Scary Cemetery 2013

Here is the annual Halloween Haunted Cemetery a couple of blocks from my house. I can't bring myself to walk by it at dark. I stopped by this afternoon to get pictures. Looks like the same scary characters as the past couple of years.

Bad Jason character.

Old Frankenstein again this year. Still don't want to see him in the dark.

These grim characters still acting up.

BOOKS I'VE READ IN 2013

Books I've read in 2013

1. Mistletoe in Manhattan: A Christmas Story by Talli Roland

2. 11th Hour (Women's Murder Club) by James Patterson

3. The Best of Friends: Martha and Me by Mariana Pasternak

4. Creole Belle: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke

5. Killer Fudge (A Callahan Garrity Short Story) (Callahan Garrity Mysteries) By Mary Kay Andrews

6. Red Mist (A Scarpetta Novel) by Patricia Cornwell

7. When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison

8. The Black Echo: A Novel (A Harry Bosch Novel) by Michael Connelly

9. The Last Letter from Your Lover: A Novel by JoJo Moyes

10. The Violets of March: A Novel by Sarah Jio

11. This Fine Life: A Novel by Eva Marie Everson

12. 12th of Never (Women's Murder Club) by James Patterson

13. If You Were Here by Alafair Burke

14. Busted (Kindle Single) by Karin Slaughter

15. The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom

16. Dixie Divas by Virginia Brown

Where have I been?

Well, I've been gone quite a while this year. I've been here really, but in July my daddy fell and fractured his skull. He was in the hospital for a bit and then Suzy and I took turns helping mama and daddy. We were over there all the time. Seems like the summer flew by because of this. I don't mind because I don't like hot weather anyway. I really enjoyed spending time with mama and daddy. So thankful that daddy is doing better. Mama has had a lot of health problems and they are the type that don't really go away but can be maintained. So now I'm back home and miss them. And miss their dog, Mouse.

We got a new puppy pug. Her name is Gigi. I will post a picture soon of her. She came to live her in August. Got her from Alabama Pug Rescue. She is wild! Keeps Molly on her toes. She reminds me of "Cowboy" a pug we used to babysit. Cowboy was Herbie's brother.

Suzy and I went to the local florist that has the sparkling decorations. Here are some of the Halloween things they had there. I will post the Christmas decoration pictures after this. It's a tradition here on the blog. I hope to post more often...but my track record is terrible now. So we'll see.

Asheville trip 2012

I'm so late posting our trip to Asheville in November 2012. We love going to Asheville and going to the candlelight tour of the Biltmore Estate house and then going back the next day and looking around again. I really love going to the Grove Park Inn and seeing the gingerbread house displays after the competition held in mid November. Love eating at our favorite places like the Deerpark on the estate. We tried to go to the Tupelo Honey Cafe, even parked and walked a good way to get there, only to find out it was closed for renovations the very three days that we were in town. If we get to go back to Asheville, I'll be calling ahead to check on that. We stayed three nights and then left and spent a night in Atlanta before coming home. Looking forward to going back again in the future.

We enjoying going to the Grove Park Inn to see the gingerbread houses that are displayed around the resort. Always amazed at the talent.

This was my favorite gingerbread house...although it's not really a house. It's partridge in a pear tree. Lovely!

This is the grand prize winner of the gingerbread house competition.

Mama and Daddy at the Grove Park Inn.

Sitting in front of the fireplace at Grove Park Inn.

Suzy, mama and daddy in front of the fireplace.

One of the massive fireplaces at the Grove Park Inn.

We ate lunch at Chestnut in downtown Asheville. It was good.

Crab fritters

lobster bisque

fried green tomatoes

We went to the Candlelight tour at the Biltmore house. It's so pretty with the lights of the decorations and some of the fireplaces are lighted.

You are not suppose to take pictures inside the Biltmore house, but I couldn't help it. Just wanted to catch some of what I was seeing.
One of my favorite rooms. Two fireplaces and views outside of the mountains through doors that were kept open in the summer. So pretty when you see it in person.

Third floor hallway.

Inside the Biltmore house is what they called the winter garden.

We went back to the Biltmore Estate the next day and went through the house again. We went to our favorite restaurant, the Deerpark, on the estate grounds.

Some of the food set up buffet style at the Deerpark.

My favorite: the dessert table.

My lunch. Pretty much Thanksgiving-type food. Yummy.

More yummy food.

Dessert plate!

This is the view in front of the Deerpark restaurant.

Suzy and I went back to the Biltmore house later in the day. We decided to walk the trail from the parking lot to the house instead of taking the transportation that drops you at the door.

We were sad when we were leaving the Biltmore Estate, knowing it would be a long time before we get to come back.

