Atlanta for the weekend

Harrison and I spent this past weekend in Atlanta with Joey and Erin. We had a blast! Friday night, we had dinner at Cafe di Sol and then headed to Limerick's in Virginia Highlands. On Saturday, we ate FANTASTIC food at Rhea's Bluebird Cafe. It's this cute little 'hole-in-the-wall' that is known for amazing pancakes. They were name 'the best pancakes' by the NY Times. I had the strawberry pancakes and I have to agree with the Times! We practically rolled out of the cafe and headed over to a very neat historical cemetery. There were so many old, elaborate crypts. We saw the grave of golf legend, Bobby Jones. Fans leave golf balls on his grave in his memory.

Saturday night we spent the evening in Decatur. It is such a quaint neighborhood with wonderful restaurants, shops, bars, and people. We had dinner at an old converted garage called Leon's. The food and beer selection was wonderful, as was the atmosphere. I highly recommend it. After dinner we walked over to The Brick Store and spent several hours there. It's a cozy pub with great ambiance and a never ending selection of beer. I enjoyed the Belgian wheat beer and Hefeweizen that I ordered.

Afterward, we headed over to Twain's, a bar full of all sorts of fun games. We played foosball, darts (Cricket), and pool. Joey and Erin beat us at everything! We had a great time with them as always.

On Sunday we had brunch at The Flying Biscuit. It was even more incredible food! I had an omelette with chicken sausage, cheese grits, and a biscuit with almond butter. I felt like I should have worn sweatpants after having eaten so much.

After saying goodbye, we went to Nate and Kellye's house to visit with them, our niece, Paige, David, and my parents who had come into town. It was a great way to finish up a fantastic weekend. I just wish I had taken more pictures!

Battery Park Book Exchange

Harrison and I have a FAVORITE bar in Asheville. It is a library, where you can sip on tasty wine/beer/champagne and browse all of the book collections while lounging in comfortable, fine furniture. Harrison is quite the book-collector, so he often brings his prized possessions into the venue seeking appraisal. All of the books are for sale, and we almost always leave with more than one purchase. We bring all of of family and friends here when they visit:

Harrison's sister, Beth, IS a true librarian:

Tonight, I met him here (I'm on their Wifi now, blogging) after work. They don't serve meals here, other than desserts and cheese platters, so you're welcome to bring in your own take-out. You are also welcome to order from the menus they keep at the bar from the restaurants around town. The staff will go out and pick up your order from your restaurant of choice, bring it back, and serve it to you using their flatware and china! Tonight we had takeout from Havana's. It's a Cuban restaurant nearby and we love their Cuban sandwiches and fried plantains. Harrison comes here at least once a week to study, appraise books, look for gifts, etc. This is our favorite place for dates! We lounge in one of the big Chesterfield sofas, sip on our Italian Sangiovese, and browse through countless books on architecture and interior design. We're ALWAYS designing our dream home!

Ring this little bell at your table, and the waitress will come for your order!

A Sunday outing

Harrison and I were homebodies this weekend. He had a few big school projects that were keeping him busy, and I still wasn't feeling 100% after having had the flu all week. Today we slept in and then headed downtown for brunch. We went to a cute new place called Tingles Cafe. It was decorated in an adorable 40's-50's style. Unfortunately, our brunch was just average.

Afterward, we strolled through Asheville's lovely Montford district. Harrison and I love to go for walks all around where we live to get ideas about the kind of home that we want someday. Montford is full of the Arts and Crafts style that we love, but also some of our other favorites like Dutch Colonial, Federal, Victorian, etc. We were only able to get in a short walk before it started raining, but I took a few pictures anyway.

Birthdays, guns, & Valentine's

The last few weeks have been kind of stressful on me. Harrison noticed how I was feeling and he surprised me with my favorite flowers (Circus roses) a few days before Valentine's Day. The month of February is also significant because we've now been together for EIGHT years!

Saturday was Melissa's birthday. What better way to celebrate than by rounding up all our friends and taking a 45 minute drive out to near Hot Springs, NC to shoot guns?

