Deep Fried Kudzu

March 17, 2005August 9, 2017

Neon Signs and Downtown Shrines

Fried Green Tomatoes

The best fried green tomatoes in Birmingham are at Andrew’s Bar-B-Q in Woodlawn. Av and I were B’ham this week, and I had wanted to go there for a long time, because I *really* like their neon sign, noting “air conditioning” and the little piggy running. The barbecue is just okay, but the fried green tomatoes are the greatest!

Last weekend we spent just a little time in Wetumpka, where Av took a picture of this minnow neon sign at a bait shop.

Shrine in Woodlawn

When I discovered Flickr, I found that one of the photographers had posted a pic of a Mary shrine in Woodlawn – I found it! It’s right in front of a downtown business that is subdivided into three or four smaller offices/retail shops. This Mary shrine is on the left-hand wall if you’re facing the building….

Across from the Mary shrine

…and this shrine is on the right-hand side of the building, if you’re facing it. I haven’t seen these before, built into outside walls of businesses.

March 1, 2005December 23, 2019

Picture Marble Magnets

How to make: Picture Marble Magnets

You will need:
Scissors
Pen or Pencil
Pictures of a suitable size for the marble you use (catalogs and magazines are perfect)
Clear flat marbles (mine are ‘clear lustre jumbo gems’ made by Panacea, found in the floral section at Michael’s)
Glue that dries clear – I used Omni-Stick, also from Michael’s but most any clear-drying glue should work just fine.
Hot Glue/Hot Glue Gun – I used the low setting for these, and it was perfect
Magnets – I used 1/2″ round discs for this project, but they could have been a little bigger – all depending on the size of the marble you use or Thumbtacks – I used ones found in the quilting section at Michael’s because they’re a bit bigger than other thumbtacks I’ve found (I think…).

First, take your marble and find a picture that will center inside it nicely. Draw around the marble so you will know where to cut, and then just cut out the picture(s).

Here are all my pictures cut out, ready for gluing to the marble.

Now take a small amount of glue (use glue that will dry clear – I used Omni-Stick that I bought at Michael’s) to make a small circle in the center of the picture. Place the marble on top of the picture and swish it around on top of the picture a little bit to make sure the entire bottom of the marble has glue and will adhere really well.

Here are the pictures after they have been glued to the marbles. Make sure to press out any tiny air bubbles. Wait about thirty minutes or so for the glue to dry, then do any trimming around the edges that needs to be done.

Next, take the glue gun and put it on low heat. Now that the glue on the pictures has dried to the marble, it is safe to hot-glue magnets to the back to make them into refrigerator magnets. Just put a small dab of hot glue on the magnet, and press it to the back of the picture. If you put on a little too much glue, it’s okay because nobody will see the back of the magnet anyway. I used 1/2″ magnets for these.

I wanted to make some of these into thumbtacks, so I just hot-glued these to the backs of my picture-marbles also. Now I have some for my bulletin board and some for my refrigerator.

Here are the thumbtacks all glued on. I used the ones that are in the quilting section of Michael’s because they’re a little bit bigger than regular thumbtacks (I think).

Here they are! My new picture-marble-magnets work and look great! I’ve got the thumbtacks downstairs and they work really well too. This project took about 60-90 minutes from start to finish – including glue-drying time. I don’t have the receipt in front of me, but I would estimate the cost for the 12 that I did to be less than $15, including the tube of Omni-Stick that I only used about 1/30th of.

February 23, 2005August 9, 2017

Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans

Lobby: The lobby is actually on the third floor – so if you drive in on Canal, you come up the ground-floor lobby to the third-floor lobby. It’s really pretty – there is always a *huge* arrangement of fresh flowers, and it makes the entire lobby smell so nice.

Service: Everyone that works here knows your name. From the valet to the doorman to the front desk, and so on. When they see you again, they somehow remember your name. They’re all really thoughtful, and if you come through a hallway at an odd hour when someone might be vacuuming or doing something else, they will stop or turn off the vacuum, and wait for you to get well clear before they begin again. I know people say this a lot, but it *is* the small things that really count, like remembering your name, and saying that it’s so great to have you back since your last visit in December, things like that.

Food: We had room service Sunday evening and it was superb! From my salad, pasta, and creme brulee to Av’s soup and fish entree, it was all perfect.

