Heavy Metal Music...

Literally!

As promised the musical stylings of Doc Cudd, the blacksmith at the Biltmore House and one of only five known anvil players in the states. Loved him!

Like Pea Soup

That was what the driving conditions were like yesterday on my drive home from NC to VA. Thicker than pea soup.

For about an hour and a half. Great times.

These pictures don't do it justice.

Aside from the crazy fog on Sunday morning/afternoon, and the torrential downpours Saturday night, Em and I had a great time in Asheville! The Biltmore was very pretty (although I'm not sure that it would be worth the $59 ticket... good thing we made it before peak season). 

We wanted to get a picture of the two of us, but no one was around, so I hung my camera on a fence, hit the timer button, and ran... This is what happens when you set a 2 second timer. A bunch of people came before we could try again, so we gave up and moved on.

This guy was hands down the best part of visiting the Biltmore. We got to watch while made the keychain below and then he played the anvil for us. Literally. It was awesome. I'll try to post a video later.

On Saturday night, Em and I finally made it to downtown Asheville for dinner. We decided to check out this place that some people I had met at Grandma's the week before had recommended called Jack of the Wood. Such a cool place. Jack of the Wood is a celtic-style pub which had my cousin jonseing for the days she spent in Ireland while studying abroad a few summers ago. We didn't end up getting any traditional fare, but had we been in the mood, we could have feasted on Fish and Chips, Bangers and Mash, and all kinds of other fun things.

We kept it local Sunday morning and went to this hip little breakfast/lunch place that someone recommended called Over Easy Cafe. The cool thing about this place is that it uses local ingredients, supporting local farmers and bakers, and is organic whenever possible (although I've never been a huge follower of the organic movement). It was very granola. Our food was also very good.

All in all, I'd say this was a pretty successful weekend!

My New Home

HA

I wish.

Bracket Fail.

Red = loss. Green = win.

There's a whole lot of red on this bracket.

Welcome to Tennessee?

Who would think that a journey from Virginia down to North Carolina would include a short stint in Tennessee?

I certainly didn't.

That is until I passed a sign while driving south on I-81 towards North Carolina (I thought) welcoming me to the Volunteer State.

Welcome to the beauty of the GPS and knowledge-free driving.

Fortunately, my unplanned journey through Tennessee was actually supposed to happen and I made it safely to Asheville. Even more amazing? My cousin (who was driving up from Atlanta) and I got to our hotel within 15 minutes of each other!

We decided to go to TGI Fridays for dinner since it was easy and we had a killer coupon. It was awesome. The food was yummy and our waiter Russell was very attractive and incredibly nice, tweaking the system so that I could get an appetizer as a meal so that we could use our coupon and giving Em a special price on her wine. He also told me that I was much prettier in person than in my license picture... although that's not too hard since my picture looks more like a mugshot than anything else. But I'll take the compliment any day!

Next stop, wine tasting, manicures and pedicures, shopping, and touring huge estates.

So excited for the rest of the weekend and super fun cousin time!

A New Do!

I finally decided to change up the look of Glass Half Full.

It's a little prettier and a whole lot brighter than the last version.

I like it!

What do you think?

Brackets: 1. Me: 0. Office Pool: 1,000

I decided to join the office NCAA bracket pool this year.

Bad idea.

As I know next to nothing about basketball (especially college basketball) I made the brilliant decision to choose my teams by picking the ones that I am affiliated with, whether through family or friends. My bracket was filled with Cinderellaesque upsets and underdog defeats.

Thanks to my parents and friend, I had not one, but two 10th ranked teams reaching the championship game. I picked 11 teams ranked 6th or below to make it to the Sweet 16.

Again. Bad idea.

Day 2 isn't even over yet and three of the teams I picked for the final four have already lost.

My bracket = an enormously epic failure.



Stay tuned for my miraculous come back...

HA!

Eat Dessert First

Especially on Pi day.

Happy 3.14 everyone!

Appreciation

As many of you know, when I came home from college last year, in an attempt to stave off boredom and re-trim/tone my trim and toneless figure, I decided to start taking classes again at the ballet studio I'd been going to since I was four. It was slightly strange since most of the girls in the class hadn't even been born by the time I was entering the second grade.

