"In Bread" Cats

We're so proud of them. :)

Savannah, Ga

A friend from work got married on Tybee Island a couple weekends back and I decided we should spend some time in Savannah since we'll probably never be down that way again.

I was excited in particular about three things:
- seeing Spanish moss hanging in trees
- eating some good seafood
- the history of the city and all the squares  The cemeteries are supposedly pretty cool, but we didn't go check them out.

We woke up at 5:00 am left the house a little after 6 and drove 4 hours to Savannah, Georgia.
The route from here to there takes you through Macon where Bryce lived and worked in a past life so we decided to drive by his old apartment there.  He didn't recognize the place at first - they've upgraded it a bit and there's a really nice shopping center/strip mall across the street and they've added more roads.  He thought it would still be all trees and fields just like it was 7 years ago.

It was Bryce's lucky day because we had somewhere to go and we'd be driving back on Sunday so there would be not time to shop at the cute shops...

We checked in and walked through City Market to scope things out and then headed down to the cobblestone 'Riverwalk'.  There's a neat replica of a pirate ship and we watched some ships come up and down the river.

We just barely missed the wiener dog races (bummer) but decided to stop for lunch at The Cotton Exchange.  Awesome food.  I had shrimp and grits and Bryce had talapia with noodles, shrimp and scallops on top.  We also both had our first fried green tomatoes.  Delicious.  I started to take pictures of the food, but I couldn't make it not flash so then I was embarrassed and Bryce was probably even more embarrassed so I stopped.

We decided to walk down to Forsyth Park and so we grabbed some gelato from City Market (spotted on the first walk through) and on the way hit a couple of the smaller squares that are scattered through Savannah.  One we walked through had a Bride and her Bridesmaids getting their pictures taken before the guests arrived to sit in the pretty white chairs by the fountain.

Forsyth Park is very pretty.  It was the first park created in Savannah and styled after Paris with broad boulevards and has a fountain that's a copy of the one in Place de la Concorde. The fountain was placed in 1858.    The park was 10 acres set aside by Oglethorpe as a park and is the only bit of land (from which I understand) that was set aside for this purpose in the early days of settlement and has stayed the same and hasn't been broken up or rezoned.

Plus the houses around the park are really cool too.

I really liked the feeling of the historic district. 
We walked through the design district and then happened upon a street of shops so we wandered around those on the way back from the parks.

That evening we headed out to Tybee Island to the oldest lighthouse in the south (the first one built in Georgia since it's at the mouth of the Savannah River) and watched my friend get married on the beach.

Modern-Day Mystery Machine

This guy has to work at Home Depot -that's where we always see it.

Had to share!

Take it all in...engine vent, spoiler, rims...

Sweet Goodies for your Eyes

I passed the white set with their fancy wheels on Friday.  Monday had a brand new set to feast one.  I couldn't not share!

Please ignore any dangers, cuationary thoughts, or crazy claims related to the fact that I'm taking the pictures from the road as I drive by - I'm in the turn lane. :)

I'll keep 'em coming for your enjoyment.

A Hint of Green

http://www.dailytexasphoto.com/

Green is everywhere, which mean spring has arrived in Georgia.  The Pollen will continue for the next few months.  Occassionally rain will knock it out of the air and wash it off your cars and buildings and sidewalks and the pollen will settle into chartreuse puddles. 


I walked outside to my car after work on Tuesday, noticed the green iridescence on my car and then spotted part of a hand print - only visible from the dusting of pollen.  My thoughts in this order:

"Spring has arrived in Georgia!  Do I wash my car or - alright, who touched my car?!" As I look around trying to remember if anyone parked by me today.  Way to ruin my excitement for spring...

Truett's Diner/Chick-fil-A

We partied in McDonough today - threw a football for15% off at Home Depot, had to stop at Best Buy and hit the Super Target for curtains and also came home with Dr. Pepper (on an incredible sale) and this console for our sitting room.

For lunch before heading home we spotted this and figured we check it out. 

I think it's so neat and wanted to share it with everyone.  Inside there's a trolly that runs around the top of the room and there are pictures from different cities in the US and there's a Market Street trolly car that you can eat in too. 

I embarrased Bryce by taking these so I have to post them now...they're not even good pictures.  And don't really show the cool aspect of it all. 

Sorry for the embarrassment, Bryce.  It was so not worth it.

One Reason Georgia Schools Lose their Accreditation

I posted previously about some Jo-ja spelling at the local dump.  Well of course, we found some more.  Here for your enjoyment...

This was discovered on the gas pump at the Big E-Z.

How many mistakes can you find?

This was in the cleaning closet where they thought if they labeled where everything goes than anyone could fit everything in there...It's always nice to know where the latters go.

Is it weird that spell check doesn't catch latters? 

 Is this a fancy spelling that I don't know and the joke's really on me?

