DIY Spice Rack for the Pantry

Clearly I'm not posting on here much any more,  mostly because there's not much news.  I have a dissertation to get done, a dog that's recovering from knee surgery, and Paul started a new job back in September.  Other than that, things are pretty much the same old thing.

Occasionally we get up to some small home improvement stuff.  Neither of us is all that experienced with building stuff, so we learn together.  The most recent was this spice rack for our pantry door.  Freed up about 2 shelves of cabinet space, plus a drawer we were using for the foils, and now I can see all my spices without having to empty a cabinet!

We got the instructions for the foil rack (bottom of the door) from here, and the spice rack here on the Shanty 2 Chic blog.  The instructions said it would take something like 1 nap time (not a useful time measure for 2 adults!), but anyway it took us a couple of days because we painted it by hand in the garage and had to let it dry overnight between coats.  No one wants a shoddy paint job!  The project cost us about $40,and Lowe's did all of the wood cutting for us for free!  Pretty sweet deal!

Dog ACL Surgery

We got the x-ray results, and Binsey has totally ripped her ACL!  It's a ligament that normally holds the thigh bone to the calf bone (or whatever they called are in dogs) and if it breaks, the bones rub on each other and it's really painful.  You wouldn't know it from the way she only slightly limps, and even the vet said she was jumping around trying to play with him in the exam room!  She's one tough cookie.

Apparently they get at least one of these cases a week at our vet's, which is surprising, but it's also a bit of a relief to know he does this kind of surgery a lot.  There's a 93% success rate, and half the time they still have a limp afterwards.

Right now I'm just glad we still have pet insurance on her!  She goes under the knife in a few days for the 2.5 hour surgery, and they might keep her for two nights.

The Dog's Football Injury

Seeing your pet feeling uncomfortably really stinks.

We were playing fetch with Binsey in the back yard, and while she was racing for the ball, like she's done thousands of times, she squeeked loudly (which she's only ever done a handful of times) and laid down.  We ran up to her and found a sharp rock wedged between her paw pads. She wasn't bleeding but she also didn't want to walk on it, so we took her to the vet.  He didn't find any broken bones, but gave her some arthritis drugs just in case and said she should stay off it for 5 days.  Fast forward to now and she's still limping.  So back to the vet.  This time, he thinks it might actually be her knee, and she might have the doggy equivalent of a torn ACL.  There's a surgery they can do for that, but she's back on the arthritis drugs for a bit longer to see if that might help make it better.  Surgery is always a last resort, and there's no guarantee it'll completely fix the problem.

And did you know that dogs can get seasonal allergies?  This year, and the same time last year, Binsey started scratching and nibbling at herself a ton.  Last year she got an allergy shot and that fixed it, but this year she can't get it until she's done with the arthritis drugs and some stomach drugs she's on too (yeah, that started the same time - and just know that a limpy dog with digestive problems is not something you want to deal with).  Poor thing is falling apart and she's only 3!

On the fun side, I just entered Binsey in a "Laziest Dog" photo contest on Dogbook (it's on Facebook).  You can see her entry and vote for it here.  If we win, we get a $250 gift certificate to LeLePets that I can use to buy a fancy new dog bed to replace the one she chewed up in the picture!

Pawpaws, not corn

This weekend at the farmer's market in Bloomington, there was no corn to be had (probably because of the extreme drought we've been having).  BUT - they had Pawpaws. Paul had told me about these, that they grow wild in Indiana and have a custardy taste.  But he'd never had them.  So when the opportunity came, we grabbed it.

I thought it tasted just like a mango, but a little more creamy.  But they have HUGE seeds - like if you stacked three quarters together, that'd be the size of one seed, and there are several in each pawpaw.

And, Paul informed me, there is a song about pawpaws that Hoosier kids learn in school.  Here it is on YouTube for your enjoyment

Poznan and Kalisz, Poland

Earlier in July, a couple days after I finished my qualifying exam, we took off for Poland for Paul's cousin's wedding.  

Here are some pics from Poznan, where we spent a night before heading off for the wedding. Check out these wheels!

 

Paul's checking out the town hall (we had to leave before it opened - this is not an early rising city for tourists!)

