Touched Down in the Land of the Delta Blues

Saw the ghost of Elvis

On Union Avenue

Followed him up to the gates of Graceland

Then I watched him walk right through

Now security they did not see him

They just hovered 'round his tomb

But there's a pretty little thing

Waiting for the King

Down in the Jungle Room

Then I'm walking in Memphis

Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale

Walking in Memphis

But do I really feel the way I feel

Arrington Vineyards

I went to Arrington Vineyards with Patty and John on Veterans Day (11/11/08). We had a great time =o)



There were so few people off work that we had the place almost to ourselves! Patty had to be on call, but happily she only had one call the whole time we were there. The Vineyard was hosting a party for winners of an event for the Country Music Awards which took place the next day, so we didn't get a tour, but the girl behind the bar for the wine tastings gave John the tour sheet so he was our mock tour guide. He even made up a story that turned out to be right! haha



It started out to be a slightly rainy morning, but eventually the sun broke through the clouds and made the weather very pleasant.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Me at the gate entrance






The view into the vineyard




Patty by the vat of her favorite from the wine tasting



Our veteran




John was very excited about all the wine!





And some random small artsy ones that I really enjoyed taking...

2nd Annual Memorial Day Weekend at the Dancing Dog B&B

Here are some thoughts for the days...

Friday:
*Hi Ho.... Bye Ho...
*On your brochure, you promised free overnight loving in the garage, but when we got there it was full...
*Rest your lips against a pillow.
*El Mariachi's punch! Is it papaya? guava? mango?? How good is your palate??
*When in Arkadelphia, be sure to visit Aaron's college campus for the chance to see the Flippen-Perrin and Mabee Fine Arts buildings!
*Enchanted (while I actually almost called this movie enchanting, I realized how very dumb I sounded but thought I'd let you make fun of me anyway) let's just say... "eeett's goood"

Saturday:
*Aaron makes very yummy pancakes!
*Petanque would have been even more fun if not for the humidity in the morning (doh!)
*Barat's and Bereta (YES! Family Values!!) & Home Star Runner followed by Aaron's iTunes and some dancing
*Who gets competitive playing Rumikube??
*27 Dresses. I have to write a little something here... I love this movie! Benny and the Jets, she's got electric boobs... It's hysterical!! But I think my favorite part of watching it this weekend, was watching everyone else watch it for the first time (except RubyRed; she'd seen it before)! Knowing what was coming up and hearing RachelBaby, Aligato, Aaron and Papa John laugh loudly at the same time! Loved it!

Sunday:
*Strip Mall Baptist was fantastic. Aaron really found a great place to worship!
*Instead of going out to eat, we cooked with/for each other. I think everyone helped in some way and it was really good! Props for the slightly spicy homemade mac-n-cheese goes to RubyRed. I think we all had seconds!
*Ali kicked our "tay's" (guessing at the spelling) at Attack Uno
*Donnie and Lori joined us in the evening for grilling in and games.
*The boys winning at Battle of the Sexes
*Aaron almost beating all the rest of us at Battle of the Sexes (if we hadn't gotten a "go to the end" wildcard, he would have!)
*Having what I'm told is referred to as a 'sanging' after Donnie and Lori left. It all started with *"God of Earth and Outer Space" and turned into a great time of true worship. Thanks for starting it Aaron (you need to post the lyrics to your favorite hymn!)

Monday:
*Back on the road again... to jobs and homes and things that needed our attention. Thanks' so much Aaron, for opening up the Dancing Dog B&B for a weekend of relaxation. And, on a personal note, thanks for the 'Becky Dip' Burgers... it was nice of you to think of it...

Jazz Fest 2008

Murfreesboro held its annual Jazz Fest this past weekend, and as was tradition, it rained a good part of Friday night =o)

We decided to go Saturday.

It was quite fun! Not so crowded in the early afternoon, which made it easy to move about and meander around the square. Naturally, the food was way too expensive ($3 for water), but the atmosphere was light and fun. It was warm outdoors, but there was a breeze that kept us cool. We sat and watched Smyrna’s high school jazz band while we ate lunch and wandered through some shops after. Then we stopped and watched Joe Johnson for a while. I tried to take some pictures but couldn’t figure out why my phone/camera (remind me to blog about that…) wouldn’t save the ones I took. So while Jackie, Ali, John and I were sitting in Clay Cup, they helped me figure it out and I got this shot.

Then we went to a wedding shower for Ricky and Erica which was fun! They got a lot of great stuff… including 2 signs that said “RELAX” and 3 that said “LAUGH”… I guess Bed Bath and Beyond hadn’t updated their registry in a while! Haha

After the shower, it was back to Jazz Fest for Me, Alicat, RubyRed, and Papa John! We got there just in time to see the main event for the weekend, Nicholas Payton. He is a Grammy winning trumpeter and has worked with several outstanding jazz legends (according to Papa John). The crowd started off really dense, but people slowly left when it started getting colder. People were using what they could to stay warm…

But one of the more entertaining moments came from the group of girls who were maybe 13 doing “the kick” from The Karate Kid movie.

Things really do come full circle!

The Melting Pot

Here was my plan for Monday:

-Work
-Home to change
-Gym
-Home to relax

Here is what I did instead:

-Work
-Home to change
-Melting Pot
-Home to relax

Do you see the big difference between those two?

Yep, you guessed it... instead of hitting the gym for an hour I went out to eat. But it was worth it to have a girls night out! I went with Patty and Karen, and we had a BLAST! I even remembered (not until dessert) that I had a camera in my purse (also known as my phone), so I took a couple of pictures.

