If I were an [insert winter holiday here] cat, I'd be a sphynx cat.

Michael Symon's Roast

2009-11-28T14:42:40Z

I will post more in-depth about our Thanksgiving trip to Michigan, but first I wanted to post about Michael Symon's Roast.

So, I am a ridiculously huge fan of the Food Network and the celebrity chefs on it. When I learned that Iron Chef Michael Symon had a restaurant in Detroit I simply could not pass up the opportunity to go while we were back in Michigan for Thanksgiving with the families. So, we made reservations for the day after Thanksgiving and took Matt's mom.

It is downtown off Michigan and Washington in he new Westin that was redone for the super bowl. It is meticulous designed with a modern looks. We were seated right away even though we were early for our reservations. Our waitress, Liz, was very attentive throughout the process and we really enjoyed her recommendations for food and drinks. Ethel had even forgotten her glasses so was unable to read the menu and Liz recommended some things to her based on her description of what she typically liked. She wanted a white wine and we told her she liked Rieslings and Liz offered a German Riesling that wasn't sickenly sweet and very fruity. It was perfect. oneandonlymatt and I each ordered a beer to start with off the "beer list for wine enthusiasts" which were exactly as described. They were all artisan or Belgian brewed beers.

We started the dinner with a couple of appetizers: steak tar-tar and stuffed peppers. The steak tar-tar was perfect. It came with a uni mousse on top and a little avocado and lime mix on the side. The portion was perfect and the three of us shared it easily. The stuffed peppers, we were warned, could be very hot. Since the peppers themselves were heirloom there was no telling their heat until you actually ate them. Ethel and Matt found them extremely hot but I found them delightful.

After the appetizers we went right into dinner. Ethel had the short rib at Liz's recommendation. Matt had the Roast Beast of the Day which was lamb. I ordered the wild boar. We also ordered three sides to share: mac and cheese, spinach and feta au gratin and fried brussel sprouts. We asked Liz for her recommendation of a good beer with dinner and she offered a larger bottle of beer to share - collaboration between a Belgian brewery and Sierra Nevada that was a winter seasonal beer. It wasn't hoppy but was brewed with great seasonal spices like clove and ginger and cinnamon. It was as she described, perfect with our meals. The meals were also as described. The mac and cheese was my favorite and I am not sure exactly what cheeses it was made from, but it was amazing. All three meats were superb but Ethel's short rib was probably my favorite of all of them.

After dinner, Liz brought the dessert menu. We weren't originally going to get dessert but we found ourselves intrigued by the Guinness and Pretzel ice cream. We asked that she wait until we were done with our beer, since we were afraid that the flavors would mix improperly. She did just that and as soon as our beer was gone, the ice-cream arrived. It was everything you could imagine Guinness Ice Cream could be and with the salty pretzels it was divine.

I would highly recommend going to Michael Symon's Roast if you find yourself in Detroit. Keep in mind that it is not a cheap dinner, but the food is well worth the price in my opinion. The Iron Chef did not disappoint.

http://www.roastdetroit.com/dinner.html

Insulation

2009-11-15T23:46:20Z

Had a great weekend in Asheville. I'm not sure I have ever had a bad weekend there. oneandonlymatt actually left for Asheville last Monday and spent the week up there doing some work. The plan for me was to drive up on Saturday and stay until Sunday when we would both come home.

Now, my car is a 1996 Saturn. While it is a good little reliable car that gets me to and from work every day, we weren't convinced that it would do well going up and down the mountains to get to Asheville. So, we rented me a car. On Friday, I went to Enterprise to pick it up before I went to work. I had reserved a compact car and when I got there they told me I could get the brand new, 2010 Hyundai Elantra with all the bells and whistles. It even had XM radio. Now, I will tell you that I do not want a Hyundai Elantra but it was pretty fun driving a nice new car for a couple of days.

I got up at 4:15 on Saturday morning. I got ready, put my stuff in the car, gave Piglet her food and water for the weekend and left for Asheville. I stopped for gas on my way out and hit the highway at about 5:15. I have never driven there on my own, but having been there so many times I had no problem finding my way. I got to the Downtown Inn on Patton Ave by 8:15. After Matt got finished getting ready we went straight up to Mt. Matt. He had decided not to camp because it was getting pretty cold at night in the mountains. However, it was absolutely gorgeous during the day. So, we spent the day insulating the tumbleweed house. We got the walls 75% insulated. We stopped half way thought and went to the brand new French Broad Deli and Cafe, which was right on the cut off to downtown Marshall. We had a great lunch and then went back to finish our work. We had to finish up around 5:30 because it was threatening to get dark.

We went back to the hotel where we relaxed for a bit before going to the Thirsty Monk for dinner. We went upstairs to the American Craftbrew bar. They had two different Bell's beers, the Double Cream Stout and the Winter White. Both very tasty. We also got a "build your own" cheese and meat plate - very tasty. I was pretty exhausted, though, so I went to bed pretty early.

This morning, we decided to go our separate ways. No, not permanently. Matt wanted to leave early and get home in time to go to the sports bar to watch the Lions game. I wanted to go to church at Jubilee and leave after that. It was a nice service, as usual, but this is the time of year where things are a little more introspective than celebratory in their liturgical calendar. I ended up leaving a little early because I was ready to go home.

I got back to Atlanta, turned in my rental car, and picked up my own car by 2pm. I met Matt at Mazzy's to have some lunch and watch the Vikings beat the Lions.

Now, we are home and I am just chilling out.

I do have photos of our insulation work. As soon as I download them and get them up on flickr I'll be sure to post the link.

