Well, my money's no good, when I'm up to no good, no good ever comes from it all...

This line is from a Ryan Adams song, "Two." I really enjoy his music; it's like a mellowier John Mayer, with a twang of a country storyteller. Did you know he composed the song "When the Stars Go Blue?' It was remade in a duet by Bono and the Corrs, as well as Tim McGraw. I like the former version much better. Ryan Adams is just cool.

I went home from January 24th-27th. The purpose of the trip was really to drive an additional five hours to West Virginia to see my paternal grandmother, Bello. Her real name is Belvia Reid Honaker and she is eighty-seven years old and one of my favorite people in the world. She may be an octogenarian, but she is still sassy! My brother Graham couldn't quite say Belvia as a young kid (I'm still not sure why he didn't just call her grandma, but anyway), so he called her "Bello" and it stuck. Bello used to come visit my family each year for a few weeks at a time and we have some wonderful memories together. My grandmother used to be a fabulous cook, and her specialties were scrambled eggs (the best ever), Bello's chicken (or chicken with onion soup, Russian dressing, and apricot preserves), and the best sourdough bread ever created. Making the bread was an intricate process, which took three (!) days, because the dough had to rise that long. I even wrote a paper about the process for a class in high school. A splendid memory with Bello.

So I flew out of Providence on the 24th at 7 am to Philadelphia, where I found out my flight to Louisville was cancelled, due to "maintenance." I don't think so; my feelings are that this flight was not full at all and we all conveniently fit on the 12:45 flight. Of course, i made a complaint via e-mail, but I haven't heard anything back yet. No big deal. It was great to see Mom, as always, and we were on our way to do a few errands. We drove over to Fifth Third to make a loan payment (car will be paid off soon, hooray), to Why Louisville Loves You, my new favorite store, and bought a fleur-de-lis light green shirt (Katherine bought it too) and a small bumper sticker, and then to Louisville Stoneware to talk registry and check out my lovely French Country pattern. Mom bought me a Kentucky derby pie plate and I love it. Hopefully, I will have people over for Derby this year. I'm glad that some people who live here are actually enlightened about it. Not to say that we Southern folk know everything about the North, either. We then met Katherine and Jayne for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and then we went shopping for a little bit. Mom and I bought the same pair of socks for each other (this is a frequent occurrence) and I bought carrot cake shower gel (Philosophy) and lemon body souffle from Sephora with Natyra's giftcard (thanks!). We went to visit Graham and Muggsy for a few minutes, and then we headed back to Grandad's house for the night.

We left for West Virginia before eight am and stopped at Tamarack for lunch. Tamarack is this arts center right off I-64 in Beckley, where folk artists sell their wares and one can grab a nice, West-Virginia style lunch. Mom and I then drove south to Bluefield. It's funny that my parents have been divorced for over ten years and Mom still keeps in touch with his mother, and Bello likes my mom more than my father (so does everyone else). Anyway, we drove to my Aunt Trish's house and she drove us to the nursing home to visit Bello. I haven't seen Bello in over two years, and I haven't seen Aunt Trish in four or five years. We are just not very close to Trish, my Uncle John, and my cousins Elizabeth and Mary. My cousins are nineteen and twenty-two and they go to Concord College in Athens, West Virginia. They both live with their ne'er-do-well boyfriends and will probably never leave West Virginia.

My grandmother is doing well, but she is in the nursing home because she cannot take care of herself without assistance now. The nursing home was a nice facility, but I really get depressed when I am in one. I don't want to get old. My aunt only visits her once a week, even though she doesn't work and lives ten minutes away. Again, there are reasons why I don't see this side of my family very often. We were only at the nursing home for thirty minutes when my aunt decided it was time to leave and we went to Bello's condo to look through pictures and other items. My cousin and her boyfriend recently inhabited the condo as well and the place was a complete mess. I felt really guilty about not staying with Bello very long and Mom did too, so we went back to the nursing home and sat with Bello during her dinner. And we think that she has a "boyfriend" at the nursing home. If she does, that is very sweet. We had our dinner with my aunt's family that night and then stopped by to visit Bello one more time in the morning before we drove back to Kentucky.

