White Christmas

Until 2010, Atlanta hadn't had a white Christmas since record keeping began in 1896. Naturally, Justin and I weren't here to witness it. We spent Christmas in South Georgia with our families, which, in my opinion, was better than a white Christmas. As we drove back to Atlanta on Sunday afternoon, we ran into snow around Forsyth. It was very different. I can't say that I've ever driven in that much snow before. It wasn't sticking to the road, which was wonderful, but it was definitely coming down quickly. We should have known to expect lots of snow on objects at the house when we saw a car in Macon Sunday afternoon with a Dekalb County license plate that was covered in snow.

This was the front yard when we arrived home:

A little snow was still in the courtyard when we got home. Pete and Annabelle didn't seem to mind it. Doesn't the yard look dreary and sad?

You can see the snowflakes falling in this photo.

We didn't get as much snow last weekend as we did in February of this year. There was still snow on the ground Wednesday morning. It's all gone now.

My New Job

A couple of weeks ago, I started a new job. I'm enjoying it and look forward to learning new things each day. I get more comfortable with my work each day and I think I am beginning to get the hang of it.

This is my view as I pull into the parking lot each morning. It's definitely a big change from the view at my last job in South Georgia.

This is my current work station. I'm slowly personalizing it with photos and decor. It still looks pretty generic, but it's a work in progress. I'll eventually move to a different part of the office, but I'm expecting to be here for a few more weeks.

Isn't this uber exciting? I knew you'd agree.

The Honda's Key

Recently, I've noticed that the battery in my car key seems to be nearing the end of it's life. Justin noticed the same thing about his key about that time, too. We both made sure our spare keys worked in the event something went wrong with the battery replacement. Justin carefully opened his key and found out the battery type. He attempted to open mine. After working for a while, all he managed to accomplish was stripping the tiny screw that held the key together.

He researched the Honda keys online and found out that Honda sometimes uses thread stripping glue to keep you from opening the key on your own. Whenever you need to have the battery replaced, you are encouraged to take the key to a Honda dealership where they break the cover off the key and replace the battery and cover when they're finished. I have no idea why they do this. It doesn't make a bit of sense.

Justin found a company online that sells uncut replacement keys for my car. He ordered one and it arrived yesterday.

My current key on the left and the uncut replacement on the right:

Justin is prying into the cover:

This is what the guts of a Honda key fob look like. The center piece (with the buttons) is the working mechanism and everything else is the cover. When he reassembled the key, Justin had to use the existing half of the cover that contained the actual key to the car (the piece on the left side of the photo below) since the key was attached to that piece of the cover.

Finished. We still need to get a replacement battery for the key fob but at least we can get into the cover to easily replace it now. We're also hoping to have the new key cut so the entire key and key fob will be new.

Happy birthday, Olivia!

Justin's niece, Olivia, turned one yesterday! I cannot believe she's one. I remember visiting her in the hospital a few hours after she was born. It seems like that was yesterday.

Isn't she beautiful? Her daddy, Justin's brother, is holding her in this photo.

She's checking out her toys. She's walking now so the push/ride car looks like it will be lots of fun.

I wonder if she enjoyed her cake.

Happy first birthday, Olivia!

Fancy Bows

I cannot believe how fast December is zooming by. Christmas will be here in just over a week! I think Justin and I are pretty much finished with our Christmas shopping. We're still waiting for a couple of gifts to arrive, but I think most everything has been ordered.

This is how our tree currently looks:

Justin found the floral wire one night recently so I was able to make a new bow for the top of the tree. I printed some simple gift tags and used pinking shears to cut them. They're kind of cute.

My mother always puts fancy bows that she makes on her presents. She simply does not allow stick on bows under her tree. I've used the stick on bows on presents before and she removed them and put fancy bows on the presents. It didn't bother me because her bows really do look better, but that takes time and a little effort. The stick on bows were a step up from what I used to do. I used to didn't even put bows on presents. I bought some inexpensive ribbon and put fancy bows on my presents this year. They don't look as good as Mama's, but they're acceptable. She also uses nicer ribbon than I used. What can I say, I'm cheap.

Johann Sebastian Bach

I am a huge fan of JS Bach. I think he is my favorite composer (I really like Tchaikovsky, too.). One of his pieces, Cantata No. 28, Sheep May Safely Graze, BVW 208, is probably my second favorite Bach piece. My favorite is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. I once read that Bach was a very religious man who wrote his music to please God. I'm sure He was pleased.