Edited to Add: The link for the photos on Flickr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/tags/asheville/

Some Memories

2009-11-13T12:13:49Z

In honor of a dear furry friend, Kody.

It is hard to believe this was so long ago. Piglegt was only 8 months old! Now she is 8 years.

The Life and Times of Wheezinggirl

2009-10-29T14:06:52Z

I use to post all the time about my "upcoming events". Then, once we started working on the Tumbleweed Tiny House I put that on hold and posted almost exclusively about the building process.

We're coming up on Winter, so things will be slowing down a little on that front, so I thought now would be a good time to go over some upcoming events.

Well, I guess I can start by telling a little about what I have been doing. My mother was in Atlanta visiting over the last week. She got her on 10/20. That night we made dinner at home and watched My Life in Ruins, which was pretty cute. On Wednesday we took her to dinner at Sugo, which is my favorite place ever. The rest of the week we did non-mom things - we hung out with lerg and his very fun girlfriend who was visiting from Michigan. And on Friday, oneandonlymatt and I went to Eddie's Attic in Decatur to see Mike Doughty. That was a great show!

On Saturday we got up and left around 9am for Asheville. My mom had never been there, and in fact had never been to North Carolina. We made a stop at Goats on the Roof - because, well, why not. While there Matt and I tried a sample of some HOT sweet pickles. Habinero peppers! Yum. I had tears after one bite, but sooo good. So we bought some. Haven't tackled them yet. We took the scenic route up to Mt. Matt and walked around with my mom for a little bit. It started out as a really beautiful day but quickly got kind of cold. We did a little work while my mom read for a bit and then we left for the hotel in town. We stayed at the Crown Plaza, which we hadn't stayed at before. It was nice. We had dinner at Carmel's in the Grove Arcade and then went over to Sante where Matt and I had some super tasty sweet, red, sparking wine and my mom had some coffee.

The next day, we walked around Asheville looking at some of the stores. Then we went to Biltmore Village and walked around some more. Eventually we went home.

My mom left to go back to Detroit yesterday.

Now, we begin the Halloween fun!

Tomorrow night we are going to the Fernbank Martini's & Imax event. It will be spooktacular - and I will be in costume. They are showing Beetlejuice.

Then on Saturday we are going to Swallow at the Hollow in Roswell with reikimaster and thunder24. Then we'll head back to our place to watch Halloween movies and have Halloween themed dessert.

After that, it is a race to the holidays. Matt will be out of town the first week of November in New York for a big IBM project. He'll be back that weekend and I think we are going to go up to the Hemlock Festival for a little bit to learn how to save the hemlocks up at Mt. Matt. Then he leaves again on Monday the 9th for a week in Asheville. I'll join him in Asheville on the 14th. Then it is just a week and a half until Thanksgiving when we will be traveling to Michigan. We'll be in Detroit late on Wednesday before Thanksgiving and will leave on Sunday.

Back in Atlanta for December we will be having my company Christmas party. Then we are hoping to plan one last trip to Asheville. Then it is pretty much Christmas - we will be in Detroit from the 23rd to the 29th. Then we are going to Asheville for New Year's Eve with the previously mentioned reikimaster and thunder24.

Then, next thing you know it will be 2010 - which by the way I would prefer to call "Twenty-ten" and not "Two Thousand Ten" or, even worse, "Two Thousand And Ten" (that one being a personal pet peeve). Lets *all* call it "Twenty-Ten".

I think that is all. I'm not a stress ball yet, but I expect to be relatively soon.

PS - sorry for typos and such. After typing all that I don't feel up to editing.

Real post soon

2009-10-24T12:18:10Z

off to Asheville with the mom. Real post soon, I promise. In the meantime, a little Halloween song...

It Was The Best Night Ever

2009-10-16T11:04:44Z

I am a huge fan of the show How I Met Your Mother. Marshall's song from the last episode is the funniest thing I have ever seen. Check it out - but do so somewhere you can turn it up!

http://www.itwasthebestnightever.com/

Fast Food Folk Song

2009-10-11T15:53:34Z

We told some people about this yesterday. Enjoy:

Now off to see the Lions play the Steelers. Truth is, the Fast Food Folk Song might be the best thing I'll get to watch all day.

wheezinggirl @ 2009-10-06T19:36:00

2009-10-06T23:36:46Z

Don't you think Piglet looks like the zombie dogs from I Am Legend? Except less deadly. You know, she is all hairless and blotchy in color and stuff.

PS - I tried to find a still of the zombie dogs from the movie to compare, but apparently my google foo is not that strong today.

Quick Tumbleweed House Post

2009-10-05T11:05:37Z

I just have a few moments before I have to leave for a doctor's appointment.

We had a fairly light weekend in Asheville. The only job on the docket was to kill the mold, which appears to have been dying anyway - with it getting cold and less wet. We got up on Saturday and decided to go get coffee at Zuma in Marshall and then drove around. We wound up in Mars Hill where there was a street fair going on.

We got back to Mt. Matt about noon, had some lunch and then got to de-molding. We used MoldBlaster and sprayed the whole house. Once the mold is dead, we will treat with boracare the next time we go up.

After all that, we went to dinner with our neighbors and a good time was had by all.

Yesterday, we went to see the Lions game at Baylee's Sports Theatre in South Asheville. We won't talk about that.

Here are the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/sets/72157622288371869/

Tumbleweed Update

2009-09-28T13:38:05Z

oneandonlymatt and I were back in Asheville this weekend, as you might expect.