Beers at our hotel, Brovaria, on the square in Poznan.  Cute town with some nice museums!  We didn't have time to see them all, but this city has done a great job preserving/rebuilding the historic stuff.  And the great beer doesn't hurt!

 

 

Train station in Kalisz (aww, look at that cute couple - no idea who they are, but it makes a nice picture!)

Me enjoying some wine on a stroll around Tlokinia Palace.

The fam (minus bride and groom).

Inside the church in Kalisz, during the wedding.  The bride and groom are seated, with the best man & maid of honor behind.

The bride and groom with their first toast.  The glasses are tied together with ribbon, then tossed and smashed for good luck.

Qualifying exam - DONE!

Today I just turned in my qualifying exam.  It feels pretty darn good.  My preparation over the last few months, despite turning me into a hermit, really paid off.  Technically my "readers" have until the end of the summer to grade it (pass/fail/honors), so it might be a few weeks before I find out if I pass.  But I feel pretty good about it.  I am really fortunate that my friend, Emily, let me stay at her place to take the 3-day exam. It really helped me to focus to not have to worry about the dog or the laundry or cleaning my house and I am so thankful to her for it! 

My area of expertise is in Medical Sociology, so it was really timely that the Supreme Court ruling on the individual mandate of the health reform bill came out while I was taking the exam so I could comment on that.  So you want my take on it as a PhD-level medical sociologist?  Well, it's complicated for sure.

It's no surprise that the individual mandate was the part that received so much media attention, because Americans really value their independence, freedom, and personal liberties to do as they please with their hard earned money.  Americans like having choices.  But the healthcare reform bill (PPACA) puts the squeeze on insurance companies by requiring them to accept everyone regardless of preexisting medical conditions, and to provide unlimited lifetime spending on health care services.  So requiring healthy people who otherwise wouldn't rationally pay for health insurance to now purchase it helps to subsidize the more expensive, more sickly people.  If there's not some kind of subsidizing or "redistribution," insurance doesn't work.

Insurance companies have historically enjoyed substantial profits from their cut of transactions in health care services, and PPACA limits those, to some extent.  So shoveling in more money from coverage of healthy people (under age 26, plus anyone who wouldn't otherwise choose to purchase health insurance) really helps to keep insurance companies profitable (albeit, limited to 20% under the act, with some exemptions).

For a great read on health reform, check out Howard Watizkin's Medicine and Public Health at the End of Empire.  Really the only last chapter is where he digs into PPACA, but the rest of it kind of sets up the argument.  What I loved about this book is that despite how much of the book focused on overthrows of capitalism as an evil beast, the final chapter presents a liberal criticism of PPACA.  You can get conservative criticisms by the truckload, but it's really unique to see something written from the left that is not supportive of the act.  Essentially, he argues that PPACA will continue to serve the interests of the "transnational ruling class" (read - the 1% but on a global scale), and the whole system will implode from continually expanding costs that focus on expensive technology.  So that view may be extreme, but it's really interesting to see an analysis of PPACA that doesn't focus on individual liberties.

So personally I'm not going to argue that PPACA is good or bad.  It's got a mix of good and bad.  You've got more people covered (but still not everyone - Waitzkin argues it'll only cover half of the currently uninsured at best), but not much of a cap on escalating costs of high tech medicine that has a poor return on quality of life.  I'm also not sure if it's going in the right direction, because that all depends on what the desired outcome is - cost, quality, access, coverage.  Pretty much all PPACA addresses is coverage (and to some extent, quality, but that's a whole can of worms in itself).  But we'll see where it goes from there.

Push Girls

I just watched the first episode of "Push Girls," a documentary about four women who happen use wheelchairs to get around. It's so rare that anyone on television is in a wheelchair, nevermind a whole show!  These are some truly inspiring women.


