noted, "it smells worse than Christopher's feet." Christopher noted, "and I wore my Sperrys today!" (Those are his stinky shoes.) I can't completely disagree with either of them. I typically like gorgonzola on salads in restaurants, but I have never purchased any myself. I think I might have picked a rather pungent variety. Oh yeah - it didn't taste good either.

Manchego, Raw Milk, 8 months: AWESOME! A bit creamier and milder than the 1 year. While creamier and milder, also harder.

Manchego 1 year: I think I speak for both of us when I say this was our favorite...yes, Amy? My notes say, "delicious as always!"

Amy trying the chocolate covered fig...she didn't like it. Neither did Christopher or Corey. My coworkers reaped the benefits the next day.

Are You Reading This, Chuck Lorre?

Christopher and I record Two and a Half Men but quite frankly, Charlie Sheen is getting ready to join the "Not Allowed On Any of My TVs" Club, along with Tiger Woods and Jay Leno. I mean...it's pretty hard to get into that club - I watch those real housewives shows, I listen to Kendra Wilkinson snort like an a hyena (if hyenas snorted) and I try to keep up with the Kardashians.

Charlie Sheen has gone way overboard. Have you seen this stuff on the Today show? He's raised his price to $3M per episode!? And CBS should apologize while licking he feet!? He's "tired of people thinking he's not special!" And he's got TWO live-in girlfriends??? Who the crap does he think he is? Hugh effing Hefner? (Speaking of Mr. Hefner and trashy shows, that's another one to add to the list; I thought I might cry when The Girls Next Door split up and went off the air.)

I like Two and a Half Men, but Charlie Sheen doesn't carry it. I think the other actors carry it. Alan - love. Jake - love. Evelyn - love. Berta and Rose - double love and double love! One and a Half Men, a Crazy Neighbor and a Sassy Housekeeper? Yup - I'd watch.

So listen, Chuck Lorre, this is what I would do: bring Charlie Sheen back. Pay him his $3M per episode. THEN your writing gets creative - Charlie finally gets swindled by a woman (who actually turns out to be a man at the end of the episode) and loses all of his money. His house goes into foreclosure. Alan wins the lottery and takes Charlie in. After all, Charlie is now living on the street. Role reversal! Series finale? Charlie gets caught robbing a liquor store, goes to prison and becomes someone's bitch.

Too spiteful? I think it could work. I think people would watch. I know I would watch.

Mouse In the House!

Lucky Christopher had President's Day off...I decided to take the day off as well so that we could clean out the garage. As we were organizing, I picked up my old roller blades and noticed a weird color pattern in the bottom. They are old so I thought maybe it was just the material wearing away in places...but then the colors moved. I tilted the rollerblade towards me and I was greeted with a pile of cat food!

For a brief second I thought that perhaps while the rollerblades were at my parents' house, my parents spilled some cat food and it fell in the rollerblades and they never noticed. Then I quickly came to the conclusion that this was a prank my mother pulled on me. She's sneaky like that. But then...I started thinking a little more. There was a bag of cat food in the garage. I went to pick up the cat food and the bag was almost empty!

Somewhere in our garage there is a cutsie little mouse. A resourceful mouse that, every night, has been taking little armfuls of food from the cat food bag (which was supposed to go to the shelter) and carrying it over to store in the rollerblades.

We looked for the mouse but couldn't find him. We threw the food away that was in the rollerblades, but I left the food in the bag out in the garage until I can find a nice little trap to trap the mouse and then let him go out in the woods. Anyone know where I can get one of those? It's not really practical to let a mouse live in our garage forever.

Spring Fever

It's beginning to look a lot like spring! I took these pictures this past Monday.

(I thiiiink these are buttercups. there are also a couple crocuses is there.)

(I've got at least six hyacinths and two tulips coming up in the front of the house so far)

(yay!)

Miracle on 31st Street

(Settle in, boys and girls, this is a long one! I had decided not to post it since it was so long, but I just changed my mind!)

A long time ago, in a land far away…wait, no. That’s not right. Several months ago…at a Dash game, Bryan, Ruth Ann, Christopher and I started talking about a possible trip to New York – to see the city at Christmas!