We drove up to Asheville after work on Friday, which is what we normally do. We stopped for dinner and took our time, so we didn't arrive until 11pm. We got everything organized and the bed made up and went right to sleep. We set the alarm for 8am on Saturday. The forecast was 100% chance of rain all day, and it had been raining almost non-stop in the mountains for several weeks. We took our morning slowly, not sure exactly what we would get done anyway. We putzed around on the computer, we ate breakfast, drank coffee and simply enjoyed being in Asheville. I hadn't been back to Mt. Matt since August 1st and Matt had gone up with lerg on August 29th. At around 10, we took our umbrellas and climbed up to the house. This is the first time we saw it with the roof on. We had given that job to our neighbor up there. It was the only part of the house we weren't going to do ourselves. We knew he had experience with that sort of thing, so we were really happy to leave the roof to a capable expert. It looked absolutely wonderful. I hadn't seen the metal color and I was really happy with it. I also saw the stain color, which had been put on the trim pieces and love that as well.

Before lunch, we simply made the measurements and figured out exactly *how* to do the gable end framing. Just like the rest of this house, neither of us had ever done gable end framing before so we just had to figure it out. We also learned one big problem with building a house in the middle of an unusually wet summer. Mold. Apparently, it is a problem with everyone in the Western North Carolina area right now. Even folks living in regular houses. We decided to come up with some methods to eradicate it now and hopefully it won't come back at all. We are going to use boracare on it before we do the insulation. Not very pretty, but something we'll just have to deal with. Once we did the measurements and got some clean up done, we went back down to the barn to make lunch. It was still pouring rain, so we took our time, figuring the framing we did have to do wouldn't take a lot of time. As it turns out, we always underestimate the time it takes to do something we've never done before.

After lunch, we made it back up to the house and started measuring boards to be cut for the frames. Then we had to figure out the angle cuts so we could fit them to the rafters to complete the framing. And, to make things more complicated, we had to do all of this inside the unfinished tumbleweed tiny house. As it turned out it was easier than we thought, but time consuming. Since we had never done it before, there was a lot of climbing up and down to get things right. It took us the rest of the afternoon to do one end of the house. And then, with the rain, the light was waning faster than it would have on a bright sunny day. So we decided to call it a day and go into Asheville for dinner. We only got one side done, so we would get up really early on Sunday and finish the other side. We thought it would go faster since we had already done one side.

We straightened up a bit, went back down to the barn and got ready to go into town. On the way in, we stopped at our neighbor's to say hi and pay for the work on the roof. We made plans to all go out for dinner next week. After that, Matt and I went into Asheville. We always have plans to walk around the city but when we're tired from work, that never happens. We end up at one place, eat dinner, have a beer and then decide not to go anywhere else. We did go to the double decker bus that is a coffee shop. It recently reopened with new owners and they had live music upstairs. We enjoyed that very much. Then we went back to Mt. Matt, read our books and went to sleep by about 10pm.

We set the alarm for 6am Sunday. We snoozed a bunch and then got up. It was hazy, but not raining so we saw the sunrise while we ate breakfast. At about 8am we went back up to the house and started working. We did all our cuts first and then put them up and we were done by 10am. We were back down at the barn by 10:30 and ready to go by 11:30.

We then made our way to Baylee's Original Steakhouse and Sports Theatre in South Asheville to watch the Lions game. And, to make our weekend even better the Lions actually WON the game! We were so excited.

The trip back to Atlanta was uneventful and we made it home around 7:30.

Here is the link to the photos on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/tags/asheville/

New Blog! Spread the Word

2009-09-26T17:30:21Z

Coming up to Asheville always fuels the creative side of me. As many of you know, I have been writing for years. I've been published before (both in PanGaia Magazine and Llewellyn's Magical Almanac), but for some reason lately I have been at a wall with my writing. It wasn't that I was unable to produce work, but more that I was waiting for "something" to happen so I could move forward.

I realized it was stupid to wait. I was working on a devotional project for Persephone and I just have all these peices stored away on my laptop. Why not start a blog! Why not share them with anyone who is interested in reading them.

So that is exactly what I just did.

Please check out my new Blog: http://maidtoqueen.blogspot.com/

Please spread the word to anyone you think may enjoy reading what I have to say.

Drive by Posting (or should I say Boat By...)

2009-09-23T11:22:11Z

Just some images of the Great Atlanta Flood of Ought NINE* courtesy of our friend lerg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akalat/sets/72157622310693017/detail/

He lives in a condo complex right next to where our old apartment was. If we were still living there, this is what we would have experienced. Except, based on the time line presented I would have never made it home!

*I originally had Ought Eight. My only excuse was that it was very early in the morning when I first posted this.

New Orleans, September 12-14, 2009

2009-09-16T15:06:11Z

We left our house early for the airport on Saturday. Our flight was supposed to be 9:45. Everything started smoothly and we all got on the plane and got settled in. Then the captain told us there was a slight delay as they had to fix a sensor on the wing. We waited. He told us it would be fixed shortly and we wouldn't be delayed very much. Then he said there were more problems than the thought and it might be closer to 11 that we would leave. We were all hanging out on the plane then. Some people were getting angry, but we were just waiting to see what happened. Then, about 11am they said they were unable to fix the sensor and were going to transfer us to another plane. That is when things got crazy. We got off the plane and the agent at the counter was clearly overwhelmed she said there was another flight leaving at 12:40 and "if it were here" and we didn't have any checked bags, we should go try to get on that plane. So oneandonlymatt and I took off to get to that gate. A couple other folks had tried the same thing, and there was a guy in front of us who was trying to get on that plane. He and his wife/girlfriend were trying to go to a wedding that was at 3pm! The agent there was really nice but couldn't guarantee a seat, but could put us on standby. She did call to our original gate to find out what was going on because that flight wasn't listed as cancelled. Wedding Guy asked to be put on standby, which of course means he loses his seat on the original plane. But she found out that they had moved our original flight to a new plane at a new gate. So the rest of us decide not to give up our tickets and run to the new gate. The plane left at 12:30. Wedding Guy was not on it, so we didn't know what had happened to his flight. However, he does come in to play later in the trip, so stay tuned.

