Making Plans to Point and Shoot

I'm jumping on the bandwagon!!!

The blog of my new dog-loving friend, Kerry Woo, is where I found this fun idea. But it looks like we can also tip our hats to Rex and Brittney for getting the good times rolling, too.

Sounds easy enough to me: Take and post a picture a day in 2007. Something new every day??? The same thing every day to watch how it grows??? The same theme???

My camera is charging as we speak...

If Santa Were a Rich Man...

Cole was telling me earlier this week about a blog he was reading with a Christmas list which included items that only a rich Santa could fulfill, and it made me start thinking about what my wish list would be if money were no object. Here's the top five that I came up with...

1. The new Land Rover LR3 in Buckingham Blue.
2. About 50 acres of land with a small weekend home so we could adopt animals and they'd have room to run and play.
3. A nose job. My nose is the first thing I see when I look in the mirror, and I'd like it to be smaller. I say that, but I'd actually never do it, for two reasons: First, I can't handle the thought of the pain and blood and bruising. But also, I've recently realized that my nose is Mom's nose, too. I have my Daddy's shoulders, eyes, dimples and large hands. And I have my mother's nose.
4. A closet full of Jimmy Choo shoes. Even just a pair for every day of the week would be nice!
5. A state-of-art, stainless steel chef's kitchen. Oh, and a personal chef!

Why not?!?!

Country Ham and Moon Pies

We got home from Nashville last night a few minutes before 8 p.m. I don't have the energy this evening to do an eloquent wrap-up post of any kind, so this will be what Stacey calls "one of them bullet posts."

• I landed in Nashville late Tuesday night. I've started going late at night instead of waking up and taking the first plane out. I just do better when I get a good night's sleep.
• Wednesday I worked a full day.
• Thursday afternoon Cole flew in and we attended the annual Hammock Publishing Christmas party. View pictures here. Dinner was great. Rex was as generous as ever. And the party bus was a scream. I think it got to about 17 degrees while we were out that night, so I feel like I've officially seen winter.
• Friday I worked half a day, then Cole and I grabbed a bite to eat at the Flying Saucer and visited the Tennessee State Capitol. It was a little cold to be strolling the grounds, but we did it anyway. It's a beautiful building. Visit if you get the chance.
• Friday evening we drove to the Loveless Cafe for dinner. Well, we ate breakfast foods at dinner, so I guess it still counts as dinner. Again, it was incredibly cold! We got there during their last hour of being open, and we wanted to do some shopping in the "Hams and Jams" giftshop. Our waitress called the giftshop to see if they were still open, and they were actually trying to close up. But the kind lady at the giftshop stuck around for us to do some shopping. Biscuit mix, t-shirts and a magnet, and we were on our way to get lost in rural Tennessee.
• Saturday morning we slept in a bit before hitting the road to Lynchburg. We did the touristy thing and took a tour at the Jack Daniel's Distillery. Our guide was a hoot. I didn't understand every word that came out of his mouth, but he made the tour very entertaining and educational. Maybe one day the hair in my nose will grow back. Sniffing that stuff in the middle of the mellowing process will clean your sinuses right out!!!
• After our tour, we headed out of Lynchburg looking for a speck on the map called Lynnville. Laura had tipped us off to the Southern Living article about a gentleman named Colonel Littleton. I think we drove for probably an hour, winding in and out of the hills of rural south Tennessee. There were miles and miles of the drive where we couldn't pick up cell service. And you know you're driving through really small towns when there is horse poop on Main Street. When we finally hit Lynnville, we stopped for directions and ended up having a late lunch at a place called Soda Pop Junction. It's apparently pretty famous in those parts. After shopping at the colonel's place and visiting with the sweet ladies there, we took our mini Moon Pies (order something from him and you'll get one too!) and headed back to Nashville. This time on the interstate. We were drained enough from our day if whiskey-sniffing and driving winding roads that we ordered room service and stayed in.
  
• Sunday morning we got a fairly early start and fueled ourselves with breakfast at the Pancake Pantry. We timed our visit perfectly because by the time we sat down, the line to come in and eat was down the sidewalk. It was a little warmer on Sunday, so we walked around Centennial Park and enjoyed the Parthenon and the squirrels.
  
• Side note: If/when you shop for Christie Cookies, shop at the Village Green location. We stopped by there for our regular Christie fix. The place looked open from the parking lot; there was a gentleman inside working. But upon sticking our heads in and asking, he was he was in fact closed and asked what we wanted. We only wanted a couple, so he hooked us up and would only take about half what a register would have told him the total was. He was so kind to us, and never made us felt like we were ruining his day or not moving fast enough for him. That is now officially my favorite Christie location!!! Visit there soon and do your cookie business there.
• Although I didn't have room for it, we had lunch at Maggiano's. That's the same place where we had the Hammock Christmas party last year, so we knew it would be good. Then we headed to the airport to catch a flight back to the Lone Star State.

See all my pictures of the trip here. I'll let you know when Cole's are up. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting something, and if I am, I'll fill in the blanks later. G'night!!!

Me, Weird?

It stings just a little to know that my loving husband thinks I'm weird, but apparently he does.

And I guess this little game of tag is kinda fun. It sure beats going out in the cold to actually run around the neighborhood yelling, "You're it!"

So, here's the assignment... Share six "weird" things about myself. I think I'm perfectly normal, but I guess there are a few things that I do that other normal people do not...

1. I lock the door three times when I leave. (We won't get into my other little OCD issues here.) I don't technically lock it three times; I just turn the key to the lock position three times. Here's how it goes: I put the key in, straight up, and turn it a quarter to the left to lock it. Then I turn the key back to the top, then to the left, then to the top, then to the left a final time. I then slowly pull the key out of the door and quietly walk away. Now if ever Cole comes up behind me to jiggle the handle, I have to start all over. It breaks the seal I've created in my head.
   
2. I have a "happy dinner dance." I believe Cole coined that term. And I did this little dance just last night when we ate at the Satellite Cafe in Escarpment Village near our house. The dance started with my first bite of their yummy chocolate torte. I don't even realize I do it, but apparently when I eat something I really enjoy, my shoulders break into a little side-to-side shimmy. Doesn't everyone dance when they eat?!?!
3. I won't leave the house without earrings. I think this is something that my Gran-gran instilled in me when I was about 6 years old. And to this day she won't leave the house without lipstick and earrings. I can walk the dogs first thing in the morning and never brush my teeth or comb my hair. But if you see me walking through the neighborhood with them, I'll have earrings on.
4. I won't fly without the little pink rabbit. I didn't get on a plane until I was about 25, and since Mom couldn't go with me, she sent me a little pink rabbit to squeeze in my hand if I got nervous. I swear he used to be bright pink!!! Now he's this sorta pinkish-gray-purple color. He only stands about three inches tall, and I can hide him completely in the palm of my hand when I need to make a white-knuckled fist in mid-air. One of these days I need to calculate how many miles he's flown over the last 10 years.
5. I won't eat pizza without a fork. I, for one, think this is perfectly normal. I wore braces for years and years, and it's just a habit I picked up during that time. Pizza makes quite a mess in braces if you just bite it!!! Laura understands.
6. I don't like water to touch my nose. My face is always the first thing I dry getting out of the lake or the shower. I don't know why, but I can handle the feel of water rolling down any part of my body... except my nose!!!

Okay, Laura and Megan... YOU'RE IT!!!