Melissa, Christen, Caitlin, Ellen, Adam, Harrison and I arrived at Fowler Farms around 4pm, so we didn't have much time to shoot before Harrison and I needed to get back for dinner at the Walden's. I wasn't feeling very well at all, but I was just happy to shoot my gun again. It's been a year since I used it last. Fowler Farms is a beautiful piece of property in the NC mountains. The owners are very kind and have a Sporting Clay course set up in the woods behind their home. They even rent out their nice guns for $5 apiece! As we went from station to station, we munched on birthday cupcakes, sang Happy Birthday, and carried our shotguns in tow. I didn't do very well this year; Harrison beat us all (but I beat him last year). After shooting, Harrison and I headed back to Asheville to have a nice dinner at The Walden's. Brad and Emily were there also. We enjoyed a fantastic dinner of pork tenderloin, spinach/artichoke souffle, gourmet mac & cheese, and an incredible double layer chocolate cake! I was starting to feel a little sicker as the night wore on, so we went home a little early.

On Sunday, Harrison and I planned to celebrate a big (early) Valentine's Day. We had reservations at Posana's Cafe and concert tickets to see a famous French composer, Yann Tiersen at the Orange Peel. I didn't think I was going to make it to either event. I rested all day and Harrison made me drink a lot of hot tea. By dinnertime, I felt strong enough to tackle the evening. At dinner I had a great hot toddy made with Brandy, cloves, lemon juice and zest, and fresh ginger. We shared fried quail for our appetizer. I had the most amazing pork tenderloin encrusted with various nuts and a brown sugary glaze!

After dinner we headed to the Orange Peel to see Yann Tiersen's performance. I was expecting the relaxed sounds of his solo piano, accordion, and violin. Instead, he had a five person band with him and they rocked it out! He is a fabulous artist, and I think he just wanted to showcase a side of him that most of his listeners are not familiar with. I approve; I just wanted to hear a little more of him by himself.

After the concert, I was in desperate need of my bed. I was not feeling hot, but apparently I was...100 degree hot. What was I thinking going to that concert? I'm so stubborn. I didn't want to flake out on our big plans, but I suffered because of it. Here I am, blogging on Monday night, sick as a dog. I haven't even gotten out of my pajamas today. My Valentine has been to the pharmacy for me, the grocery store getting me soup, and boiling hot water for my tea. I love you, Valentine!

Paige's Christening

Our sweet niece, Paige, was baptized this past Saturday in Marietta, GA. Harrison and I stayed for 1/2 the weekend and we had a wonderful get-together with my entire family. Paige is growing so fast; she's three months old now. After the christening, we enjoyed a wonderful reception at Kellye and Nate's home.

Paige was baptized in the gown that Kellye's grandfather wore at his christening! It was lovely.

After saying our goodbyes to family, Harrison and I headed back to Asheville. We stopped at the North Georgia Premium Outlets and shopped for a few hours. It was worth it! We found some great deals. I spent $60 in Banana Republic on FOUR shirts! We finally made it home so that we could be ready to throw a Superbowl bash the next day with all of our friends.

National Champions and snow day!

Yesterday goes down in history as one of the greatest days in my life thus far (behind, of course, getting into AU's nursing school, our engagement, wedding, passing boards). It was Monday, and it started out by hearing that the office was closed due to snow. All of our other friends also had a snow day, so we wanted to make the most of it. Because the majority of our Asheville friends live within a 3-4 block radius, we decided to do an Around the World Block Party. We kicked it off with lunch at Charlotte Street Pub and Grille at 1:00 PM, then headed to Ellen's apartment for Manmosas. Manmosas are a surprisingly tasty combination of OJ with beer! Before heading over to Andy and Lesley's home, we found a little hill and took turns sledding down it. At Andy and Lesley's we sipped Mimosa's and munched on fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.


Next we headed to Christen's for Irish Coffees. I LOVE coffee, and enjoying it with Kahlua and/or Bailey's is even tastier! Our house was next, where we had a Bloody Mary bar (tomato juice, celery, olives, horseradish, tobasco, Worchestershire sause, and Vodka). By this time, it was 6:30 PM. After that, the majority of the party went snow tubing nearby. I stayed behind to get ready for the biggest football game of the season: The BCS National Championship!

I met back up with everyone at Charlotte St. Pub for the game, which really made it into a complete Around the World party. Harrison and I were too anxious/nauseous to eat dinner (until at least halftime). We sat on the edge of our seats for the entire game. We were so happy to leave the bar at 1 AM, knowing Auburn won the National Championship! We headed back to Lesley and Andy's home and popped open the last remaining bottle of champagne! Harrison and I were like excited little kids, as we lit sparklers and giggled with excitement all the way home!

