Indiana part 2

Hello!
Woo hoo part two!! For dinner that night we went to Zydeco's in Mooresville. We had to sit at the bar because they take reservations and we didn't have any. They are only open for dinner. I guess they are opening the other side of the room and will no longer take reservations. I can't wait to go to this place again!! I have been dreaming of the BBQ shrimps Boutte with tasso. Holy cow was it delicious!!!

BBQ shrimps Boutte with tasso

crawfish Maque Choux

As I said earlier, they are opening the other side of the restaurant and making it the bar. They are having all the customers decorate oyster shells which they will coat with clear paint and make into a wall - so cool!! mine has a  j  a heart and an s. Scott's has a seal on it and it says seal'd with a x - fun! next time I go there I hope to take a picture of the completed wall!!

my shell on the left Scott's on the right

other customer's shells

funky place

 The owner was very friendly and the people who waited on us were great!! We had bread pudding but it wasn't great. Scott had a hurricane - wicked rum drink!! Delicious!!
We had to get back to our hotel and pack. We left at 4 or 5 am - too early to remember. We had rain on the first part of the drive and sun the rest.

We stopped in Kansas City MO and ate at Happy Gillis the name is a misnomer because nobody that worked there was happy at all. Cute place and good food but the staff was seriously lacking. We were surprised the place was packed - guess the food speaks for itself and you don't go for the people. We didn't have anything that Guy had because they change the menu quarterly. I also saw no signs that he was there - no posters or spray painted Guy heads - nothing. Maybe I didn't look around enough.

grumpy gillis

neat idea 

cheddar and bacon with apple. white bean salad - delightfully spicy! 

long cooked broccoli with mozzarella  almond and tomato 

roasted turnip and tomato with a dill yogurt 

We got home around 9 pm exhausted!! We unpacked, showered and went to bed!! It's nice to be home. Scott will be gone the 6th-10th - in NC for training. He comes home and loads up a truck and leaves. He has to take possession of his apartment between the 13th and the 18th *sigh*
Hope you all have a good week - eat something fun!

Indiana part 1

Hello!
We took a whirlwind trip to Indiana the 24-28.  We drove straight through - 17 hours is exhausting. We stopped only for  lunch in Kansas at a DDD (of course)

Woodyard BBQ

cheesy corn, sausage, chicken and brisket  

potato salad, salmon, chicken and burnt ends

 It was ok - sausage was really good. The "hot" sauce was not much hotter than ketchup.... I wouldn't go back if I lived there but it was a nice stop.
The first day we were there we looked at houses. There are some fantastic houses!! I can't wait to have a new house.We looked at 6 - agreed on 2 . I hope one of them is still available after we get our ducks in a row. We went and looked at the outside of two houses that we are interested in.  One of them has a wrap around porch Scott really loves. The other was built in 1875 - it is a beautiful 2 story old home on 4 acres with a barn. Scott really loves that one. He will go see it when he is there and let me know if it is good one the inside - we looked in the windows and it needs work but if it is sound then it will be worth it. Plus, there is some talk of a cross stitch shop if we go with this house....but let's not get our hopes up.

 We ate lunch at Shapiro's - not on DDD but we have been told to go there and saw it in the Indy visitors guide.

Reuben 

I guess I didn't keep the picture of Scott's sandwich - looked like that one without the sauerkraut in it! The sandwiches are HUGE!! The atmosphere is crazy -it's a big cafeteria that has deli food - like deviled eggs and borscht. You go down the line and tell them what you want. The sandwiches were delicious.
 We went and looked at Zionsville IN - cutest place!  I guess it is also the most expensive - no kidding the houses were all at least a million - and not even very big!
I wasn't feeling well - at all. I had PMS so I already had bloating, cramps and everything was swollen. Then I sat in the car for 17 hours and then I ate 60 pounds of corned beef. I was miserable. We bought some medicine and I didn't really eat again this day! I was asleep before Scott had even showered!! I slept past when he woke up and  felt better.
We looked at apartments -  picked one out and started the process. We picked a storage unit by the apartment - which is close to his work - and paid for a month of that. He is ready to go!! We drove to this thing they call Broad Ripple - a section of Indy. Very cool shops and restaurants. We just drove around - we will have time to walk all the sections once we are living there. We ate at 3 Sisters Cafe. The owner, herself, waited on us. She is awesome and the food was fantastic!! Well, mine was. After the crazy meat sandwich the day before I could not handle any more meat - Scott got a nasty meat thing that Guy had and I did not even taste it - ick.

