Crazy Week - brief summaries

This week is not normal because it is a short week for Thanksgiving. With so much going on I forgot all about Amazing Race Monday so here is a quick recap. It was a non-elimination show so nothing that happened mattered. But Brian and Erica came in last so they will have to do an extra task next show. I think they will be booted off next. It was interesting that one of the tasks was to find a tiny instrument in an enormous opera house and present it to an opera singer. They had several different instruments to trick the teams. And that is that.

Instead of the Peanut going to Mother's Day Out on Thursday, which she can't, I took her today. She was cranky this morning so I told her we were getting ready for school and she was all smiles! How does a kid who is only 19 months understand that already? When I went to drop her off I said it was time for me to go and she turned to me, waved, blew me a kiss and then ran off. It was very cute of course.

We are heading out if town for the holiday but before we go we have to move some furniture. I am giving my couch to my sister and my mother-in-law is giving us one of her new couches. It is a recliner sofa and interferes with her coffee table. But we are giving her our spare bed, it is the first large step in getting the spare room ready for the Peanut. I am thinking this will not be done before Christmas but I will try not to get discouraged.

And lastly my sister and I had some family pictures made and I have been spending a lot of my extra time correcting them and getting them ready to print. That is why I forgot all about Amazing Race Mondays. I am finally done with that. Phew! Now I can move on to the 6 billion other projects that I want to get done.

Since we will be out of town for Thanksgiving, I hope you have a great holiday. I hope to be back home and in the swing of things by Saturday. So to all you brave souls going out on Black Friday, I hope you get exactly what you want! Have fun.

On Holiday Photos

Today we used the talents of a young person for our family pictures. I wanted to get someone that would take the pictures but then would just hand off the files because I know how to do my own correcting and sizing. That is hard to find among professionals, but I did find a young lady that is getting in some practice and has a good eye. It was win-win, she got the practice and I got some great photos. So the next step is to pick just one for our Christmas card. My sister and her family were also there and we took some pictures together. We are going to get some printed out for our parents as a gift. I am pretty excited! The last time we did family pictures was when the Peanut was 3 months old. She has changed a lot since then.

Roses Dept Store (worth talking about again)

Oh the treasures you will find. Today I had a day all to myself to do my favorite thing, shop. And of course I have lots of good reason to shop - all the people on my Christmas list. I stopped at the Roses Dept Store to look at shirts because they now carry New York and Co shirts for very little money. While there I checked out their very impressive toy section and was able to mark two kids off my list. For my young nephew I was able to find 5 Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars and a NASCAR car carry case all for $10. For my young niece I was able to score a princess role play dress up set for $10. It includes the dress, shoes, purse, gloves, ring, earrings, necklace and crown. Very spiffy. I also found a cute shirt for $3.50. I know, you are all thinking you need to go to Roses as fast as your legs can carry you. I would too if I haven't already been there!

Zoe's Kitchen

I had some of the strangest and best slaw today while eating lunch with some friends. We were at a new restaurant in Columbia called Zoe's Kitchen. It seems to be based on fresh food and a Mediterranean flair. The slaw consisted basically of shredded cabbage, a vinaigrette type dressing and feta cheese. Delicious! I also had the pasta salad, chicken salad and fruit salad, all were quite normal. Oh, but that slaw.
By the way, I definitely needed the spell check for this post. I can't really spell Mediterranean or vinaigrette by myself.

Amazing Race Mondays

Last night's show was fairly predictable. The teams traveled from Sweden to Estonia. After catching a ferry, the teams must find a key to a secret club. Once inside the teams must grab a candelabra and go to the room indicated on it. Once in the room the team will get a scroll and they must figure out out to get the message that is hidden on it. The whole point was to pass it over the flame. The Globetrotters did not get it right away. Before the father/son team could do this task, they had to do a speed bump because they were not eliminated the last round. I don't think it is much of a hard task to sit in a sauna for 5 minutes. Anyways the son did not know what a candelabra was so it took him a while to get going on the actual task anyways. He also did not get it right away to run the paper over the candle flame.
Next the teams had to decide whether to play volleyball in the mud or to shoot a sign with a slingshot. Most of the teams decided that they would try the volleyball. Cheyne and Megan did well at this task and it put them ahead. As you would guess they come in first. I would not be surprised if they win. Unfortunately for the father/son team of Gary and Matt, they just could not overcome their mistakes and were eliminated. Next week I predict that the former beauty pageant winner and her husband will get the boot.

Oh the joys of picture taking

I decided that I would take the Peanut and her newly acquired tutu up to Hopeland Gardens for some pictures. I figure with a little natural light and some lovely backgrounds I could come up with some great pictures. HA HA, laughs on me. I did get a few cute images but mostly I got blurry pictures of a very active girl running around. And I think she is very tired of me trying to get pictures because every time I say, "Look at mommy!," She does the absolute opposite. Gleefully. So I got some great coming and going and sideways but only a handful of her face. Such is this age I suppose.

The New BBQ Barn

Thursday was a fun day. Hubby stayed home and relaxed to celebrate his birthday while I was mad busy doing stuff around the house and the Peanut was at MDO. It was very nice because we were able to go out for lunch by ourselves. We decided to try the new bbq restaurant just minutes down the road from our house, the BBQ Barn. This new restaurant actually is a shoot-off from the same named restaurant in North Augusta. That is good news, because obviously they must know what they are doing and be successful to open a second store. Hubby ordered the combo bbq/ribs plate with baked beans and potato salad. I ordered the fried pork loin with potato salad. We both got sliced white bread and hush puppies. I would have to say that the pork loin, while it did not look fried, was tasty and the potato salad was home made. I have a little bit of a pet peeve about eating out and obviously getting industrial-made potato salad. The hush puppies were also yummy. Hubby let me taste the ribs and they were good as well. The sauces were mostly not what I prefer, and Hubby said that they were below average and that the bbq pulled pork was horrific except if you ate it on a piece of bread. The baked beans were just normal for a bbq place. If I had to guess whether we would eat there again, I imagine that we will. The ribs will be the main reason. On a plus, they have a small bakery to the side that sells desserts. I did not get anything this time but everything looked fantastic.