the thin line between optimism and delusion... » Food and Drink

The day to be jealous of people who don’t live in North America

charlsiekate — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:09:07 +0000

For the most part, I believe America to be the greatest place in the world. We definitely have our own problems, and there definitely parts of America that hold no interest for me as place of permanent dwelling, but as a whole, America is pretty great. More specifically, the South East is pretty awesome. I love the weather, the food, the people, the flowers, and the way we talk around here. But today, I wish I lived somewhere else. I wish I lived in India today. Or, tonight, although I guess it is already night in India by now. I would really like to see the lunar eclipse tonight. I should have planned my vacations better. Apparently there is a chance I’ll get to see full lunar eclipse in America in April 2014, fingers crossed.

Have I told you how Briscoe hates skateboarders? It might be one of the funnier things I’ve seen in a while. I think it is the noise that scares her. The dog needs a haircut like whoa. She’s going to get her hair did tomorrow, and I expect to have a little lamb by tomorrow night instead of the bear that is currently sleeping in my kitchen. For some reason she has developed this ridiculous habit of spilling her food all over the floor. It is like she picks up her bowl with her teeth and dumps it out, although I’m not sure that is actually possible. But once the food it on the ground, she won’t eat it. For a while, when I would come home to her spilled food, I would pick all the pieces up and put them back in the bowl. Then I realized, wait, she’s a dog, if she wants to spill her food on the floor, she should eat the food off the flood. So, I stopped cleaning it up, other than to turn the bowl back upright. Sure enough, after leaving the food on the ground until late into the night, the dog finally decided she would eat it off the floor. So, she’s started cleaning up the mess herself, but she’s still spilling the food.

Something about summertime makes me want to lose myself in a story, preferably a long drawn out saga. Happily, HBO has provided that for me with The Game of Thrones, and even more happily, I am able to read the novels instead of waiting to see what happens in HBO time (which is painfully slow in my opinion). I enjoy the story, the show (and the novels for that matter) are quite gruesome and violent. I find reading about violent and gruesome things is easier than watching them play out on my unnecessarily large television. But I’m totally engrossed in the novels, each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view, and the author has mastered the ability to speak in each character’s voice in a way that is seemless but also adds a depth to the writing and storyline that is not immediately apparent. I would not recommend the books or the television series to everyone, there is a base element to it that not all will find endearing, crass talk of sexual encounters and horrible things happen to almost all of the characters. But even the villainous characters have redeeming qualities (well, some of them do) and the heros have flaws, and there is nothing I love more than a good story with round characters.

I spent the last two weeks of May in Washington, D.C., training for work. Let me tell you, two weeks is a LONG TIME to be in a hotel. I learned a lot, got to spend time with some old friends (sadly, the Bizzy was out of town the entire time I was there), and enjoyed some fabulous food and beautiful sights, but I was very happy to come home to my apartment and my dog. I did meet some super cool new friends though. My mom and my aunt Jan came to visit me in Charleston this past weekend, and boy did we have a good time. I wish I could tell you we did lots of productive things, but really more than anything, we simply enjoyed Charleston and each other. We wandered, we enjoyed drinks on the rooftop under the shade with a breeze, we ate phenomenal food, (as a side note, a merinague will always add to a dessert), we peered through hedges, gates and walls into the fabulous gardens and side yards of people we didn’t know but wish we did, we sweated, we watched little children play in fountains, and Kate and Jan rearranged the furniture in my apartment. We did not shop at all, other than a short trip to the grocery, and we spent most of our time outside. It was great.

Oh! So I want y’all to check out my cousin Heather’s blog - she has MS, and has an amazingly honest and refreshing perspective, including my favorite – Wheelchair Etiquette.

Best. Birthday. Fax. Ever.

charlsiekate — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:09:43 +0000

Even if it was six days late. And it might be the only Birthday Fax I’ve ever received. David found it in the machine and was like – what the F is this? Sarah told him it didn’t have his name on it so it obviously wasn’t for him. It had a cover sheet and everything, but I left that off to protect the innocent.