Happy New Year, 2011

For NYE this year, Harrison and I stayed in Asheville and Joey and Erin came up to visit. We had a great, long weekend. We spent all day on NYE downtown and eventually went over to Andy and Lesley's house to watch the UGA bowl game. After that we went out for dinner and 1/2 price drinks at Tripp's where we met up with a bunch of our friends. Several of them headed over to our apartment afterward to have a pretty laid-back NYE celebration with champagne and good company. Soon after watching the ball-drop, we headed back downtown. We went to the grand opening of Asheville's Arcade Bar. It's so awesome! They've got all of the old school games (Pac Man, Mortal Kombat, racing games, and soon they'll have SkeeBall). They've also got several Wii games. We're all looking forward to a wonderful 2011!

WHITE Alabama Christmas!

Harrison and I had a very packed Christmas holiday! Tuesday was our own personal little Christmas in Asheville. We finished Christmas shopping and dressed up for a fancy dinner at the Red Stag within the Grand Bohemian Hotel. Wednesday we headed to Newnan, GA to celebrate Christmas early with Aileen and our nephew (Pilot dad, Andrew, was at work). We had a wonderful time with them; they're getting so big! Thursday we headed to Auburn to spend a day and a half with the Williams/Whatley side of the family. We went out in Auburn Thursday night with many of Harrison's friends from highschool. Thursday we had brunch with Harrison's extended family, then later had people over to shoot hand guns! What else do you do on Christmas Eve in Alabama? I have to say, I'll choose my 20 gauge shotgun any day over a pistol, but we still had a blast.

-- For Christmas, Harrison's parents got him a "Webley" pistol: A British officer's pistol from WWI. He was beyond excited!

Christmas Eve night we took off from Auburn to Gadsden to visit the Cunningham side. Aileen's family didn't come this year, because the boys are getting big enough where they need to have Christmas at their own home. I was so excited to get to see the rest of the family: Mom, Dad, David, Nate, Kellye, and Paige (the newest edition)! Paige is almost two months old now and she's so perfect! We went to mass Christmas morning in the SNOW!!!! Snow in the mountains of NC is expected, but Gadsden is a different story! It was a beautiful white Christmas in Alabama. We opened presents, held Paige, and played fun family board games all night!

Sunday after mass, we had to head back to Asheville. The drive was fine until we hit some treacherous conditions in the mountains. There was about 8 inches of snow on the sides of the interstate, and the snow kept falling. We were confident in the AWD capabilites of our Subaru, but it was still scary! We finally got home to find out that one of our heating units broke for the second time this month! We could see our breath in the air of our bedroom! Thankfully, Aileen had given her heated mattress pad to us for Christmas. That helped us sleep comfortably until maintenance could arrive in the morning.

O Tannenbaum... & Heisman

We bought our Christmas tree from a beautiful farm in Burnsville, NC. Harrison enjoyed strapping it to the top of the Subaru on the first snowy day of the Christmas season.

I don't mean to brag, but we have the BEST spot ever to place a Christmas tree! We're in love with the architectural details of our 1920's downtown Asheville apartment.

This year we have a new tree-topper. It's a lovely angel that my mother-in-law gave us.

Check out Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas Tree Party to see other lovely trees!

As you can see, the Christmas tree skirt that I made (see the 'Arts and Crafts' section) is around the bottom. It is too small, but I plan to extend it with some green velvet trim and fringe.

I took a few pictures of some of our most prized ornaments. Below you'll see our engagement ornament, our favorite AU ornament, The Constitution, my 2005 nursing school ornament, scrubs: 2006 - I became an RN ornament, 'Tracy's Diary of Christmas Memories" ornament - handcarved by my grandfather, 2006 Asheville ornament (the year we moved here), "6" ornament - for beating Bama 6 times in a row in the Iron Bowl, our 1st Christmas as a married couple ornament, our sorority and fraternity ornaments, camping Santa ornament symbolizing Harrison's 2004 thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, Harrison's kindergarten school bus ornament, and Harrison's fingerprint snowman.

This year, Harrison and I enjoyed decorating the tree while sipping wine (our favorite: Sangiovese) and watching the Heisman ceremony on ESPN. It was so exciting to see Auburn's own Cam Newton win the prestigious award!