blueberry goat cheese pie drizzled with honey and sprinkled with almonds 

brie, berries and apples on multi- grain. soup is chickpea and spinach with curry

D'nai pork and kale with dipping stuff. 

confetti hash browns - sweet potato and potato with a "kicking" spice 

I almost didn't get the brie sandwich because they leave the rind on - the owner insisted that I would love it - she was right!!
I am going to do this in two posts - so many DDD!!! See you tomorrow for more tasty food!!

WIP

Hello,
I am still working on 6 Fat Men by Lizzie* Kate (remember if looking it up on google images - put in the words "cross" and "stitch" - yikes on bikes!!!) I am glad I made a darker fabric for it.. right?!

All the white in this project is making me crazy - booooorinnnngggg!!! I have to force myself to work on it!!

I am doing it first to get it out of the way!! 1.5 done 4.5 to go!!
I got a package from A Stitching Shop in Denver YAY

I love getting packages. I also decided to show you my needle guardian - I haven't posted it anywhere and it's super cute.

Needle Guardian by Teresa Wentzler

Hope you have a stitchy day!!

DDD!!!

Hello,
We found a new place from the show Diners Drive-ins and Dives that hasn't aired yet. We knew he had been in town in January. We did not get to go see him - of course grrrr but we did track down one of the places!! Hops and Pie!!

He had the IPA Mac and Cheese - on the menu as a snack so we got one and shared it!

He had the pie of the month - not the same every month so the one we had was different than his - but we had it anyway!

This one is cheddar IPA sauce, Continental's Kielbasa, bacon kraut, charred green and red bell peppers, caramelized onions and spicy brown mustard. It was different but good! I had root beer - very good. They have a NOTEBOOK of different beers - a notebook!!! The rice krispie treats are heavenly - make sure you get one for everybody - there is no sharing!! Ryder got the pulled pork sandwich - no picture but he said it was great!! Fun place! and the proof....

YAY!!!

Hope you are having a hoppy day! HA!

Starfest!

Hello!
We went to Starfest this weekend - we go every year. Scott and Ryder are always getting autographs of people from Star Wars and Star Trek. People dress in crazy costumes! This year they didn't have anybody good from either show and not as many costumes. We still had a good time though!!
I MET MELISSA MCBRIDE!!!! She plays Carol on The Walking Dead!!!

She talked to me for a few minutes - I asked her if she made her hat and she said no. We talked about where she got it - so when she signed my picture she put - Hats off! HA!!!

She was so nice!! I even went back to ask her about the reoccurring zombie - I see him in almost every episode and he has been killed several times. She acted like she didn't know what I was talking about - really. I am positive somebody knows about him though!! Starfest always has great costumes - people work on these things for awhile - it's obvious. Like this crazy head - the guy made it himself!!

Awesome!! People of all ages get in the fun!!

Doc Ock from Spiderman

Guy Fawkes

 

 

 

 

 

Wolverine

 

 

 

Weeping Angels from Dr Who

smaller Weeping Angels

one of Scott's new shirts

This KNITTED dragon has 7.5 miles of yarn!! AMAZING. He is as tall as I am!!

Chewbacca

 Usually I have a ton of pictures of a red-faced Ryder with half naked girls but like I said there just weren't that many costumes this year. I got some fun cat contacts in the dealer's room!

