Asheville!

Whoaaaa it's been awhile! Good thing I didn't make regular posting on here one of my resolutions... But I do have some good excuses, namely going to Asheville with my mom last weekend! Mom has decided that she wants to go somewhere every month this year, and so we kicked things off with a long weekend trip to Asheville, NC (my suggestion).

We used to go to Asheville fairly regularly when I was a kid, but we haven't been in at least 15 years, which meant there was plenty of new stuff to explore, as well as a few old favorites -- namely Malaprop's, one of the absolute greatest bookstores on the planet (at least as far as I know, and I have been to a fair number if I do say so myself). I can't WAIT to dig into my two finds from there -- Cataloochee by Wayne Caldwell (the debut novel from an Asheville native), and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. The only problem is, which one to read first???

My personal goal for the trip was to visit as many breweries as possible -- after all, Asheville has been voted the Examiner's Beer City USA for four years running. We managed to hit four different breweries, which is not bad in two days when you're driving yourself! First stop was Green Man, one of Asheville's most beloved breweries. And I could see why -- the Rainmaker Double IPA was amazing (so amazing, I made sure to bring home a 22-ounce bottle to share with a lucky TBD someone(s)). But I think the tasting room was a little too dive-y for Mom, so we soon moved on with our Saturday, ending with dinner at The Lobster Trap. I know, it's weird to have seafood in Asheville, but it had great reviews which were all very well deserved. Plus, who can say no to lobster macaroni and cheese??? The restaurant is also the home of the Oyster House Brewing Company, which put up a VERY tasty Moonstone Stout (brewed with real oyster shells!).

Sunday took us out to Black Mountain, a small town about 20 miles east of Asheville. We had breakfast and a couple of delicious cappuccinos at Dripolator and then walked around town for awhile. After months of searching, Mom FINALLY found a couple of nice handmade 8-ounce coffee mugs (it's amazing how everyone seems to think that we all want to drink big gulps of coffee every morning!), as well as a few other odds and ends at an awesome gallery featuring local artists. Then it was over to Pisgah Brewing, one of the other recommendations from the wonderful guys at Ale Yeah! here in Decatur. We worked our way through a couple of flights, which was an excellent way to taste many of their beers, including some strange offerings such as Benton's Bacon Stout (it was good, but that 4-ounce taster was more than enough for me). I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the Valdez coffee stout, so I picked up a 22 of that to bring back home. The brewer also talked me into a 22 of their Vortex II, which he said was on some list of "top 100 beers to try". Not sure whose list that is, but it sure does sound tasty! That one might be shelved for awhile, it's supposed to age well...

After that, we hightailed it back to the hotel to catch the last quarter of the Falcons game (womp womppp), then headed to our fourth and final brewery of the weekend, Wicked Weed. This brewpub has only been open for a few weeks, but they certainly opened in a BIG way. They had maybe 14 beers on tap, evenly split between West Coast-style hoppy brews, Belgian style beers, and wood-aged beers. The two I had were excellent, especially the Transgressor's Imperial Red Ale which had been aged in bourbon barrels AND dry-hopped. OMJEEBUS so good! Unfortunately, they were all out of the Dark Angel Cherry Sour... But all in all, Wicked Weed was probably my favorite of the four! I can't wait to go back to Asheville and see how they grow over the coming months/years...

Monday morning gave us just enough time to wrap up our to-do list by enjoying breakfast and coffee at High Five Coffee Bar in downtown Asheville. The folks at this Counter Culture shop sure know how to pull a mean shot of espresso -- the Apollo 10.0 espresso was PHENOMENAL. Of course, the traditional cappuccino was pretty great too! We then swung by Purl's Yarn Emporium to admire their large selection of locally produced yarns. Andddddd yes, I broke my resolution and bought a gorgeous skein of 100% alpaca yarn from the lovely Maria (yes, that's her picture on the label!) at Ever Thanks Farm. I'm SO excited to turn this yarn into a soft and cozy hat! And as I see it, it's a great souvenir of my trip, so it's not really breaking the rules...right???

Song in my head...

Do you ever get a song so deeply embedded in your head that you can't even listen to anything else, let alone think about anything else? No? Maybe it's just me. But for me, today, right now, that song is "Home" by Phillip Phillips. No idea why, I don't even own the album...

So while that plays on loop in my head, I thought I'd give a progress report!

Not much new to be said on the first one... But I did a long overdue defragmentation of my computer (after a double backup of everything on it, of course), so now at least the words appear on the screen roughly at the speed at which I type them. And once this post is done, I'll be opening up the latest draft of my discussion section and seeing if I can put together some coherent sentences. Wish me luck!

As far as the more fun resolutions go... I finally finished a knitting project (for myself!) that I started back in July -- the beautiful Guernsey wrap by Brooklyn Tweed, knitted in the FABULOUS Lark yarn from Quince and Co. I had already been drooling over this pattern for awhile before I found this yarn, so I'm super excited!

This project had been on the back burner for awhile as I cranked out gifts, but now it's done! Well, almost done... Just have to wait for it to finish drying on my blocking mats and then I can wrap myself up in 6 feet by 18 inches of all-American woolen goodness :)

And for my coffee resolution, I'm already getting better at pouring rosettas! Not anywhere NEAR as good as some of my coworkers, but we're getting there...

And tomorrow, I'll be heading to the Batdorf and Bronson roastery on the westside to learn all about handbrewing coffee! Yeah, sure, it's nerdy...but that's me!

And for a little something not from my resolution list... I finally went to Pinewood Tippling Room in Decatur on Friday evening to have a few drinks with some folks from work. And now you should all go there, because it's AMAZING. I'd tell you what all I had, but where's the fun in that? Especially because, I'm pretty sure it's all good, so you should just go check it out for yourselves. And if you're as lost as I was when I first looked at the cocktail menu, just flag down one of the awesome bartenders and they'll set you up with something delicious.

Coffee!

Take 1 at resolution #4 -- expanding my latte art portfolio:

Well, actually take 2, but the first one was completely unrecognizable. At least this one sort of looks like a rosetta... Thanks to Joel Ballard for the quick lesson! Now I just need to practice...A LOT.

Oh, and one more resolution, let's call it #4.5 on the previous list:

Learn how to brew coffee using other hand brew methods, namely using a Chemex and the V60 brewer :)

Resolutions

Happy New Year!

I've never really made resolutions before, but there's a first time for everything, right? So as part of this year's attempt, I'm starting up this blog! Not so much as a resolution itself, but more as a way to keep up with the rest of my goals for the year, which include:

1. Finish my thesis and publications! (This is more of a goal for the month...)

2. Run at least three days a week.
3. Buy NO yarn or fabric purchases until I finish ALL of my WIPs (works in progress).

4. Improve/expand my latte art skills.

5. Take more pictures!

So hopefully, subsequent posts in this blog space will include updates, progress reports, and celebrations on all of these things, as well as stunning photos to document them! And I'm sure there will be numerous random comments to fill space in between.

Until next time...