Here's where you can watch it online http://www.sundancechannel.com/push-girls/

Having just finished reading the section of my qualifying exam material that deals with stigma, I definitely noticed the lack of research that has been done on physical disability.  Nearly all of it centers on mental illness.  Here's a few takeaway points I think are important when it comes to stigma:

1. People with a disability or illness do not immediately consider themselves "a disabled person" as their primary identity.  If it's a new issue for them, their whole existence prior to the diagnosis does not suddenly erase everything about them.  And even if the person was born with the stigmatizing condition, it still is not how they define themselves.  This is why it's better to say "a person with a disability" rather than "a disabled person," to emphasize the importance of the person over their physical (or mental) condition.
2. People with a stigmatizing condition know they have the condition, and know that other people notice it.  Sometimes this makes them nervous that the other people will treat them badly if there are negative stereotypes about their condition (this is called stereotype threat), and this can make them act in ways that actually confirm the negative stereotype they are trying to avoid.
3. Problems that people see as character flaws, like substance abuse, are stigmatizing and make people want to avoid those people.  But problems that are blameless, like being paralyzed from an accident, are still stigmatized, albeit to a lesser extent. 
4. Discrimination can be supported as a cultural institution.  For example, in the show, one of the women is looking to get back into modeling and finds that all of the modeling agencies she tries to work with have never represented someone in a wheelchair before.  One even told her that their building was handicap accessible with a staircase.  Thus the culture of the modeling industry systematically excludes people who use wheelchairs to get around.
5. Not all people who have a stigmatizing condition are upset about it.  The main thrust of the "disability rights movement" is to enable people with disabilities to be self-sufficient (see related article here) and not dependent on medical professionals or caregivers.

Anyway, check out the show!  It addresses so many sociological issues besides just stigma.

Fresh Air

Sometimes when it's really humid and windy outside and I'm walking my dog in the morning, I pretend I'm walking along the beach smelling the spray from the waves. (the pic above is from the beach I'd go to growing up)

Entrepreneurship

One reason I haven't been blogging much is because I've been working on the foundations of a startup company.  Last Fall, I decided to enter a technology-based business competition at Indiana University, where the prize was $100,000 invested into your business. That sounded pretty exciting to me, so I decided to enter with an idea I'd had bouncing around in my head and see what happened.

Well, apparently I'm pretty good at writing business plans and making pitches to investors because I made it through several rounds to the finals.  I brought on a co-founder who's a friend from college with a great eye for design and style, and she really helped turn the idea into something more tangible.  We're still working on the plans, so I don't want to share too much detail publicly here.  Even though we didn't win any money from the competition, it may be a blessing in disguise because they wanted 35% equity right up front, which is risky for both sides.

Now we're pushing forward anyway to see where this thing goes.  The validation from having made it so far in a competition that started with over 60 teams and making it to the final 6 is something we feel proud of.

It is really exciting to be getting into the entrepreneurship community.  The startup events I've been to at school and in Bloomington and Indianapolis have so much energy and enthusiasm!

Pinterest - my first impressions

Recently I decided to check out Pinterest because I'd been hearing so much buzz and wondered what it was about.  Normally I'm reluctant to try out new trends like this because I don't want to be "one of those people."  But when I was trying to find a cool cake idea for my 30th birthday, I came across one woman's cake pinboard, and something clicked.  Here's a place to store all of those random images of stuff you want to remember but don't want to have to store all the links or pictures somewhere.

So here's what I've observed so far, and why I kinda like it for more than just cool cakes:

• It makes you feel popular/stylish/important when strangers "follow" your pin boards or re-pin your pins.
• WAAAY more women use it than men, but it is really interesting to see what kinds of things men post versus women (hmm...dissertation topic?).
• Most people post about things they like.  So I decided to be a rebel and make a "what were they thinking?" board where I post things that are ugly or bad ideas.
• My most popular pin is from my ugly board, an upholstered chair with a horrible cat print fabric.  Almost 50 people have re-pinned it!
• Speaking of re-pinning, you can see who re-pinned your pins, but you can't see who pins it from those new people.  So if your friend re-pins your pin, her friends might re-pin it too, but you won't be notified (got that?).
• You can learn about weird things your friends think are cool.  Like me, I have a board for "Cute red mushroom things" and 40 people follow it.
• I still can't figure out how they plan to make money on it.  Sponsored pins?
• Some people put up spam posts, where the picture doesn't match the caption and there are some keywords in there, like "cute puppy" but it has some link to some weight loss product.  Lame.
• I could see this being a great way to promote a business that has a visible product, like photographers, bakeries, bloggers, artists, etc.