The have balconies in the hotel and people who are at Starfest always decorate their balcony - not so many this year but they did have a Walking Dead one - and if you watch the show you know who this guy is...

 There are two conventions this year we wish we were going to - Chicago will have most of the Star Trek TNG actors and so will the Vegas convention. Maybe someday we will get to go to those!! I need more Walking Dead autographs though!!
Live Long and Prosper!

22 years and moving

Hello,
I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I did! Scott and I celebrated our 22ndwedding anniversary!! We went to The Vietnamese Cafe - one of my all time favorite restaurants!! I had a combo noodle bowl and Scott had seafood curry - oooohhhh myyyyy goodnessss - fabulous!! I tried their Thai boba tea - delicious!!  Then we went to the movies - not worth mentioning what we saw because it was dumb. Scott bought me a Vera Bradley bag while he was in Indiana! It is wonderful - he bought it for me to use as a lunch bag. It is a ........diaper bag! He is right though - all the pockets are great for a lunch bag. I work 10 hours so I eat two meals at work. The pockets hold my tea bags, salt, cream for tea, whatever I need - great idea!! Plus - it's Vera Bradley!!

So, the Indiana trip..... We are moving to Indiana!! Scott got a great job offer. Scott used to work for this truck parts place - (big trucks) and he has worked hard for years and knows lots of people in the industry. When he left the that place (they are the reason we came back from Alaska, they called and asked him to come back) everyone thought he had a good job and left it at that. Well, the job he has now is less than stellar and they are not taking advantage of his abilities. Scott applied for a property and evidence job at a police station, he had to have the gm of the old place fill out a questionnaire for the application. The gm from the old place mentioned him to the new job's gm and they were excited to meet with him - offered him a great deal! I know I am being vague but it doesn't do any good to trash talk the old places. I will stay here for 6 months - we will be able to pay off some bills and when I move I won't need to make this much money! Six months away from Scott will be horrible - just horrible but we have to do it because it will put us in a better place financially  Which is good because dispatch in Indianapolis gets paid less than half of what I make - I will not do this job for that much less - noooo way!! Especially nights, weekends and holidays - nope.
 I am so excited!! Next year once I am there and settled in we will go on a trip once a month - driving distance to someplace new - there are so many cool places close to Indiana!! Plus, we are going to go to other state's letterboxing meets - woo hoo!! I would like to see the cherry blossoms next year!! We are going to visit Scott's grandma in Ohio - so much fun!!
Ryder may or may not be going with us. He has some decisions to make.  Taylor hasn't lived with us for years, she was talking about going to Georgia for school but I haven't talked to her in weeks- literally.
Hope you all have a new adventure on the horizon!! Have a good week!

stitchy issues

Hello folks,
The blizzard we were expecting turned out to just be some blowy snow - no big deal at all. Scott had to fly home over it - and almost had to stay in Indiana another night. He made it home by the hair on his chiny chin chin but his bag was two hours behind him - grrrr. Poor guy just wants to be home. I do actually have stuff to say about that trip but I am not ready to tell the tale yet - it will be told though so stand by.
My stitchy issues are this.... I tea dyed a piece of 28 ct fabric to make 6 Fat Men by Lizzie Kate and I started to stitch it. I thought the fabric might be too light but my dear husband said he didn't think so. I kept stitching and decided it was just too light - I had even changed the 712 to white.

you can hardly see the snow in the box....

So I bought a new piece of off white fabric (who wants to rip all that out? Not moi!) I tea dyed it - it was darker than the piece above but just not dark enough. I failed you and did not take a picture of it. This morning I made stronger tea and soaked it another 6 hours.

The bottom one is the one with stitching already - top one is the one that I just dyed. It isn't as dark as the pattern but it is pretty dark.

Not a great picture but that's better.

My stitching buddy. I haven't been in my chair much with work and Scott gone - so the whole time I stitched today he sat with me and purred. Poor guy is lonely.