Day one of 2009

Big ass baklava at the Marietta Diner and skipping stones on Lake Allatoona at Red Top Mountain


(creamer is in there for scale)

:::

Oh, my! How could I forget . . . the leftover, crock-potted split pea soup made from the Christmas ham.

A happy and content January 1.

It's oh, so quiet

It's oh, so still.

The last of our guests, my oldest brother, left this morning. I finally took a good, long nap and then woke up to silence. Strange after having guests in our home every week this month.

{Here it is . . . the merry month of December}

The week after getting back from Thanksgiving in Florida, we had a friend of ours visit with us. It is always a good time with Dave! He is a natural at storytelling and will leaving you laughing every time.

We introduced Dave to an oldie, but a goodie game, Greed. It is a fun, addictive dice game. Easy to learn too.



We also finally went to check out Thai Heaven. Great to have a good Thai place that is close by and doesn't involve looking for parking for 10 minutes. Their Nam Sod is crazy good and is a little scalding - more so than what they call spicy on their menu.

I am still in mourning for Phuket's closing on Buford Hwy . . . although I see that a new Thai place is there now. Is it the same owners?

:::

Next up, Mr. BITH's dad and wife drove up to drop off something for his sister and her boyfriend and then we all met up at Ted's Montana Grill to sup. Mr. BITH's dad and wife came back to our place to stay. We had a lovely brunch with them at Thumb's Up and then they drove back to Florida.

Wonderful to see them!

:::

A few days later, my brother flew in from San Antonio to spend the week with us. Many-splendored things occurred.

Gingerbread house making
(bonus points for using a Halloween kit)



A visit to the aquarium:





The new World of Coke:



Weird Coke creatures from 4D ad movie.



This is a screen shot of a Flip movie my brother took of me while I was tasting a flavor (apparently putrid) at the end of the Coke museum. I went years ago to the old museum and don't recall being this put off by one of the flavors. Maybe a new one or my taste buds are changing?

I am in utter disbelief that I am sharing this photo because it is ghastly, but I couldn't stop laughing at the faces I made!

I believe I was shedding tears by the end of the film.
And if I recall correctly, suppressing a gag reflex.



Dialog in the Dark:



Yes, this was actually said by our blind guide.

A word of caution: Do not get grouped with a mass of HR women who are on a holiday team building exercise and think that this experience is supposed to be similar to going to a haunted house . . . 'nuff said.

Watched a slew of crazy movies and streamed a ton of Roku (our obsession with the Roku is a whole other post I have been neglecting to do):

• Pictionary (hog or Porky Pig)
• Winning some trivia at the local bar (did you know that Japan uses more condoms than China, Brazil or the U.S.? We didn't)
• Sweetwater Creek on a warm, rainy day

During our week together, we discovered a new, magically delicious restaurant on Buford Hwy after finding out that the Pho house we wanted to go to was closed that day.

Amazingly, the AJC reviewed it over a week later in an article titled, "2008: These 10 spots made year memorable."



We can highly recommend the shaken beef, La Lot beef - and Mr. B, what kind of fish did you have that was so yummy? Perfect jasmine tea too. Will definitely go back again!

:::

With the revolving door ever turning, my parents arrived from Florida with enough food in tow to feed a village. No stopping Christmas now!

On Christmas Eve, my oldest brother stepped off a plane and arrived to find mouth-watering, melt in your mouth rack of lamb glazed with citrus and vinegar. I am not usually a lamb lover (with the exception of cassoulet and gyros), but . . .
0. m. g.

We attempted to do the Southern thang with some Honeybaked Ham, rosemary corn bread, celery cream and bacon on green beans and scalloped potatoes for Christmas, but I do believe the lamb was the pinnacle.

There were so many beautiful moments that we shared as a family -- far too many to list, but I will give it a try (hey, it's my blog).

We are thankful for it all!

• White Oak walk
• Kennesaw Mountain
• Botanical Gardens
  
• Thai food (yes, again)
• Home cooked meals and general silliness
  
• Hot dogs and cheesecake sent from Chicago (yep, Chi-town style)
• Homemade cookies and fudge and date balls and lemon bars that my mom made and additional that my godmother sent (did we achieve that 3,500 a day calorie goal? You betcha!)
  
• The Bodies exhibit (for some of us, the second time seeing it)! Amazing! Go see it if you haven't. Although I will say that I liked the exhibit space in Tampa better
• Povitica from N & J (yes, I even saved some for the rest of the family)
• Hummous povitica (dad)
  
• Seeing the Thrashers get, err, thrashed
• Free flowers from Trader Joe's
  
• The little boy sleeping in church
• Pool sharkin' at the Tavern
• Dynasty unfolding at Blind Willies
• . . .
  

:::

Thanks to my family for making our first Christmas in our new home so special.

Each of you made our time together absolutely perfect.