Even though we were talking about it in, say June-ish, we didn’t actually start planning (purchasing plane tickets) until late November? Early December? It was really great though because Jet Blue was running $98 round trip tickets from Raleigh to JFK! Woooo! But wait…every time we went to book, just before we went to pay, the price would jump. Are you kidding me? FINALLY, after I could practically see the steam coming from BT’s ears (through the phone) we got our tix! They were a tad more expensive than the $98, but it was still a really good price.

Next up! Hotel! Bryan found this awesome hotel. It was brand new…we could have possibly been the first people EVER to sleep in the beds! WEEEEEEE! Since it was brand new, it was also a great price! But wait…just before we went to pay, it sold out. Blast! It’s cool though – we found another nice hotel at a good price. And yes! Yes, I would like to save some money by making my reservation non-refundable! Thank you for offering. (This is important. Keep this in mind as the story progresses.)

We got tickets to some shows – that actually went smoothly. (And we all know how tickets to shows are…non-refundable, of course)

It’s finally here! The night before! We are packed and ready to go to New York! But wait! What’s that email in your inbox, Bryan? An email saying our flights have been canceled? Are you kidding me? No, of course you aren’t. We will reschedule. Wait…what’s that? Effing Jet Blue has canceled ALL their flights into JFK? You have to be kidding me. No, of course you aren’t. Now remember – we are already in this trip to the tune of two hotel rooms and three shows. We have to go.

A couple hours later, we have four more tickets – for TWICE the price…still out of Raleigh (but even earlier in the morning!)– to New York. Small consolation – we get to fly into LGA, which I prefer. Wait – what’s that, Christopher? You hate LGA and you would prefer to fly into JFK? Grrrrrrrrr.

Well, we wake up unpleasantly early and head to Raleigh. It’s so early and we are going to have so much of the day ahead of us, I decide to brave the headache and skip the Dramamine. It makes me so sleepy and I don’t want to be cranky with dry contacts once we get there.

Huh…isn’t that awesome how that Starbucks is making me slightly nauseated. Guess I better take the Dramamine after all. Don’t worry – this turns out to be a good thing; you see the flight was a bit bumpy. The flight attendants didn’t do their beverage service, but I suppose that isn’t all that uncommon. What is uncommon is to see my husband in front of me bracing himself against the luggage compartment above so that he can TRY to stay somewhat in his seat. Ruth Ann behind me...doing the same thing.

Yay. A holding pattern. It seems they have closed a couple runways at LGA. And then another holding pattern. Great. Oh good…people have started to throw up. That’s wonderful. Finally – we are heading down for a landing! Weeeee..wait. Uhm. Huh. Looks like…we might be…a bit closer to the river than normal. A bit closer than I am comfortable with…and it’s certainly still bumpy. Things that entered my head: Miracle on the Hudson – could it happen twice?, the temperature at which water freezes, the scene in Titanic when they were floating on pieces of ship and luggage, would the adrenaline let me swim to shore?, why didn’t I move up a row to sit with Christopher?

{insert string of Hail Marys}

We are REALLY close to the water now…we finally clear the water, but we are going SO fast. So, SO fast - and we still have to turn. Could almost reach out and touch the runway. But wait! The plane pulls back up – and we are off! Phew! Wait…crap. We are going to have to do that again. Ooooh. And now the girl on the other side of the aisle is crying. Awkward, comforting smile? No, that didn’t really work. The flight attendant is passing out more barf bags.

We get one more chance before we have to “choose an alternate destination to refuel.” Something about wind sheer. Lovely. The second time didn’t seem any smoother, but we made it to the ground!

Boy, were we glad to get off that plane! So glad, we just rushed right off! Rushed off so fast that…just as we are going under the tunnel…"Christopher – you have the camera, right? SHIT!" Our nice, not cheap camera. The camera Christopher gave me as a wedding present. The instant we hit sunlight on the other side of the tunnel we started making phone calls. FYI, if you loose something on a plane, nobody will do anything for you over the phone, other than tell you to fill out a claim. Online.

We get to the hotel and Bryan, Ruth Ann and I jump out. Christopher heads back to the airport. The three of us are just ready to chill for a little while. Relax after the flight. What’s that? The hotel computers have crashed and you can’t check us in? Of course they have.

