Sarah's Diary

Sarah came out of her room yesterday morning with a small book with blank pages and declared it to be her diary. I asked if she knew what a diary was, and she replied with a smile, "It's where you write down your secrets."

Beignets from Cafe Du Monde

Earlier this week the Al Dente blog featured a post about beignets (pronounced BEN-yays) from the Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. I'm not usually big on sweets for breakfast, but I will make an exception for Cafe Du Monde beignets. Jimmy Buffett said it best, "The coffee is strong at the Cafe Du Monde, and the donuts are too hot to touch. But just like a fool, when those sweet goodies cool, I eat 'til I eat way too much."

Solar Dynamics Observatory

An Atlas V rocket is scheduled to launch tomorrow morning from Florida. It is carrying the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

New Ketchup Package

Heinz is debuting its new ketchup package design for fast food. The new version, pictured above, is more conducive to dipping, which Sarah will appreciate. With the current version of the ketchup packet, you can make a small hole in the packet, which turns the thing into a great ketchup squirt gun. I did this when working at McDonalds and sprayed a red-headed guy we called "Carrot" with it. My miscalculation was that Carrot was holding the Mac Sauce gun at the time. Mac Sauce is way grosser than ketchup ever thought about being.

Another Snow Day for Jake and Joey

Metro Nashville schools are closed today due to snow, so Joey and Jake will be sleeping in this morning. This was the last snow day for Metro schools, so any more closings for snow this winter will have to be made up at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, here in Maryville it is forty degrees at our house, and all we got was rain. Temperatures are to drop this evening, which will be our last chance for any snow out of this weather system.

One Snowman Standing

Only one snowman from the snow a week ago is left in our yard, and he's just down to a single, very dirty snowball. There's nothing left of the smaller one, except the branch of Burning Bush we used for his hair. There's a weather system heading our way, though, and the television meteorologist is saying we may get some snow out of it. Washington, DC, may get another foot.

Saints Beat Colts 31-17

The New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl last night 31-17. My sister Leslie and I agreed yesterday afternoon that we would be equally happy for either team to win. Many of us who watched Peyton Manning as quarterback at the University of Tennessee also pull for him as quarterback of the Colts, but the people of New Orleans sure deserved a win after all they've been through. I read some this weekend about Peyton and his brothers being raised in New Orleans when their dad, Archie, was quarterback of the Saints when they were terrible. The Saints were their home town team.

Shuttle Endeavor in Orbit

Space shuttle Endeavor blasted off about an hour and a half ago, and NASA reports the ship is in orbit. According to NASA, "Shuttle Endeavour and its crew will deliver to the space station a third connecting module, the Italian-built Tranquility node and the seven-windowed cupola, which will be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks."

Photographs From Maryland

I've been interested in seeing some images from the Washington, DC, area, which is buried under two to three feet of snow. My Aunt Joan lives in Silver Springs, Maryland, and she sent these photographs to my mom.

Brrrrr!

Dodge Challenger

Image

I've seen a couple of the new Dodge Challengers around town, and I like the new body style. Like the new Ford Mustang, the new Challenger has a modern feel to it, but also captures the look of the Challenger as it existed when I was learning how to drive. If you're going to drive a gas guzzler, it might as well be a muscle car instead of a huge SUV you could park my Honda in.

Cold Mountain

We saw a lot of icicles hanging on the rocks up on the plateau. These are in front of the webcam at Cold Mountain in the Shining Rock Wilderness of Pisgah National Forest in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Home on the Hill

We got home from Nashville about thirty minutes ago, after picking up our weekly groceries on the way through Knoxville to Maryville. There was snow on the Cumberland Plateau between Cookeville and Crossville, and the trees up there were covered in a thick hoar frost, which made everything really pretty. Sarah was a bit of a back seat driver and encouraged me to pass every car on the road, which wasn't hard because everyone was driving about five miles below the speed limit, even though road conditions and visibility were good.

We're settled in here at the homestead, and we're going to cook some chicken a bit later. Sarah's playing games on Sherry's computer, but I've already informed the child she will soon be doing some homework, so we're not covered up in it during the week.

Quiet Sunday Morning

Tony the cat and I are the only ones awake this morning here at Sherry's mom's house. The beast has been coming into the office now and then to be petted, but he's off somewhere in the house at the moment.

Sherry and Grams took the kids out yesterday to visit the Humane Society's shelter and to shop at Target. Grams bought Sarah a couple of stuffed animals, a couple of new dresses and some new Spongebob pajamas. Grams bought some photo albums, and Sherry spent part of the day yesterday going through their old family photographs and putting them into the albums. The chili was a hit, and most of it was devoured before I settled in for the night. Joey and Jake were still up, though, so they may have polished it off after I went to bed.

I'll probably wake Sherry up before too long so that we can head back home. We'll have to do our grocery shopping when we get back to Maryville, and we like to have some time after a road trip to prepare ourselves for the work week.

Tony on the Computer

Here is Grams' new cat, Tony, the Maine Coon, relaxing on the computer I am typing on.

Chili in the Crock Pot

I got out and about before dawn this morning and got eggs, sausage, biscuits and chili fixin's. Everyone just ate breakfast, and we have chili cooking in Grams' crock pot for later today. On my way back from the Bellevue Kroger, I noticed that there is a new McDonalds within walking distance of our former residence on Old Harding Pike, which would have been handy. During the time we lived there, several homes across the street from us were demolished to make room for a shopping center, and the McDonalds is in that shopping center.

I also noticed that the Harpeth River is quite high, though not as high as I've seen it in years past, when it would flood Old Harding Pike. The Cumberland River here at Grams' house is swollen from the recent rain and snow, too.