Flip Burger Boutique

When my mother and niece were in Atlanta last month for my cousin's wedding, we had supper at Flip one evening. Justin has mentioned this restaurant a couple of times and we finally tried it.

Flip is a trendy restaurant that serves hamburgers and the like. They have a parking lot, but it was full, so we parked across the street at designated Flip parking. Since it was a Saturday night, we weren't surprised that we had to wait. We did get impatient by having to wait nearly an hour with no seating, but we survived. The restaurant is VERY loud in my opinion. There are little to no textiles to help absorb sound so the music reverberates off of the walls, floors, and ceiling.

I ordered the po boyger, which is a shrimp patty with old bay mayo, shaved lettuce, tomato, fried lemon, and tobasco. It was actually incredibly delicious! The fried lemon was odd, but really added a lot to the sandwich. Justin and I shared an order of hand cut french fries with smoked mayo and ketchup. They were also very tasty. Justin had the faux-lafel burger. He seemed to enjoy his, too.

My niece ordered a special they had that night with french fries. Her burger was a pork belly burger and she ate nearly all of it and said it was very good. Mama ordered the southern burger, but isn't sure that's what she received. She said there was no pimento cheese and the flavor wasn't all that great. She also ordered fried rutabaga fries that were served with green pepper jelly. She said those were very good.

We all shared a nutella milkshake that was topped with burnt marshmallows. The marshmallows were like marshmallows roasted over a fire - yummy! The nutella shake tasted a lot like a mild flavored chocolate milkshake. It was good.

Aside from the wait, the noise, and Mama's burger, the experience was good. I recommend the food. I'd like to eat there again, but will probably try to go when they're not as busy.

Snow!

These are some pictures Justin sent of the snow in our backyard.

The first few were taken around 7:00 p.m. Thursday.




These were taken around 10:00 p.m. Thursday.

Thaicoon & Sushi Bar

Thaicoon & Sushi Bar (pronounced like tycoon) is a restaurant Justin and I have visited several times. Last Friday night, we called in our order and picked-up. I was craving Chinese food, but nothing was open because it was New Year's Day. Thaicoon was open so I decided Japanese food would work.

During my previous visits to Thaicoon, I've only eaten sushi. I don't remember all the rolls I've tried, but I have eaten the shrimp tempura roll since it's my absolute favorite and I eat it anytime I get sushi. Last week, I tried the shrimp teriyaki. It was very yummy and will probably be something I eat again. The shrimp was very lightly breaded and fried. It was then added to sauteed vegetables and teriyaki sauce. It was delicious! It was served with steamed white rice. Yumm-o! My entree was also served with miso soup, which I didn't like, so Grant gladly enjoyed it for me with his California roll.

Justin had the eel roll and an order of Thaicoon fried rice. The rice had shrimp and chicken in it. I tried a shrimp, but I think my shrimp was better. He enjoyed his food, too. He has also tried the hamachi roll (yellow tail). Justin says that eel is absolutely delicious. I want to try it one day, but that day hasn't arrived, yet. I guess I keep having visions of the eel I had to dissect in college biology lab. Mmmm...

Leaf Me Alone

Ok. So, this post really has nothing to do with being left alone, but I couldn't think of anything related to leaves that was catchy. Yeah, I'm a nerd.

Anyway, our yard has a lot of trees with lots of leaves and pinestraw. Justin and I raked and bagged everything last year, but we didn't wait until all the leaves fell so we got to do it twice. It's been rainy and cold this year and we just haven't made time to do it. A couple of weeks ago, a man (Smitty) stopped by the house and asked if we would pay him to rake the front yard. He and Justin agreed on a price and the man came on New Year's Day and raked and bagged the front yard. We thought we had set some kind of neighborhood record with the number of bags. There were fifty-two! Our self-proclaimed record number of bags wouldn't last long.

Smitty made arrangements to rake the yard next door to us and he told Justin he counted seventy-eight bags of leaves! He asked if he could rake our back yard, so he spent yesterday doing that. I don't have an updated count of bags, but I doubt it's higher than seventy-eight. At least the house doesn't look abandoned anymore.

I'll try to post some pictures of the freshly raked yard.

Living Room Update

The week of Christmas, we decided we really needed to get window treatments for the living room due to the burglary. We had discussed what we wanted in the living room, but never really committed to anything. We headed to Ikea with the agreement that we were leaving with something to cover the windows.

These window treatments are probably not my first choice, but they weren't terribly expensive and the quality is decent. I'd like to eventually sew some white liner fabric on the back of the panels to make them look better from outside the house, but they're fine for now. I was amazed at how much taller the ceilings appear due to the curtain rods being hung so high on the wall. The panel color is so hard to describe. They're a grayish, taupey, brownish color. Hope that helps!
We also decided to put out a rug we purchased at Ikea a while back (about a year ago). The price was right and the quality is good. We were amazed at how the rug "grounds" the furniture. The window treatments and the rug really seem to warm the room.

I want to replace the lamp shades on the lamps in our bedroom and move them to the living room. I'd like to get a sofa table to place behind the love seat. I'll probably use the buffet lamps in the picture on the sofa table. I also need to hang some stuff on the walls. I think that will really help the room look "finished".

Happy New Year!

Justin and I spent New Year's Eve at a friend's house. We had a great time!

We're looking forward to great things in 2010!