Our experience is this: We’ve stayed at some great places in the Quarter, like the Hotel Monteleone and the W, but the R-C really is the nicest and most gracious. We sometimes try other hotels in New Orleans (mostly because sometimes the R-C can get VERY expensive – WELL over $300/day, sometimes more) and sometimes just to see what the other ones are like. But the R-C will always be my favorite.

February 23, 2005August 9, 2017

Our Anniversary

So it was our six year anniversary, and Av made these great plans for us to take the train (I loooove the train) to New Orleans. Since we were only going to stay a couple of days, the train would be perfect because we would just be walking around in the Quarter. Usually, we take the Volvo and mess around all over New Orleans – doing interesting things like going out to eat at fabulous restaurants – and then there are the things that I just *have* to do, like getting some doberge from Gambino’s in Metarie, and watching a movie at The Palace 20 – while having a daquiri.

We got in a little after 8pm Sunday and took a taxi to the hotel (the Ritz-Carlton, my favorite). We had been thinking about going over to Galatoire’s for supper, but were really tired for some reason, so we stayed in and ordered room service. Delish.

Food This Trip:

Muffuletta at Central Grocery – this visit, we decided to do things that were famous but we had somehow never got around to doing before. The muffuletta at Central Grocery was excellent – messy and yummy. Olive salad, mmmmm.

Oyster Po Boy at Acme Oyster House – everything, everything about this po boy was perfect. The bread. The oysters. Dressed perfect. Yum!

Roasted Duck at Dante’s Kitchen – delish. We ate outside, and the temperature was perfect. We had company and everything was just perfect.

February 18, 2005August 9, 2017

Possum in a Peach Tree

Spring-time is coming. Several of our neighbors’ daffodils are blooming already, the Japanese magnolias are starting to bloom, and our peach tree is also starting to take off.

This past September, we were woken one morning by our dog Lox (she is a red mini-dachshund) barking over and over again. Once you have dogs for a while, you can tell from their barking what is going on. There is the “I hear something, so I’m going to do a little short barking so you know there’s a dog around here”, there is the “I see somebody or something so I’m going to bark-bark and let them know that I’m over here”, and there’s the “something is really exciting me and I’m just going to bark my head off”. The last times she has had those episodes, something really was going on – twice there was a snake in the yard, one time a snake bit Bagel’s nose, and this time there was a possum in our peach tree.

We couldn’t immediately see what was going on, so we went out in the back yard and there he was, just very calmly sitting on a limb. Growing up in a small town, I had already had a couple of possum encounters (including one eating our cat’s food in the backyard), but Av hasn’t. So I told him to come see, take some pictures, but if the possum starts hissing to high-tail it back inside the house. Possums are pretty much like most other wild animals – they would rather take off than have to deal with a human – but if he were to get agitated and start hissing, it would be best to take off.

My PawPaw z”l used to tell me possum stories, like if one bites you, they bite and don’t let go. He also said that when he was a boy growing up in Attalla, that his family would occasionally catch a possum, put it under a tub, feed him for a week to fatten him up, and then cook him. PawPaw said that he wouldn’t eat possum but that everybody else did.

BTW, the way to cook (a cleaned) possum is to put it in a roasting pan at 350* for about an hour along with sweet potatoes.

Thankfully, our possum was off in a couple of hours after a delicious meal of past-prime peaches.

February 14, 2005August 9, 2017

Grand Opera House, Meridian MS

Inside Grand Opera House (Under Renovation), Meridian MS

Gibson Girl, Opera Angel at Grand Opera House in Meridian, MS

Above are pictures taken last week at the Grand Opera House in Meridian, which we got to go in and see even though it is still under renovation. The Opera House is actually on the second floor of the Marks-Rothenberg building (which was a department store in the late 19th and early 20th century), and to get to the opera house, you had to walk through the store. The store built the opera house, so this was a “marketing opportunity”. 🙂

In the picture above, you can see the stage, the fire curtain, and some of the boxes.

The Opera House was leased to Saenger Theatres in 1923 and closed by Saenger in 1928 when they built “The Temple” theater. Really, although some renovation efforts have been made over the years, the theater was mostly just as it was in 1928 with the added decay of 75 years or so.

Mississippi State is heading up the project with plans to renovate the entire M-R building (and other buildings on that block) for multi-use, including a MSU campus, a Meridian Community College campus, a conference center, space for other exhibits/museums, a parking garage, and performances at the restored Grand Opera House.

I can’t wait to go once it is reopened in March of 2006! Yay!