While in Asheville, we stayed at The Residences at Biltmore. It was so nice. We rented a two bedroom/two bathroom. We enjoyed having a full kitchen. We went to Fresh Market and another Whole Foods type grocery store and would bring home something to eat instead of going to a restaurant for every meal.
Nice living room and fireplace. There was a wall of french doors with a balcony.

Kitchen and dining room area.

Big swimming pool and hot tub and fireplace area.

It's Friday in January and close to 80 degrees

My sister, also known as Aunt Sue, is going to be referred to as Suzy on here from now on. That all started because when we talk to our dogs, we say "Aunt Sue is coming over." or "Aunt Sandy is coming over." So I'm just going to refer to her as Suzy on here. Her real name is Suzanne!

I just wanted to post this picture of the camera that the teacher let me borrow in the photography class last night. That lens weighed so much, I could not hold it up for long. I'm guessing this was about $2000 worth of camera and lens here.

Today Suzy and I went over to our parents' to help them take some things to their storage unit. Mostly just moving Christmas decorations and two artificial trees over there. While there, we found this camera that belonged to our granddaddy. I think it's from the '60s or early '70s. I'll have to do some research. Daddy said I could sell it if I wanted to. I'm not much on keeping things laying around. Still in good shape, but there is no case or instructions or flash attachment for it.

This is the back of the camera. The film develops itself. It is a heavy camera.

We went to lunch this afternoon at a place called Fish River Grill 2. It's in a shopping center. One of those places you wouldn't really see or be interested in going to if you didn't know the food was good. The parents had been there a couple of times before and liked it. After eating there today, I liked it too. The only downside is that the place is not that clean. The floor was pretty bad. But it's a place you do not dress up to go to. I like that.

This is the Seafood BLT. Me and daddy and mama got this. It was really good. I'd order this again. It came with a crawfish sauce on the side that I put on top of this under the bun. That's fried shrimp and a fried green tomato and bacon and provolone cheese.

Suzy ordered this fried pistol bun. It's some kind of bun that has a cheesy crawfish sauce inside of it and deep fried. She was not thrilled with it. But they have something called "Swamp soup" that she really liked.

Here is the parents' dog. I have never ever seen something like this in all my life. This dog ran daddy and mama out of the chair that it is sitting in right here. That was a chair that either of them sat in to watch TV...mostly daddy. But the dog was always pestering them and if they got up the dog would just lay down in that chair like that's all it wanted. So daddy finally went out and bought another chair for himself and this is officially the dog's chair. Now, when we were growing up, if we had decided that we wanted the best seat in the house in front of the TV and pestered our parents for it, we would have been banished from the room with NO TV because we didn't have a TV in our room like the kids do now.

first post of 2013

I am way behind on my posting. I still need to post about some things from last year. I'll do it soon.

Here is a picture taken on Christmas Eve. This is the husband holding our grand niece. She was only 14 days old in this picture. She is so beautiful. Lots of hair and big, dark eyes. She slept most of the time we were there, but I did get to see her wake up. She can cry pretty loud. I'm so glad I got to meet her when she was this little. That is one of our grand nephews. He's a good-looking fellow, too.

Here are some things I've done lately.

Suzy and I went to the fish market recently and got some salmon. It was good. Sometimes I don't think it's as fresh as I'd like it, but this time it was pretty fresh. I bought some of the Biltmore brand champagne dill mustard. It's so good. So we cooked it on this piece of salmon. 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Ed bought a magnolia tree recently and planted it on the far side of the house where we'll never really see it. I took a picture and hope to remember to take a picture every year to see how it grows over the years.

Here is my baby Emma. She just about all her time with me. She will watch TV with her daddy once in a while. She is getting the gray face!

I went to a photography class tonight. Just a 2-hour class. Learned very basics of DSLR using the manual mode. I have a small Sony DSC-RX100 and it has lots of the DSLR features and a nice lens, but I had to borrow one of the teachers cameras to go along with class. I need to figure it all out on my camera now. I might just keep shooting with my two automatic settings.
We drove out to the beach one evening recently and this photo is zoomed in from about a quarter of a mile away.

This shot is from right across the street.

Suzy and I like to go to Tommy Bahama Cafe the week between Christmas and New Year's. We were able to go for lunch on New Year's Eve. It's so nice over in Destin and along the coast this time of year when traffic is not so bad.

We shared these scallop sliders. They were okay. I'd rather eat my scallops alone and not on bread.

We shared a blackened fish ruben. It was good.

We both had a cup of the lobster bisque. This looks like a bowl, but it's not that much.

We didn't have dessert there..even though they looked good. We like to stop at the Donut Hole in Destin. They have the big donuts called angels. Yummy.

I'm going to get my act together and post the Asheville pictures soon.