Oh, Mean Bean. I miss you.

Frosty Update

charlsiekate — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:15:21 +0000

So I’ve told y’all about Donald, my handy-man. He has single handedly remodeled my house for me.

Donald was installing some light fixtures for me the other day, and he was telling me about how he had to go home and baby sit his aunt. Apparently she’s real old and doesn’t know what is going on very well anymore (Donald’s words were a little less PC).

Donald: “She’s a moron. Seriously, she doesn’t know what’s going on. And you have to get her a frosty every day.”

Me: “Really? Does she have a frosty card? How big does the frosty need to be?”

Donald: “ What’s a frosty card? She doesn’t care what size it is, you just have to get her one every single damn day.”

Me: “She totally needs a frosty card! You get a free frosty! Whenever! You don’t even have to buy anything!” (I picked my keys up to show him my frosty card)

Donald (with a suspicious look) “How much does that card cost?”

Me: “A dollar.”

Donald: “Can you buy one for someone else?”

Me: “Far as I know, it’s a fundraiser!”

Donald: “I’ll have to look into that.”

Frostys make you cool

charlsiekate — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:12:27 +0000

Y’all will not believe the awesome thing that happened to me today. I love Wendys, I always get a baked potato and a jr cheese burger and a big drink and a mini frosty (I like the little ones, the big ones melt before I can eat them, and if I try to eat them before they melt I get a brain freeze). This ends up being a great deal of food for $5. But you have to be careful with potato, sometimes they forget to give you really important parts of the potato like the butter and the salt.

Regardless, as the lady was handing me my precious little mini frosty today, she asked me if I’d like to a frosty key tag, which would entitle me to get a mini frosty whenever I wanted for free for the next six months. I asked her how much it would cost to do such an amazing thing, and she said a dollar. A DOLLAR.

I am now the proud owner of a Frosty Key Tag that is the greatest fundraiser I have ever heard in my entire life. The proceeds go to the MCG Children’s Medical Center, so I apologize to all of you who do not live in the CSRA. I didn’t get to write my name on a shoe or a ballon or anything, but I do have a plastic frosty hanging from my keys.

I might stop by the other wendys on my way home and redeem my first free frosty.

Partly Cloudy Skies With a Slight Chance of Injury

charlsiekate — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:43:12 +0000

Y’all would not believe the weather around here (unless of course you live here and have been experiencing it with me). It has been COLD this week. COLD! In MAY! The May I was in Grand Lake it snowed half a foot on May 23, and I literally thought I was going to die. I love snow, it’s really neat. But I was living in a shack/cabin in the middle of the woods at 9,000 feet, and my hot water didn’t work. The fact that it was snowing outside made this experience a little more “complete”, but not a lot more enjoyable. My alarm clock had a thermometer on it, and I would wake up in the morning to a frozen nose, look at the little digital face and read – 39 degrees, realize I had to get out from underneath the covers and take a cold shower, and sort of want to cry. But the view was sort of worth it. Eventually they fixed my hot water and the snow melted and the temperature rose above 50 degrees in the daylight hours. But not before I got lost on a ten mile hike in the snow in the dark with people I barely knew. Ahh, memories. I was so trusting back then. Wanna go on a hike in the woods in the gathering dark with us? Sure it’s starting to snow, but, it will be fine! Don’t be a wuss Georgia.

But anyway, May is suppose to mean HOT. And I can’t talk about being in Colorado all summer because having a real job makes that sort of thing a lot more difficult.

I was so productive on Sunday, got my life together for the week, laundry, grocery, cooked some food, cleaned my house, went to the movies. Natalie and Bucket moved in! Hooray!

