Blog is being discontinued until further notice......

Chattanooga is Creek Indian for "rock rising to a point"!

You are so from Chattanooga if you know that goats eat kudzu and wild dogs eat goats....more to come post by post.  They published all these fun facts in a local magazine that they give out.  I pick up ours at the Sports Barn.

Last weekend we went to Nashville! It was a lot of fun. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. They have something like 2500 rooms. HUGE!!! It is still recovering after the flood that hit Nashville a year ago. We met some friends from Alabama. The Opry is now being held at the Ryman Auditorium which was one of the original homes to the opry. The current location is being used by the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes for their Christmas show. The hotel and outside were already decorated for Christmas...just beautiful. The hotel has a huge atrium in the center with wonderful landscaping, a river with a boat, restaurants, bars, and shops. We got a shuttle from the hotel to downtown where the Ryman is before dinner. We were going to eat at the Wild Horse Saloon but it was closed because a movie was being filmed in it, so we went up the street for dinner. Not anything too exciting just good food. After dinner we walked around downtown before the show. It was packed. Lots of novelty shops to go in but nothing great...I tried to get Pat to buy this hat.... no luck!

We then went to the show.  It was semi circle seating and was pretty full I thought.  Each singer, band etcetra that is asked to join the opry is obligated to perform there at least once or twice a year, I think.  I know that they only are allowed to perform 2 songs and they get paid $200.00 per evening.  That is why many of todays BIG artists don't want to join the opry because the one night they give up is probably at least 10 times more profitable for them on their own.  Anyway, the show is still a live radio broadcast so we sat through commercials for  Dollar General and Human Health Care.  We saw many performers but the ones that stand out to us were:  Charlie Pride (Kiss an Angel Good Morning),

                                                        Little Jimmies mailbox.  His manager drives him to the opry each nigth.....He has to be as old as dirt....ha.

Little Jimmy Dickens, and Hank Williams Jr's daugher and granddaughter and yes...they sang....I'll Fly Away.  It was entertaining.  We would do it again.

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel before we left and Pat had "Southern Eggs Benedict"!

Talk about a heart attack on a plate....Get this:  Take an english muffin, add cheese, a big old thick hunk of bacon........a CRAB CAKE!, an egg and then holandaise sauce. Yes, he ate the whole thing.  UGH!

Before we left for Nashville...my oven quit working so I guess I am very Thankful that I am not cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  It won't be fixed until the end of the month!!!!!  So glad for microwaves and grills.

I helped with a Habitat for Humanity build this week.  It is a good feeling to do some manual labor for someone who really needs the leg up.  The lady who will move into the home is caring for her disabled great grandchild.

We went to a Mexican Train party last night.  It is a game with dominoes.  There were about 10 couples there.  We all brought a snack to share and they provided drinks.  I am sure that we will have them over sometime in the future.  Fun!

Our chairs were delivered this morning...I know on a Sunday....seriously.  But, I guess they are getting all the deliveries done they can before Thanksgiving.

Now on a puzzling note....the TV says that Black Friday sales start at midnight on Friday......don't they mean Midnight Thursday????  I thought midnight would be the end of the night.....Think about it...

Living Sweetly in the South,

Miss Jan

Flying By

November is just flying by! Last week was so busy. Our P.E.O. group has lunches every month and Monday was lunch at the Countryside cafe.  This was a place picked by 2 gals who in the end couldn't make it.  I am sure that they would have had more to tell me about this place.  Anyway, it was a new place and area that I hadn't even begun to explore.  It was a meat and three type of place complete with turnip greens and cornbread and of course PIE (which I did not have).  It also included the LOCALs.......if you know what I mean...  Think of every back woods Tennessee type that you have ever seen spoofed on TV....they were there!  Made for an interesting day.  Oh by the way....I stayed safe and had a BLT. Ha Ha.

A couple of girls and I went to Lookout Mountain for lunch last week. Now, that was fun!  We went to the Cornerside Cafe on the mountain.  There were four of us and we each got something different and shared.  I ordered the daily special - Southern cheeseburger.  It had a fried green tomato on it instead of your normal tomato.  There was also pasta -good but just normal.  Another got the BLT only this also had a fried green tomato on it.  And the other gal had french dip.  Anyway we went out to lunch to learn about a charitable sorority called Sigma Beta.  Last Tuesday they asked me to join and come to the first function that I was included in and that was at the food bank packing sack packs for kids in the area to hold them over the weekend in the way of something to eat.  They deliver 3,000 a week in our county.  There were about 7 of us there...many were P.E.O.'s as well.  This Friday we are working on Habitat for Humanity.

Last weekend we went to an auction....rather I should say that I dragged Pat kicking and screaming to an auction.  It was a hole in the wall.  I love auctions. They are so much fun and "relatively" cheap entertainment.  All the gals I told that I went there ...they couldn't believe I went and now they all want to go....good and bad.  Good for the company, bad for the competition.  I bought two end tables, four B&G plates, and 2 tole painted trays.  I know I really needed all that like a hole in the head but...my end tables were $35. each and Pat is having so much fun fixing one up.  The other just needed some TLC to come in the house.  (Furniture polish) 

We also had a newcomers luncheon downtown at Niko's ...fun and then P.E.O. on Thursday.  The camilias are starting to bloom and my azaleas are just beautiful right now.  I LOVE THE SOUTH!  Yes, Mom, the new azaleas in the south bloom twice a year. 

I can't believe Santa is already at the mall....yuck!  Gotta go now.  Get ready to hear about the Grand Ol' Opry and see Pat's southern version of eggs Benedict!