When we got to New Orleans, we went to our Hotel to check in. We were staying at Place D'Armes on St. Ann just off Jackson Square. It was very nice. However, our room wasn't ready yet so we checked our bags with them and went off to find some lunch - I was starving. We ended up at the Crescent City Brewery and the food was tasty. Then Matt talked to our friend who had actually organized the trip to NO. He and his friends were at a sports bar eating lunch and watching the University of Michigan game. We happened to be on the same street, so we wandered that way and hung out with them.

It rained in NOLA quite a bit while we were there, so we were about to walk to our hotel when it started pouring. We waited it out and then headed back to Jackson Square. It started raining again by the time we were half way there, so we were pretty soaked. We got our room and the bellman brought our bags up. The next step was a shower. Then Matt and I went out wandering again just to see what we could find. We wound up on Bourbon St. at a place called Beer Fest that had been recommended by our friends. We tried a great microbrew from a place in Mississippi called Southern Pecan. We also tried the Jefferson Stout from the same place. The Brewery is called Lazy Magnolia. It isn't available in Georgia or North Carolina, but I sure wish it was. Yum. We wandered some more and thought about dinner. I had found a couple of places on the internet and it just so happened that we stumbled upon one of them, a place called Green Goddess. But just as we were about to go in our friend called us and said the group was going to a Cajun place and wanted to know if we wanted to come. We decided we'd rather be social so we met them at that place. I can't remember what the place was called, but the food was good. Traditional NOLA stuff - I had shrimp Creole that was tasty and spicy. After dinner we all wandered around doing the usual New Orleans stuff.

Matt and I gave up around Midnight (which, of course, was 1am our time and we had gotten up VERY early to get to the airport for our delayed plane). I guess the other guys were out until 3ish.

Sunday, of course, was the Lions game. We got up early so we could go to a po' boy place that Matt really wanted to eat at. I can't remember the name of that place either, but they had breakfast sandwiches and such. Matt got an actually breakfast po'boy but I got an egg and cheese biscuit - it was HUGE and good. Then we wandered closer to the hotel where our friends were staying so we could get the tickets. We had coffee at a PJ's coffee right there on Canal street, which was right next to their hotel. While we were in the coffee shop we spotted Wedding Guy! He was pacing the street on his cell phone. He looked just as frazzled as he had on Saturday. If he hadn't been on the phone or as frazzled we would have gone out and said something to him and found out if he made the wedding. Instead we called our friends to get our tickets. They were just eating breakfast so we met them in their hotel lobby and got our tickets. We were going to all walk to the game, but then it started raining so Matt and I said we would get a cab and they could grab their own cab when they were done eating. We got to the Superdome pretty early and hung out waiting for them all to get there. There were 9 Lions fans total - all of us from different parts of the country. Four from Detroit, two from Atlanta, One from Washington DC, One from Boise, and one from Houston.

The game was as you might expect. We lost. Going for 0-32 I think. Everyone kept saying to us that we couldn't be much worse this year, but I think they underestimate our team’s ability to be worse than anything!

The four Detroiters left at Half Time - they actually had to catch a flight back to Detroit. The rest of us stayed to the bitter end. It wasn't raining when the game was over so we walked back to Canal Street. Our Houston friend had to leave then because he drove. After that we didn't end up hanging out with the Boise and DC friends. We went back to the hotel - changed out of our Lions gear - and napped a little. Then I was starving to we went for dinner. We went back to Green Goddess and am I ever glad we did! It was so fantastic. The food was about tapas size and we ordered a couple of things. They were all great. The highlight was a roasted beet "ravioli" stuffed with Chevrre cheese. OMG! They were so good, and I don't even like beats. We sat at the bar to eat - it was a tiny place - and chatted with the bartender. We also chatted with the owner/chef. The conversation turned to liquor and they told us about a grappa that they had. Now, Matt's family is Italian so we know what grappa is, and typically it tastes like rubbing alcohol. But the folks at Green Goddess told us that this was nothing like that - it was more like a fine aged whisky or scotch. It was golden in color and looked interesting. Plus, they recommended pairing it with a honey chevrre stuffed roasted fig. Well, why not. So we got one little glass to split and ate the figs. That was phenomenal! It was so full of yum.

After dinner, we walked for a while again and ended up at an Irish bar to watch the Packers game. They had the Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan so we sat at the bar and enjoyed the game. We met a guy from NOLA who had gone to the game with his friend from Australia. We told them about our going to the first game last season with our friend from Australia. This guy’s Australian friend seemed a little overwhelmed with New Orleans. They eventually left the bar and a guy from Wisconsin sat down. He lived in New Orleans now, but had grown up only about two hours from Green Bay. I have to say that having conversations with strangers at bars is one of my favorite things to do. I know it sounds insane, but I love meeting new people and talking with them. That is what Asheville has done to me.

After that, we got a Hand Grenade just to say we did and walked back the hotel. It was so sickenly sweet that I barely drank it. Then we collapsed and slept until morning.

