Surprisingly Fun

Pigeon Forge has a huge number of dinner shows that perform every night.  With such a surfeit, we decided we should see one.  The decision became pretty easy because so many were completely kid oriented.  Considering the price (most were over $50 a person), we were kind of surprised about the way they catered almost exclusively to children.  One, we thought, was less child oriented, so we went to it.  This was the Lumberjack Feud, which promised real lumberjack competitions.  They delivered.  All the major actors were champions of the national lumberjack competitions, including the girls.  There was some local history, some log rolling, some silliness, and some climbing and cutting.  Overall, it was rather fun.

 We had 'bears', so our food was served in bear proof container.  The food itself wasn't all that good.  It wasn't awful, but it definitely could stand improvement.  Drinks (all nonalcoholic) were served in mason jars.  The food (not presentation) was the only disappointment of the night.

You could tell the competitors wanted to win, even though the overall show was rigged to keep both teams in it through to the final event.  The stage was easy to see and it was interesting!  They even had dogs competing to fetch out of water and run over logs.

I'd go again in a few years to see if it changed, but would eat beforehand.

Cow Fur

 I have mentioned before that I love the look and feel of cow fur.  Andreas isn't quite so enthused, but he's coming around slowly.  As witness, I was able to buy these two cow fur coasters for work (they're really good for petting to destress) and this rope of cow fur stars for the house.  I love them, of course, and the cow fur is coming in handy at work.

Megan Left!

One of my good friends, Megan, left post while we were on home leave.  She just got to Moscow last week.  Before she left we had lunch and she gave me these cute earrings from her favorite jewelry designer.  Thank you Megan, and I hope we cross paths again soon!

Crazy January Start Twenty-Two - Ornate Butterfly

Just brown at the moment, but the piece has a bunch of jewel toned colors and the floss is separated!  It's also somewhat small, so there's a chance of finishing it in some kind of normal time.

Crazy January Start Twenty-One - Dumitriti

This is a local kit, and like all local kits, came with aida.  I changed it out for linen.  The piece is a bouquet of gerbera daisies, called dumitriti (pronounced doo-meh-tree-tz) in Romanian. Obviouly, I've only got part of a leaf done.  Into the pile it goes to get pulled out to work on later.

Wine And Dine

 We went to Lisina Restaurant at Mandola winery a couple of days after Christmas.  It's about an hour outside of Fredericksburg, but it's got a really beautiful atmosphere.  Andreas took photos of the wine bottle because it had a local label but was made in Italy, so was a true chianti.  I had forgotten how much I'd liked chiantis.  It'd been a long time.  

Both Andreas and I had pizza.  Mine's the one with the green on top.  We also had a meat and cheese tray between the three of us, and I had pumpkin soup, the small size.  Mom had scallops again.  Everything tasted very good.  It was also, as you can see, gorgeously presented.  The last two photos are of the interior and exterior, showing how the place fits into its location.

You Know It's A Bad Day When...

the fire department comes ambling into the lobby of your hotel in full gear with three trucks outside.  It was just another misadventure on the trip.