Really… all this food should have gone into the “Foodie Friday” category… But the biscuits and frozen yogurt just couldn’t wait ;)
On Sunday, we went to the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Raleigh at Cameron Village.
Their biscuits are heavenly…They are super fresh and warm, sprinkled with sugar and come with apple (cinnamon) cranberry butter… really.
I got “the Flying Biscuit Breakfast” which was scrambled eggs, country potatoes and chicken sausage (no picture because… everyone knows what scrambled eggs look like ;))
Nathan got a similar breakfast, but it came with the most amazing french toast EVER.
“The Egg-Stravaganza” – Two large farm fresh eggs served with our chicken sausage, crisp turkey bacon, creamy dreamy grits, plus whole wheat French toast topped with raspberry sauce and honey crème anglaise.
Yep. Heaven.
Of course, we had a little furry stowaway with us. She sat under our table on the cool tiles, was served a big bowl of ice water… she was SO good… and only tried to steal a bite once. Good girl ;)
I am a fan of the frozen treat novelty. We almost got a parking ticket going to the Pinkberry in Pasadena. When the first Cold Stone Creamery opened in La Crescenta, I was the 10th customer.
So, when the highly anticipated self-serve yogurt place in Cary called Marmalade Skies announced that it was opening in a few weeks… there was definitely a countdown happening in our house. My coupons were printed, I was diligently checking their twitter page for updates. We were there on the day they opened. And it was good.
So, after going there almost every night for a week, I got a little burned out. Say it isn’t so. However, the other night I checked their flavor selections and Pumpkin Pie was on the menu. There was little hesitation.
I got the red velvet cake, pumpkin pie and marshmallow frozen yogurt topped with snickers, peanut butter cup, a dollop of hot fudge, almonds, a piece of brownie and ONE candy corn. Every year you have to consume at least one… and I’ve met my quota for the year ;)
I really want to check out this fancy space-age ice cream shop brilliance in Chicago called iCream Cafe. They can make any flavor of ice cream you want from scratch… and it’s super fresh because they blast it with liquid nitrogen to turn the milk into glorious ice cream. And if you aren’t into the cold stuff, they can make warm fresh pudding, too. (Sounds odd, but also comforting… Like when Mom would make Jello Pudding on the stove top and let you lick the spoon. Now if that pudding came with a large wooden spoon… hmmm).
And someday, I hope to tour the Ben and Jerry’s factory. Seriously, it looks like fun.
I have not met an ice cream or frozen yogurt I do not like… it is my vice of choice ;) (Although, for some reason, I can’t get into Dippin’ Dots. Sorry little dots!)
Until our next ice cream adventure… !! (and there will be a next time!)
A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law got married in Manhattan. I wasn’t able to go, but my dh went and got some great shots. He hadn’t been to NY since he was a kid, and this short trip was enough to convince him that he’s now a New Yorker at heart… and wants to move there. I highly doubt that we’ll be filling up a moving truck any time soon, but it was cool to hear him talking about something with the excitement of a 10 year old going to Disneyland for the first time ;)
And these shots came from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law’s (!!) photographer… (I have a brother-in-law now, too!! yay!)
I am quite fond of shot of the bride and groom walking their dogs… who are wearing little tuxedo tops ;) (I painted two portraits of these two boys a while back…)
They look SO happy and the wedding was so beautiful… I’m so upset I missed it, but I’m sure we’ll be heading back to the city soon, seeing as someone I know reallllly wants to go back ;) Congrats E & T!!!!!
The last month (+/- two weeks) has been sort of a blur. Between getting some bad news from the West Coast, and having to deal with some things going on with our girl, Nutmeg.
Meg had a lump in her hind leg that got incredibly large in the span of a few months. We were told this lump was a lipoma and that the only way to remove it was through surgery.
The day of her surgery, though, the vet told us it was an “invasive” or infiltrative lipoma. It was burrowing into her little muscle and wrapped up in there so tight that our vet couldn’t get it out. She said it was beyond the scope of what she could do… and had to sew the leg back up. At this point, they weren’t 100% sure it was even a lipoma.
About a week later, we got the news that it wasn’t cancerous and we should see a specialist. A doggie oncologist, actually. So, we scheduled surgery #2.
In between the two surgeries, we had our girl at home… resting comfortably in little outfits that would cover all of her legs (so she wouldn’t be tempted to get to them). Not only was she interested in her sutures, she was interested in where the IV had been. Very interested.
