Memorial Day Weekend

Well, we made it back home safe and sound after a whirlwind trip to Athens and Chattanooga. We had a great time both places and wish that we could have stayed longer and seen more people. Next time...

This was Jim's second time in Athens. We went to see the T.R.R. Cobb house, which I hadn't seen since it's restoration and, of course, Jim hadn't either. It is amazing and you should check it out if you get a chance. We also squeezed in a trip to Ramsey for a workout (thanks, Christine).

It was my first trip to Chattanooga, after driving through it about 195 times and a chance for me to meet Jim's brother and nieces and nephews (his sister-in-law was out of the country). Left to right, it is Katie, me, Jim, Lacey, Carson and Troy.

I finally got to see Rock City. That's where these pictures were taken. Mom says I've seen it before, when I was much younger, but I don't remember. On Sunday, we went to the Tennessee Aquarium.

Wine and Running

Yesterday, Jim and I went to the Spring Wine Festival at Mount Vernon. We took the tarp (because the ground is still wet) and the picnic blanket, bought a fruit and cheese box and a bottle of cabernet and sat on the south lawn with all these people and listened to the jazz band. It was lovely. We also tasted several wines and toured the mansion. This wine festival is the only time of the year when the cellar is open and you can go under the house.

In other news, I've been working on a running training program called Couch to 5K. It is a nine week program that builds your endurance until you can run a 5K start to finish. You run each week's program three times. I am currently in week 4 and I was able to finish the week four set for the first time yesterday. The first time, I had to walk the last three minutes of the final interval. So I am probably going to do week 4 two or maybe three more times before I move on.

Keep Your Head & Hands Inside the Mixer at All Times

Last night we went to the parking lot carnival at Landmark Mall, affectionately referred to as Traveling Death Rides.

We rode this, and this and this:


The BF is not fond of the Sizzler pictured to the left, not so much because I was squishing him, which I was, but it made him dizzy. We loved the Starship 3000 (Gravitron) - they played Hotel California inside and I was singing my butt off.

We got a corn dog for the BF and I was a good girl and said no to cotton candy AND funnel cakes.

Cool Things Happen on Monday

So far today, two totally cool things have happened:

1) I got voted onto Team Artemis at diet.com (It's a competition like Biggest Loser in reverse). Now I am super motivated so I don't let my team down.

2) I got chosen to be a secret shopper at Coldwater Creek, one of my favorite stores. They are going to send me two $50 gifts cards to go shop twice between now and the end of July. I just have to report back on my shopping experience.

EU Open House

On Saturday, many of the countries of the EU were having open houses. We choose to go some of the more popular, bigger embassies so we only were able to make it four during the five hours they were open. This picture was taken at a little cafe table at the French embassy, late in the day. I'll back up and start at the beginning of the day.



We started at the Kennedy Center and walked up to Foggy Bottom to see the Embassy of Spain. It was the smallest of the embassies that we toured and is a pretty building on 23rd and Pennslyvania. It blends right into the neighborhood. They had Spanish wines, olives and olive oils to taste and one of the chefs from Jaleo (my favorite tapas restaurant) was there carving lovely little slivers of ham. They also had Spanish guitar and flamenco dancers.



From Spain, we caught the bus out to the German embassy. The Germans have a huge compound out west of Georgetown and we were able to see the Chancery and the lower level of the Ambassador's residence. We also got bratwurst (well, Jim did) and pretzels, sampled beer and Gewurztraminer and pastries. And they had a band. This bear is in front of the Ambassador's residence and we couldn't resist a photo op with him.

From there we went to the French embassy. We got a strawberry tart and a croissant and sat at the little outdoor cafe tables for a rest. The day was winding down and we had one more embassy to see. So, we said farewell to France and boarded the bus for House of Sweden.




The last stop was the Swedish embassy, which is on the waterfront at Georgetown and a short walk back to the Kennedy Center. The best part of this embassy was the view from the roof.