The Fall TV season is upon us and we’ve been trying out a few new shows, but I haven’t been super-impressed by many yet. However, we did start Tivo-ing a new show over the summer: Eureka (http://www.scifi.com/eureka/about). To me it’s a scifi version of the early 90’s show “Northern Exposure.” Surprisingly, Leandra likes it too :)

Riesling isn’t a big fan of thunder - she doesn’t make a big deal of it, but she does believe that it is far safer to be under my desk than in her normal chair (3 feet away). Quite prudent, don’t you think?

A while ago we bought some twig-like drawer pulls from Home Depot for an outrageous sum… so when I saw the same style for sale on eBay for a fraction of the price, I bought the 31 we needed to complete all the dressers. Other things acquired on eBay at a discount in the last week: a Chicago Bears license plate frame (2-0!) and a pair of wine colored Lands End mocs. :)

A few photos of Riesling that Eric took after she was groomed last week…

*what? haven’t you seen Team America yet?

Before the Pacific Northwest wine and cheese tasting last Tuesday at april&george, we had a light dinner one block away at the Red Room in Raleigh. Eric chose the Salsa Duo (verde and roja) with fried tortillas, while I opted for their signature dish, the Ceviche Trio: snapper ceviche with olive oil poached tomatoes, shrimp ceviche with avocado and mango; and tuna ceviche with pico de gallo. Not pictured here was the Papas Bravas (fried new potatoes with lemon chile aioli) that we split.

Um, did I say we had a light dinner? Whoops!

All three tapas were fantastic and flavorful and I am now looking for any excuse to get back there.

I guess walking in the rain really tires a dog out. But how am I supposed to grade exams when I have this snoring behind me?

Here is a crappy cameraphone photo of the lovely KT Tunstall at the concert in Raleigh last night. Her voice is amazing in person and we discovered she not only plays the guitar, but piano and drums as well. She played most (if not all) of her current album along with a few songs from a one-day recording marathon in Scotland, and a entertaining cover of “She Don’t Use Jelly” by the Flaming Lips. And because of the club set-up and our position, I was able to see the whole time—brilliant!

Since today was so nice I had the window in my office open and Riesling spent the better part of the afternoon guarding/sniffing/watching/protecting/whining/etc. Around 4p you could tell she was really tired (since she skipped her afternoon nap), but she was still trying to keep her guard up. Hopefully this has drained some of her vast stores of energy!

While taking pup on her nightly walk yesterday, Eric suddenly remembered we had talked about having wine and dessert at Starlu that night because of their 1/2 priced wine bottles and delicious desserts. After the walk we cleaned up and headed over for a wonderful bottle of Riesling, homemade german chocolate cake, and a chocolate platter consisting of: peanut butter balls dipped in milk chocolate, chocolate-espresso fudge atop a soft espresso cookie and a mini pecan pie tart. Heaven!

When the terrorist attacks occured in NYC, we were sound asleep in Hawaii, about to enjoy the first full day of our honeymoon. We made it through half the day without knowing, despite being 6 hours behind Eastern time.

While shopping for some shirts that morning, a saleslady asked us where we were from. I mentioned I was from Chicago and that my husband was from New York. She then asked if we had heard what happened? A plane ran into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. At the time we thought it was a joke because it made absolutely no sense, plus she didn’t seem overly concerned by the news.

Then we were stopped by security on the way back in to our hotel, which was odd because we hadn’t been stopped the night before. When we asked about this, the guard stated that because of the attacks in NY, security was being stepped up. All of a sudden, the strange comments from the saleslady and the brief airport closing announcements on the radio made more sense. We bolted to our room, turned on the TV, and stared in disbelief.

It was a bit surreal to be so far away from family and friends during this time (Eric is from NY) and only once we knew everyone was safe did we allow ourselves away from the TV and back to our vacation.

Throughout our trip we saw glimpses of the effects of the attacks here and there but mostly people seemed to go about their business like nothing had happened. Our hotel emptied out once flights resumed and I imagine very few people were flying in. We did have a lovely time in Hawaii, of course, but that first day will always be especially clear in my mind.