Wow! Sorry for so long since my last post! Time has been just flying. I can't believe that my baby will be 23 this weekend! Happy early birthday, Katie, and that it will be officially fall.
Last weekend seems like SO long ago. Pat got home a little early and we drove 5 hours into North Carolina toward Hickory. We stayed just shy of Hickory. Driving the mountains in the dark was very stressful, not to mention the rock slide being cleared in the other lane. They has closed a lane, redirected traffic and moved barricades under flashing lights and semi's going 35 miles an hour uphill and then trying to maintain 45 going down. Yuck. We definitely said that we would do the mountains the next day in the daylight. Well, we did buy a leather sofa (brown - John Wayne looking) and two recliners that don't look like recliners in fabric. They should be here before Christmas...yea! However, Hickory is billed as the furniture capital of the U.S. and probably at one time...it was. They have signs that advertise 20 miles of furniture stores and outlets. Not so much anymore. Lots of closed shops. We did see some of the factories and saw lots of piles of sawdust, but the economy has really taken its' toll on them. We went to one location probably the size of Oak Park Mall in Kansas City with smaller shops that represent all manufacturers in it. You could buy off the floor samples, order, or really look for bargains in the basement. There is a reason that they are bargain basement items....so far out that you would have to have had a special room designed around some of these pieces. Anyway, glad we went - no wondering about it anymore.
Yesterday, was Newcomers group. We met in the morning to carpool to Atlanta (Marietta). There were about 18 of us that went. Atlanta is SO big. We did some shopping on the square and then to lunch (of course) at Gabriel's. The owner is a cousin of Paula Deen. I had these illusions of a really neat old restaurant.... We had to order the night before as sometimes the wait is too long because it gets so crowded if you want to order off the menu or you just take a meat and three. They make certain meats and then you order 3 side items. Staple items in the south are pimento cheese and flat beans (very flat large green beans with not much taste). I ordered the trio salad ( chicken salad -it's the south, pasta salad, and fruit salad) off the menu. The restaurant is new and cold, crowded, and noisy. My food was ready made in the to go refrigerator so it had been sitting there a while in a plastic tray. A lot of us agreed, it is a place we would not go back to but glad we could say we had been there. We left and went to a Huge Whole Foods Market. They arranged a tour of the store for us and it was really fun. The gal took us around and shared information and samples...we would be walking along and then to make a point, she would grab something off the shelf - open it up and then let us all try it. We got home about 5pm.
The group is really fun. It is great to meet new people and see new places, go out for lunch, coffees, and book club. I think I told you that I was reading the October book, The Hunger Games. It was really good and a real fast read....youth book that is a trio. I read the whole series. It is a sci-fi/social commentary book. Now I am on to the November book, The Paris Wife. I think it is about Ernest Hemingway's wife.
While I was in the store, Pat sent me a message that one of his contacts at Burns and Mac was going to be in town and wanted to meet with us and take us out to dinner. We went to 212 Market Street. (Again, not a lot of chains in the Chattanooga area - a lot of chefs just open their own store) It was really pretty good. We told him we had never been there and that our company was usually our guinea pigs to get to try new places. Of course we caught up on lots of news about Wolf Creek since he and Pat worked together there as well, and we talked about someday going to work for B/M but not right now. Still opportunities in the NE but I said....who can afford to live there.
Living Sweetly in the South,
Miss Jan
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