Any how, every spring my studio does this thing called the Performance Awards, which is basically a "series of distinctive choreographic compositions over 12 levels, that students perform before an audience of parents and friends." I did Levels 7-12 before I graduated and went off to college. Now, I've come full circle. Since the end of January I've been coaching the two girls who are doing Level 12, teaching them the variations, pointing out their mistakes, offering moral support, and generally helping them conquer the enormous battle that is Level 12.

On Thursday night I went to their final rehearsal to offer a small amount of critique, a medium amount of tips, and a huge helping of compliments.

I received something even better. Appreciation. It's such a nice feeling to know that you made a difference and contributed to someone's life and it's equally awesome to know that those people appreciated it. 

I've never felt quite so touched as I did on Thursday evening when the girls and my teachers presented me with a present and thank you card for the help I had given them these past few months. I will never forget that evening.

You can't tell from this picture, but the scarf is a beautiful cornflower blue color that I'm told goes beautifully with my eyes ☺

Dumbstruck by the Force of Nature

I can't even imagine what the people of Japan are going through right now. This is just crazy.

Animal

Apparently I'm in a video rut considering that five out of my last seven posts have included them. But I can't help it... this was just too good.

Once again Glee has pulled off an amazing production, this time in the form of the Warblers singing a cover of Animal by Neon Trees.

I love the original, in fact I pretty much love all of Neon Trees' songs, but this was just ridiculous. Glee is ridiculous. Kurt is ridiculous. Just watch...

Seriously can't get enough of Kurt in this song. He's so flipping adorable. I mean really. What is he doing?

Love it.


Six out of eight posts... this is pathetic.

Knits by Meliss

I did it! I made my very own website for "Knits by Meliss" which is the line hats that I created and have been knitting for the past two years for Grandma's. 

Well technically I made a blog... but "Knits by Meliss" looks like a website, so I'm satisfied.

I've been toying with the idea of making a site to display my hats ever since I made special labels in the fall,  and now my idea has become reality! I plan on posting pictures of different hats pretty regularly and I'm also going to try to post patterns for some of them so that any crafty readers can knit them for themselves. I think the hardest part of this endeavor is going to be naming each different hat... so far the only one I've posted a picture of is my flower petal hat which I've dubbed "Blossom" and coming soon (ie tomorrow afternoon) is my snowman hat or "Snowy." Those were easy... I'm going to have to start getting creative when it comes to the plainish ones.

But I digress. Knits by Meliss can be found at www.knitsbymeliss.blogspot.com.

Check it out! 

That's Crazy Right?!

If I wasn't already a happy Verizon customer, I'd totally go Virgin Mobile over these commercials... they're amazing.

I ♥ This.

I finally ordered Ian Axel's cd. It wasn't the best CD I've ever heard, but it certainly had it's moments and I didn't feel like I'd wasted $7.99 by a long shot.

While This Is The New Year will forever and always be my favorite Ian Axel song, The Music That Haunts This Town, is going directly into my nap mix, my chill out mix, and next year (if I need it) it's totally going into my study mix.

Ian Axel is an amazing piano player.

(please ignore the awkward video)

So Typical

via National Geographic

Probably the coolest thing I've seen all week!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Today marToday marked the momentous occasion of the anniversary of the birth of one of the most impressive wordsmiths around. Theodor Seuss Geisel!

He wrote some of my favorite book as a kid... The Cat In The Hat, Fox in Sox, The Lorax, and of course How The Grinch Stole Christmas (which, incidentally happens to still be one of my favorite Christmas movies).

Also super fun is "Seuss Landing" which is one of the worlds in Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fl. I got the opportunity to immerse myself in the land of Seuss back in November and I must say that (aside from Harry Potter Land) it was my favorite part of Universal. It was just so darn cute!
 
The most recent Dr. Seuss inspired creation is a new animated show on PBS, The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That, which is very cute and never fails to make you want to rhyme. Even better, it very cleverly teaches kids science, with lessons about rainforests, sea creatures, and even amoebas!
 
Check it out!