Art + Football, a good weekend combination

I know, I know, art and football is a strange pairing.  On Saturday morning, The CFO and I headed west to Peoria for the yearly “Fine Art Show” hosted by the local arts guild.  No trip to Peoria is complete without a stop at Chick-fil-a, so we went there for breakfast before the show.  After a tasty chicken biscuit and hash-rounds, we were ready to enjoy the show.

There were artists from all over the country, including a couple Georgia based artists who were surprised to see someone wearing a UGA shirt and hat. Yes, I must represent my Dawgs on all football Saturdays.  The booths were full of paintings, metal work, glass, pottery and photography.  We walked through the entire show and then stopped to assess if anything had caught either of our eyes.  I guessed correctly that the CFO wanted to go back and revisit a glass jewelry box and I wanted to circle back to a couple other booths. 

We ended up picking up a few things, some for us and some for gifts.  It is nice to support these artists who are doing what they love to do and probably aren’t making much money doing it.  We estimated that by the time they pay to be in the show, travel there with all their stuff, get a hotel room and food, it must cost them over a thousand dollars to show up, not including what they put into materials for their crafts.  You have to sell a lot of stuff to make up that difference and, unfortunately, we didn’t see a whole lot of purchases being made.

We hit the CFO’s favorite pizza joint for the Italian trio appetizer that she loves so much before rushing home for the UGA/LSU game.  We ended up missing the first half of the first quarter (I was not happy about missing part of the game!), but saw the rest of the game.  What an up and down, back and forth game… happily, my Dawgs pulled out the win in the end.  They were the only team of our 4 college teams that won that day, the other 3 lost.  1-3 for the weekend isn’t very good.

I planted a few pumpkin seeds during the summer and didn't do much with them, I just let them do their thing.  Here are the first two pumpkins that we have harvested, there are a few more on the vine that I haven't picked yet.  Unfortunately, the leaves of the plants were attacked by a powdery mildew, so they didn't get as big as they might have otherwise...

Jerry!

This post was supposed to go out last week, evidently I forgot to hit the publish button:

I picked the CFO up after work and we headed west to Peoria to see Jerry Seinfeld.  I was a huge fan of his show when it was on TV and I often watch re-runs on TV if I find one while flipping channels.  Of course, we had to grab a bite to eat before the show, so we had a nice romantic dinner at Chic-fil-a… yes, I have a Chick-fil-a addiction!  My longing for their food gets even worse during football season because they advertise heavily during games.  Every time I hear that Moooo I start craving that sandwich.

We somehow missed the initial announcement about Jerry’s performance, but were still able to get some decent seats in the second row of the second balcony.  We were way up in the air, but could still see well.  His friend, and fellow comedian, Larry Miller opened the show and he was quite funny.  He went on a long rant about driving with his wife and the CFO started giving me the, “that’s you” tap on my leg.

 

Jerry came out next and talked for about 75 minutes before taking a short break, after which he came out and took questions from the audience.  A lot of the questions weren’t too good, especially the guy who asked, “will you go out for a beer with me after the show.”  Jerry basically said no, but applauded him for throwing up such a “hail mary” type question.  One person did ask if the character of George in the show was based on the co-creator Larry David.  Jerry said that while a lot of the things that happened to George came from Larry’s life, the character wasn’t based on Larry.

I spent Saturday morning getting our lawn ready to aerate on Monday, only to figure out later that I was a week early.  Our block of the neighborhood is renting the equipment as a group, but that isn’t happening until the following week.  I’m not sure how I got the dates mixed up, but I did.  Saturday afternoon was spent watching my GA bulldogs play what was supposed to be an easy game against North Texas.  In typical Dawg fashion, they let NT stay in the game with a blocked punt for a TD and a kick off return for a TD.  I hope the boys are more disciplined this week against LSU! 