I’m coming up on three pages worth of Word doc here, so I’m going to cut this short – no camera. We’re basically sure it’s gone for good. Christopehr gets back, we walk around the city for a while…it starts raining, of course. We went to the first show (wet from the rain), The Pee Wee Herman Show. Remember that Dramamine I took earlier? Well…yeah. I kind of fell asleep for a little while. I’m glad we were in the back row. I thought I hid it well, by “snuggling” up on Christopher’s shoulder, but it seems my head slipped off at some point. Trust me – this was not a proud moment.

The three things I wanted to do while we were in NY were to go to the Shake Shack (which we did after Pee Wee – it was, of course, AWESOME! It was a great ending to a pretty crappy day), go to Tiffany’s and go to the Central Park Zoo (which, somehow, I had never been to).

The next day, I wake up and immediately check Christopher’s cell phone, hoping for a call from the airport, but no such luck. We head out down 5the Ave. I’m trying to find a way to not go to Tiffany’s. I want absolutely nothing to commemorate this trip except for a safe flight home – the sooner the better – but I don’t want to tell Christopher this because he feels absolutely TERRIBLE about leaving the camera.

I wasn’t able to talk my way out of the store. I actually even paused for a moment outside the door, as if I was ready to stick my hands out and refuse to be pushed in – cat-in-carrier style. Of course, that would be ridiculous.

Here’s the magic of Tiffany’s: it actually dissolves troubles. Sounds silly, but it’s true. We got in, and it only took a few minutes before the camera was pushed to the back of my mind. A charm for my bracelet and a pair of earrings later, I was feeling MUCH better!

Off to the ZOO! (After a quick stop at FAO Schwarz.)

(the trip to Tiffany's brightened my spirits)

This might have been the coolest Zoo ever. The animals were, oddly, quite interested in the people – which never happens at the zoo. It was also so small that you could do the whole thing in a couple hours and spend plenty of time on everything. There was even a PETTING ZOO!!! Highlights:

Sea Lion I could have reached out and touched if I wanted to either loose a finger or be rushed by security. Teensy, tiny monkey who licked condensation trickles off the window. The penguins that swam right up to me and wanted to be my friend. The Victoria Crowned Pigeon that practically walked over my foot – actually that whole building with birds sitting right next to you. The snow monkeys who cuddled. The petting zoo.

(I TOTALLY could have touched this one)

(this was amazing)

(this is the Vicotria Crowned Pigeon...it makes a sound like a tug boat)

Incase you haven’t been able to tell, by this point, this trip has taken a serious turn UP! From the zoo we went to see the taping of Jimmy Fallon. Also AWESOME! It was great. The show was great, Jimmy was great, The Roots were great! AND THEN! We got out of the show, turned our cell phones back on and…drum roll, please! Christopher had a voicemail from the lovely lady at Delta Baggage Claim – they had our camera!!!!

You might think it couldn’t get any better than that, but we walked outside and it was SNOWING! In NEW YORK! At CHRISTMAS! I almost cried. For reals.

(snowing!)

Up next – the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. And do you know what the Rockettes had? A live nativity, complete with camels, donkeys and sheep. Holy crap.

After the show, Christopher booked it out of there and over to LaGuardia to get the camera. When we walked outside, it was still snowing. It was even starting to stick to the streets a little bit. We headed to find someplace for dinner. When we finally heard back from Christopher, we were almost to a restaurant and he said he would meet us at the Empire State Building. It was dark, snowing, there was almost nobody else out…and as we approach the Empire State Building, I saw Christopher, leaning against the building, with that black camera bag strapped across his chest. It might have been the most beautiful sight ever. And dinner was great!

We got up the next morning and I didn’t think it would get any better than the day before. And of course it didn’t get better than that, but it was a pretty awesome day. We went to the New York Public Library – I could have spent all day in there…and some the next day, but I know not everyone (okay, almost no one) likes a library and books as much as I do. We spent a few minutes and I got some cool things from the gift shop and then we headed back to Rockefeller Center. We did the Top of the Rock and then the Page Tour. We finished up just in time to grab some PIZZA and head back to the airport!

(Centra Park - my fave)

(it was seriously chilly up there)

Oh! And the return flight was much more pleasant! :-)

(Okay, seriously, did anyone read this whole thing? I would never have scrolled through such shenanigans.)