october 31

@ 9a | 2 cents...

Happy Halloween everyone! Allen did a wonderful job with the pumpkin pattern I found!

The photos are up for our trip to Virginia last weekend. In addition to four vineyards (Tomahawk Mill*, Mountain Cove, Delfosse*, and Wintergreen) we hiked to five waterfalls. This brings our waterfall grand total up to 90. :)

I took a few more photos of the bathroom before I started laying down the tile this weekend and I'm about 2/3s of the way done with the floor. I'll post all the progress photos this week.

I also started a new pastel for an upcoming show in January, the theme is "Colorful Calories."

october 27

@ 4p | 2 cents...

Those of you who know me personally probably know that I am a Cubs fan. Some of my earliest memories are of my grandpa watching the Cubs on TV when my grandparents spent the weekends with us. He always seemed to have a mug of cold beer and a shot of whiskey nearby and his old bearcub bobblehead doll is currently living on my fireplace mantle. My gram still watches all the televised games in FL thanks to WGN. Therefore, while I am happy for Chicago about the White Sox win last night, I am still not a White Sox fan and I never will be. The Cubs just have to win it soon, we are the only team left.

october 26

@ 10a | 2 cents...

Upon passing the McDonalds by our house earlier this morning, I was treated to Eric's philosophy on eggs: scrambled=delicious; seperate white/yolk=gross. We've been together for almost eight years, so I already knew this of course, but witnessing the huge line at the drive thru of people waiting for an weird egg patty product (which, according to Eric, they do not scramble properly before cooking) and extra hot coffee to spill on themselves when someone cuts them off on I-40 is a good topic stimulator early in the morning. :)

Photos are posted! Snowbird, Utah | NC State Fair

We had a nice dinner last night with a guy from the Advancement Office at Eckerd (our alma mater). He contacted us last week since he was going to be in the area chatting with alumni about the college. It's great to hear about all the new things going on without being openly solicited for money. ;) I had "The Crab."

october 25

@ 9a | 2 cents...

The photos from Eric's Utah trip have been captioned and will be posted tonight along with the shots we took at the NC State fair last Thursday. It was canned food day, so what would have cost $12 only cost us $5, including the free parking. :) I loved the animals and the garden sections but the large crowds and smell of fried food wore me out after a couple hours.

I am also working on the photos from our lovely wine and waterfall trip to Virginia last weekend. We visited four wineries (ones we didn't visit last June) and five waterfalls, although Crabtree Falls has about six beautiful viewing sections of the same huge waterfall. Peak fall color is probably about a week and a half away and to our surprise (and delight) there were hardly any people on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had the road to ourselves along a few stretches and the combination of bright blue sky, fall leaves and cool air made the hiking wonderful. My legs are sore today but it was completely worth every step. Below is a screen shot of last night's marathon Photoshop editing experience, I should have the Virginia pics up by the end of the week.

october 18

@ 1p | 2 cents...

My presentation at the Pastel Society meeting went well. We had a little trouble getting the projector/computer connection to work but once it was working... smooth sailing. I brought my lap top in (just in case) and also backed up the presentation onto a flash drive (just in case). Once I got everything in place, the older man in charge of the equipment was very helpful about finding another laptop to use because the gigantic video plug did not fit properly. This was even after I had to almost physically restrain him from trying "just once more" to jam the plug into the back of my computer! The good news is my computer is fine and I have received several e-mails about how helpful the talk was. I am hoping that it may lead to other freelance work. :) I realized that after teaching a week-long summer camp program to 10-14 years olds for two summers, giving a 40 minute presentation to adults is not nearly as anxiety-inducing as it was for me in college. Plus, in this case, I really knew what I was talking about!

I've also retooled my art website a bit to highlight my web design packages and added some photo restoration examples and pricing information. So if you want to see childhood photos of Eric, here you go. :)

Even though I have been neglectful about posting photos of the bathroom progress... the painting is done! Finished! Hooray! We are going to work on the floor in the next week or so and then I'll post all the progress photos. The before and after is stunning, I assure you!

Eric is back! I hope to sort through all of his photos in the next few days.

We are having friends over for dinner this evening and hopefully we will make it over to the NC State Fair on Thursday night. I am knee-deep in planning a Virginia trip for this weekend, we are hoping to try some wine at the many vineyards in southwest Virginia as well as hit a few waterfalls. Now I just have to find a decent hotel that isn't booked in the area. Ha!

october 13

@ 1p | 2 cents...

Eric seems to be enjoying himself in Utah... but I can't wait until he gets back! (and yes, that is snow behind him)

october 10

@ 11a | 2 cents...

The 5K on Saturday went well and although I don't have any photos to prove I ran the race, you all believe me right? :) Thanks again to those who donated, I really appreciate it. Luckily I had my race watch with me because there was no timer, heck, there wasn't even a finish line. Most folks walked, but I managed to run the 3.1 miles in 31 minutes.

We ended the day with cheese fondue and watched Georgia cream Tennessee in high def.

I will be working on a presentation for the Pastel Society this week... On Saturday I'm talking to the group about digital photography and manipulation.

october 4

@ 2p | 2 cents...

Earthfare has let me down again. I won't go too far into the fact that the Athens store once stocked these wonderful dried rhubarb treats for like, one whole week, and we haven't seen them since (two years ago). Well, now we have an Earthfare in Chapel Hill, hooray! Or so I thought. I can completely understand not having tamarind paste... it's an odd request at best and I am not even sure what exact flavor it was going to empart in the pineapple pork curry dish I am making tonight for dinner, but I had to ask. But Greek yogurt? They have no Greek yogurt! Eighteen million different kinds of organic and tofu yogurt (!) but not one container of Greek yogurt.

So the guy I ask (who used to work at Whole Foods) suggests I try over there and I reply that parking over there is a complete nightmare and frankly, I'd rather not, to which he replies (as if to prove my point further) that he and his co-workers used to sit outside and watch people almost get into accidents for fun on their breaks because, yes, the parking lot is really that awful. Anyway, I think I am going to just use some apricot jam and call it even.

And... I finished a new painting last night...

october 3

@ 11a | 2 cents...

The bathroom walls are almost finished! I have to touch up in a few places and remove the top part of the toliet so I can paint behind there and then? The floor. I'll post some photos soon.

Meanwhile, here's a yummy salad I have added to our regular rotation...

Chef Salad
2 cups romaine hearts
1 slice Boar's Head deli smoked turkey, chopped
2 slices Boar's Head deli pepper ham, chopped
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
1/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 Tbsp Ken's sweet vidalia onion LITE dressing