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!