One Thing at a Time...

Justin: So we broke down and bought a big person's mattress and box springs today. Next step - bed frame and matching set. WHOO HOO!
Notice the futon frame peaking out from underneath... Much to the chuckle of the delivery guys.

By the way, if anyone knows where we can get a doggie harness with an air-bag, please send us the info.

Kayaks, Orchids and Fried Pickles, Oh My!

Paul and D came over this weekend and hung out with us. They got in a bit late Friday evening after discovering the slowest WAl-Mart cashier in the country... Evidently she works at the Shelby, NC location. We talked for a while over some wine and much to Stacey's dismay I was speaking much more loudly then I realized. You see my poor wife went to bed at 9:30 in order to rest up for her 5:30 morning adventure of running 4 miles then biking 20. So about 12:30 a seething bed-headed Stacey stormed into the living room and pointedly informed me of my wrong doings.

So we all went to sleep.

The next morning Paul and D went over to Freedom Park to get a few miles in themselves as they are training for the Knoxville Half Marathon in March.

I slept.

We went to lunch at Cabo (as everyone loves Cabo) and then decided to check out the National White Water Center. Considering the frigid water temperatures, there was not a lot going on other then some people on the climbing wall. We hung out there for a little while then moved on to the brand new orchid conservatory at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Now the grounds are not much this time of year, of course, however the conservatory was very impressive. It was not quite what I had in mind, however it was just as nice. The effort to plan and maintain something like that must be tremendous. I only have a few pics here, but you can get the idea.

We trekked on back to the house where we napped for a litle while. Stace was already there, sacked out from her exploits. We decided to keep dinner low budget and made some nice sandwiches for dinner before heading out on the town. We stopped in at a martini bar, Loft 1520 I think it was, before heading up the street to the Visulite Theater for Big Mamma's House of Burlesque Variety Show. Between the crowd, the lack of seating and the cigarette smoke, we left after an hour or so and headed on to the Philosopher's Stone for a night cap and gabbing.

Sunday morning we got up, had coffee, then headed out to brunch at Jackalope Jack's on 7th. The server was a bit ditzy/manic however efficient and entertaining while the food was scrumptious. If you have never had fried pickles, this is the place to go. I thought D ws going to just box up her entree and chow on those instead. Neither she nor Paul had ever had them and were very pleasantly surprised.

Porter was sad to see them go as he took to Paul right away and D won him over by letting him sleep on the bed.

Stace and I napped for a little while before cooking up a big mess of wings and jotting over to Sharon's for the Super Bowl.

All in all it was a good weekend. We hope you had a fun one as well.

Be safe.

The Sound of Crickets

Justin: So things have been rather quiet around the Keeling/Irwin household. Stace has been working after hours quite a bit as it is kickoff time for Team In Training (TnT) and there are all sorts of meetings and clinics to help everyone prepare for their upcoming events.
Oscar's good, though growing a bit cantankerous in his older age and Porter is, well, just big. He has taken to sneaking into our bedroom in the early morning and crawling into bed with us. This is both cute and rather frustrating at the same time given the logistics of two adults a pug and a 90 pound puppy in a queen size bed.
I have not been into much, cruising the want-ads in search of a not so soul-leeching employment opportunity, and working on some photos. I did help TnT out a couple of weekends ago by setting up and snapping some mugshots of their participants. Talk about some not so happy people... Nothing like having surprise photos snapped first thing on a Saturday morning. Whoooo. So I tried to keep it as painless as possible and everyone was actually very nice, considering.
As of this moment, Paul and D are scheduled to come in tonight and spend the weekend. Always a good thing. I think we will try to catch Big Mamma's House of Burlesque show tomorrow night and hopefully either go to the new orchid conservatory at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens or check out the Light Factory galleries uptown... We'll see. I'll try to snap a few pics this weekend while they are in as well.

Be safe and warm.