Mempis, Summer 2012

Earlier this summer, John and I drove to Memphis for an engagement party that his mom, Julie, threw for us.

The party itself was fancy and a lot of fun, and it was evident that Julie spent a ton of time on it. She had big center pieces that looked like paint spilling from the ceiling (somehow I managed to not take a picture? fail), and Mexican food everywhere. We got to meet a lot of her friends, and people that John knew growing up. Also, bonus!, Kira and her mom came over from Nashville! Kira brought us a ton of tasty beer, which led to an impromptu beer tasting in the garage for the younger crowd at the party.

Other highlights:

 The day of the party, we got a flat tire. We were parking to go meet Morgan and a couple of cousins at a cool restaurant called The Beauty Shop, when John brushed a very sharp metal point on a drain along the curb. Luckily Morgan was there to give everyone directions, and to point and laugh. John's cousin Davis (the blond guy) was a big help that day.

He and his girlfriend, Irene (pronounced EE-reh-neh), hung out with us at Gateway Tire while we waited for them to fix it.

At the end of the night, we opened the presents we'd been given. It's kind of a tradition that when I go to Memphis for Christmas, I put the bows from the presents around my head, and the same thing happened this trip. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the tequila I'd had.

I don't have photos of other stuff we ate, but I will just mention a couple of other neat restaurants, both in Midtown: Alchemy, sort of a tapas place with a long cocktail menu, and some tasty wild mushroom pancakes; and Sweet Grass, with lots of traditional Southern food, and a surprising number of vegetarian items on the menu. The grits were heavenly, and made Sweet Grass my favorite meal out.

We also got to make a trip to the Memphis Zoo, and I'll share just one of the fantastic pictures I took there. It's a great place.

Julie and Keith maintain a huge, beautiful flower garden in the summer, and I'll end with a photo of one of the flowers there. We had a great time in Memphis and hope to go back again soon!

Kira's Ordination to the Sacred Order of Priests

My bff Kira was ordained last weekend and it was an incredibly moving experience in which to participate. Moving and personal. So instead of going into a lot of detail, I'll just share a few photos of the elements involved.

Ragdoll cats.




















Shown here: Duke Ellington, the cat who thinks he's a dog. Or a supermodel.



Cake.



















This was from a local lady and it tasted like some kind of magical almond paste.


Champagne!

























The order of events went like this: super long run on Friday. Ordination and 2 parties on Saturday, with champagne in between. The Episcopalians know how to party!


White chocolate crosses.




















A few people debated whether or not eating a cross was weird, and we decided to go with it because the chocolate was so good. The Episcopalian church ladies know how to throw a good party (see above).


I got to read the Litany, during which I noticed that the Queen was conspicuously absent (Anglicans in Canada pray for her and other world leaders). I was honored that Kira included me in the ceremony! It was beautiful and she picked some killer hymns.






















Kira got to wear very pretty vestments, which she modeled for me.

























Since the discernment process and her seminary training lasted several years, it was exciting to be present for her actual ordination, the culmination of so much work. I'm also a little surprised at how well the timing worked out, since I asked her to marry me (...you know, to John) several years ago, and now she has the authority to do so. This weekend was so much fun, I wish we could go back in a few days and do the whole thing again.


Congrats again, Mama K!*























*Click the link above for a full explanation. Basically male priests are often called Father ____, so Kira can be addressed as Mother Kira. But the kids at the camp where she was a chaplain last summer abbreviated it to Mama K as a nickname, and luckily for the rest of us, it totally stuck.

A Tale of Three 'Villes - Knoxville

Our final stop in TN was Knoxville where we visited John's master's thesis advisor and her partner, who is also a musicology professor at UT Knoxville (you can read both their bios here).




Talking to Les in their spacious study. I loved their house!













They also made us a wonderful dinner of curried chicken, grilled corn on the cob, and cucumber salad. The next day, Rachel got up and made us all omelettes. As John said, they gave us the real executive treatment.
Here's Rachel with Frou Frou, their poodle.


























The weather cooperated and we had both meals outside on their porch.






















Frou Frou is really well behaved, and milled around the yard while we ate.






















After several hours of musicology talk, we got on the road and drove up to Bloomington. We passed several of our favorite TN landmarks, like this one:
A a combination porn/adult bookstore, as-seen-on-TV outlet, fireworks store, and fudge store, presided over by this giant white cross.

















Always my favorite place to stop on I-75.

A Tale of Three 'Villes - Cookeville

After our goodbyes to Kira and Joe, John and I headed to Cookeville to see his conducting teacher/mentor from his undergrad days, Dan Allcott. Dan's always been so supportive of John, and me - even though he was never my actual teacher - so we love to visit him and his family.

As we drove along I-40 we saw a sign for Del Monaco Winery just 5 miles from the Cookeville exit, and we decided to pull off.


















They had a nice tasting room, beautiful property, and friendly staff. Dan told us that the winery is THE place to have a wedding, if you live in Cookeville, and if you click here to see their pictures, you'll understand why.

We tasted several of their wines and you can read about them here. A lot of them were too sweet for my taste, but the chardonnay pretty nice. A lot of them would be good to drink while sitting out on their patio.


























Their tasting room overlooks the production part of the building.






































After some tasting and buying a bottle for our Knoxville hosts, we went on to Cookeville to hang out with the Capron-Allcotts.



















Dan and his wife Susan made us a fabulous dinner of grilled pizzas and salad, and then we played with the family's new dog, Sandy.




















Their son, Carter, posed some of his action figures for John to photograph.

































Dan still imparts life lessons to John when we visit. This time we learned two important things, though I'm sure John can tell us more:
1) When pouring beer in a glass, you want it to have some foam because its more fragrant.
2) If the glass is warm, pour slowly. If the glass is properly chilled, you have to pour aggressively to get the right amount of foam.
























The next few photos take a little explaining. The gist of the story is that Dan went to IU for grad school, and while there, his wife really fell in love with the Bloomington children's museum, Wonderlab.









John puts the dress frame-thing on Jacque (short for Jacqueline), their daughter.















After they moved to TN, Susan felt Cookeville should have something similar and so she started her own version of it: the Kiwanis Cookeville Children's Museum. This year they had a fundraiser called the Mad Hatter's Ball, where the Allcott's bought that dress frame-thing (can someone tell me the real name of it?) that John is putting on Jacque in the picture above.

























As part of the fundraiser they also asked local artists to create a fancy hat for the auction. John is modeling the one they took home.

We were so grateful to the Capron-Allcotts for hosting us. It's always nice to visit them and to see the local changes around TTU and Cookeville.

Next up: John's-professor-reunion part 2 in Knoxville.

Cookeville, TN

John and I spent the night on Sunday in Cleveland, TN (no photos, unfortunately) and Monday night in Cookeville, TN, which is home to John's alma mater, Tennessee Tech.























We stayed with his former conducting teacher, Dan Allcott, and his family. Before driving to their house we took a trip through campus.






















It's a pretty, southern looking school with lots of brick and white columns.





















Being in Cookeville and on campus seemed to bring back a lot of memories for John. Practicing, undergrad classes, marching band.





















Since he was there for the first 4 years of our relationship, I felt sort of nostalgic, too. I'm glad we stopped in Cookeville for a little visit. Plus we were there during the morning of his birthday!

Next stop: Memphis.