You can check out my "pins" here https://pinterest.com/binzerella/

30!

I just turned 30 this past weekend.  And while everyone knows that 29 and 30 are objectively not all that different, it certainly feels like a major milestone.  Part of me has been thinking about where I thought I'd be at this age and where I actually am, and all the various paths I've been on - including having lived in somewhere around 11 different places in the 11 years since I finished high school (some more temporary than others).  But the other part thinks of the great mystery and adventure that awaits this next decade!

My 20s were definitely an adventure, moving to places I'd never been and diving into new experiences.  I've made some wonderful friends who I will cherish for the rest of my life.  I've married an amazing man who I am thrilled and even relieved that I am spending the rest of my life with.  And my name has changed, including the addition of a whole bunch of letters I can put after it from the three degrees I earned in my 20s.

So what are my lessons from my 20s?  Here's 10 that come to mind.

1. Try new things.
2. Leave bad things behind (like bad jobs or bad dates).  
3. Don't quit a job before you have something else lined up.
4. It's ok to change your mind about what you want to do with your life.
5. Learn to recognize patterns of behavior you don't like and stop repeating them.
6. Travel.
7. Save your money, but treat yourself to rewards when you accomplish something.  Remember that social security is not something our generation can rely on.
8. Appreciate your health.  It's probably the best it's going to be, so try to keep it that way.
9. Do NOT compare your life course to anyone else's.
10. Good friends are better than gold.  Make an effort to make new friends, especially when you move to a new place, and check in with the old ones regularly even if you live thousands of miles apart.  Not easy when you've moved a lot and your friends are all over the world!

 oh, and get a fantastic cake and OWN your 30th birthday!

Tornadoes

As the whole world seems to know, there were some really bad tornadoes in southern Indiana (and many other states) a few days ago.  We were fortunate to get no more than some relatively mild thunderstorms.  And we are thankful the tornadoes were not in our area.  If there was a tornado spotted in our area, the siren would go off (we can hear it from our house), and we would head to out downstairs bathroom, which is the lowest, most interior room of the house.  Since Indiana has clay soil, most houses don't have a basement, as they tend to flood.

The town they keep showing on the news, Henryville, is about 60 miles from where we live.  That's not very far.

This article from an English paper has pictures of the devastating damage from all over the areas affected by the storm.  It was written right after they found a toddler in the middle of a field, still alive at the time, but unfortunately her injuries were so bad they could not save her.

Our hearts go out to those affected by this disaster.

Cancer sucks. Bone marrow donation can help.

I've had several people close to me experience cancer in the past few years, from my grandmother in her 80s to two close friends around my age, and another friend's little girl (Millie) who was diagnosed at age 4.  While the older ones are in remission, now 6-year-old Millie relapsed just as she finished up 2 years of chemo.  She's currently in the hospital getting aggressive chemotherapy and waiting to find a bone marrow match.


Please consider signing up to be a bone marrow donor.  All it takes is a cheek swab, and you could be Millie's match.
http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx?promo_code=marrow4millie
 

Here's a picture of Millie with her brother and Santa from her mom's blog. You can read more about Millie and her family's journey with cancer here http://bradyandamanda.blogspot.com/

Done with Classes FOREVER! What now?

This semester is my first semester as a PhD student with no more classes to take. When I tell people that, they ask a seemingly straightforward question - "so now you just have your dissertation and that's it, right?" Nope. This is academia, so things that should be straightforward need to go through nine levels of hell more hurdles before starting the dissertation.  I'm fortunate to have funding as a Research Assistant this semester so I don't have to teach a class to have funding.

Here's what I have left:

1. Qualifying Exam.  This is an essay assignment where you are given a list of questions and have 72 hours to write up to 30 pages answering those questions using a personalized list of academic research material.  The reading list consists of roughly 100 journal articles and 30 books that are the basis for your specialty in Sociology.  Since I'm specializing in medical sociology, it tends to tip towards more articles and fewer books, so my list is about 120 articles and 20 books. 

