It’s a little embarrassing for me to admit the shocking fact that i’ve never been out of the country.

So then you see how desperately I need to win this contest

It’s a need. Maybe not quite the same as the needs of starving children in other countries.  But at least they’ve been outside of America. *

Or just buy me a trip overseas.  I don’t even care where I go.  Just somewhere Oh Please!

But Paris would be oh so nice don’t ya think?

*example of really bad and tasteless humour.  Please don’t judge me.  It’s obvious I am not a horrible snake that actually feels that way isn’t it?

isn’t it?

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As another hot and humid memorial day weekend approaches, I’ve been thinking about what my summer holds.  I don’t have any vacation plans this year and once again the regrets of not being a schoolteacher flood in as i consider the hours my swively rolly office chair will continue spending together.  But there will be some fun-making for sure.

First of all, I will spend as much of it on my uncle’s boat as possible!

Otherwise, I look forward to: summer nights, fireflies, and grilled meat everything;  farmers markets and the delicious breakfasts they will provide me with; yard sales and antique shopping; reading on my “veranda” and picnics/croquet in our side yard; driving through the country in Bea’s truck with no destination in mind; many trips out to spend time with the grandparents; hopefully lots and lots of mini-trips exploring my great state and those surrounding.

Certainly we have an abundance of the highest pleasures at our fingertips don’t we?

Real Simple has some great ideas and tips on enjoying your summer.  Read Here

The Selby‘s latest features some very well-dressed young men working in their gorgeous vineyard. I would be brokenly speaking of my emphatic desire to go there except naturally idyllic settings with men that naturally look like that do not actually exist in real life.  Impossible.

We’ve got some ice headed our way which inspired a little daydream of  glaciers and ice queens and cute pudgy polar bears.  I soon found myself reading a National Geographic article on Ice Hotels/Igloos which is just the curious, enchanting dream I’m going to share with you.  You can find these hotels in spots such as Canada, Norway, Sweden…  and probably Narnia too.  Surely.  Find links and more info. here

(p.s.  Baby Bea was born today and I can’t wait to meet her!!  I hear she is quite long.  Mama Bea is doing great.)

oh and to see the Northern Lights so brilliantly overhead…

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Normally, I’d easily choose the unpredictable, vacillating temperatures of the midwest, the green smokies, and a frigid rocky coast over dry heat, the rockies, and west coast beaches.

However, I’ve lately been craving a little roam through the southwestern desert-lands…. from the God-punch-you-in-the-stomach views of the Grand Canyon to New Mexico’s vast land of motels to the old Apache homelands of west Texas.  Maybe it has to do with finally watching Bad Blake on tour in Crazy Heart the other night.  Who knows.

Your soundtrack for today ladies and mens…

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…dreaming of rainy days in London today

sheltered by that perfect trench (and other things perhaps…)…

images via ** and ***

I’ve been there twice now and although I am certain i have failed to see at least 88% of the city’s most fantastic spots, i can definitely recommend the following:

Eat any time of day at Tupelo Honey (i’ve now enjoyed both dinner and brunch there with healthy doses of beer and coffee respectively)

Get locally buzzed at The Dripolator

Both Vegetarians and non will find plenty to stuff their a.m. faces with at Early Girl Eatery

Take a slow walk, learn, daydream, speak in Jane Austen novel accents even though you’re in America,  and heck- make up some Vanderbilt Scandal at Biltmore

If you’re getting married, do it here and hire this guy to take your pics (ok so he’s not technically in asheville but i’m pretty sure he’ll be happy to go)

The first Saturday it truly felt like Fall …  I played with the Deebsters… and the other Deebsters.

As if there weren’t enough charming neighborhoods and worthy enticements for the palate, our little-big town keeps surprising me.  As long as I’ve lived here, i still find myself saying  – “I wish I would have known about this before!” as I stumble upon yet another unintentionally hidden treasure.

This time it was in the last place i ever look – right in front of me!

Less than ten minutes from where I work, the commercial roads turn and roam past storybook stone fences surrounding grassy lawns as green as my envy, ending at the unassuming yet hoppin’ Anchorage Cafe.

Anchorage Cafe is a “destination locale” in structure as well as in theme. Oh so many years ago it actually functioned as a train station serving the city’s early development.