We got up and wandered all around on Monday trying to find a place open for breakfast. Most of the restaurants that served breakfast didn't open until 11 or 11:30! We finally found a little place called Stanley. I had pancakes with vanilla ice cream! Then we walked down by the river and into a couple of shops before we had to get in a cab for the airport. We got their early so Matt looked at the earlier flight and it said it was delayed so we decided to just stick with our original flight which was, as of then, on time. Well, as it turned out the earlier flight to Atlanta got pushed back until *after* our flight. Crazy. But we got on the plane on time and got off the ground on time and made it back home. We stopped to get Mellow Mushroom pizza - a post vacation tradition for us - and got home around 6:45. We ate our Pizza and generally sat around with Piglet until it was time for bed.

In spite of the Lions, it was a great time.

New Favorite Band

2009-09-10T22:41:19Z

oneandonlymatt told me about I Fight Dragons. They were going to play a show at Dragon*Con. We listened to them and I fell in love! Then we saw them live last week and it was even better.

I <3 I Fight Dragons

Snick Snick

2009-09-09T00:18:22Z

I told a couple of people to watch some YouTube videos this weekend. Here they are for easy reference

A link for all four Sad Wolverine videos:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8346CC5CD1731C81&search_query=sad+wolverine

And an old favorite, Charlie the Unicorn. Inspired by a costume we saw of the two unicorns and dreamsidhe hadn't seen it.

Dragon*Con 09

2009-09-08T00:49:21Z

I wanted to get the information for D*C 09 down on virtual paper before I forgot. So, in brief, here is what happened:

dreamsidhe arrived on Thursday evening to kick off the long weekend. I picked her up at MARTA and brought her home. mtn_hermit and radiantbaby arrived for regular movie night so they got to meet dreamsidhe.

On Friday, oneandonlymatt and dreamsidhe were getting up early and heading down to con to get our badges and the room. They were also meeting up with thunder24 because he was sharing our room for the weekend. I got up before them and went to work. I had agreed to open the office in exchange for being able to leave early. Then my boss offered me a deal to go to a client lunch with her and leave after that. THEN, the day got even better when we walked out of the office and she told me to just head down to Con. I would have been more than happy to go to lunch, but I was certainly going to take her up on that offer! I stopped to change my clothes and headed down to MARTA. At the MARTA station, I ran into lerg so we went down to Con together. We met everyone at the Hyatt and hung out for a little bit. Then we went and got lunch. dreamsidhe really wanted to change into her costume, so we headed to the hotel and got changed. She and I did get a lot of attention in our costumes - we were Xena and Gabrielle. We walked around the hotels and got stopped for a lot of photos. We walked through the exhibitors’ hall and the walk of fame. Right out side the walk of fame, we had a very cool encounter. Matt pointed out that Felicia Day was talking to a couple of people just outside the doors of the walk of fame. dreamsidhe and I were kind of geeking out. We really wanted to ask her for a photo, but we didn't want to bother her. Then she spotted us! She said "Oh my god! Can I get a photo?" and the guy she was with took a picture. We didn't get one on our own camera, but I plan to email her to ask if I can get a copy. We eventually found ourselves in a True Blood panel with Charlaine Harris which was pretty cool. I have only read the first book and I hadn't been blown away but she seemed cool and it was fun to listen to. Then we went over to another hotel for a panel on Warrior Women in Young Adult Literature. dancingwriter was presenting on the panel. She seemed excited to see our costumes too. We enjoyed the panel. After that we hung out for a while with a few different friends and eventually ended up back at the hotel room for bed.

On Saturday, we woke up relatively early and had some breakfast that we had brought with us. We wanted to go to an 11:30am Battlestar Galactica panel, so we were in line by about quarter after 10. The panel was very cool, as they normally are. There was Michael Hogan, Kate Vernon, Michael Trucco, Mary McDonnell, the girl who played Kat, and Alessandro Juliani. Halfway though the panel, someone at a microphone said "I have a question over here. There was a very handsome actor that played Galen Tyrol...can you tell us about him?" And it was Aaron Douglas. He went up to the panel. They are all quite fun and it was great to watch. After that, we went back to the hotel and got in costume and headed out for a day of fun and photo taking. oneandonlymatt was in his Star Trek uniform - new movie version, gold. thunder24 was The Comedian from Watchmen - but specifically he was "Death Scene Comedian" - in boxers, a wife beater, a robe, slippers...you get the idea. He had the button and a fake cigar too. There was a Watchman Meet Up at the Pulse Bar in the Marriott at 3pm so we decided to go to that. We got a few chairs in the loungy area and hung out letting people take our photos. We hung out there and had some drinks and some food and several different sets of friends came by to hang out with us at various different times. We were also hanging out with a group of folks who were sitting next to us (all three of them in Star Trek costumes of various types). We were there for hours, but eventually we left to go to the Firefly Shindig where Emerald Rose was playing. When we got inside we saw kingofthewho and the other guys in the band. They were all in great Steampunk costumes and they seemed to really like our costumes as well. I have to say, I *loved* all the attention with our costumes! We absolutely loved the Shindig! The energy was great; there was a ton of dancing. After the Shindig we went back to the room and I changed, but dreamsidhe decided not to. Then we ended up at a private party at another hotel. Now, that was an experience. It was in a beautiful suite and it was invite only - we got in as VIP Guests because oneandonlymatt knew the guy who threw the party. We were up on the balcony most of the time - it was on the 16th floor or so of one of the major hotels - gorgeous city views. It was really cool. Our night ended at 4am when we finally went back to our hotel and went to bed. I couldn't begin to tell you the last time I stayed up that late!