Speaking of the LSU game, ESPN’s “Gameday” show will be broadcasting from Athens on Saturday morning.  I can’t wait to see pictures of my home town again, although I’m sure I’ll just watch it and wish I was there. 

On Saturday night, we went out to dinner and to the ISU game with a group of professors and spouses.  ISU just rebuilt half of its stadium and it looks really nice.  We were sitting in the old section of the stadium (the school gave faculty a cheap price for those tickets), but it was nice to look across and see the new structure.  The stadium now seats just over 13,000 people… a far cry from the 92,000+ at UGA.  The game was entertaining and the Redbirds won.  We should really go to more games, I’m not sure why we don’t.

 

This was the first Saturday all season that our 4 college teams all won… it was a good day for the University of Georgia, University of Virginia, James Madison and Illinois State.  If ISU and JMU keep winning, there is a chance they could face off during the playoffs!

Its in the bag

Last weekend was pretty quiet.  I wasn't sure what I was going to write about, until the CFO spent the beginning of the week preparing to start a research project at a nearby high school.  She is working on using technology to help people with disabilities live on their own and this project involves grocery shopping.  I don’t know all of the details of the study; I just know that I was asked to go to the store to pick up some products that matched products that we already had at home.  I did my part to help out and ran by the store during my lunch break and picked up the stuff on the list.

That night, she started dumping stuff out of containers into plastic baggies and Tupperware containers.  Evidently she needed a “full” and an “empty” version of each product for the project.  I didn’t really question it, until what I thought was only going to be a couple things exploded into at least 20 different items.  We now have salt, pepper, cinnamon and other spices in small baggies.  Bread, chips, pasta and other larger quantity items are now in larger zipper bags.  We also have Tupperware containers full of things like jelly and butter plus Aquafina bottles with honey and syrup in them.  “Good luck finding stuff,” she said with a laugh.

She then handed me a 2 liter bottle of sprite, “time to drink up, this needs to be almost empty.” Of course, I wasn’t about to drink a whole 2 liter bottle in one evening, so the remainder was poured into a water pitcher with plastic wrap rubber banded around it.  I doubt that will keep the carbonation in for long, but it was worth a shot… I’d hate to see it go to waste. 

This is a good example of how the two of us differ… I like a good plan, figured out well ahead of time and she is a last minute procrastinator.  I would have had a list of what empty containers we needed a few weeks ago and would have started saving containers then.  Over the past month, I am certain that we have thrown away many of the containers that she now needs… 

I continue to try to introduce her to the “Five P’s” (Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance), but she seems happy to continue with her last minute ways…

Just a sample of our new storage system.  Yes, that is honey in the water bottle.

The quiet before the storm

September through December always seems very busy for us and I have yet to figure out why.  I guess holiday travels have a lot to do with it?  I've stayed home through most of the summer, so I am looking forward to these things this fall:

-Seeing Jerry Seinfeld perform live.

-Going to the UGA at Vanderbilt football game in Nashville. (hopefully, if our ticket source comes through for us)

-Seeing Bill Cosby perform live. (yes, we saw him last year, but the show was really good and we’re going with some friends this time)

-Travelling to San Diego so the CFO can go to a conference.  (This just joined the schedule this week and there was no way that I would let her go there without me)

-The CFO will go to VA for another conference. (leaving me home alone)

-A cruise vacation with my parents combined with a visit to Athens. (yes, we are addicted to cruising)

-Christmas holiday.

-The CFO’s brother’s wedding.

I feel like I am missing something else, but can’t remember it right now.  Needless to say, we are going to be busy.  My co-workers don’t understand why I spend 80% of my vacation time in Nov/Dec, but that is how it always seems to work out. 

Last weekend was pretty much uneventful, the highlight being my Dawgs pulling out a nice win against the SC gamecocks.  Sadly, UVA and JMU both lost.  UGA is off this weekend, so my blood pressure should stay at a normal level all weekend.

