Road Trip Day 2

 

 

Lauren made squash muffins with dried cherries & almonds for us. YUM!

Squash we brought from our garden.

Squash muffins (biscuit-y delicious muffins!

We have had several great days so far. Right now we’re at Lauren’s. She’s taking a nap before work. Blue (the parakeet Lauren’s co-worker found and she’s looking after while looking for his home) is hanging out in Mali’s cage (Mali is Lauren’s 9 year old parrot) just singing away. He’s so cute! I didn’t realize birds could be so cute. He’s fun to have riding on your shoulder. Uh-oh, that sounds like pirate tendencies. Hmmm… I prefer bourbon to rum, though. 🙂

Mali

Nate & Blue

So we went to the Art Fairs yesterday & saw all kinds of cool artist. There was even someone there from Maryville (just south of Knoxville). Some of my favorites were a guy that made drawers out of old books, an amazing furniture maker, a lady who was dressed like she was ready for safari (because she was, I guess. She does drawings & paintings of animals that she observes in the wild), a really cool quilter, a block printer, a painter/printmaker, and a guy that makes cool graphic paintings in flash and then prints them on canvas. I also saw two artists that make me think of Nate’s cousin Carolyn. One reminded me of her book Godmother and the other had large paintings of mermaids.

After the art fairs, we went to John & Megan’s AMAZING new house for a barbecue. Their house is so fabulous! It’s over 100 years old and the lady who owned it before was quite a character. The neighbors are also really cool. We had a really lovely evening which ended with the newest Harry Potter movie. Of course, they seem to expect we all know the major plot points and are only there to see the blossoming teen romances. Nate hasn’t read any of the books and only saw the first 2 movies. I think he may read the books now though. 🙂 The best part was the entire row of sobbing women right behind us. Like we didn’t know what was coming (either because we read the books or thanks to the heavy-handed “hints” thrown in.)

Megan models the new kitchen.

One of the 3 pies we ate. YUM!

MMMMMM.......pie.....

Some of the amazingly busy wallpaper Megan has been removing from all over the house.

Laundry shoot built into the bannister! How awesome!

Lauren's first taste of sweet tea.

Jamie was up from Knoxville too.

Jack has settled in.

Today we returned to the Art Fairs. We met Lauren’s sister and two of her nephews. This time we met a really cool glass artist and finally saw some photographers who were not printing on an old, crappy HP with major pixellation. Finally, we saw people who had canvas prints and traditional photographic prints that didn’t look overly digital. Hurray!

After lunch, John & Megan picked us up, and we had second lunch at Zingerman’s Deli. Nate & I had a delicious muffaLeo. I also got to try the gelato. YUM!! Then we went to the Apple Store & bought Nate’s new computer. They only have glossy screens now, which is a bummer, but it looks like a great machine.

Julie, my senior year college roommate, & her mom will be here soon. I think we will be staying at John & Megan’s to give Julie & her mom the guest room. For now, though, we’re just hanging out with Blue & Mali.

Blue

Mali is NOT amused!