Chick with Sticks

A recap of our trip to the auction and to Athens this past weekend:

I had to get up early Saturday morning, and by early I mean 1:30 am. I am a morning person and I love being up when the sun is still down, but 1:30 is way too early to be getting out of bed. That’s not “morning” – that’s late night. But, I dragged myself out of bed and managed to make it through a shower without falling asleep, and we were on the road by 3.

The auction itself was torture. Hot, boring, crowded, and I couldn’t even put my feet on the ground unless I wanted them to be devoured by ants. I had to prop them up on the legs of the chair in front of me, which was not very comfortable. Jody bought two items within the first couple of hours, but there was one more item his father wanted so we had to wait a few more hours for that item. It finally came up, and Jody was outbid. So, that was the end for us, we claimed our two items and got out of there as fast as we could. I have no idea what time the auction actually ended, there was more than 1000 items there and it was only about halfway through when we left. But Jody’s father was very pleased when we showed him the things that we bought, so it was worth it. He was happy, and he paid for our trip so it was a good trade-off.

Once we left the auction we drove over to Athens, where we showered at our hotel before heading out. I was somewhat surprised by Athens – it’s a college town, our hotel was right next to the UGA campus – so I was expecting… I don’t know, more college student-appropriate stores. Cheap stuff, basically. But instead downtown Athens is filled with expensive boutiques, not unlike Savannah. There were a few shops that I would expect to see in a college town, like record stores and coffee shops. Oh, and we went into a tobacco shop that had a hookah bar. Maybe it’s because I’m 25 I wasn’t surprised to see it, I know what they are, but Old Man Jody thought it was very strange, and was convinced it was for smoking pot.

And speaking of old…..Jody and I found a Five Guys restaurant. Heather had raved about how she loved their burgers so we decided to try it. First thing – OMG THE MUSIC WAS SO LOUD!!! We could barely hear each other. We asked them to turn it down and I’m sure they are still laughing at us for that. They didn’t turn it down – they pulled the “If it’s too loud, you’re too old” saying on us – well, we’re too old. It was much too hot to eat outside so we tried to find a table as far away from a speaker as we could and we suffered through it.

Oh, and the portion size was outrageous. I ordered a small burger, Jody ordered a regular one, and we thought we could share a large order of fries. Ha! Large? Oh, no…. I would not call what they gave us “large”. Enormous? Mammoth? Let me put it this way, we both shared the fries with our meal, I brought the leftovers with me to work today for lunch and I still have some left over. All I ate for lunch was fries and I am full, AND have some to spare! That’s a lot of fries.

How is it Thursday already!? Where did the week go?
I don’t have a lot of time so this will be short:

Road Trip

I will be heading to Athens this weekend! I wish it were the one in Greece, but it’s not – I’m going to Athens, GA. Jody and I are going to an auction near Athens for his father who can’t go because he will be flying. Since it is so close to Athens, a city that I have never been to, I’ve convinced Jody to stay one night so that I can say I’ve been to Athens – really, that’s my main reason for wanting to go. I’m sure I’m one of only a handful of Georgia natives that has never been to the home of the Bulldogs. So now I have to get up at 3am on Saturday to drive up there, sit in the sun for hours while Jody bids on some stuff for his dad, then we head to Athens for the afternoon and come back home Sunday.

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False Alarm

You will all be happy to know that my smoke detectors work very well. They will still go off even if there is no power source! Amazing! I know this because I was rudely awakened at 2am yesterday by the really annoying ‘Your battery is low and I’m going to make the loudest most obnoxious beeping sound every few seconds until you do something’ indicator. This noise was so loud, I assumed it was the smoke detector that is right outside my bedroom door – the one that is 14 feet up on the wall. I can’t reach that, so I just closed the door, turned on my iPod, and unsuccessfully tried to go back to sleep.

When I finally got out of bed at 5-something and tried to get it to shut up, I found out it’s not the one above my door, it’s the one in the hall outside my office, which can easily be reached if I stand on a chair. So I suffered through the noise for 3 hours when I could have turned it off – great! So I took out the battery….still beeping. Damn. So I took it off the wall and spent about 10 minutes trying to unplug it. Finally got it unplugged. Still beeping! So I angrily threw it into a closet under some stuff and went about my business. I think it finally died sometime yesterday.

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The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas is in exactly 6 months. Yes, I just mentioned Christmas. Last year, I waited too late and didn’t do a few things that I wanted to do, like make some Christmas cards. Well, I’m not letting that happen this year. I’m already trying to plan my cards and have a few ideas in mind.