♥ ♥ ♥

Love to all of you and missing you like crazy here in the Hollow,
The BITH's

Delicious autumn!

Mr. BITH recently went to the Oakland Cemetery. We used to go visit quite a bit when we lived closer and haven't been since the tornado tore through it. He got some beautiful fall images.









Through our neighborhood association newsletter we found a very close walking trail with some of the biggest white oaks we've ever seen!

Look closely. That's me and the dog standing in front of the tree.

Historic preservation and Bela Lugosi

The funeral was Saturday, but since I was not able to make the trip I went ahead with the day as scheduled.

I met a friend at Dancing Goats (great review here) to grab their oh-so-perfect cappuccino and their Duck's divine donuts before heading over to:



I don't have time right now to give a proper review because I am packing for a business trip, but overall, I would say it is worth your time to check it out next year if you didn't already! Once I get some of the presentations, I will write a review and post the presentations on the blog. Got plenty of helpful information and some possible resources for various projects in the future.

That evening we headed to Fellini's for a slice of pizza before heading over to the Plaza Theatre to check out the Silver Scream Spook Show.

This is one of the main cast members, Professor Morte.



I did a trial run of my costume and it was fun to see other people's costumes. The people that won the contest had a wonderful couple costume, a guy with a hearse attached around his waist and his girl was walking inside a coffin with eye holes. (I didn't even enter the contest, it is too hard to explain what I am, lol)

This show is campy good fun - plus, you get to watch a crazy B horror movie afterwards. I write that last sentence with hesitation as I know there are a lot of Ed Wood fans that would say a B label downplays Ed Wood's brilliance ;)

Our movie was, Bride of the Monster, Bela Lugosi's last speaking role. The audience had fun with it laughing at the editing, props, innuendos and dialog.



See you guys in a week or so!

Football, festivals and getting older

{{otherwise known as one of the longest posts ever}}

Sorry folks, fall has hit and my head is whirling. Things are getting brisk. Weekends being touristy at festivals, birthdays sneaking up and a trip to San Francisco.

We headed to Hapeville's Happy Days festival on September 20th and took the opportunity to explore the downtown as well. The festival itself was pretty sparse, but people seemed to be having fun - especially the kids on all of the big inflatables (never big enough for adults though *pout*).

The museum was hodgepodge stuff about Hapeville . It houses everything from an old Model T Ford to a torture chamber looking perm machine to old memorabilia from Delta and Eastern. Don't even think most of the population could fit in the old airplane chair they had on display. We did notice a weird tendency to populate the town with mannequins . . .













They seemed to be e v e r y w h e r e.

At least they had the good sense to install pretty flowers in various places to distract you from the "posers" with the really bad hair. I mean they are on display! Dignity, people, dignity - even for a mannequin.





The next weekend (September 27) we went to the Historic College Park Festival. Again, small and not really that varied as far as the art aspect went. The music was decent and the park was really nice (the grass was otherworldly lush and all of the kids ran around barefoot in it). The best thing that came out of going was meeting Tal Stanfield and Don Shomaker of The Craftsman Remodeling, LLC. Their work looked amazing. They even do custom cabinets and built-ins! Definitely have them earmarked for the future!









The little girl, above, cracked me up with her serious little face. The little boy, above, danced like a crazy man in front of the live bands. I mean running, jumping, doing little dance moves for about an hour. Non-stop. He wore me out while I was sitting there eating my Italian sausage sandwich. Whew.

That night my parents showed up on their way back down from north Georgia to check out our home. After our very quick tour of the house, we left them to their own devices and headed out to meet friends for a pre-birthday (happy birthday to meeeee!) celebration at the Wren's Nest. I have lived in Atlanta for a while, but had never gone (this was a phrase much uttered over the evening by just about everyone I talked to or was eavesdropping on *ahem* The only exception seemed to be former Boy Scouts. Apparently they all visited the Nest at one point or another).

These were the events that finally led to us actually stepping foot into the place: we happened to go to the nearest Benjamin Moore design store location and while standing in the parking lot, noticed the Wren's Nest across the street (SO close). Then we got an invite a few days later from Kingsized since we are on the mailing list. My interest was piqued even then but as soon as my eyes saw the caterers, Sol Catering of Taqueria del Sol? Too delicious to be ignored. The stars were aligned! Totally good time, divine food and the house is amazing! Best of luck to them as they remodel and spin yarns!



A few days later I headed to San Francisco for a dear friend's birthday extravaganza! There was much eating, drinking and making merry. Even some of the most sophisticated tailgating I have ever been to (beef brisket, pork, lamb, polish sausages, corned beef. so. much. meat. Thank goodness J brought grapes). The 49ers lost, but that didn't stop the gorging. There were hot dogs for a light evening snack. Oh, and although Hapeville might have been keeping ACME Mannequin in business, San Francisco had their ubiquitous bowls of balls. Tres chic!