The link below is a YouTube video of Sheep May Safely Graze.

Happy Birthday, Annabelle!

Today is Annabelle's sixth birthday!

Happy birthday, Annabelle!

Cafe Lily

A couple of years ago, Justin and I were wandering around Decatur one Sunday evening before I left for South Georgia. We were trying to decide what to eat for supper when we came across Cafe Lily. The outside didn't appear to be anything incredibly fancy so we walked inside. I should mention that we looked like crap. I can't remember if we had bathed earlier that day (I know, we're gross and disgusting) but I was definitely not wearing make-up and I seriously doubt my hair was styled. Anyway, we walked inside and looked at a menu. We quickly decided we needed to come back when we didn't look so bad.

Friday evening was the day we didn't look so bad. After raking the yard, we showered and headed to Decatur for supper.

Justin made a reservation, but we arrived about fifteen minutes early and were immediately seated. I started the meal with a yummy cosmopolitan and Justin had a glass of wine. We also shared a bowl of fonduta piemontese. The fondue was very yummy.

Justin had a marinated pork special for his entree. I tried it and it was ok, but not something that I would order. I think he enjoyed it, but not as much as the man at the table beside us. When our server was telling us about the specials for the evening, this man turned around and raved about how wonderful the pork was. I had the half order of seafood vol-au-vent. It was fantastic! So rich and creamy. We were full after our entrees so we skipped dessert, but I'll definitely save room next time because the desserts all sounded very tasty.

I really want to go back because I saw several things on the menu that I cannot wait to try (risotto con cappesante e asparago and pescado relleno). The service was great and the atmosphere was good, too. The kitchen seemed to have their act together because as we finished one course, the next was out within a couple of minutes.

Leaves are evil

Our yard has trees. Most of the time, this isn't a problem. Throughout the autumn season, the trees shed their leaves and pine needles (pine straw). The first autumn we were in this house, we raked the yard a couple of times, but grew frustrated that more leaves would fall shortly after we raked. Last year, we just didn't rake. A man came through the neighborhood and asked if we would pay him to rake our yard. We happily obliged. He earned his money that day. The house literally looked abandoned. It was horrible.

This year, we kept up with the raking. We raked it three times before raking it yesterday. Sometimes, I would stop working and stare up at the leaves still attached to the trees and think about how they would fall and need to be raked. It was also lovely to be raking and see a steady parade of leaves falling to the ground in an already raked area. In my opinion, the worst part about raking is the bagging. In order for the yard trash to be picked up by the county, we have to bag it.

Prior to today, we raked the yard manually using rakes. Today, we tried using the leaf blower. That worked fairly well for the leaves, but I still had to go behind Justin and rake the pine needles. The pine needles were a snap once those pesky leaves were gone.

I took these photos this afternoon at about 5:30 p.m. They're kind of dark since the sun was quickly setting. The bare driveway is the biggest change. The leaves had covered the driveway to the point that you literally couldn't tell if you were driving on driveway or yard. Parking on the parking pad was loads of fun, too. I can't count the number of times I had to re-park my car after getting out and realizing I was either on the grass or in the middle of the pad and crooked to the point that it was embarrassing.
We weren't able to completely finish the front yard since that darned sun decided to set. The nerve.

When my sister was here last week, she commented that she thought her yard had a lot of leaves. You can see a distinct line where we stopped raking for the evening. The entire yard and driveway looked like this unraked portion of yard. I promise I'm not exaggerating.

This portion still needs to be raked and bagged. This area is near the road and has smaller leaves. Those little leave are not fun to rake or bag.

I started working in the courtyard since the dogs spend a lot of time out there and I wanted to make sure I had enough time to clean it. Once again, this whole area was covered in leaves.

When we finished for the evening, there were eighteen bags of leaves and pine needles (sixteen from the front yard and two from the courtyard in the back).

I hope we can get the rest of the front yard raked before this cold front comes through tomorrow. The highs for next week are supposed to be in the low to mid 40s. I'm a strong girl, but I do have my limits. I don't work outside in temperatures below fifty.

Edited to add: We did get the yard finished before it got too cold. We did brave some rain sprinkles, but nothing terrible. When we finally finished, we had thirty-eight bags of yard stuff.