Our New Neighbors are Pirates

Sorry for radio silence yesterday. Nathan and I and the McKenneys spent a very long day moving to our new place. I will fill y'all in later on all of the details, but for now, the most exciting detail is that I think our new neighbors are feminist pirates.


Proof?

Sunday Afternoon Tea

One of the benefits of having rubbish weather like today is that not many people visit Crook Hall (bad for business), leaving lots of extra food lying around (great for us). Our neighbor and owner of Crook Hall, Maggie came to the door just now to ask us if we wanted "an afternoon tea" as the food would just be wasted if it wasn't eaten. 


We said, "Sure!" but, to be honest, we didn't even know what it meant. We looked it up on Wikipedia and browsed the afternoon tea menu at the Ritz in London getting more excited by the second, and after a few minutes, she came back with beautiful tiered glass trays laden with gorgeous finger foods. 

I mean, really! What a lovely surprise!

Coffee cake

Ginger cake

Vanilla cake with cream and jam filling

Scones and clotted cream and strawberry jam

Prawn and mayonnaise sandwiches

Cheese and tomato sandwiches

Ham and cheese and mustard sandwiches

Smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches

Y'all should go to Crook Hall and Gardens immediately, but save some tasty food for the neighbors! :)


Thanks so much, Maggie and Keith!

Meet Frank

This is Frank. Frank is not our dog, so don't get excited. Frank belongs to Mike, who is our landlord's caretaker. Mike can been seen doing gardening and fixing-uping and those kinds of things. He makes our little enclave of homes idyllic. Anyway, Frank has a lot of energy, and when Mike is busy working, Frank likes to come over and say "hi."

I'm usually on the computer when I hear a little bang on the door from his paw. "Hi Frank," I say back. "Frank, I don't know if you noticed, but it's pouring down rain and only 37 degrees outside."

Frank doesn't seem to mind but wants to play ball anyway. For all you dog lovers out there, I'm ashamed to say that I did not play with him. The weather, you see...

Quite Like, Rather Dislike: Round 5

Quite Like: The Hot Water Bottle

When Hannah first told me about this, I was a little skeptical.  A plastic bottle filled with hot water to sleep with?  It sounds like something I would have if I was camping in sub-zero temperatures.  People, this is the best marriage saver since the GPS.  It's amazing.  This one came with a fur lining to prevent burns, but I don't use it because it keeps some of the heat from getting onto my toesies.  This little love is going to get me through many, many cold nights.  Nathan prepares it for me before bed while I brush my teeth.  He still doesn't know how to make my tea properly (1/2 a teaspoon of Splenda, splash of milk, tea bag out before serving), but he does a bang up job getting this baby ready for me.  He's officially been relieved of his warming-my-icy-feet-at-night duties, and he couldn't be happier.

Quite Dislike: No garlic in a jar (and other such conveniences)

I spend so much more time now doing food preparation than I used to.  Peeling and mincing garlic is one of my least favorite new activities.  I used to by the monster jar of the stuff and just get a spoonful out any time I wanted to jazz up a meal.  Yeah.  They don't have that here.

I made my neighbor Katie's onion casserole when we first moved into our new house because I found all of the ingredients on my first trip to the store alone: onions (they were the size of golf balls, but an onion is an onion), bacon (good stuff), Parmesan cheese (which I had to grate because the prepackaged stuff was expensive and looked old), and Ritz crackers (just haphazardly thrown in a small box, not in sleeves).  I originally planned to make this as an appetizer, but I quickly decided to make it the main meal because it took so long to make!  Basically you just layer sautéed onions, chopped cooked bacon, cheese, and crushed crackers to your liking and then bake it at 350 until it's heated through.  It's easy peasy and really fast in an American kitchen.  