PhD students usually take about a semester to make the list (it involves multiple iterations with two advisors) and 3-6 months to do the reading, depending on their other workload (teaching, research, taking classes).

One would think that after roughly 6 semesters of graduate-level coursework and obtaining a master's degree in the process that there wouldn't be much reading left to do.  Not true.  This exam is supposed to show that you understand your area of expertise broadly and in depth, so you can't just focus on the few topics you find most interesting. For example, I think that structural changes in the social organization of medicine in the past 100 years is fascinating.  I'm less interested in figuring out one more way you can show how life is unfair and that there are systematic patterns in who gets sick (also known as epidemiology).  But I have to know all that literature because it is important in my field.


After passing the Qualifying Exam, and it is possible to get an "honors" distinction in this, the student is officially a "doctoral candidate" AKA "all but dissertation" or ABD.  It also means you have to finish the dissertation within 7 years of that date, which is a challenge for some people.

The handbook says "The Qualifying Exam is designed to serve as a bridge between graduate course work and preparation of a dissertation proposal," which brings us to the next obstacle before the dissertation. 


2. Dissertation Proposal.  This is an oral "defense" of your research proposal for your dissertation.  I'm still not sure exactly what the parameters are for this, but it takes some people a year or longer to put it together. In the "Real world" something like this should probably take about a month.

3. Dissertation research.   Actually doing the work for the dissertation.  Data cleaning, statistical analysis, text analysis or whatever else was proposed.  All of this analysis needs to get done before you can write much of anything up.  This could take anywhere from a week to several years if you are collecting your own data.

4. Writing the dissertation. 'nuff said.

5. Oral defense of dissertation.  This is done in front of your committee, who you hope will ask nice easy questions!

So I just have 5 things left, I guess!  Of course, this doesn't include any of the other research I'm working on nor publications I'm trying to put out nor grant proposals, fellowship applications, etc, all of which require lots of time-consuming writing and data analysis.

St Lucia and Traditions

Yesterday was St. Lucia Day, a Swedish holiday that celebrates the life of a saint who dedicated her life to feeding and caring for the poor until she was brutally executed for being a Christian. She's also the patron saint of the blind because she was blinded before her execution. There's a lot more to the story, but that's not what I want to get into on here. You can read more on wikipedia for that story. It's been a tradition in my family to attend the St Lucia Festival every year and sing along with the traditional Swedish Yuletide songs, and for me, to get dressed up in the white robe and sing with the other kids while I was growing up. I try to attend a St Lucia festival wherever I live. There was a nice one in Chicago at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Andersonville, but I couldn't find one in Oxford, and there is definitely not on in Bloomington (the closest is a 4-5 hour drive away at the very northern tip of Indiana).

So this year I opted to watch the official Swedish Santa Lucia program on the internet. It doesn't quite have the charm of being there in person with the candlelight and glögg afterparty, but it's something.

What struck me this year as we are in Indiana, far from our families and from our ancestral homelands was that I could still in some small way be connected to my family. I imagined how different it would have been for my relatives who first came to the US in the early 1900s, not knowing if they would ever make it back to their homeland. I think part of what kept them going was being able to hold on to traditions. To this day, displaced Swedes (and I am sure other ethnic groups) continue with traditions that may have long been abandoned by the people in their homeland. Traditions are what makes any place feel like home, even when you are thousands of miles away.

In Sociology, there's a whole area dedicated to globalization, which is sort of the melting pot idea but on a global scale, and the concept of the diaspora. A diaspora is a group of people who have left their homeland all at once, but who have all relocated to a new country and live near each other (think of a Chinatown or Little Italy). They may or may not have known each other in the homeland, but they come together in the new country to celebrate their cultural festivals and create a sense of community. Eventually, but not always, the immigrants assimilate into the local community and the diaspora disperses as people move out of the neighborhood and/or intermarry with people from other backgrounds.

Sometimes these cultural festivals in immigrant neighborhoods go on long after the original group of immigrants leave the neighborhood. For example, in the Cicero neighborhood of Chicago, there is a Houby (Mushroom) Festival that was started by the Czech diaspora. The neighborhood is now primarily Mexican, yet the Czech mushroom parade continues, with Czechs coming in from elsewhere.