I also need to start knitting for a Fall Festival that I may be attending in October as a vendor! This would be my first time doing anything like this, so I’m already nervous about it. A great part about selling online is I can’t hear anyone’s comments – good or bad – about my items. And I will be heartbroken if I leave at the end of the day with everything I brought with me. I’m trying to advance my knitting skills by branching out and using circular needles, and next I want to attempt double-pointed needles again. Some of you may remember the disaster known as Sheldon the Turtle…. he never came to be because he required double-pointed needles, and those things are hard to use! But I will learn how to use them…I will….

Heather will be leaving next week on a trip to Pigeon Forge, TN. And I am by no means an expert on Pigeon Forge, but I have vacationed there at least once a year for the past 6 years, so I’m going to offer my advice and opinions to her, and to anyone else who happens to Google “Smoky Mountain Guide” and ends up here on my blog.

So, away we go:

• 441 is the main highway that runs through Pigeon Forge. By about 3pm, this road will be packed. Not might be crowded, not slightly busy – traffic WILL BE bumper to bumper. tobumpertobumpertobumpertobumper. For miles. After about a half hour of being stuck in this traffic (possibly less time in summer heat), you will begin looking around for cops because you are thinking about jumping the curb and driving on the sidewalk, and don’t want to get caught. Look for alternate routes, you can get just about anywhere with minimal time on 441 if you take the right roads.
• There are coupon books at most hotels, restaurants, gas stations, welcome centers, etc. We grab some every time we’re up there. There are coupons available for many of the popular attractions as well as restaurants and stores. We go to one restaurant for breakfast a lot – Flap Jacks – and we use a coupon every time. Plus they print an additional coupon on the bottom of the receipt.
• There is one Wal-Mart in the area, on 441. If you absolutely have to go to Wal-Mart, and would like to actually park in the parking lot, the best time to go is ….eh, about 3am. It will be completely packed if the sun is up.
• If you’re going to visit Gatlinburg, prepare for the fact that you will need to walk everywhere.

Places that I recommend:

• The Apple Barn (off of 441) This places has several restaurants and cute shops, and you’ll never believe this but they all have an apple theme.
• Wonderworks (on 441) You can’t miss it, it’s an upside-down building. It’s kind of a kid’s place, but Jody and I enjoyed it. It’s filled with interactive games and illusions and things like that.
• The Christmas Place (on 441) This is the greatest place on Earth. The first time I went it was snowing! It was perfect! This is several Christmas-themed stores all together in a cute little Christmasy “village”. And I don’t know where you’re staying, but I will be completely jealous if I find out you’re staying at the Inn at Christmas Place.
• Ripley’s Believe It or Not (Gatlinburg) I don’t know if Aeralyn is too young for this type of place, but Jody and I enjoyed it when we went. It has several interactive exhibits.
• Ripley’s Aquarium (Gatlinburg) It’s not very different from other aquariums, but it is part of the Ripley’s franchise so it has a few fun and unique exhibits. When we went, it was extremely crowded and surprisingly hot inside (in the middle of winter).
• Guinness World Record Museum (Gatlinburg) I don’t really recommend going IN this museum unless you really like this type of thing, but they have a huge harp outside that Aeralyn might enjoy, unless it’s not working – it wasn’t working the last time we went. But it doesn’t have strings, instead it uses lasers and you just run your hand in the air where the strings should be and it plays. Kind of fun if you’re just walking by, and it’s free.
• Pancake Pantry (Gatlinburg) The food here is pretty good but I mostly enjoy the look of the restaurant. And if you’re up early enough you can park on the street right in front of the building until 9am.

And there are tons of other places to visit that I either can’t think of right now or haven’t been to. But up there you can basically turn around and walk ten steps and run into another attraction, there’s an endless supply of things to do, places to go.

Have fun, Heather!

This is a “window seat” that Jody made for Lilly in my bedroom. It’s a side table covered with a towel, with a pillow I made on top. She loves it

So, I never wore that sweater to the needlework group last Saturday. I tried, I really did. I had it on, walked out the door to get in the car but remembered that I needed to give Lilly some Benadryl before we left. And when we went back inside, I caught a glimpse of the sweater in a mirror and decided to take it off. I know I’m waaay too picky about this, I honestly do realize that. It’s not like I’m some glamour queen that always looks perfectly put together every day. I’m sure you are all shocked by that revelation. But the length of the sweater bothers me. But I will try again this Saturday. I want to actually wear something that I’ve knit. And the ladies in the group would absolutely love it, I’m sure. I’m working on a sweater for CJ’s son (yes – I said it, SON! Not daughter-with-a-tail) and they always Ooooh and Aaaah over my progress.