Lowe's came through for us and had the replacement roman shades installed in the living room and kitchen.  Of course, this called for the side by side comparison photo above.  It is amazing what the correct backing material does, now you can actually see the pattern in the fabric.  The CFO is much happier, therefore I am happy too.  As some old man once told me “Happy wife, happy life.”  Although, I’d like to argue that an unhappy husband would make life unhappy too...

The Butler

Last weekend had all the ingredients for a great weekend… decent weather, the start of college football, fantasy football draft and Monday was a holiday.  It was all going well until Saturday night, when my Dawgs choked on their #5 preseason ranking and lost to Clemson by 3.  It was a very disappointing beginning to the season.  The silver lining is that it was a non-conference game so it doesn’t count against their chance to win the SEC Championship.  This coming weekend they play South Carolina, let the nail biting begin.

The CFO and I picked up some super sweet corn at the farmer’s market and I’ve been grilling them up perfectly.  I’ve found what I think is the best and easiest way to prepare corn on the cob… no more big pots of boiling water on the stove or trying to grill them in their husks.  Here is how I’ve been cooking corn on the cob this year:

1.  Shuck the corn and place each ear on its own sheet of aluminum foil. 
2.  Drizzle olive oil over each ear of corn and then sprinkle with fresh cracked pepper, kosher salt and garlic powder. 
3.  Roll each ear up in the sheet of foil and close one end of the foil.
4.  Pour in a couple tablespoons of water (to create some steam) into the open end and then seal up that end. 
5.  Throw them on a hot grill (350-400) for around 12 minutes, rolling them once or twice during that time. 

That’s it.  Very easy, yet quite tasty.

Sunday was the fantasy football draft, so I spent the better part of 3 hours on a conference call with the rest of the group (a total of 14 people).  Most of the group gathered at a house in northern VA, but a few of us called in and did it remotely.  I think I built a pretty good team; hopefully I can win some money again this year.

On Monday afternoon the CFO and I went to see the movie “The Butler.”  We walked into the theater and quickly realized that all the other people in the room were at least 2x our age…  Kind of funny.  About halfway through the movie, a beeping/buzzer sound started going off and it took a few beats for me to figure out that it wasn’t part of the movie.  It was definitely a more modern sound than the time frame being portrayed in the film.  When the projector turned off, we all finally realized that the fire alarm was going off.  Everyone in the theater kind of looked at each other for a few seconds, seeming to wonder how we should respond.  “I guess we should leave” seemed to be the unspoken consensus, so we all headed out the side exit and gathered outside of the theater.

Evidently someone pulled the fire alarm and, after about 40 minutes, the fire department gave the all clear.  We eventually found an employee who said he thought that they might restart the movies, so we headed back into the theater.  I was pretty happy that they restarted it; I would have not enjoyed being “left hanging” and not knowing how the film ended.   We were also given a pair of movie passes for a future visit for the interruption, so that was a bonus. 

Considering the subject matter of the film, I thought the movie was well executed and entertaining.  On our way to the car, the CFO and I both wondered aloud about how “true” all the connecting pieces were.  The movie clearly states at the beginning that it is based on a true story, but how much of it was really true?  

Unfortunately, after a little bit of lunch time inter-web research, it turns out that a lot of it was not factual.  In case you haven’t seen it yet, I won’t go into a lot of detail on what isn’t true, but a large amount of the 2 hour movie’s subject matter was ad libbed by the director.  This also helps to explain why I was also a little disappointed with the ending…  I thought that the film got a little political/preachy at the end when the subject became our current president’s election. 

After doing my research on the accuracy of the film, I am now somewhat disappointed by the movie. I’m pretty sure that the true story would have been entertaining enough on its own; I don’t understand why all the falsehoods were included.  I guess that was just Hollywood taking any opportunity that they could to make the movie more racially charged and to throw in their political opinion.  Oh well, I guess I should just stick to comedies, sci-fi and James Bond movies. 

And just like that, a “long” three day weekend was over.  It is amazing how quickly that extra day passes by…

Still Staining...

Will the staining ever end?  I’ve been working on staining the deck for a while now, working a few hours here, a few hours there.  Every time I think that I am getting close to done, I see more exposed wood that needs to be stained.  Ugh. 

Saturday was the sweet corn and blues festival in Normal, so the CFO and I went out early to try to beat the heat.  We did a little shopping at the artist/vendor booths and enjoyed a few ears of sweet corn along the way.  We found this cool colored ball that is lit by an internal light bulb at one of the vendors and decided it would be a nice addition to the ledge over our front door.  Finally, something to plug into the plug that we had them install on the ledge!

On Saturday night, we headed to downtown Bloomington for the Jaycee Criterium bicycle race.  I was really excited to hear that they were doing the race downtown, as they do Criterium back home in Athens, GA and it is always a lot of fun to attend.  I was seriously disappointed by the spectator turn out, a huge party it was not.  The men’s pro race started with 50-60 racers and ended with about half that amount.  The leading 3-4 riders were no match for the remainder of the field, they blew the doors off of them.  They basically set a really fast pace that a majority of the field couldn’t handle, leaving the four of them to fight it out for the win.  With about 2 laps to go, the winner stepped it up another notch and left the other three in his dust.

UGA football is starting the season with a huge game against Clemson on Saturday night.  What happened to the good ole days of starting off the season with an easy team for a definite win?  If you need me, I’ll be on my couch watching the game... For the CFO’s sake, I hope that I’ll be cheering and not cussing.  Go Dawgs!

A 4 year old is making me look bad

Our garden overfloweth with tomatoes... we have picked over 120 Roma tomatoes in the last week!  Someone told the CFO that we could freeze them whole and then use them for salsa this winter, so we are going to give that a try.

Monday morning harvest of 40+

I was sitting at work Monday morning when my phone rang, the caller ID said it was a friend of mine, who is the husband of one of the CFO’s co-workers.  I answered it expecting to hear his voice,  but I was greeted by the voice of his 4 year old son instead.  I immediately started to wonder why he was calling me.  Perhaps he was playing with dad’s phone and I was the person he ended up dialing after pushing random buttons.

However, as soon as he started talking, I knew this call was no accident.  He started rambling about how I needed to go to the store, buy flowers for the CFO and bring them to her at work.  When I got to the building, I should get on on the elevator and hit the 5 button to go up to the floor where her office was.  There was a lot of other toddler chatter that I wasn’t able to make out, but I got the gist of what he was saying.  His parents and the CFO all seemed to be quite entertained by his instructions, as I could hear them all laughing in the back ground.

I know that he occasionally decides that he needs to take flowers to his mom, so his dad takes him and his brother to buy flowers and then they deliver them to her at her office.  I also know that he likes to go visit the CFO in her office while they are there… he’s a sweet kid and, for some reason, he and his brother seem to really like us.  That is probably because we always (and I mean ALWAYS) eat pizza if we hang out with their parents.  If they have pizza and we’re not there, he asks wif the CFO and I are coming for dinner.  

He eventually stopped talking and passed the phone to his dad, who apologized for the interruption.  I told him to tell his son to stop making me look bad by bringing his mom flowers all the time.  I guess that I could start paying him to deliver them to the CFO too… However, I prefer to buy her live plants that we can put in the yard and enjoy for years to come, instead of buying cut flowers that will be dead in a few days.  There I go again, being all practical instead of romantic... 

 

We didn't do a whole lot over the weekend, the CFO was busy preparing for the first week of classes.  We did have some friends over for dinner, games and smores on Saturday night.  We introduced them to "Scott Style" Smores, which use two soft bake chocolate chip cookies to sandwich the toasted marshmallow instead of the traditional graham crackers and a piece of chocolate. It is WAY better than the traditional style.