Shiny snow

Most roads are clear now.  After two days of businesses closed (I dusted and vacuumed the house, slid down a hill on the ice/snow, hung a curtain rod, read some stuff, got some church things organized and slept), both Bryce and I had delayed openings and reported to work at 9 for me and 10 for him.  We got above freezing today and the sun was out so the ice/scary spots I drove this morning were gone this afternoon.  The snow is kind of cool looking though because the ice layer on top is all shiny and pretty.  Here are the quick pictures I took in all of 10 seconds because it's cold out there with no coat on.

  Oh yeah, and here's a picture of me before going out into the cold.  I would post Bryce's but he asked me not too and I'm kind of with him on that - it was pretty awful.  He had a sweet 80's plaid jacket and a hat with ear flaps and his face was pricelss.

Ice + BMW = Fire

Been watching the news and weather/road updates this morning due to the ice storm that moved through. (see this post.)  My favorite story of the day is the man in the orange hat who lost traction and spun his wheels so hard for so long he caught his 5 series BMW on fire.  The news man telling the story was awesome, both Bryce and I were chuckling from what he was saying.  And to top it off, while they're filming, a car drives by and its windows are still completely covered with snow - they didn't bother wiping anything off their car before driving. Smart. People in Georgia just don't know what to do with winter precipitation.  The audio starts in at the 2:30 point.

Ice Day

Check it out y'all.  1/4" of ice and a few inches of snow.  We watched it accumulate last night before we went to bed and woke up to this beautful sight this morning.  Georgia DOT says to stay off the roads until Tuesday afternoon if possible.  Some businesses are closed - including mine - so it's an Ice Day!

It's been sleeting this morning as well.  Perfectly round balls of ice. They look like the silica balls that are in the packets that you get in new shoes.

This is not snow, this is sleet falling.

"More exciting than when the hogs ate Granny!"

Need some new traditions for your New Year's Eve party?


courtesy of Bing images (New York's Time Square)

  
In Greece, St. Basil fills the children's shoes with presents at midnight. (use boots and you could fit more presents probably - like a second Christmas)
 
In Denmark it is a good sign to find your door heaped with a pile of broken dishes at New Years. Old dishes are saved year around to throw them at the homes where their friends live on New Years Eve. Many broken dishes were a symbol that you have many friends! (I probably wouldn't do this if you're not in Denmark.)

For Extra Luck in the new year try one of these:
 

• In Puerto Rico children enjoy throwing pails of water out the window at midnight. Some believe that this rids their home of any evil spirits!
• In Spain when the clock strikes midnight the people eat 12 grapes. One grape for every stroke of the clock to represent each month in the year. Each grape is said to bring good luck in the new year.  My brother spent 2 years in Spain on his mission so he and his wife count down to midnight with the 12 grapes - 1 each second.  Now that's a mouth full.
• Switzerland believes good luck comes from letting a drop of cream land on the floor New Years Day.
• The French eat a stack of pancakes for luck and good health.
• Belgium farmers wish their animals a Happy New Year for blessings.
• In parts of Portugal children go caroling from home to home and are given treats and coins. (Can you confirm this Mat?) 
• A Romanian tradition is listening to hear if the farm animals talked on New Years Day. If the animals talked it was considered bad luck so they are relived when they do not hear any talking animals. Do they ever have years of good luck without drugging the animals?  I'd like to meet some quiet chickens or a quiet cow.
• In Bolivia families make beautiful little wood or straw dolls to hang outside their homes to bring good luck.

(Information provided by the world wide web: http://www.essortment.com/all/newyearsevetr_rllr.htm)



courtesy of Bing images (New York's Time Square aftermath)

Whether you make it all the way to 12:01 1/1/2011 or not.  I wish you and yours a Happy (and safe) New Year!

Maybe for next year you could plan on attending the Opossum Drop in Brasstown (Opossum Capitol of the world!), NC  Population 240 and holding steady for the last 100 years.

"If New York can drop a "Ball", Georgia can drop a "Peach", then we can lower the Opossum."  - clay's corner

"More exciting than when the hogs ate Granny!"
The Carringer Chronicle, Jan `99

All My Children

This was outside of PetsMart where the animal lovers go.

The things people put on their cars...

Home (to little critters) Depot

We live in a neighborhood with an HOA and requirements for maintaining your yard.  Bryce's weed whipping, as he calls it, wasn't good enough after 3 years so he decided he'd give in and buy whatever the cheapest edger was at Home Depot.  The only cheap edger left was in a crunched box that had holes in and looked like it'd be kicked around and dropped a few times.  He asked if there was another of the same, in a better box, available.  There was not so Home Depot, thinking they were doing him a favor, gave him an extra 10% off for the condition of the box.  The man should have opened the box before bringing it home! 

Maybe he could've gotten a dead rodent discount. 

Bryce already though it was gross when he opened it up to find the handle covered in mouse droppings and almost couldn't handle it when he found the dead mouse at the bottom.  Needless to say he did some serious sanitizing before using the "new" edger.

Now, onto prettier and alive critters....

Look what we found hiding in the tree toppers at Home Depot.



Can anybody identify this lizard?  It even changed colors a little bit when Bryce took it off the bow...I guess he thought he could turn red. :)

Bryce is good at catching anything from lizards to frogs and even this for our nephew's birthday present. :)