Gleanings of Wheat

I was in Memphis this weekend - very briefly - and had the opportunity to do some touristy things. Not a lot, b/c I'm cheap and didn't have a ton of time, but some. I saw some of the most beautiful skies during the trip - God truly is an artist. The band geek in me wanted to go see the Peabody ducks marched into the hotel while King Cotton March by John Phillip Sousa played but it would have thrown off my schedule too much. I plan on trying to see it the next time I'm in. I did take the kids to see a US Army Reserve center that was by our hotel, we also played in an AWESOME Southern Magnolia tree. After that I drove by Graceland (I'm too cheap to pay to go in, and frankly I don't think Elvis is interesting enough to warrant the lines that were involved) went to the botanical garden (well worth the $5) and then to the Elmwood cemetery. I'd heard there were a bunch of Civil war soldiers buried there - thus the visit. At some point, though...

For those of you reading this through my facebook feed you're going to be wondering why it sounds like I haven't written in a while even though my status gets updated pretty regularly. Ignore this post if that is the case. For those of you reading this via RSS or actually on the blog: Hi!!! So real quick run down of the past month...In early June I dropped the kids in Texas to visit their dad for a month. While down there I stayed a few days with my Gpa that I haven't seen since I was two. Then I "swung" by Nashville to visit some friends from high school. The timing was pretty perfect b/c Kristin was planning on coming back up to Illinois to visit her family for a week so she ended up just driving up with me a few days later. I had tons of fun hanging out with her and barely spent any time at home. We even managed to take a road trip with our friend Sam ( she is a photographer ) to see her show up in Madison. Before I knew it the month was almost up and I got rea...

So, my trip got extended a bit when I decided to swing by Nashville on the way home from Texas and further decided to stay on until Tuesday morning. I freelance so it isn't like I have an office I need to be at. Yesterday my friend and I went out for breakfast (at 2pm) to a place called The Pancake Pantry . Guys, seriously, if you go to Nashville you have to try this place out. The selection of pancakes is insane, and you can mix and match different ones. I got the Georgia Peach Pancakes.

Ok, not quite yet but soon - this weekend in fact! I'm going to be driving the kids down to Texas so they can visit their dad & step-mom and then driving home. On the way down we're going to stay in OK for the night and do some free touristy things. Once I'm down there I'm going to get to see my Gpa for a couple days, meet up with some internet friends, and then maybe hit Nashville on the way home. Pictures and maybe some recipes when I get back.

I'm going to tell you a story. There will be pictures taken by various people involved in the story. Sit back and relax as I recount "The Crazy Adventures of Kristina." Once there was a girl who lived in Illinois. She had friends who were all going to be congregating in Pittsburgh and decided two weeks before the big meet up to take a Greyhound out to Cleveland and road trip in with her friend Liz. So she took a train to Chicago and then spent three hours late Thursday night people watching in the Chicago Greyhound station. She had lots of fun considering the floor was sticky, the bathrooms were dirty, and it was super crowded. On the ride from Chicago to Cleveland she got trapped by a man who had really bad gas. Never did a city look more inviting than Cleveland did after that seven hours! Kristina was very excited when she saw what the Cleveland Greyhound station looked like, you see it was far smaller than the Chicago station. It also was laid out much better, had clea...

That's right, I went to Nashville to visit some friends instead of staying home and posting on Friday and Monday. You'll have to forgive me. While I was there I was treated to a lovely (and delicious) lunch at Loveless Cafe . I think I probably drank about 6 tall glasses of sweet tea and enjoyed my BLT (with fried green tomatoes!) and all the biscuits quite a bit. Seriously, if you are ever in Nashville you should stop by. It is worth the trip. I fully intend upon trying to dig up or create a recipe that will duplicate their biscuits.