WWC--Life and White

It's that time again when I try to think of something other than the obvious for the Weekly Word Challenge. I may not succeed, but I sure have a good time trying.

Weekly Word Challenge is brought to you by the totally talented Tink of Pickled Beef. This week the words were Life and White.



OK, white is pretty easy around here. I, of course, had to take a couple of pictures of the white snow. Look what it did to this tree! Cool, huh?




(and no that's not my house in the background)

This is an early snow, just dusting the greenery on our fence.


And with it being the Christmas season, it's the season for fudge. Here are the white marshmallows for the fudge, even though they don't look all that white in this photo.



And these are my Knitting Girl socks that my friend R sent me. I'm afraid to wear them because I want them to stay white.



And one more, we have white lights on our Christmas tree.



I only have one picture for life, and it's really special to me. When my dad past away 10 years ago, I was in graduate school. My friends gave me this philodendron, which was tiny. But it has grown into this large, rich metaphor for life.



Did you play? Come join us! Yes, join us. Join us. Join us.

In other news, Al got an assignment extension, so we know that we are here until summer 2009. It's a relief and we've both relaxed a little. It's nice to know we don't have to put the house on the market, and he's happy to be staying in a job that he likes.

So, since I know I will be here next summer, I can attend the Kansas City Scottish Games on June 14 and 15. Care to join me? I'm pretty sure Jay will come up, and it's always a party where Jay is. It's a lot of fun, and Kansas City is a great place. We can meet up for a long weekend, watch men in kilts, eat some haggis, drink some scotch, then hang out in the city and eat some B-B-Q and drink some beer at the Irish pup to get the taste of that haggis out of our mouths. Fun, huh? Let's do it! Put it on your calendar now!

I love this plan. I'm excited about this plan. We have to think of something fun to get us through the dreary, gray days of winter.

Oh my gosh, I haven't mentioned Cosette once in this post! What's wrong with me? I'm falling down on my bragging duties. So, here's a picture.

Gone About As Fer As They Can Go

We had a wonderful 4th in Kansas City. A nice, quiet 4th. The only noise and excitement came from the weather; we got caught in a horrible storm with pea-size hail. Luckily, Al, being the smart and resourceful guy his is, pulled into a car wash and we sat under the shed until it let up. But this is what it looked like driving back to the hotel:








We went to some old favorites and discovered some new ones during this trip.

We went to Lidia's, as usual, and I'm glad we did because I was a little disappointed last time and it was really good this time. I think I love going there so much because we hardly ever go to elegant restaurants and get wine, salads, entrees, and dessert without caring about the cost. It's quite a treat.

We also headed down to the Plaza again so that we could go to the Apple store and check out the new iPhone and The Better Cheddar to pick up some cheese (a Petit Basque and a 1 year old Spanish Mahon). Al was disappointed that I didn't go apeshit over the iPhone. I have a hard time controlling the scroll and hitting the right letters on the notepad. Everytime I tried to type and "i" I would get an "o" and so on. Apparently, this is all my problem because Al thinks it's the most awesome thing ever and would buy one today if I even hinted at a nod in agreement. No bobble head here, baby!

We also went to one of my very favorite stores any where--Pryde's Old Westport. And I think I showed great restraint that all I insisted on buying was an insulated French Press coffee maker. Here are some photos of the store:









New for this trip, we went to Zona Rosa, a "new urbanism" shopping district, to go to O'Dowd's Irish Pub for lunch and Barnes and Noble. It was the nicest, best B&N I've been in. Two stories (with an escalator, thank you very much) of books and books and books. It was hard to leave without burning the credit card.

Also new, we went to Briarcliff Village, which is also a new urbanism development. I had been there before because that's where Urban Arts and Crafts is, but this time we went to Rimonn Liquors. They had our favorite Riesling (Monchhof), which we can never find, so we bought 3 bottles. Here's one of the houses in this "village." Just a humble little home.




Another new thing, especially for Al, was the Harley Davidson Plant. Unfortunately for Al, there were no tours because they were working on the 2008 models. But, the Visitor Center was open and if there's anything that Harley Davidson knows, it's marketing. Don't worry, Al doesn't want a Harley, especially since he bought the new bike. Oh, did I tell you he bought a new motorcycle? Yep. BMW 1200 GS, used.





And finally, on the way home, we stopped by Weston, Missouri, to go to Pirtle winery. We didn't make it to the winery because Al needed to get home, but we did walk around their charming Main Street and go to The Celtic Ranch. I can't wait to go back to Weston. We didn't spend nearly enough time there. I didn't even peek into the antique shops and there was no time to go to the quilt shop. Plus, we have to go back to do some wine tasting and go to the Irish pub. Here are a couple of pictures:

We Interrupt the Italy Posts

Just a quick detour into Kansas City. I met Jay and our good friend JM there for the Scottish Highland Games. We had a blast, and I'm so glad we were able to go. Al was very, very jealous, as well he should've been because he missed out on a great time.

We got in Friday and had lunch at O'Dowd's Irish Pub, then walked around the Plaza. We didn't actually go into any of the shops, except the chocolate shop and the Better Cheddar, which is an amazing gourmet food shop. That night, we also ate at Lidia's, which is normally one of my favorite restaurants. But this night, although the salad and the dessert was great, the pasta was so salty I could barely eat it. I mentioned in to the server, but what else could they do?

Saturday was the games and we spent over 6 hours there, walking around, petting the border collies, petting the Highland Cows, watching the cute men in kilts throw heavy things, and looking at all the Celtic merchandize we could. We also ate meat pies and drank a lot of fresh squeezed lemonade. Also, my friend and her little boy came down and met us, so it was nice to see them.

After break and a shower to freshen up, we headed out for b-b-q at Smokehouse. It, too, was good, but not as good as Famous Dave's. I like a little spicier sauce.

Sunday, we were going to go to the Italian festival but it was a rainy day, so Jay and JM headed on out, and my friend and I headed to a very cool craft store called Urban Arts and Crafts. This store offers some beads for jewelry making, some yarn, some scrapbook stuff and stamps, some material, and books. It's not huge and overwhelming like Michael's, but it's not a one-hobby only store like a yarn shop or a quilt shop. And it was just so darn cool! The colors of the material, the kinds of paper, and the embellishments that they carry are different that I can find at other stores. They also have classes and rent out studio time, where you can use some of their tools to work on your projects. I would love to have a shop like this. I'm glad I made the time to go there.

So, here are some pictures of the trip. For a better wrap up and some more pictures, head on over to Jay's blog.

The Plaza


A man dressed for the occasion


Caber Toss


Sheath Toss


A carding machine for wool


Border Collie


Stalking the sheep




Leading the sheep to the ring for the demonstration


Highland Coo