When my family moved to the US, they were in a Swedish diaspora. It may not have been as dense as some of the other ethnic neighborhoods, but there were enough Swedes to support their own church in downtown Providence. Like other immigrant groups without their extended families around, they came together at certain times of the year to have that sense of groundedness and community with people who shared a similar background. The St Lucia festival is one of those special events, made even more special because there are no gifts exchanged and no big feast to prepare. It's just some beautiful singing by candlelight followed by some light refreshments and spending time with people who have something in common.

So I take this special day wherever I live to remember my heritage and feel a sense of connectedness to the generations that came before me. Even though I live far from family and really far from my ancestral homeland, there is something nice about feeling connected, even if it is only through the internet.

Summer Vacation - Paris

This summer we took a whirlwind trip, flying from Chicago to London, took a train to Pairs, flew to Prague, took a bus to Wroclaw, Poland, then a train to Rydultowy, Poland and finally flew from Poland to Chicago, connecting in London and Reykjavik. Got all that?  haha, well we got a great deal on airfare and managed to visit family and friends en route.  The reason for our trip was that our friends, Mikki and Brian got married in Prague!  Yay!  So we decided that while we were in Europe anyway, we'd pack in as much as we could.

Here are the highlights from Paris.  We stayed in the Latin Quarter at the Hotel du College de France, which was perfect for us.  I LOVE that neighborhood, and we had an awesome time exploring the various shops and restaurants in the maze of streets there and in the St Germain neighborhood (though St Germain has become a bit too built up compared to when I was there 10 years ago).

Eiffel Tower


Love locks on the bridge by Notre Dame


Rue Mouffetard in the morning before the cheese shop had even finished opening!


The original "Paul" bakery/cafe


The Louvre (spent a whole day there and still didn't see it all!)


Parisian version of fish and chips at Louis Vin Restaurant for lunch




Galleries Lafayette (reminded me of the dome at French Lick/West Baden, Indiana)


And this fun statue

Medicalization and highway births

So I rarely blog about anything related to my "work" since most of what I do is write anyway, and it is nice to take a break and write about something fun that I did or saw. But seeing this article in the news today, about a woman giving birth in the car on the way to the hospital, gives me an opportunity to relate what I study (broadly) to what goes on in the world.

It is pretty amazing for any woman to give birth to a child in a moving vehicle on a highway. I can't imagine how stressful that would be, for both mom and driver dad!  The couple had clearly been planning for the birth, but not so quickly nor in such an awkward place. And like most births, this one was not complicated and the baby was totally fine.

But here's where the sociology comes in - the assumption, and even requirement, that a "physician" must "attend" a birth:

"It happened so fast, they couldn't even pull over. Dad was still the driver.

But mom suddenly became 'doctor'.

"I just kind of reacted because I knew I couldn't let anything happen to him," Shawna said.

Shawna says it was maternal instinct that brought a healthy seven-pound, one-ounce baby boy into their world.  She's listed as attending physician on Jackson James Clark's birth certificate.  Next to his footprints, it says "delivered by mommy".

 The history of having an "attending physician" is actually pretty interesting, and is a recent phenomenon.  It wasn't until the 18th century that physicians began to take over the childbirth (or "catching") task from the ancient role of midwife (we're talking pre-biblical ancient), under the new assumption that women (midwives have been and still are primarily women) were too weak to handle this difficult job of assisting childbirth, and such work was cast as being more fit for men trained in allopathic (Western) medicine.  In some places, like Iowa, it is actually illegal to practice midwifery today.

Medicalization is the process whereby an otherwise normal bodily function or human condition becomes redefined as something that can (or should) be diagnosed and treated, often only by a medical professional with specialized training. A good example of how a "medicalized" condition can change from being under the jurisdiction of medicine to being a normal social or biological function is that of homosexuality, which used to be officially diagnosable and considered treatable by a physician. In childbirth, planned c-sections are often thought of as medicalizing childbirth.