Living Sweetly in the South,

Miss Jan

Atlanta and friends

The last time I posted I said that I would be going to Atlanta to visit some family friends.  I had a really nice visit with two really great people.  They live near Stone Mountain, Georgia just outside Atlanta.  The drive down there was beautiful.  The leaves on the trees were great and the sun was shinning.  No traffic.  We probably could have talked for hours more but I need to get home since I had been gone seeing Jenny.  I will go back. It is not a bad drive, a little more traffic coming home but not too bad.

The next day I started rearranging my dining room.  I (we- Pat and I) told each other that is was time to pack away some of the things that we have out that we really just use during the holidays.  So that is what I did. 

In doing so I noticed that most of my silver needed a good polishing and I had just read about an easy way to polish silver....
Check out the before picture of the bottom of the butter tray...

And now the after.....

Super easy...  you cover the bottom of your kitchen sink with a piece of aluminum foil.
Next put the piece of silver on the aluminum foil.
Sprinkle generously baking soda over the top of the silver.
Pour boiling water over the piece....and it just FLASHES off....instantly.  If it is really scrolly and ornate you may have to use some silver polish but the rest comes off really easy.  Well...that is has been occupying my spare time lately.....And now I hope it stays nice until after the holidays.

More picture of my "updated" dining room...that I love!

When I came home from KC, Pat had finished our new wine rack that I had blogged about earlier...here it is.....  I really like it!

We got our new sofa earlier this week!  Yea!  Pat is thrilled with it.  He said this is the first piece of furniture that he is really happy about in a long while.  Spice does not get to get on it or the new chairs when they come.  She has a new bed in the living room.

We had book club this past week.  Most of the gals rated the book a 3.5 out of 5 but I said 4. I enjoyed  The Paris Wife.  Next month is In the Dark Streets Shineth - a Christmas book only about 60 pages long and I plan on reading it while we drive to Kansas/Missouri.  I am still trying to finish Honor Among Thieves. In all my spare time.

We went to the movies and out to dinner last weekend.  We saw In Time.  It was okay.  I thought it would have more social commentary but it turned into a Robin Hood type film.  Mellow Mushroom was really good.

Living Sweetly in the South,

Miss Jan

So far away

Got back from Kansas City on Monday.  What a whirlwind trip, kind of like the one to Philly.  Wish we lived closer sometimes or at least not so far away from all our family.  But, we love Chattanooga and it seems to like us.

The airports are already SO busy...busy like holiday travel.   Unbelievable.  On the way home from KC, I sat next to a guy from OKC. He knew a Dr. here that we have seen....small world.

Yesterday, was rest and recouperate day... I can't believe how much drier it seems in Kansas than here.  We always thought Kansas was humid but not really.  I was really glad to come back home to where my skin didn't feel so horrible.

Jenny is doing awesome!  She had some great stories to tell us all.  It is hard to believe how much she knows already...and has seen.  I am really proud of my kids! 

Pat worked on our new wine rack.  We will probably hang it up tonight.  I will take a picture and post when we do.  It looks really cool.  He also ....bought himself a tablet...(computer).  Kind of like an ipad but it has windows on it and that way he can manipulate it better..the engineer in him can't leave well enough alone.  I was just so glad that he finally did something for himself.  He takes such great care of us, he deserves something too once in a while.  He takes it to work and says that it is a big help instead of all that paper all the time.

Book club is next week.  I read The Paris Wife.  It is a good book and very interesting about how all the "artists" of the time hung out is Europe.  This trend was started by Van Gogh and Rembrandt.  It wasn't that they had all the money in the world it was just what was done.  If you like Hemingway at all this book from the viewpoint of his first wife is a good insight into his life and how he ended up in the Keys.

I am going to Atlanta tomorrow to see some family friends that I haven't seen in a very long time.  I am looking forward to it.

Living Sweetly in the South,

Miss Jan

A few new words...

I went to lunch with the gals yesterday...to celebrate October birthdays...they are going to be the death of me...  They are going out again on Thursday to the movies and then bridge on Friday.  I have got to brush up on my bridge!!!  Anyway while we were out to lunch, southern words and accents came up and I have two new ones for you:

A carbonated beverage in the south  :      Coke

(not soda or pop....Coke)

A shopping cart in the store :         Buggy

Going to Kansas City tomorrow to see JJ!  Looking forward to a great weekend.

Living Sweetly in the South,

Miss Jan

Prayers at a footlball game...in the South

We had a great time at the Tennessee/Louisiana State football game.  I have never been to a college football game where there was that much school spirit and pride in the football team....basketball yes....but not football.  It was incredible. Even when they knew they were 99% sure of a loss.  First of all the tailgating before the game was unbelievable...you would have thought you were at a pro game.  The stadium is SO old... I guess they don't build a new one for the same reason KU won't build a new Allen Field House.  I said to Pat that the field seemed so much smaller than other places.  The stadium was smaller because they don't have their track around the football field.  The place of completely packed!  I don't know what they would do if everyone had to wear a big bulky winter coat.  Guess they don't have to worry too much about that in the south because the season is really over before it gets that cold.  When the player all came out on the field they played "Rocky Top Tennessee".  Everyone sang it including the WHOO!!!  See the link for the words and tune...   http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=2DIM-KHiDj8 .   After all were on the field a minister came out and conducted the entire crowd in prayer!  It was amazing.  Everyone was quiet and respectful.  We never did that at KU and most people here say it is a southern thing.  It was pretty cool!  Of course they lost but it was really fun.

Friday night we had our Mexican Fiesta fundraiser for P.E.O.  for the projects to further women's education.  We gross almost $5800.00.  That was a really nice event.  There were about 90 people there.

Living Sweetly in the South,

Miss Jan