The Freakin' Weekend

During the winter months, there is a shortage of things to do in our area. Actually, that may not be entirely true. But because the weather is often cold and snowy during the winter, we don't venture out of the house unless we have to. Instead, we keep a fire going in the wood stove, build pillow forts, watch movies and drink hot tea. We manage to act like 7 year olds and 70 year olds at the same time. It's quite a feat.

Now that the weather is warming up and spring has arrived, there are lots of great weekend events to check out, and this past weekend was particularly busy.

On Saturday, we started the day in Downtown Roanoke and hung out for a while at the finish line of the Blue Ridge Marathon. This race is known as "America's Toughest Road Marathon" and makes its way along a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway and attracts visitors from around the country. It did nothing to motivate me to ever run a marathon but it was really cool to stand at the finish line and see people as they celebrated finishing. I love watching people accomplish a goal they've worked so hard to reach.

Spring Saturdays in Roanoke also offer great opportunities to visit some of the local farmer's markets in the area. The Historic City Market in Downtown Roanoke is one of the oldest farmer's markets in Virginia and features a great selection of produce, baked goods, and other homemade items. We act like such trendy hipsters and always peruse the market even though we know what's there every Saturday.

In other ridiculous news, I had ice cream for breakfast on Sunday. It wasn't just ice cream though. I toasted a waffle and then put a giant scoop of ice cream on top of it. But I didn't want to stop the party. So I also heated up some homemade ganache and put that on top of the ice cream. Don't judge me. I'm already ashamed.

-David

The Taste of Roanoke

Nicole and I have a thing for free stuff, especially if it involves free food. We once asked a friend who had a Costco membership to take us with her so we could try the samples. When we lived in West Palm Beach, we ate dinner twice a week at the two different Whole Foods locations because they'd have block parties and offer dishes from the various departments in the store. We even went to the Ikea in Orlando once only because they were serving free breakfast. We're such great supporters of the economy! If it's free, we'll take three.

And we always check the calendar for events that could include complimentary snacks. Hello, The Taste of Roanoke.

The Taste of Roanoke was part of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce Business and Technology Expo at the Roanoke Civic Center this past week and it featured a number of local restaurants.

We spent the evening enjoying burger sliders from Beamer's 25, chocolate chip cookies from The Hotel Roanoke, ribs from Smokey Bones, grilled chicken and steak from Longhorn, vegetable kabobs from the Salem Civic Center, and much more. 

They were even serving the new Cool Ranch Doritos Taco by Taco Bell! SPOILER ALERT: It's just as bad as the other Doritos taco.

It was a lot of fun trying food from different restaurants in the area and we ran into a lot of friends. 

Do you have any tips on fun free things to do? Particularly those that involve free meals.

-David

Spring Update

It's been a few months so it feels like we're due for another "It's been too long since we last posted and we promise to do a better job with this in the future" post. I don't know if this will happen or not but we'll keep trying to post when we can and provide updates about what's going on in our life.

Nicole has been doing some serious baking lately and trying new recipes that have been amazing. It has made me quite popular at work as I usually take the leftovers to the office. Two of her latest creations have been blueberry muffins and chocolate cake, which were inspired by these two recipes:

Cooking Classy

Cannella-Vita

This is also the start of one of my favorite weekends of the year as a sports fan. The Masters just finished it's second round of play and the weekend should be full of great golf from Augusta National. I'm so excited about spending Sunday afternoon watching The Masters on CBS and seeing who wins golf's first major of the year. Here is a picture from when we went a few years ago:

That's all for now!

-David

Welcome to Church

I saw this post from Stuff Christians Like and thought it was awesome. It's from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community and it's the welcome message they put it in their church bulletin a few weeks ago. If you decide to visit a church today, I hope you go somewhere that makes you feel like this. Here's the message:

We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor, yo no habla Ingles. We extend a special welcome to those who are crying new-borns, skinny as a rail or could afford to lose a few pounds.

We welcome you if you can sing like Andrea Bocelli or like our pastor who can’t carry a note in a bucket. You’re welcome here if you’re “just browsing,” just woke up or just got out of jail. We don’t care if you’re more Catholic than the Pope, or haven’t been in church since little Joey’s Baptism.

We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like “organized religion,” we’ve been there too.

If you blew all your offering money at the dog track, you’re welcome here. We offer a special welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell, or because grandma is in town and wanted to go to church.

We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid or got lost in traffic and wound up here by mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts … and you!

NaBloPoMo - November 27

Question: If you could instantly know any language in the world, which one would it be?

I'm torn between Afrikaans and French. I would love to learn Afrikaans because I love the way it sounds and it would make me one step closer to sounding like a South African when I talk, which is one of my goals in life.

On the other hand, learning French would open so many doors to different parts of the world. From Africa to Europe to South America to North America, there are people speaking different variations of the French language. Through the traveling we've done around the world, I've been constantly reminded of how much easier it would have been to communicate if I'd had any sort of knowledge of French.

While Afrikaans would be fun, French makes the most sense. Au revoir!

David

NaBloPoMo: November 26

Monday, November 26, 2012: Do you speak more than one language?  How did you learn the additional languages?

I am horrible at speaking other languages - though admittedly quite good at English :) I took Spanish classes throughout middle school, high school and college but am far from mastering it. Actually, I like Spanish and frequently try to get other people to speak Spanish with me but I still stink. While we were in Switzerland, David did a great job of picking up French (and Haitian Creole in Haiti) but I find French horrifying. The letters don't look like the word and nothing sounds phonetic at all. As much as I long to move to another country, the thought of learning a different language doesn't excite me at all. 

Laissez Le Bon Temps Roulet!

-Nicole

NaBloPoMo - Day 22

Question: When was the last time that you cried? Why?

Here I was thinking this would be some sort of question about being thankful and NaBloPoMo goes in a totally different direction!

I'm not a crier. Nicole will tell you I struggle to have any sort of emotion whatsoever. Some people would call me apathetic. I like to think I'm actually Jason Bourne. So, when I say this is the last time I cried, let's assume my emotions were to the point of being close to crying and I had a lump in my throat and my eyes got a little watery.

A few months ago, Nicole's company had a large charity event and one of the charities they were raising money for was Homes for Heroes, an organization that helps build or find homes for veterans and other servicemen and women. As part of the event, there were two veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who were there as the guests of honor on behalf of the charities all weekend. These men sustained major injuries during the war and I can't even begin to describe the daily challenges they and their families will face for the rest of their lives because of the sacrifices they made to protect our country.

During one of the nights, the company hosted a private concert by Darius Rucker, the artist usually known as "Hootie" from Hootie and the Blowfish. Darius played many of his new songs but also brought back some of the hits he is so well known for from his days of being "Hootie." At one point, he and his band began playing "Let Her Cry," one of his most successful songs during the 1990's. During the second verse of the song, I remember looking over to my left and one of soldiers was standing by his table and dancing with his wife. Because this was a "corporate" event, most people were sitting at banquet tables or in rows of chairs so it's not like anyone was really dancing or jumping around. The moment with the soldier and his wife was a completely spontaneous, amazing moment I will never forget. I remember sitting there watching them and being so thankful for what they've done to protect our freedom and so grateful they were able to have that dance together, despite their difficult circumstances.

Even from someone who never cries, it's hard not to when you experience a moment like that.

- David