So while I understand on the one hand the involvement of modern medicine in childbirth as something that has the potential to prevent harm or death to infants or mothers, on the other hand as a modern woman I find it appalling that there is not more choice about one of the most fundamental things about being a woman.  Even more irking is the amazement that a woman even has the capacity to give birth without a "professional" present.  As though she "became" a doctor, rather than a mother, by giving birth.

Also interesting to note is that an uncomplicated delivery in a hospital costs on average $10,000, while on the extreme, a complicated C-section costs an average of $22,000 in the US (not including anesthesia charges).  So at least for this couple, a bundle of cash was saved (though the insurance company is really the one who "wins" - but that's another story).

Well, there you have a bit of insight into what a PhD program in sociology does to one's mind when reading the news.

Smoky Mountain Adventure and Nashville Honky Tonks

After picking up Andrea & Mike at the airport in Knoxville, we started our grand adventure in Tennessee's Smokey Mountains. We stayed in a great cabin at the Oak Haven Resort in Sevierville, just outside of the more well-known Gatlinburg, TN. We had a gorgeous spot up in the hills, overlooking the countryside with a huge wrap-around porch.

Since we were all tired from traveling, we spent our first night checking out the local wineries and having a barbeque at the cabin. Tennessee is definitely not France or Napa Valley, nor is it trying to be. They like their wine sweet and fruity. All four of us generally like dry wines, so this was a challenge. Our first stop was at the Hillside Winery, where they are generous with the pour and completely up front about the style of wine they have. It is sweet and strong and seems like the kind of thing you'd get in the backwoods of Tennessee. Which is fine, because that's where we were!

Next we went to the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge. We actually didn't have the wine there because the woman serving it was rude. But we did buy some apple turnovers for breakfast (and they were delicious).



The next day we got up early for some ziplining, which I blogged about before. But after that, we made a quick stop for lunch before heading off for some whitewater rafting with Smoky Mountain Outdoors. After the ziplining experience, I was a little nervous even though I'd been rafting a bunch before in high school. But our trusty guide, Big Steve, kept us afloat even over class 4 rapids. It was awesome, and again, smelled so delicious out in the fresh mountain air! That night we went into Gatlinburg for dinner.



The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast, then headed off for Nashville. We mad a pit stop for lunch and to visit this pink elephant.


Since none of us had been to Nashville before, we decided going on a group tour would be a good idea. So we hopped on the camouflage bus and had a Redneck Tour of Nashville. It's definitely not a family-oriented tour, but we had some laughs and got a feel for the city and its history. Here we are with our guides, Tater and Merlene.


This was also most of our first time in the south, and we were curious to see what the plantations looked like. We went to Andrew Jackson's home, "the Hermitage" and to Belle Meade Plantation, where they bred racehorses (all Kentucky Derby racehorses can be traced to one horse at this plantation!). Both plantations had lots of slaves, and while it's nice in the old homes, walking through the pretty grounds is a little creepy, knowing that people were enslaved there. We were able to take a peek inside slave quarters, but none were set up with period furniture so it was a little hard to get a sense of what life was really like inside. Now they just look like rustic cabins.


One of my favorite sites was the Cheekwood gardens, which was the home of the Cheek Family, who built their fortune off their ownership of the Maxwell House coffee brand. Today the grounds are open to the public (for a fee). The house, at 33,000 square feet, has been partially converted to an art museum. There's even a Japanese garden, and several water features.


This little Italian style grotto is up by the house


Finally, at night, we enjoyed the Honky Tonks of Broadway. We had two favorites: The Stage and Layla's Bluegrass Inn. Layla's had some crazy rockabilly/bluegrass music and was a lot of fun! We saw Brandon Giles there, who was absolutely a phenomenal performer - like a Jerry Lee Lewis reincarnation. For more popular country and rock music, we enjoyed The Stage (recommended by my childhood friend's little sister). The best part is that it is free to go to any of these shows! If you like the music, you can tip the band however much you want - they'll have someone come around with a big tip jar. It's really a great way to see live music!

Here we are at the Stage. I was kind of surprised at how many country songs I know the lyrics to!



I am so glad we got to do this trip all together. It was just what we needed for a little getaway. We are really blessed to have such great friends!