Sunday, we were exhausted. oneandonlymatt, thunder24 and I went to the hotel hot tub to relax after we got up. Then we dropped off thunder24, picked up dreamsidhe and went to lunch. Then we dropped her back off at the hotel and oneandonlymatt went to see our friend Susan's presentation on Frodo, the Reluctant Hero. It was great and we really enjoyed it. We also went to the art show and ended up buying a gorgeous ornament for our tree this year. dreamsidhe and thunder24 had been napping and watching TV so they decided to go out and check out the art show and such. Matt and I napped, but then I met up with dreamsidhe to see the Young Adult Costume Contest where joyeuse and her group were presenting their The Last Unicorn costumes! They looked great. Later that night, we went to dinner at Trader Vic's. It was oneandonlymatt, dreamsidhe, thunder24 and lerg. Oh, and me of course. We would have gone to bed early on Sunday except that the band I Fight Dragons was playing at Midnight and we really wanted to see them. I didn't have a lot of energy and I sat through the show, but they were really good and I am glad we pushed ourselves to do it.

This morning, we woke up early to get packed and check out. At 10am we wanted to see the Guild Q&A with Felicia Day. Then we went for lunch and took dreamsidhe back to the airport before coming home. The rest of today has been spent being pretty lazy.

It was a great weekend and I so glad we went. I keep thinking that an individual event was a highlight, but then I remember something else we did and that becomes the highlight. It was great. I am both sad and glad that Dragon*Con is only once a year.

We are already making some plans for next year. We hope the same crew and maybe some more folks can come down. We are also trying to plan a group costume that should be pretty cool. We'll see if we end up actually doing it or not.

Friends playing in Detroit

2009-08-29T18:18:02Z

Some friends are playing a show tonight at the Magic Bag in Ferndale or Royal Oak or wherever it is. Go see them - Troubled Ones.

However, the best part about The Magic Bag is that the photo on their myspace page shows Superfiction on their marquee. That's oneandonlymatt's old band. Several members are now the Troubled ones. Go see them.

other stuff that has nothing to do with building a house

2009-08-27T12:43:22Z

Last week, instead of going up to Asheville, oneandonlymatt and I went to the Len Foote Hike Inn. It was actually Matt's Christmas present, but since I had to schedule so far out we didn't go until last weekend. You check in at Amicalola falls and hike 4.9 miles to a lodge in the woods. It has a bunk house, a bath house, a dining hall and a social building. There are pretty outdoor places to watch nature too. Eveything there is done with an eye toward conservation. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. The hike out was more brutal because I had just hiked 5 miles the day before.

When we reached civilization again we joined reikimaster and thunder24 for a game at the Gwinnett Braves Stadium.

Oh, we also saw District 9 last Friday night. I liked it quite a bit. I loved the style and the storytelling. I loved that it was an average person - a cubicle monkey really - who found himself in that situation. I am glad they didn't cast an A List Actor in that role.

This week has been spent pretty much getting ready for Dragon*Con. My costume is done and I am ready to go. Matt is going up to Asheville this weekend with lerg. I am staying home to get the house cleaned up and pack for D*C. dreamsidhe arrives next Thursday evening and the fun will begin.

The weekend after D*C, Matt and I are heading to New Orleans for the Lions opening day game against the Saints. Two very different weekends of fun - fandom and football. I am a renaissance Wheezinggirl.

Plywood and more

2009-08-18T11:20:57Z

I wanted to at least come by and post the link to Flickr for the most up to date photos of the Tumbleweed House.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

We had a really great time. In a nutshell, we took Matt's mom to Asheville and took her to see the house. She was really impressed that the two of us had done most of the work by ourselves. I don't think she would even fathom building any part of a house. Then we went to French Broad Fridays - a citywide event in downtown Marshall. Our neighbor's studio was open and we got to go hang out with her and see what she was working on. Then we went back to Asheville and checked in to the hotel. Ethel was done for the night so Matt and I walked to Sante and had some wine and a chocolate flight. Then we turned in for the night.

The next day, we left Ethel in the hotel and went up to Mt. Matt to do some more work. She spent the day riding around Asheville on a trolley tour and had a great time. We got everything accomplished on the house that we set out to do (first time the whole project that has happened) and we were satisfied when we went back into town. We went to Table for dinner and then back to the hotel to watch a movie. Watched I Love You Man, which was surprisingly funny.

On Sunday, Ethel went with me to Jubilee. I love that church. Then we met up with Matt and went to Lowes to see about ordering a roof. They couldn't answer our questions (we want it to be safe for rain catchment and not have any weird chemicals), so we couldn't place the order. Then we had lunch at Green Life Grocery (yummy sandwiches) and came home.

Once home, we watched a recording of the first Lions' preseason game this year. We won - but we won all of our preseason games last year too. Then Matt and I watched the latest episode of Being Human on BBC America. I really like that show, but I think that Mitchell is a very irresponsible vampire!

And that is all. Matt goes up in two weeks without me and then we won't be back in Asheville until late September (Dragon*Con and a trip to New Orleans for Lions Opening Day happen at the beginning of September).

Another Weekend in Asheville

2009-07-27T15:38:40Z

oneandonlymatt and I went back up to Asheville this weekend to do some more work on the house. We got there Friday night like we normally do, went to bed and got up early to start working.

Saturday started with a trip to Home Depot where we got the plywood sheathing for the house as well as some 16 foot 2x4s for the top plate. We got back to Mt. Matt and unloaded. Then our friend Chris came up, arriving about 1pm. He wanted to get right to work, so we got everything up to the worksite and got busy. We put up the collar ties, which are essentially the joists for the storage loft above the door and the sleeping loft above the bathroom and kitchen. That turned out to be an easy process, but Matt informed me that he had spent days on end thinking about how to do those the best way, and obviously that obsessing paid off.