Not in my old barn kitchen.  First of all, I had very little counter space.  Like maybe three square feet.  Second of all, I had one frying pan.  Third of all, the golf ball onions took forever to chop.  I think I did about 20.  Fourth of all, there wasn't enough room in the pan for all of them at once, so I had to cook them in three batches.  Fifth of all, I only had one mixing bowl to keep the cooked onions in, which took up half the counter space.  Sixth of all, I had only one decently sized cutting board, so I had to rotate using it for chopping onions, slicing bacon, and grating cheese, washing it between each use.  Seventh of all, there wasn't enough room on the counter for me to keep the chopped onions and grate the cheese and slice the bacon simultaneously, so I balanced the cutting board over the sink.  Eighth of all, the bacon took two turns in the pan.  Ninth of all, I feel like I made the recipe three times instead of just once.  Tenth of all, after almost two hours of work, it was tasty anyway.

I'm hoping I don't have to prepare a Thanksgiving meal in there anytime soon, but if I do, it'll be turkey soup in the crock pot.  I sure as heck won't be making an onion casserole.  On the plus side, such obstacles are bringing forth some ingenuity I didn't know I had. Necessity is the mother of invention.  Is that how the saying goes?  

Some New Neighbors

I knew there were some horses in the neighboring pasture, but they'd never come close until yesterday.

 This guy was trying to eat our bushes.

I'd never seen a horse with blue eyes before.

Nathan's Birthday Cookout

Mary Lou is in love with Kenser, Jeff and Hannah's new baby.

I love a squishy sleeping baby face.

Katie, Charlie, Becky, and Baby Sayler (name and birthdate TBA)

Courtney, Heather, and Julie

Bev, Oliver's head, Nathan the Birthday Boy, Me, Teddy's Leg

Teddy loves him some Hannah's bracelets.  I love me some Teddy.

Clemson grads Gary and Danny enjoy some Tiger talk with Oliver.

Sisters Hannah and Joy

My fabulous mother-in-law Susan, Jim, and Nathan

Andrew and Aaron

Stuart, Griller Will, my father-in-law Jim

Nagib and Gary, a self-portrait

He wasn't born to take serious pictures.

Snuggle buddies Will and Andrew

Bev and Hannah

Aaron and Becky

Georgia Aquarium

After our "Tour de Georgia" day (taxidermist, Stone Mountain, Varsity, Georgia State), we finished up at the Georgia Aquarium. Our neighbor, Craig, volunteers there by diving and cleaning the tanks and feeding the big fish. Cool! Here we are in a tunnel with a big ol' fish over my dad's head.

Hello, big ol' fish!

Nathan, Craig, and my dad looking at the salt water tank.

Here's Craig and an alligator who'd taken an interest in him.

Hello, alligator! Or is it a crocodile? I can never tell...

Last Post for a While

While my mom was here, we had neighborhood/family dinner at our house. This is about half the people who were here. We had Julie's white bean chicken chili, salad, garlic bread, cherries, watermelon, strawberries, and sweet tea. My mom tried the sweet tea and said she could feel her teeth rotting. :)


This is Nathan looking very nervous about an upcoming tornado. He moved all the cars under our big trees, in case the hail would damage them. So sweet... The storm didn't quite make it to our house.
This is my mom (looking nervous about the tornado as well) and our new neighbor Jonathan. He makes beer as a hobby. :) You can check out his blog at mondaynightbrewery.com
Well, Nathan and I are off to Israel on Sunday night. Hopefully we will get on the flight. If not, we'll try again on Monday. This may be the last post for a while, as I'm not sure how internet access goes around there.
Also, I will be away from my school computer all summer. If you need to reach me, you can try my hotmail address. I can't really promise prompt returns, but I'll try my best! Nathan and I should probably get a computer at home, eh?
Today is the last day of school, and I'm all checked out. Happy summer everyone!

The South at Its Best

Monday night Nathan was changing the oil in my car and was having trouble unscrewing something underneath it. Before we knew it, we had all the neighbors over to help fix the problem, including Danny (in blue) and Howard (in red). It was pretty funny. They were out there for about an hour before Howard pulled over this HUGE jack across the street. On his way home, I laughed with Nathan about how he looked a lot like a little boy pulling his wagon home after the street lights came on.

Check out Nathan's face. He was pretty frustrated.


While the boys were outside, Danny's wife Katie, and their baby Oliver came in to visit me and Nathan's sister, Hannah, over some more sweet tea. Here's Oliver showing off his new skill! He just learned to walk!


Somehow I got the pictures vertical, but I couldn't tell you how. :)