Mom and I got back to Louisville at 1 and had lunch with my Aunt Diane, cousin Melissa and her daughter Savannah (a very cute baby), and Eliot at Bountiful Bread in Camelot. I think it is a little overpriced-- I ordered a turkey and brie sandwich with a pickle speaar for $7.95. Aunt Di and I talked about the bridal shower in March and I gave her my list of invites. After lunch, Mom and I went to Gumer's to choose my wedding band. Eliot went to school with the owner's son and they were fraternity brothers, and he gave me a good deal on a ring. The band has a white gold band with five diamonds (I don't even know the carat size) and I like it. It was a little more than Brian wanted to spend (it's going on his credit card), but it's not too pricey.


We took more pictures with Flat Stanley in downtown Louisville at the Louisville Slugger Museum, the baseball field, and against the skyline. The 26th was also Graham's 33rd birthday and we all went to dinner at Sapporo on Bardstown Road. Japanese food is always delicious.

On Sunday, I met Natalie and Steven for breakfast at Bob Evans (Brian loves this place, so sadly, he missed it) and it was nice to see them. I went to church with mom at St. Matthews Baptist afterwards and then we met up with Eliot, Graham, and Sarah before heading to the airport. The flights home were not delayed at all, but it was sad coming back to the snowy coldness of Massachusetts.

"Take me down to the Paradise City, where the grass is green (or maybe blue) and the girls are pretty. Oh, won't you please take me home." Yes, there is a rumor this G-n-R song was written about Louisville. and for good reason, too.

Historical Field Trip with Flat Stanley

My friend Dena recently asked me to do a favor for her cousin, who is a youngster doing a project in her class called “The Flat Stanley Program.” The project is essentially about sending around this flat paper object to different places and taking snapshots of him wherever he goes. And hopefully, this project also involves learning about the different places Flat visits. There is a lot of history in Boston and in the whole state of Massachusetts, so Flat came to visit me. I asked Mary and Natyra to come along for this field trip into Boston.

We decided to start in Boston Common, where the state house (state capital) is located. I personally think the Massachusetts capital building is one of the more beautiful state capitals in the nation. I’ve seen a few in person-- West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Virginia, and our Nation’s in D.C., but I like the one in Boston the best. Ironically, we encountered a family with a Flat Sydney (Stan’s female counterpart, I’m assuming) across from the capital. Either Mary or Natyra took a picture with my camera, but since the camera is in bad shape, the picture didn’t turn out at all. I was sad, but at least there is the memory. Sydney, like Stan, was also from Kentucky! Very cool. We took a picture with Flat by the Robert Gould Shaw memorial (he led the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which consisted of the first regiment of African-American troops, in the Civil War) and then of course, by the capital.



The Freedom Trail was the chosen path of Flat Stanley on Saturday. This trail, which connects historical sites in Boston (mostly during the Revolutionary era), goes from the Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. It is literally a painted red line that runs through part of the city, really. There are a few cemeteries on the trail (our next stop), but I didn’t take any pictures of Flat and any of the gravestones because I felt this was somewhat disrespectful. However, I did take a few pictures of the headstones themselves. Mary has a fervent interest in old cemeteries and headstones and educated Natyra and me on some of the history of the graveyards and headstones, as well as pointing out the exquisite carvings on the stones. There are many famous people buried in the Granary Burying Ground, next to the Park Street Church, including Benjamin Franklin’s parents, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams (known for more than just beer), John Hancock, and Crispus Attucks (an African-American killed during the Boston Massacre).


Flat had the chance to take a photograph on the memorial site of the Boston Massacre. The place is marked by a small star in the middle of a busy intersection in the city, near the old State House. Then, our crew walked over to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market and took a few pictures of Flat outside. Faneuil Hall has a great meeting room, which has played a significant role in Boston’s history, and Quincy Market is filled with delicious food vendors in an international bazaar setting.