After our work was done for the day, we had to take the truck back to Home Depot. We had originally planned to go into Asheville for Bele Chere (the music festival) but Chris decided he didn't want to go. The headliner was the Family Stone - without Sly - so Matt and I decided we weren't invested in that. So, instead we went to Longnecks in Marshall. We got there minutes after they were starting to close up the kitchen, but the bar was still open and the owners said they could make us a couple of things. We told them we would be fine to find somewhere else, but they insisted and we sat at the bar and ate like kings. We talked with them for hours about their travels around the world and living in the Madison County area and the things they had built on their land. They had been a husband and wife team of realtors but now they own the bar. The wife asked us a lot of details about our land and as it turns out, she was the agent for the woman we bought it from! We were there forever and had a great conversation.

We finally went back to Mt. Matt and I crashed. Matt and Chris stayed up and made a small fire and I think they both went to bed around 1am. We got up the next morning and got started on the wall sheathing. We got the bottom half done all the way around and cut all the top pieces, but then it started to rain so we needed to clean up the work sight and tarp the Tumbleweed House. Chris left around 2:30 and Matt and I left around 3:30. We decided to stop at the Asheville Pizza Company for dinner, which was fantastic. Then we got home around 8:30 and watched Being Human on BBC America and went to bed.

Check out the latest batch of photos on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

Dragon*con

2009-07-16T14:26:32Z

I got my Dragon*Con costume in the mail yesterday. dreamsidhe's mom made it for me. Considering I wasn't there for a single fitting and she had no pattern, it is amazing. I just have to tweak a couple little things for it. I also have to make a couple of the accessories. I have a few things already and I just ordered a couple things from ebay as well. I have to go to Michael's for the rest.

D*C is only 7 weeks away! Squee!

Mt. Matt Independence Day

2009-07-08T13:30:25Z

I wanted to post, to the best of my recollection, the events that occurred between June 26th and July 5th.

Truth be told, there was very little drama, actually. oneandonlymatt came to get me at work around 3pm on Friday June 26th. We drove up to Asheville and arrived at Mt. Matt around 7pm. We spent the rest of the daylight hours setting up the canopy that would become the kitchen area as well as the bathroom tents. When the sun started going down, we went to Ingles to buy the first round of food for the week. With only coolers for food storage, we knew we would have to make several trips (this was actually the first of four).

Around 10:30 or 11pm, the first of our victims...I mean guests...arrived: mtn_hermit. We hung out and talked for a while, but I was in bed by about midnight.

The next morning, June 27th, we got up and started working on the foundation, which still hadn't been finished. Our original goal, way back when we were planning this trip, was to have all the foundation done by the build week. Alas, that was not to be. Our friend Chad didn't arrive until about 3pm that afternoon. He managed to get his tent set up just before an afternoon rain shower that stopped us for about 20 minutes. The skies cleared up again and we got back to work. I believe we finished the wood posts that afternoon and started on the joists. We broke for dinner, which was pasta and Italian chicken sausage I believe. Then Matt and Chad played Detroit Lions Tailgate Toss - a crazy game played with things that look like goal posts and "bolos" - two tiny footballs connected by a string. You throw the bolos at the goal posts and try to wrap them around the rungs. I think you would have to see it to understand. When it got dark, we built the first of many fires for the weekend and Matt and Chad played some music.

On Sunday, June 28th, we spent even more time working on the foundation. I believe we got all of the joists on and worked on squaring the thing. mtn_hermit left around 1pm that day to head back to Atlanta. Dinner that night was burgers, as I recall. Matt's brother was originally supposed to get there on Sunday night, but he ended up not leaving Detroit until Monday morning so he was a day behind. No problem.

Monday through Wednesday seem like a blur to me. I know that Jim made it there late afternoon on Monday. Matt and Chad went to Home Depot to get more supplies that day. I know that Chad had signed up for the Pool tournament at the local Marshall bar, Longnecks. We had been actually afraid of Longnecks but it turned out to be a really cool place with great beer and beyond fantastic desserts. Oh, I remember - on Monday the Home Depot didn't have any trucks available to rent to Matt and Chad had to go back on Tuesday morning to get all of the wood that wouldn't fit in the element. Jim and I went to the grocery store while they did that. I stupidly forgot my wallet and Jim had to pay for the groceries, but Matt paid him back. He was really excited about the complimentary watermelon that we got for buying more than $50 worth of groceries. I made steaks for dinner that night with a potato recipe from a camping recipe cook book that was pretty good. We also got all the plywood up to the worksite so we could finally finish the foundation. I do remember that when we were done working, we debated tarping everything but we looked at weather.com and it said 0% chance of rain ALL NIGHT LONG. Well, at 3:15am, I woke up to an insane thunderstorm. Lots of lightning and thunder. The thing about staying in a barn with a metal roof, though, is it always sounds worse than it really is. At that point, though, the damage was done. We checked the plywood in the morning. It had only rained for about a half an hour so it was just wet on the surface. Matt, Jim and I went to Lowe's to get box fans that we plugged into our generator and dried out the plywood. We lost half a day of work, but we quickly recovered. Chad left around 1pm on Wednesday and then Jim, Matt and I finished squaring and securing the floor. Since it was just the three of us, we decided that was a good night to go into Asheville proper. We went to Barley's Taproom for Pizza. We had wanted to walk around, but we were exhausted so we headed back to the land and went to bed.

On Thursday, July 2nd, I had one really big job to do: I got to screw in the entire sub floor of the house! It needed screws every 12 inches along every joist and ever 6 inches around the edges. We had put in a few screws the day before just to secure it down, but now I was going to spend the morning drilling screws into the whole thing. It wasn't really hard, just tedious. Coincidentally, my drill matched my tank top so the photos of me screwing the floor make me very happy. Once that was done we could *finally* start on a wall. We framed out the front wall (with the door opening) and got it all screwed together. That night, our friend Rob and Dann were supposed to arrive late, but they got a late start and, like Jim, they didn't leave until the next day either. So, I made dinner of more pasta but with meatballs this time. The meatballs were so good! We had another fire and went to bed early.