And speaking of the needlework group, we meet at a coffee shop, and can I just confess my love for coffee shops? I love coffee shops! They’re way over priced, but they’re so cool. I want one.

My goal is to one day own a store that sells yarn and crafty stuff, and maybe a few items made by local folks (there are some really cool sellers on Etsy from Savannah), and also in the store would be a coffee shop/lounge area. Perfect for knitting groups! And if they run out of yarn for the project they’re working on, they can just walk over to the yarn area and buy some more!

I’ve been working hard in Farm Town this week! Not only am I taking care of Jody’s mom’s farm while she is on a cruise, but I also decided to turn my farm into a maze:

You can click on the picture above for a larger version. My vision was to make a corn maze, but I ended up using wheat instead because it grows faster. Looks the same, right?

There’s one problem with my maze, though. See, in Farm Town if you want to walk somewhere you just click where you want to go and your little farmer avatar starts walking. I was hoping that someone who started at Point A (bottom corner) could click on Point B (Top corner where the animals are) and the program would send the farmer through the maze. But Farm Town seems to think it’s OK to just walk all over my crops, so sometimes it will let the farmer take a shortcut through the wheat to get to the end.

There is a way to force someone to walk a certain path – you have to use closely-packed trees or other items that the farmer can’t walk through like hay bales. My mother somehow found a farm that used trees to force the path:

If you’re a member of Farm Town, click on the image above to go to this farm, and click on the windmill. Oh, and make sure you have about 10 minutes to spare…because it takes a long time to walk through this maze! It’s just a ton of trees, but it works – you can’t cheat and skip to the end like you can in my maze. Personally I think this maze is way too big and takes too long, but I am thinking about using trees and other items to improve my maze.

And now the sweater…I knit this sweater for myself:

Cute, right? Do you like it? I like it, but it just doesn’t look right on me. I don’t know what it is…it’s just not something I would normally wear. I fully intended to wear it today – I had it on over a tank top and walked around my house trying to get use to it, but I eventually took it off. I’m going to try to wear it again tomorrow morning when I go to the needlework group again. And I realize how ridiculous it sounds when I say I’m going to “try to wear” something.

You can’t tell on the mannequin, but it hits mid-back on me and I think I’d like it if it were longer. I’ll probably start another one tonight with some minor adjustments, like more stitches on the front so that I can button it.

I’ve always known that my back was not straight but did not realize the extent of it until we visited the chiropractor a few months ago. And not only do I have scoliosis, but I’m also just misaligned all over. It’s not just in my back. I also twist at the hips, and my feet point inward just a little. My left foot does it more than my right foot. Jody’s mom has even made comments about the “cute way I walk” and I had no idea what she was talking about until I started paying attention to it.

So I’m just all screwed up.

But now that I realized how twisted I really am, I’m noticing little things that are being affected by it.

For example, for CJ’s 18th birthday we got our belly buttons pierced. And I just always assumed the person who did my piercing put it in slightly crooked. But now I think it’s not the piercing that’s crooked, I’m crooked and the piercing is just following the way my back curves.

I also have a bunch of thin tank tops that I wear a lot as undershirts, and they are all twisted – the bottom of the side seams do not match up the top of the seams. Initially I thought, “Ugh, these cheap shirts are getting all twisted in the washing machine. Damn cheap shirts!”. No…they all twist the exact same way. They are twisted because when I wear them, I move the seams at the bottom to line up with my hips. And my hips to not line up with my shoulders.

I have no idea if there is a way to correct this. I certainly don’t want to be an old lady that can’t stand up straight. From what I’ve read and been told, it is unlikely that the curve in my back will get worse. But I don’t know about my twistiness. I’m trying to pay attention when I walk and turn my feet outward just a little bit. And when I’m sitting at work, I try to press myself flat against the back of my chair. I hope my chair isn’t twisted too.

Ugh, I’ve been trying to write this all day! If you’re reading this, that means I finally found time to finish it! Yay for me!

OK, so you know how I have been wanting to dye my hair back to my original color because I’m super lazy and am tired of doing my roots every few weeks? Well I am. And apparently Jody was sick of hearing about it because on Friday he called me and let me know that he - without my knowledge or permission – made an appointment for me to get my hair dyed on Saturday.

From the minute he called me and told me about the appointment, I was scrambling to make an excuse to cancel. I just wasn’t ready! But by Saturday morning I had talked myself into it and…well, the results:

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