I met Bea there for some lunch yesterday and thought i had been transported to the plush resort neighborhoods of Hilton Head Island.  The sun was shining and middle-aged women in tennis skirts were happily chatting and chomping about in the modern outdoor cafeteria.  The cafe shares a courtyard with another new restaurant Village Anchor Pub and Roost which i’m going to assume has to be pretty darn good as well going on name alone.

Walking in pace with the breeze through the open doors, we found the interior just as pleasing.  Rich wood, exposed beams, clean and warm like a newly remodeled family ski lodge.  If mahogany leather couches were there, my day  would be made.  And then perhaps I would try and convince my friend Emily to let me spend the night there too.

Everyone say Hi to Emily!

After we ordered, Mama Bea showed me pictures of Baby Bea.  No, you didn’t miss out.  She’s still in the womb.  But as we all know – technologies and cameras have grown rapidly in their tolerance for things that are creepy and extraordinary and frankly kinda gross.

Thank God.

Everyone say Hi to Baby Bea

Bea had a seductive Cubano. I ordered the chicken salad. It had bacon and avocado on it.  How did they know??  The toasted bread was crisp yet perfectly chewable.  The chicken salad was light and appropriately respectful to its previously mentioned more rightly adulated elements.

The sandwiches were served with appropriately colored veggie chips that looked like foliage and tasted like awesome.   Yum.  I look forward to trying the rest of the menu very soon.  I also am excited to try their coffee/espresso as it comes from Counter Culture which is much talked about amongst my coffee snob friends.

My endorsement has now been given with two thumbs high up.

And now I’m off to the North Carolina Mountains.  Too-da-loo !! (does anyone in the world know how to correctly spell that?)

Can’t get enough of our self-qualified, really really good opinions through  “unofficial” who-cares-anyway local food reviews?  Good.  You can find another here

Header Cafe picture and scenic pictures of the ‘hood taken by this one and this one

To our Louisville-area readers (and our readers who plan on visiting Louisville someday): you should head over to quaint little New Albany sometime. It just keeps getting better with downtown restaurants like Toast, River City Winery, La Rosita, Wick’s, and the Bank Street Brewhouse. Another new addition to the burgeoning downtown is The Dandy Lion, a cute little shop brought to you by the same ladies from The Female Art Collective.

Visit their blog to get a sneak peek at all the cute merchandise for men, women, and children available, and stop by to check it out for reals:  310 Bank St., New Albany, IN.

Hours of Operation MON. Closed, TUES. – THURS. 11-7p, FRI. – SAT. 11-8p, SUN. 11 – 5p

In our fair city, the savagely-titled neighborhood of Butchertown boasts Thomas Edison’s house, the building that formerly housed the oldest operating stockyard, and streets named after historical greats such as John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay.  But unfortunately it has also been well known for its occupation with–and the stinch of–  well…. animals passing on to a better place (we’ll just say that).

But hating to see the waste of an equally permeating history and the charming collective of shotgun and colonial homes, I am so glad that the boys at the Blind Pig have taken full advantage of the unpalatable reputation towards the high goals of generous conversation and happy bellies.

I love Bacon.  What else can I say?  And of bacon there is a-plenty here.  Having said that….this is not a bona fide “restaurant (or food) review”.  It is simply my own documentation and opinions made mostly of pictures.

As for the rest of the experience….get your own.  Head to B-town and drink your bacon from a glass!

I met with my dearest KVG, and still full of the dinner I ate before-hand, I ordered my first cocktail — Ohio River Water Fizz — made with Root Beer, Tanqueray, egg white, house made coffee bitters, and a mint garnish.  KVG had hers with Bourbon.  I should tell you now that most of this account will center around the drinks.  That’s because The Blind Pig has quite the wine/beer/cocktail menu.  Curiosity alone easily induces one too many so be careful!

Next, I tried the Anejo Highball while Katherine ordered some food: The Ivory Bacon with house-made Boudin Blanc Sausage, Bacon (of course), Munster cheese, and aioli.  I tasted and it was good.

And then we had to….  We just had to…. You understand.  The Bacon Manhattan.  Why hello.

No I must warn you… this drink tastes a lot like (can you guess?) BACON!! So don’t be shocked when you take your first sip.  KVG and I determined we like our bacon best as a solid.  But we’re glad we tried.

So to conclude my ameteur not-actually-a-review review, I will just say that I highly recommend the patronizing of Louisville’s own neighborhoods –even the smelly ones– so that we can keep these tasty homegrown gems around as long as possible.  Go.