Then Monday night I discovered that the large bottle of Palmolive under my sink had been turned over and spilled. I pulled everything from under the sink and cleaned it all up. Soap is surprisingly difficult to clean up. Well, I didn’t get all the soap out from under my finger nails, and I put my finger in my eye, and I got soap ALL IN MY EYE. AGGGHHHH. It freaking hurt like the devil. I flushed my eye with water for what seemed like forever. Still didn’t get it all. I HATE flushing my eye out with water. It hurt almost as much as the soap. I’m a MORON. A moron. Just when I was starting to feel like I had my life together.

Last night Travers stole some wood from Kate and Trav and we had a little fire in my little fire pit in the back yard. It was nice, although the wind was gusting (I love the word GUST) and every once in a while you would feel like the fire just might get you. When Briscoe and I were about to go to sleep last night I kissed her on the nose and realized that all her fur smelled like smoke. So hilarious. Bucket’s fur also smelled like smoke. I’m going to start calling them Smokey and the Bandit. Their current alter egos are Biscuit and Bobby, to which they are starting to respond.

I had a magistrate court trial yesterday, and although I think I got my point across well, I laid in bed last night and thought of all the small procedural mistakes I made. The defendant was pro se, and I almost felt like how when you play a sport against someone who sucks – like tennis – you play like crap, but if you play against someone better than you – you play up to their level. I feel like I played down to this guy’s level. Hopefully I’m learning.

I was driving my car at lunch and I was for some reason dumb struck by how cool driving a car is. You’ve got this wheel, and you can spin it around, and when you spin it around, the ENTIRE SUPER HEAVY car moves. At the flick of your wrist. How cool is that? It’s amazing how I drive a car every day and never think about how awesome driving can be.

I made Kate (the runner) cupcakes last night because it is her birthday. And I BURNED them. I’m so embarrassed and horrified. I really never burn things. Ever. Not baked goods at least. I guess I haven’t ever baked in my new gas oven before. It was really hard. I’m concerned. Not only did they burn, it was just the bottom of them. Ugh. I’m going to have to practice practice practice and get better before Christmas rolls around. Britt’s mom has promised to teach me how to make cinnamon buns this Christmas, btw.

It has been such a pretty day. I hope it doesn’t cloud up before I can go home! I want to go play outside.

When you can’t shake last night

charlsiekate — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:14:36 +0000

I went to the Historic Augusta Cotton Ball last night. It was a lot of fun. I had ONE mint julep. ONE.

I can still smell the bourbon and the mint. It’s following me around. I can’t get away from it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

charlsiekate — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:39:34 +0000

I hope everyone has an amazing day with their friends and family. I am thankful for so many things, I’ll just let you know a few ridiculous things for which I’m thankful today:

1. I’m thankful for the cashier at the grocery store who not only IDed me for the 40 ounce Bud Light I bought as a welcome home present for Libby, but who also further made my day by carefully inspecting my drivers license, putting on her glasses to look me in the face intently, then tell me that I must have lost weight since the picture was taking. The night before, at another grocery store, I bought a bottle of wine and I wasn’t IDed, and I wondered if I hit a point in life where I would forever not be IDed at grocery stores. My faith was completely restored in grocery stores.

2. I’m thankful for my precious little dog who desperately needs a bath.

3. I’m thankful that there is still water in augusta with which to wash my dog.

4. I’m thankful for sugar cookies.

5. I’m thankful for big screen tvs.

6. I’m thankful for 75 degree weather on thanksgiving, even if I don’t have any appropriate clothes to wear.

7. I’m thankful for all my friends and family who love me and put up with me.

8. I’m thankful for hot ham sandwiches.

9. I’m thankful for pretty leaves and mountains and everything outdoors.

10. I’m thankful to everyone who reads this rambling, scattered, story of my life on this blog. Love y’all. I’m off to eat and drink lots of other things I’m thankful for.

p.s. I’m thankful for beer. I love beer.

