End-of-the-Year Randomness

1. See the movie Once. This is an Irish romance-musical of sorts that is, quite simply, one of the most charming, beautiful, moving films I have seen in a long time. Set on the streets of Dublin, the film chronicles the relationship between a street musician (played by non-actor Glen Hansard, the lead singer of the Irish band The Frames) and a Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova, another non-actor -- a 19 year-old singer from Prague) as they discover their mutual musicianship.

2. Do you know what a contranym is? Neither did I until about 30 minutes ago! It's a word that can serve as its own antonym -- some examples include bound, cleave, buckle, and citation.
3. Congratulations to former Miss Georgia 2006, Amanda Kozak. (You might remember that she was 2nd Runner-up at the Miss America Pageant back in January.) She was recently named Miss Georgia USA and will compete for the Miss USA title in April 2008. She'll also be co-hosting the "Peach Drop" from Underground Atlanta tomorrow night -- that event is being shown in syndication throughout the country.

4. Have a safe end to 2007! We will be staying home and celebrating with Campbell's soup and saltines (we've both been a little under the weather). And get ready to have a joyful and prosperous 2008!

Pitched Potato Knocks Out Husband

Jackson County sheriff's deputies were called to a Nicholson home early Thanksgiving morning after a 43-year-old woman knocked her husband unconscious with a potato during an argument, according to sheriff's reports.

The woman told deputies that she and her husband started to argue in the kitchen about 1 a.m. Nov. 22. He had used an expletive to describe her, and she threw the potato at him, hitting him in the nose and causing him to pass out, deputies said. The couple told deputies that they been drinking.

She told deputies that she didn't mean to hit her husband and called police as soon as he fell unconscious. The man, who suffered from a large knot on his nose, told deputies he did not want to press charges. The woman was not arrested and no charges were filed.

(Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 120607)

Yep, just like my Thanksgiving!

How My Students See Me

What Cats Do...

Yeah, so...we bought a new coffee maker that we'd been pondering for months and we bought some new coffee mugs and we already had these really neat juice glasses.

Yeah.

We used them once. I came home to find the mess above.

(Luckily, the new coffee maker has a stainless carafe so it was not destroyed. Also luckily, the mugs were part of a set, so we had replacements. Then I found some other cool juice glasses, so...yeah, all was replaced. But, boy, was I mad. And, dude, it was a b***h to clean up!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here in Georgia we are suffering from a severe -- "only four months of water left!" -- drought, but according to the little country church near my mother's house, things could be much worse.

This church has been a source of delight and consternation for me for several years -- I always look forward to reading their sign and I'm usually stunned by what I read. While today's sign certainly doesn't reflect the spirit of thankfulness and fellowship that I have felt on this holiday, it is tame in comparison to some of the more memorable things that have been posted in the past -- "Parents - Stop Lying to Your Children! There is no Santa Claus!," "All Homosexuals and Whoremongers Have AIDS and Deserve to Die," and (my favorite?) "Shakespeare, Darwin, Faulkner - Book Burning Sunday at 2:00."

All in all, my holiday was a great one, spent with my mother, my siblings, my niece and nephews, and assorted aunts, cousins, and taggers-along. I've brought home a few of my personal favorites from today's spread -- dressing, a surprisingly delicious congealed cranberry sauce-blackberry Jello, Mama's homemade pimento cheese, some strawberry cake, and a couple of slices of pumpkin cheesecake.

What I've Been Doing...

I'm back!

Look: fall semester has been crazy hectic! Here's a quick look back at the things I've been doing.

Trip to Asheville
Max and I enjoyed a wonderful long weekend in Asheville the first weekend in October. The weather was glorious, our B&B hosts were attentive and non-intrusive, and we had two great meals -- one at Zambra (tapas and Spanish wine) and one at Table (tuna butter, anyone?).




The Living Newspaper: 1935
This year, I am leading the Advanced Drama class at BHS; this class is responsible for producing the non-musical each semester. For our first show, we revived a production that I had been involved in at UGA several years ago -- a "living newspaper" from 1935. The "living newspapers" were part of the Federal Theater Project's attempt to combine theater with the news and bring stories to the outlying regions of the country. We were fortunate enough to be invited to present our show at the Georgia Theater Conference where we competed with 19 other schools and unofficially finished in the Top 8 (among schools from all classifications -- big ones, little ones, public ones, private ones). Additionally, one of our students, Maggie, was named to the All-Star Cast!

Homecoming at MHS
In late October, Max and I ventured to my hometown and my high school alma mater, Manchester. The occasion: my niece, Chelsea, was the 10th Grade Homecoming Representative! We had a little cheering section in the stands and it was heartwarming and fun to see Chelsea and her father (my brother) on the field at halftime. MHS also won the game (which they didn't do a lot this season).






Holiday Dinner at Floataway Cafe
Since Max and I have to spend this holiday apart (he's on his way to Alabama as I type), we decided to have a nice holiday dinner for ourselves. In our continuing efforts to dine at all the major Atlanta restaurants, we selected Floataway Cafe (it's relatively close to where we live and it's part of Star Provisions restaurant group -- the same folks who own our favorite Atlanta restaurant, Bacchanalia). You might say that Floataway is Bacchanlia's more casual little sister. It's almost an understatement to say that our dinner was EXCELLENT! We started with cocktails -- Max had an apple bellini and I had a lavender gimlet. For starters we shared a wonderfully onion-y beef tartare and a crunchy and delicious salad of apples, endive, walnuts, and gorgonzola. For his entree, Max selected the duck breast served atop a cannellini bean stew (it was wonderfully warm and savory). I had a giant bowl of gnocchi and seared scallops served in a deliciously bright sauce. Both were wonderful. For dessert, Floataway offers homemade soft-serve ice cream topped with a variety of eclectic things. I opted for the more traditional topping -- caramel sauce and almond brittle. Max went for a more exotic choice -- saba and sea salt. (Saba, it turns out, is a sort of super-aged balsamic-esque substance made from grape must.) Our GIANT bowls of ice cream were served with warm chocolate chip cookies on the side! All in all, it was a great way to celebrate our thanks for each other and for the rather incredible lives that we are fortunate to have.

Miss Teen South Carolina Speaks

A somewhat accurate transcript:

Judge's Question: Recent polls have shown that one-fifth of Americans can't locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?

Miss Teen South Carolina: I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa, and the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the US should help the US help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children.

She finished as 3rd Runner-up.