Asheville, NC

I'm finally getting around to blogging about our May trip to Asheville, NC and Tennessee. Our plan was to meet up with our friends, Andrea & Mike in Tennessee and check out the Smoky Mountains and Nashville over a week. I really wanted to see the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC while we were out that way, but it was just going to be too much to pack into our group trip. So, Paul and I drove down a couple days earlier so we could add that in.

It's a 12 hour drive to Asheville, so we didn't get there until late in the day. I'd been wanting to see the Biltmore Estate for as long as I can remember. I'd seen pictures of it and thought it would be a wonderful place to have a fairytale wedding. The house was built by George Vanderbilt, when we was in his mid-20s, in the late 1800s. Shortly after building it, he found a wife.

A bit about Asheville. It's a college town and feels to me a lot like a college town in western Massachusetts, maybe Northampton. But it's got a funny mix of foodie culture, mountain culture, elegant venues and backwoods BBQs. I saw their McDonalds featured on a TV show once, and just had to see it because they have a piano inside and it's all fancy like.



But we didn't eat there. Instead, we ate at Luella's Bar-B-Que. It was sooo good! Here we are on our way in.


The next morning, we got up, had breakfast and headed off for our Biltmore day.


We started out in the 125,000 acre gardens before it got too hot out. They were designed by the famous landscape architect, Fredrick Law Olmsted. The land had been used as farmland, and they actually planted all the trees you see there (yes, millions of them). There are beautiful formal gardens (including a French style garden that they call the Italian garden) and some wooded areas with windy paths (something Olmsted was all about - straight lines are for barbarians or something). But WOW were they awesome gardens - and what a VIEW!




Oh how I'd love if this was my back yard! (as long as someone else took care of it, of course)


After seeing the house (no pictures allowed inside, of course, because they want to sell you pictures they take of you), we went to the winery for a wine tasting. Apparently when one of the Vanderbilts passed away, the estate was divided among different heirs, and one got the house and the other got the dairy - which was soon converted to a winery.

There's also an inn on the grounds where you can stay in luxury. While the inn wasn't in our budget, we did squeeze in afternoon tea at the Library in the inn. We have a view of the mansion (in the right window, in the background) and the grounds, and of course, super delicious tea and accompaniments.


The next morning we drove off to pick up Andrea & Mike in Knoxville, TN. On our way to the airport, we took a detour through the Blue Ridge Parkway.


One thing I have to say about the area is just how good the air smelled! It was like breathing in piney-freshness. I was happy to just stand there and sniff!

Saltine toffee - YUM!

Today we have plans for a concert and picnic in Bryan Park with some friends of ours, and I decided to make a small dessert to bring along - Saltine toffee.

Back in winter of 2009, I went to a Christmas cookie exchange at a neighbor's house, and we all exchanged cookies and recipes so that we could make each other's tasty treats. Well, I finally got around to making one of them and it was SOO good and SOO easy that I figured I should share it here. I have no idea who gave me the recipe (there's no name on it) so the credit cannot be given. But man, are they tasty! You're basically making your own heath bars with this one.




Here's the recipe for Saltine toffee:

1-2 sleeves Saltine crackers
1 c Brown sugar
1 c Butter (2 sticks)
12 oz Chocolate Chips
3/4 c nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 10x15 cookie sheet (with sides) with parchment paper. Cover with one layer of crackers. Melt butter and brown sugar over medium heat until boiling, stirring constantly, and full boil for 3 minutes (mixture will be the color of peanut butter and pull away from sides of pot). Quickly pour mixture over crackers and spread evenly (be careful...very hot!). Bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove and turn off oven.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over heated crackers and caramel mixture. Let sit for 5 minutes (you can put it back in the oven to melt the chocolate faster). Spread the melted chips with a spatula. Sprinkle nuts and press down lightly. Freeze for 30 minutes. Break into pieces and store either in fridge or at room temperature.


I will also add this is a great way to use up chocolate chips that you bought at a store, then left in the car on a hot summer day while you went to another store, and then found they were all melted when you got home. Not that I'd know from personal experience or anything.