On Friday, we worked on the second wall. That morning, around 11am, reikimaster and thunder24 arrived at Mt. Matt. They were staying in town at a Bed and Breakfast that they stay in often. They started helping with the back wall. Around lunchtime, lerg arrived as well. He set up his tent and everything and we got back to work. We divided work up - reikimaster and thunder24 were on measuring and cutting. They were in charge of all the studs which needed to be 74 inches. They cut all of them for both walls. Matt, who had been working nonstop all week, had a brain meltdown while he was trying to measure the first of the two long walls. I'm sure all the numbers and measurements were just swimming in his head. lerg stepped in and volunteered to run the measurements. I went down to the barn with Matt for a break while we left our crew cutting and measuring. reikimaster and thunder24 had to leave around 5 to go back into Asheville. With lerg's help we finished marking the measurements on the top and bottom plates of the first long wall. Jim did all the small measurements and cuts of the bracing and window pieces. We called it a night and decided to go into Downtown Marshall for dinner at Bacchus Bistro. Dann and Rob were driving in and would be there sometime around 10. When we got back we built a fire. Eventually, Dann and Rob arrived and we hung out and they set their tent up in the dark. Most of us went to bed at a respectable time, but Jim and Rob stayed up with the fire until 6am. They burned every scrap of wood that we had cut and even went hunting for more.

Amazingly enough, both of them were up and running pretty early the next day. reikimaster and thunder24 came back around 10:30 and we started assembling the first wall. We measured out and assembled the second wall as well. Then our friends billwheaton and Susan arrived around lunch time. They got their camp set up and it was finally time to erect the walls! After we got the first couple of walls up, radiantbaby and justben arrived. Our whole crew helped us erect all four walls and finally there was a real sense of accomplishment. I was so proud of everyone working together. We did good work!

reikimaster and thunder24 had to leave again after the last wall was stood up and secured into place. We wouldn't see them again, so there were hugs all round. We all gathered back at the barn for dinner. There was, however, an equipment failure and the beer-butt chicken we were going to make was not going to be cooked (a gas line problem with our Big Easy Oil-less turkey fryer caused the problem). lerg took me on an emergency food run when we grabbed a couple of rotisserie chickens, a package of fried chicken and some cole slaw. We had to abandon our chicken at a dumpster. I feel bad for it. The dinner turned out to be really good (we already had hotdogs that we were making anyway). After dinner we built a fire and played some Music. Dann and Rob were in Superfiction with Matt back in Detroit and are now in a band called The Troubled Ones. They brought things like a tambourine and bongo drums. Other folks brought their own drums and billwheaton even brought his mountain dulcimer. We played a mix of Dann original songs as well as some covers. We were singing along and playing along and a good time was had by all.

Sunday was spent with everyone going home, mostly. Matt and I had to close up camp - including the work site and the barn/camping site. We didn't leave until about 3pm.

I would honestly rank last week as one of the best weeks of my life. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Photos

2009-07-07T11:28:32Z

I will post a complete recap of our building vacation, but in the meantime I wanted to share pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

Also, lerg posted many great photos on his flickr page too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akalat/

Narcissus...that's me...

2009-06-24T17:03:29Z

I've seen this posting on a few friends' LJs. Thought I would pop it on here. I won't be around much after this week as we are going up to Asheville to build the Tumbleweed Tiny House. Thought I would see what people write before go so I feel super good about myself:

There's been an accident, and my memory's been wiped. I have no recollection of who I am. Tell me about myself. What do you know about me? What kind of person am I? What are my likes and dislikes? How did we meet and how long have we known each other? Is there one thing in particular that stands out about me? Tell me who I am.

Post this in your own LJ to see what people say about you

More progress and more photos

2009-06-22T13:58:54Z

I just wanted to stop by and post the link to flickr for more photos.

This weekend, on Saturday we took the two 16 foot 4x4s up the hill to the build site. I was going to help Matt carry them but he said it was just easier if he did it himself. I followed him to make sure we didn't have any problems. That didn't take as long as I expected it to. Then we took the dremmel tool up and measured the bolts and brackets and cut off any excess bolt. The bolt can't touch the wood, so we had to trim them a bit since setting them in concrete isn't an exact science. once we did that, we could put down the brackets and level with washers. We didn't have the right ratchet so we had to go to the brand new Lowes in Weaverville. We got as much done as we could. Just as we were finishing up, it started to rain. A little thunderstorm directly over Mt. Matt, but the skies were blue all around. We waited until it seemed mostly done and took our showers and then went to Lowes. We got a few things and then went to dinner in Asheville. (Thirsty Monk for Steak Frites...YUM). We came back and watched some of John Adams, which is really good by the way.

The next morning we woke to more rain. We knew we couldn't do much and checked Weather.com for the hour by hour forecast and it didn't appear it would stop until about 11. We did the only thing we could think to do...we went out for breakfast. When we got back we went back up to the clearing to level and do the temporary braces for the 4X4s. We got the brackets tightened down and it looks really good. We didn't have time to cut the 4x6s that make up the posts, so that will be among the first jobs for next week.

I also sprayed the heck out of the poison ivy with Round Up. I will kill that stuff!

That brings us to next week. We leave on Friday for our week long building extravaganza. Different friends are coming to help over different parts of the week. I am so looking forward to it!

Check out the latest photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/