Mayoral Poop

Hey everyone! How's it going??? I can't believe the week is already half over!

We had a great weekend here in TN! When we got home Friday the weather was nice and since we knew the cold weather was coming we loaded up the Pippers and headed for the park. By some freak of nature Brent forgot his camera, which sucks because it was crazy how high the lake and river were, and in a lot of places on the greenway water was running right over. Very different from last summer when the lake was so low due to the drought. After nearly being eaten by a ferocious chow in a muzzle and an evil Jack Russel with fangs for teeth we headed home where I had a message from Nicole on my phone. We met them for dinner at MadDonna's and had good times. We had been to MadDonna's a couple of weeks after they opened and were less than impressed - there was mass confusion and annoying patio heater issues and a girl melted part of the tent before nearly turning the whole heater over on me....but this time went much better. Their shrimp and grits had been horrible, this time I tried the sweet potato enchiladas which were GREAT although their black beans were about the dullest thing I've ever tasted. We had a great time hearing all about T & N's first few days here in Nashville and catching up with all their moving excitement!

And as life is one massive roller coaster.....when we got home we discovered that our entire network had been fried in Friday's storms. We had some very strong storms on Friday (during which I brilliantly walked to the library and back at lunch with tornado sirens a-blazing) and I guess we had a big power surge. Clue #1 was our garage door not opening when we got home, which seems to happen when we have a surge. All we have to do is unplug it and it resets, no biggie. When I got in I noticed our network was done, but that's pretty normal after a storm so I just surfed off a neighbor. Once we got in from dinner Brent went to reset it....except there was nothing to reset. All the brilliant flashing lights in our top secret computer closet were gone.....never to return. So that knocked out our cable modem, router and wireless access point. I told Brent "Merry Christmas" and gave him free reign to build the network of his dreams....with power surge protectors. We've been replacing pieces as they break, but he'd been looking at upgrading for a while. Saturday am we had to abandon our plans and head out to buy some electronics. We also did some shopping and took a tour of a neighborhood I'd rather not return to.....

In the afternoon I enjoyed the sunshine and got my garden dug. We've already mapped out our "dream landscaping" for the back yard and all my little seedling are starting to be really gangly and need to be in the real dirt. So I got the whole thing dug this past weekend and hopefully can plant this weekend.

Sat night we had plans with our friends Steph and Nathan to go to an art opening over here and have some weenies from the local weenie place. But, weenies close at 6 and they got here around then SO plans changed for the better. After enjoying the show and an antique shop where some hussy bought an owl I really wanted (I was coming back for it.....GRRRR!) we headed to the Gerst Haus. We seriously always forget about it, even though we pass it every stinking day. BUT OMG, it was so fun! It's a German restaurant and on Fri and Sat nights they have live German music. It was so awesome!! Nathan got so into it he was like a kid at Christmas and we had a blast. And I got the best kielbasa I have ever stinking had. I am drooling now just thinking about it!!!! Their food was so insanely good that we plan on actually remembering it more often!

Sunday we were mostly lazy but we did take Pippin for a very chilly walk. The cold front moved in late Saturday and Sunday was overcast and crappy and too chilly. We got out for our walk and we've started just taking random turns and exploring new parts of the neighborhood. We were walking up Stratton and enjoying the beautiful houses when we notice Pippin arched up pooping, in the former mayor's yard. I guess Pippin was telling him what he thinks of him not being in office anymore...So Brent got the pleasure of picking up poo from the former mayor's yard! Nothing's better than that..... =)

Anyway, it was stinking cold yesterday too!! It's just wrong to wear long sleeves with so many things in bloom and a yard that need cutting for the third time already! But, in GREAT news the Y reopened yesterday. I swear I nearly cried walking back in there. All of the ceilings are gone, and a lot of things are boarded up and rearranged for the current phase of construction. It's very odd! They had a red carpet rolled out for everyone yesterday, a DJ, free food all day and even today they were walking around handing out free bottled waters while you worked out. Aaaah, it's so good to be back. I think my joy spurred me to a great run yesterday, 4 miles at 8:49 pace which includes mile 1 at 9:30 pace warmup.

Tomorrow marks an important day in our neighborhood. It's been TEN years since a tornado tore through East Nashville and the revitalization began. Crack houses returned to beautiful historic home and property value skyrocketed. We were finishing up college in West TN then, just a few months away from graduating, getting married and moving here. On the 1 yr anniversary I was working for a wretched public accounting firm downtown and it was crazy to hear the stories of my coworkers huddling in the stairwells of the skyscraper I worked in and about all the glass broken downtown. It's very rare for a tornado to come through a downtown area.....There's a service in the neighborhood tomorrow night we're planning to go to, it's going to be so crazy to see all the pictures and hear about everyone's experiences. There's a church that rebuilt that I pass every morning on my way to work at Woodland and 5th that has a concrete memorial that says "God was not in the tornado but in the response" and that just says so much.

So, happy Tax Day, merry Wednesday, and "happy" 10th anniversary to East Nashville. I like to think we're doing our own part (as Brent sands away in the front room) to keep that response going.