I didn’t think our girl was capable of removing 8-10 sutures out of her own leg. She is our little princess, after all. Alas, our princess removed all of those sutures… in less than 10 minutes. And, she was super happy about this… wagging while displaying the new hole in her leg. She was oh so proud. Oh, to be reminded that she is a dog ;) So, we rushed back to the vet, they were kind enough not to say “I told you so”, and we implemented the cone… and some antibiotics. Meg did not like the cone.
Meg went in for a second surgery, where they successfully removed the fist-sized lipoma from her back left leg. Our surgeon was amazing… she got in there and got the whole thing out in one shot. The relief… was a bit overwhelming.
So, déjà vu… we’re here again… sutures and healing. This time, we kept a very close watchful eye on her at all times. She refused to sleep while wearing the cone, so instead we put her in an outfit that covered her legs and then wrapped her up like a burrito in a sheet and clipped all the ends. She actually really liked this and slept really well (I think some of the drugs helped with this, too… but these drugs also did a number on her tummy. Emergency vet visit #2, more antibiotics. Yippee).
The weekend before her first surgery, we managed to get in a little day trip to the outer banks. We got really close to the Currituck lighthouse on Corolla (Near Kitty Hawk!). We ventured down a little rickety deck nearby, which opened up to a gorgeous little marsh and a perfect view of the lighthouse. There were signs everywhere saying there were wild ponies nearby, but we didn’t see any. Maybe next time :)
Meg had her head out the window… almost the entire trip out East. Wearing her doggles, of course!
So, the first half of September was stressful; venturing into the unknown… getting other sad news from home… so it just felt like our little doggie world was sort of closing in on us. The last half of September was filled with a little bit of stress, a whole lot of healing (in every sense of the word), not very much sleep and I missed a very important wedding. A very bittersweet month, to say the least. But, through it all… all I can say is that we are so grateful Nutmeg is healing so well and getting back to her happy, joyful, sweet self.
So now Meg can get back to mothering the two new puppies across the way :)
Needless to say… she’s got her hands full ;) :)
Please give your pet(s) lots of love tonight… they deserve everything they give to us… and so much more!!!!
P.s… The emergency vet (which is also the specialty vet… in the same building) got to like Nutmeg SO much, they may put a picture of her in their annual calendar that they send out to their clients. Yep. Our girl might be the vet’s new spokesmodel ;)
Nathan and I have this new ritual where after work, we hop in the car and start driving in a random direction. The goal is to explore our surroundings… which are quite rural and green.
I say “random”, but I usually steer us towards Jordan lake because we didn’t grow up near water, so lakes are awesome! We take one windy country “church” road to another… passing churches from the 1800′s, ponds, donkeys, geese, deer and lots of tractors. But we usually end up at the lake :)
Here’s yesterday’s sunset over Jordan lake…
It had been raining and storming ALL day and the air was so thick, humid and steamy… I half-expected to see sparkling vampires and werewolves burst out of the bushes to duel while wearing lots of hair product and Abercrombie.
We also stumbled across this uber cool old general store. It’s called Bynum Front Porch where they play live local music every Friday. Pretty neat-o :)
I’ve been making jewelry to fill up this chandelier… alllmost time to reveal my masterpiece… but not quite yet ;) I’ve done new things with wire that I’ve never tried before… lots of twisting and wrapping…
I’ll get the still pictures up later, but in the meantime, here’s a beautiful short movie Nathan shot with his new Canon T2i. This camera is amazing… the color, texture and detail… superb!
If you would like to see it full screen, and it’s so much better if you do, click on the little icon on the bottom right of the movie.
I’m a huge ice cream fan. When we happened to stumble upon Dairy Farm Road and drove up directly onto the front porch of the Maple View Farms ice cream shop… I was in heaven :)
The ice cream is very fresh. So fresh, in fact, that you can see the cows which produced the milk for the perfect java chip ice cream you are eating (for example) right across the street.
Perhaps the cows thought we came bearing treats… because they inched in closer and closer to us at the fence, then began mooing in unison as to say to each other “act cute, we may get something out of it!”
I’m not sure why I didn’t take a picture of our ice cream? The fact that it was so crowded that we had to eat it in the car was a factor…
On the way home, we took the two-lane country roads… here are a few semi-blurry pictures:
And our happy little passenger… notice her window of nose prints:
We ended up at the Q-Shack in Durham for dinner. All roads here lead to good North Carolina BBQ.
After all the excitement, we went home… and Meg heard a fire truck siren. She goes from listening, to seriously listening to howling.
icon on the bottom right of the movie.