Patty & Karen

I played with the "blast" feature on my camera, it takes four shots in a row, and here it is in a filmstrip-type fashion.

The plates-o-desserts to dip into...

...the "Ying-Yang" goodness! It was dark and white chocolate; and simply delicious!

So thanks, Patty, for making me realize that it was a good thing to skip the gym and go eat chocolate! It was definitely worth it =0)

*I should probably mention that Monday was considered "Girls Night Out" at the Melting Pot (although aparently Karen and Patty didn't know that when they decided to go). So $25 of each of our dinners went to St Jude's, The Women's Fund and The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.*

At Last...

Nope, my love is not here to stay... but I don't mind waiting when I have such amazing friends! Like friends that take random trips to Chicago!!

Here are some pics, as previously promised...

Me in front on "The Bean"

The Funniest T-Shirt in a shop window

On our way to the Symphony Center

(I like the way it's almost grainy and old fashioned)

The BEST Store ever!!!

(At least it was)

The store formerly known as Marshall Fields

Our WTF moment

My cousin from Georgia (Jessica) happened to be in town, too!

And... We got to hang with my friend Greg!! =0)

(I'm sure he'll love that I put up this pic!)

Chicago: A Study in Two Parts

Part I: Observation

[Mr. Overly-Tanned at Nashville's Airport] Yeah Dude she's having a baby, so we're having kind of a bachelor party...

[Metra Station Sign] "Children left unsupervised will be given two lattes and a free puppy"

[Shirt in a very democratic store] Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriends wife for president

[on the train] I took a rocket to the moon, and blew up a martian!


[also on the train] ...and all the girls painted their right thumbnail red, so they'd know it was their right hand; but the boys didn't want their nails polished, so we put X's on them and said "Aaarrrggghhh" like pirates...

[walking in the city] Bacon & Cheese

[a random Irish pub] All we have are really bad cookies


Part II: Conversational Tidbits

* There are only two reasons for cornfields:
1. Alien signs
2. 'Will You Marry Me' signs

* Sometimes they are one in the same...

* I've waited my entire life for a $4 bottle of liquor!!

* I can't believe we're really doing this...

* My hands are turning blue... I should probably go to the hospital

* Crystal, you'll never guess where we are!! DALLAS!!!
(Crystal's response: ARE YOU SERIOUS??)

* Look!! They're perfect parallel lines!

* I really feel like a dork today for wearing green.

* We saw Celtic Woman in Ireland where I started blogging and had lunch with Dick Cheney; It's not pretentious, it's a fact.

* I need one of those monkey's on my back.

* What time is it? I just wanted to tell you you're really pretty.



(there will be pictures following, but rubyred has already posted these)

That Toddlin' Town

Can you name that tune?? That's right, it's Chicago. Frank Sinatra made it quite popular back in the day, and I had to learn it for school back in, oh I don't know, the third grade-ish?

Anyway, I thought of it becasue the second line of it it:

"Chicago, Chicago I'll show you around"

As it turns out, I'll be showing Ruby Red around the toddlin' town mid-March!! After a whole lot o' e-mailing yesterday/today, we've got plane tickets!!

Now to start planning the rest....

Back to the Eighties

I went to the coolest party ever on Saturday night!! It was totally awesome!! All of the biggest stars showed up!! We wanted to show our support for Hair Aid. It’s this gnarly fund raising concert event sponsored by Maqua Net Hairspray to raise some cash for research and development to totally design innovative ways to create bodaciously large hairstyles!! Fabulous, I know!

The party was held at the quaint home of our hostess Samantha Pinkman and her husband Peter Pinkman, scientist and famed ghost eliminator. We had some delicious cocktails (Shirley Temples) and got to mingle with all of the other famous people in attendance. Let’s see… there was the chairman of Hair Aid and Maqua Net CEO Biff Ewing; the Reverend James Cooker and his wife Glammy Ray; My best friend and pop singer, Gladonna. Break dancer Shaggy-Goo Oxide and his protégé Talex Towens (she’s narcoleptic); Atari Champion Buffy Bueller; Bobby Sue Petton the Olympic gold medalist who is a kleptomaniac and recently (as in that afternoon) stole my boyfriend, Moe Jontanna; which left me wide open to the annoying advances of Jeven Rearcie egotistical front man of a glam rock band; And of course, Mr. P (well known assassin) who we would fear to leave off the list of guests!

We realized early on in the night that everyone seemingly hated Moe. Which I loved, obviously; I mean he dumped me!! ME!!! Patty Plane!! He dumped Patty Plane!!! But even I was stunned when halfway through the evening Moe was murdered!! He was literally gagged with a spoon! It was horrible! And we had no idea who did it! I mean, like, even though I hated him, I didn’t kill him! And I know Gladonna has some assassins on her staff, but when she was saying that someone was terminated it was a member of her staff that made a mistake. But everyone had reasons of their own and just wanted Moe gone!! The one person no one expected is that it would be Samantha that killed him! I guess it’s always the quiet ones that you don’t expect. All she did was play with that annoying Rubik’s Cube all the time… it was really weird… Anyway, she did it, and accidentally left her freaky cube right next to his body!!

And poor Talex, with her narcolepsy problem, she didn’t even know if she did it or not! I mean, they were in the other room and she dropped in the middle of her break dancing and then he was killed! It’s a good thing Samantha admitted to the murder… people already blamed Talex as it was!

I bet I could use this party (and my heartbreak) to write a totally awesome song for me and my band the Brown Livers!!

Enjoy some photos from the paparazzi: