Up too early for love...

I am a real sap for a good love story so I rolled out of bed at 4:30 AM to watch the marriage of handsome Prince William to his beautiful commoner bride, Kate Middleton. Seems like I did the same thing to watch the marriage of Prince William's parents.  I hope this one turns out better...

The cathedral was decorated to resemble the English countryside with dozens of live trees lining the nave.  I suspect brides all over the US will be looking for a cathedral wedding.  I also expect live trees will be rolled in and out of these churches.  The florist job just got physically more difficult!

I wonder what these two are thinking?

And these two...

The couple sure looked happy after the big doin's were over!  Meanwhile, back in my kitchen, I had polished off several of blueberry scones (Fresh Market offered bunches of them in honor of the event) and lots of coffee.  I too was happy when the big doin's were over so I could put away the scones and butter and take a nap!

Burgers, marshmellows and friends...

Nice evening last night with our friends Sonya and Mac Cissna and their son, Micah.  They invited us to grill out at their home on the Fort Loudon Lake.  The view from their outdoor table was beautiful and the weather, just about perfect.  On the menu, our favorite food groups...brats and burgers.  We ate one of each but paid a price for the spicy brats several hours later when we were both looking for the Tums bottle.

In front of the chairs by the fence is a fire pit, we got to experience that after dark

Across the river is Lakeshore Park

As the sun set, we were treated to beautiful colors over the water.

After dark, Mac fired up the pit and Sonya brought out the marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate.  I love s'mores but I can't seem to eat as many as I did as a Girl Scout.

    Beautiful!

We had such a great time sitting around the warm fire with good friends.  Thanks Sonya, Mac and Micah for another fun evening!

A giant Easter bunny and other weekend activities...

Day two into a three day weekend.  No sign of rain today, only sunshine and bright blue skies.  The temperature once again climbed to a June level, 83.  If April is this warm, I shutter to thing about June temperatures.

Yesterday we considered leaving late afternoon for a short backpack but car shopping left us drained and we ended up on the couch with John's son Lee, eating take out Friday fish fry from The Shrimp Dock.  The dinner met all our criteria for comfort food but our stomachs were grumbling later in the evening as the grease began to settle.  Friday night TV is boring so John and Lee snoozed intermittently until one discovered a show on the Galapagos. We all want to go to the Galapagos now!

This morning I lingered too long over computer and coffee and had to push myself out for a run.  It was just an around the neighborhood and home effort, legs were a bit tired from yesterday's Ijams effort, but I wanted to start the back to back to back running routine. 

I took a slightly different street home and ran into this: 

I can assure you that seeing a big bunny walking along the side of the road conjured up thoughts of Elwood and his invisible friend Harvey, but this Harvey was real life.  Then I remembered a conversation with fellow Women's Clubber, Nancy Staub, who told me her husband played the neighborhood Easter bunny every year.  Sure enough, in the bunny costume was Jim Staub who was headed to the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. 

The neighborhood association also decorates a small tree for special occasions.  Below, I present the 2011 Easter tree.

Finally, we have been car shopping again today.  We drove to Airport Honda to test drive an LL Bean package Forester we spotted two weeks ago.  Unfortunately it had been sold about two days ago so we ended up test driving a Honda CRV and a Toyota Rav4.  Game changers for us.  We liked both cars better than the Subaru's we had pretty much settled on.  Will this car shopping misery never end? 

Tonight, dinner with friends.  Now that is something to look forward to!!

Bravo...

This year I have been struggling with running on so many levels. Maybe it's reduced effort, maybe I am just getting older, but the pieces just aren't  coming together as they have in the past.  And then a day like today comes along and I realize why I keep trying.  The feeling of accomplishment that comes with a hard effort is the best! 

For the past few runs, I have been running to Ijams Nature Center, along the Will Skelton Greenway and around the parking lot at the Welcome Center. Once or twice I ventured onto the old paved trail around the old homestead but that was the extent of my trail running.  Today, determined to complete five miles (and to avoid that very nasty hill on the greenway), I detoured to the unpaved trails on the outskirts of the Ijams. 

Once I veered on the woodland trail,  I headed toward the boardwalk along the river.  The trail was mostly flat, very well groomed and an easy run. As a bonus, I caught frequent glimpses of the river.  Once on the river boardwalk, I slowed to be sure I did not miss a step up or down as the boardwalk changes levels to accommodate rocks and trees.  

Shortly past the boardwalk, the trail forks and I had to make a split decision left or right.  I chose left and immediately realized the error of my choice.  The trail began to climb immediately and steeply for .2 miles.  I walked most of the hill to be sure I still had enough to give for the run home.  During the walk I set a goal to be able to run up the hill.  It will take a bit of work!  

The run home was pleasant.  On the outskirts of Ijams, a light rain began to fall.  By the time I reached the greenway I was running in a steady rain.  Very cooling after a good effort...

Today's run

We are now into week two of car shopping.  Since the 1996 I30 has reached 500,000 miles, it is behaving like a little old person and I risk being stranded somewhere. We are looking at gently used cars and have test driven a:

Nissan Altima (boring)

Honda Element (odd)

Honda Fit (cute but really small)

Nissan Rogue (nice, like driving a sedan)

Subaru Legacy sedan (like driving a little sports car)

Subaru Forrester (a bit truck like)

Subaru Outback (another sedan type ride).  

The list has been narrowed down to a Subaru.  John is less fond of the 2009 Forrester, I like the Outback but it is slightly higher mileage and higher price AND the dashboard has a few screws implanted where someone must have mounted a GPS system. The Legacy sedan is in our price range, the right mileage and will probably be our choice.     

Maundy Thursday...

John and I slipped into a pew in Knoxville's grand downtown church, Church Street United Methodist Church a bit  early this evening.  We wanted a little extra time to shake off our workday burdens and transition into a contemplative mood for the evening ahead.  Maunday Thursday is arguably the most beautiful of all the Christian services and a yearly ritual for us.

For the next hour and a half, we focused on the night before the Crucifixion.  We listened to readings of scripture, beautiful music and a thought provoking sermon. After the solemn ritual of stripping the alter, we walked out of a dark, silent church into a soft spring evening. 

Dogwood Arts Festival Farmer's Market...

The Dogwood Arts Festival Farmer's Market previewed to a cold, gray day.   Lots of crafts, some vegetables, hot coffee, bakery goods and people....fewer than usual, probably due to the weather.  What a great teaser for the summer Market Square Farmer's Market!

Lots of tents with interesting crafts

John and I were particularly intrigued by the metal works by Don and Delores Wells of White Pine, TN.  The Wells display their metal sculptures at several local craft fairs during the year.  One of these days we will just take one home.

John in line for an Orange Julius

Is this just the cutest car!

Spring delights...

It's springtime around here and everything is in bloom!  Nothing better than a walk around the yard admiring the beauty of the season!  

 I can't get enough of the view from our kitchen window, the dogwoods are in full bloom!

  The Lenten Roses are also in full bloom, we are, after all, only 27 days into Lent



 Hmmmm, the Christmas Roses are still in bloom too!?

 The Solomon Seal is still unfolding, the flowers are just buds



 All of our hostas are looking great!  This grouping was planted under a dogwood tree two years ago and looked pitiful until this year. 



 Blue Columbine is my very favorite spring wildflower, well that and the Lenten Rose and the Wild Poppy and........

 Variegated Solomon Seal is a fast propogator; it borders on being a weed.  Unlike the Solomon Seal, it is in full bloom

Speaking of weeds, the honeysuckle is the sweetest!

Happy Spring everyone! 

Fish tacos and friends...

Thursday night John and I met friends, Will Skelton and Kim Robinette at Soccer Taco on Market Square for dinner and lots of catch up conversation. Will and Kim have been doing such exciting things (together and/or independently) as skiing in Utah, paddling in the Everglades and exploring Jordan and Israel. Whew, those of us who work can only enjoy the stories and wonder what travel will unfold for those two in the coming months.

We had agreed to meet the Will and Kim at 6:30 PM and were running marginally late. As we hurried in the cold toward the south end of the Square, (Market Rectangle as noted by Norris Dyer in this week's Metro Pulse), we glanced through the windows of several popular restaurants.  Most had only a handful customers seated around a few tables.  It was after all, a winterish Thursday night and most folks were warm and cozy at home.  But as we opened the door to Soccer Taco (our first visit), we were greeted by a totally different atmosphere.  Every table was full.  Fresh faced, young professional chatted over drinks and dinner. The restaurant literally hummed with activity.  Hmmmm, this is fun.

Will and Kim arrived about the same time and we were ushered to a booth in the back.  Perfect!  For first 1/2 hour, John sipped on a Doseki while the rest of us drank water (tea), worked through a bucket of warm chips and spicy salsa and talked.  I am sure our waiter would have appreciated our order much earlier but we finally got around to the menu and our selections, fish tacos for me and shrimp quesadilla for John. 

I don't know if it was the company, the conversation or the lively atmosphere, but the food was delicious.  John spent a lot of time transferring fish taco tangy cheese sauce from my plate to his quesadilla but I pretended not to notice. Will and Kim seemed pretty happy with their fish tacos and vegetarian buritos too.  We sat and ate, talked and talked...a waiter's worst kind of table. 

Finally around 8:40, some 2 hours after we walked in, I started to get sleepy.  We broke up the conversation, paid our check and the four of us walked back to the State Street garage.  John and I headed home to get ready for work, while Will and Kim headed toward Gay Street and the Rivera Theater to catch a 9:00 PM film.  Another great night in the books with a couple of our favorite people.