Vitamin Water makes me thirsty

charlsiekate — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:12:53 +0000

And yet I continue to buy it and drink it. Crave it even. Sometimes I think I have some sort of mental disorder involving the consumption of liquids. When I go to the grocery store, I want to buy coke, diet coke, caffeine free diet coke, Dr. pepper, diet dr. pepper, propel, poweraid, option, citrus cooler gatoraid, apple juice in the little boxes (minute maid), vitamin water, pelligrino, beer, wine, tea, coffee milk, chocolate milk, soy milk, and orange juice. And when I say beer and wine, I mean I want white wine and red wine and good beer and light beer too.

I spend most of my time thinking about what I want to drink, and get a cart mostly because I can’t carry around all the liquids. I put so many liquids in my cart the wheels stop working correctly.

The only thing in my freezer is coffee and snickers. My fridge has mostly beer and cokes and juice and milk when I can drink it fast enough to justify buying it.

I mean, I like food a lot. But when I go to the grocery, I want to buy drinks.

Thanksgiving Week is Delicious

charlsiekate — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:59:47 +0000

So I’m going to the ATL tomorrow. We are having thanksgiving with the Cherry’s. And tomorrow morning Elizabeth, her sister Emily, me, Libby, Steve, Steve’s dad, and a host of other folks are all running in the turkey trot half marathon. 13.1 miles. Yay. I hope I don’t die.

It is still raining here. I’m ready for some pretty weather.

Last night, after I iced the precious little turkey cookies my mom made, Jennifer Blanchard and I went out for a little bit – hung out with Travers and a host of other kids. It was a lot of fun. There really were some young kids at the bar though. Made me feel very old.

Betsy and I discussed this morning how fast time passes these days. We can’t believe another year is over. We are a touch worried we are going to wake up one day and be 35 and have no idea where our twenties went, much less our early 30s. I’m in my mid to late 20s. That is nuts. I feel like I should be 19. Of course then I see 19 year olds at the bar and I realize I’m not 19.

I have very festive mittens that make me happy. And I’m eating a now and later that is probably ten years old. Eww.

Let me just say for the record that Happiness is an egg and cheese biscuit from bojangles. Pure and utter joy.

I am very thankful for so many things in my life. And I appreciate all of you who read my blog. I feel like it has given me the opportunity to interact with a lot of really cool people in many different places.

I want one of these for christmas (in person, please)-

Reviews

charlsiekate — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:20:05 +0000

I just got finished reading Through Painted Deserts – Light, God and Beauty on the Open Road, by Donald Miller. I loved it. Thought it was amazing. I’ve read Miller’s other books, Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What. I think he is a gifted writer who speaks to his audience in a sincere voice that has a tone of understanding. He is honest about the difficulties of religion and the world at large. He is the kind of author that when you finish reading his book you wish he was a personal friend. I don’t feel like that terribly often. I like to give his books away as gifts. I can never find my copy of his books cause I have a tendency to loan them out and never get them back. Shocker. Through Painted Deserts is the story of him and his friend traveling across the country in a VW bus. Hilarious, thoughtful, and endearing.

I have been listening to Amos Lee’s new album – Supply and Demand. I like Amos Lee a lot. I was first introduced to his music by Betsy – who tried to make me listen to him for a long time before I finally stopped being stubborn and realized that he is awesome. I prefer his more upbeat songs, but a couple of his slower songs are great as well. Betsy really likes Southern Girl – which I also support. I think my favorite song is Sympathize. There are a couple of songs available on Myspace – HERE.

OHH, and my friends Charles and David have started a band called Lady Antebellum, and I was listening to their new music on myspace and I am impressed. These boys are so talented and sweet and awesome, I’m really proud of them for chasing their dreams. I don’t think they have an album out yet – but they have quite a few songs available on myspace. They have my stamp of approval. Go LISTEN.

The only other thing I’m worried about today is what kind of halloween cookies I want to make. Sugar cookies of course, but what shape? Punkins? I’m thinking Punkins. Dipped orange with green butter cream icing stems. GAH. Decisions are so tough, cause, ghosts can be so cute too. Or should I make cupcakes? Cookies are probably easier to transport. Hmmmm…..