We walked to Boston Harbor and took a few pictures. This is across the bay from Boston’s Logan airport, which is an interesting airport to depart. From there, we walked to the historic North End, which is a lot like Little Italy in New York City. There are a few historical sites in this area, including Paul Revere’s home, the Old North Church (where a tourist exclaimed, “This is where National Treasure was filmed!,” because obviously, that was the most important thing that happened there, for sure), and Copp’s Burying Ground. Flat’s stomach was grumbling, and so were ours, so we took a lunch break at a café in the North End. Mary had pasta, Natyra had eggplant, and I had very fattening but yummy fried calamari.






We then took a walk over to Charlestown, which is across the Charles River from the North End and Boston. First, we went to Bunker Hill, the site of the Bunker Hill monument, an obelisk to commemorate one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War in America (the first were in Concord and Lexington in April, 1775). This battle was fought in June, 1775. Anyway, it was a battle in itself going up the 294 steps of the monument. However, the view of the city from atop the obelisk was breathtaking! My legs hurt for a few days afterwards, but it was well worth it to see that view of Boston. We kept moving though to the U.S.S. Constitution, a ship built in 1797, used for battle and still working today, also referred to as “Old Ironsides,” but actually, the ship is made out of wood. We weren’t able to go aboard the ship, but we did visit the U.S.S. Constitution Museum and gift shop. My grandparents visited the Freedom Trail a long time ago, and my grandfather always commented to me about wanting a hat, so I got him a baseball cap. I also bought a few postcards (as always), a magnet for the fridge collection, and a miniature cross-stitch sampler kit for my mom. Walt, Mom, and I tried to get to Bunker Hill in the fall of 2006, but we ended up getting lost in Charlestown (we did not follow the Red Line) and ended up at one of the Orange Line stations instead.





After our day on the Freedom Trail, we went back to the North End for some delightful goodies at Mike’s Pastry shop. All the food looked beautiful, and I decided on a piece of ricotta pie, a brownie, and tiramisu to bring home. Mary and Natyra bought cannolis and Boston cream pie. Mike’s is good for the soul, bad for diet.

Needless to say, it was an early night for me as everyone was tired from walking. Boston is a great city for walking and first-time tourists should always visit the Freedom Trail for a glimpse at one of the greatest periods of this country’s history. Flat Stanley had an exceptionally grand time!

Good things...

One could compare this post with Martha Stewart's "Good Things" articles.

I have a beautiful everydayware pattern picked out for Brian and me. This is the French country pattern by the Louisville Stoneware Company. I love it because for one thing, it is very unique, there aren't too many people in New England who will have this stoneware, and mostly, because it will remind me of Louisville whenever I eat a lovely meal, even if it is not a Hot Brown.



While perusing through some bride's websites, I found this lovely stationery place, located in Newton, Mass., which has the most delightful, although quite expensive, stationery and accessories. Felix Doolittle is the name and it is quite wonderful. I am hoping to use these as my return address labels for my thank you notes. I would love to use everything from this store because they feature hydrangeas on everything a girl could want, but unfortunately, I'm not in the market to pay $12.00 for a single invitation. These address labels are $42 for 100, so I will be splurging there.




We have planned a little mid-winter holiday (for one night) in North Conway, New Hampshire, during Brian's February break (and if I were a teacher, eh- hem, it would be my break as well). I was looking at http://www.bbonline.com, and found this beautiful Farm River Bed and Breakfast and Stables. They have sleigh rides, horseback riding, and complimentary snowshoes! Not to mention a fireplace and two-person jacuzzi in the room. I am delighted!

Vintage cakes, ooooh!

This is the most awesome cake ever!!!!

More to comment on later. Many wedding plans to be made and I feel very stressed, but it is also fun! A trip into the city on Saturday and I always look forward to those adventures!