Less Hustle More Coffee

We are back home from our getaway! What a fun time. We got to Knoxville yesterday at exactly Noon, having left around 8:30 or so. We gained an hour on the way. We had stopped in Cookeville for a tiny breakfast and more caffeine (unsweet iced tea for me) so our tummies would not be empty.

We arrived and I’m just in love with their condo. It’s perfect for them. They have a screened porch room on the back also! It was so nice.

Around 1 or so we ate a wonderful lunch of chicken salad on croissants – it was the Chicken Salad Chic’s chicken salad. I had saved my fruit also from chic filet as I had no spoon or fork so we included it on the lunch table along with other deli items and chips. It was a perfect lunch and then we set about doing Total Wines and then McKaye’s book store.

Total Wines is always a total blast especially on weekends when they do the tastings. I think we did about five tastings? Oh my. We ended up spending quite a bit on upgrading the liquor cabinet. lol. Both couples. The race was on money wise. We beat BIL and SIL by about $20. I stocked up on a few wines. We were out of cucumber vodka for the girly herbal weekend happy hour sippers. We bought Cognac which is good for those chilly nights and heated up in the microwave for 13 seconds while watching a favorite Netflix show right before bed. And then there was this…..

Sotol is made from this……..

The taste to me was – well- we all said it was hard to describe, which is why you have to try it. I could taste the “plant” in it. And since I like herbal, plant type drinks, it seemed like a strong plant based vodka.

SOTOL <—-You can read about it here. They call it “Tequila’s little brother”. Desert Door’s is actually made in Driftwood Texas, a little town South of Austin, TX. The one on the left is not aged and was pretty smooth – served extremely cold. The one on the right aged in oak barrels and a little more potent – ok a lot more. Still was very good – although heavy liquor not my thing. I’m all up for a taste test.

Texas Wallpaper for your phone background

There might have been another booth with a TX table cloth. lol.

We had a great time doing all the taste tests and then headed to McKaye’s bookstore. We bought a few things there. Then headed back to the condo. We got to see our nephew and his baby, Anna. And also we had to share Anna’s little potty. It actually makes a flushing sound if you push the silver handle, lol.

While getting ready to go out to dinner, BIL Kevin realized he had lost his key to his car. We ran out of time looking as our reservations at Firebirds were waiting. So we took our car and had a fantastic dinner in honor of Kevin’s birthday.

I had prime rib, baked potato and salad. Honestly could not eat it all. I don’t think I can eat as much as I used to. I had to take some of it home to the condo fridge. I think Susan was going to finish it off today as I didn’t want to have to nurse it back home on the drive.

Oh and we had planned a massive “Easter egg hunt” of sorts for Kevin’s key. We were going to keep looking til we found it. Guess who found it? Moi! After I kept asking Kevin to tell me again and again what he did when he got home. We found it in the walk in closet when he had changed clothes and laid it down. Yay! I hate to lose things and I know it was bothering him so we all kept looking til we found it.

We slept so good last night. It was a sofa in the bedroom that lets out into a kingsize bed. Wow. We had plenty of room and being that I was tired from the week and that George woke me up early to leave yesterday, I was so glad to get a good night’s sleep and sleep until l woke up – as was everyone’s plan. Susan had the coffee pot set to where the first one up could hit the button.

As I woke up it was thundering outside and beginning to rain. The storms were not severe but just a nice morning thunderstorm. I loved being able to roll over and rest some more. After George got up, I got up. And we headed out the door to be greeted with coffee from Susan. Everything was so nice. Kevin and Susan fixed breakfast of eggs, sausage and grits, and muffins.

We had thought about having bloody Mary’s and Mimosa’s but I guess we just were all content to keep sipping on coffee. We had a fun morning chatting about anything and everything until George and I told him we’d get out of their hair so they could finish out their weekend doing some other things.

We got home and headed to the store and bought quite a few things for the next couple of weeks. We needed some healthier options so we bought lots of veggies and salads and apples and so forth. I bought some squash that looked good.

And these pics showed up in my memories on Facebook so I had to share. This is us in Kentucky at the WigWam Village (Tee Pees) near Mammoth Cave. We would meet our friends Don and Lisa. We had loads of fun times on these trips in the early days.

Where we go from here?

So we are back home, settling back in and getting ready for the work week. I spent so much time there last week that on Friday it literally made me ill (sick) to go to work Friday. I was NOT feeling well and I could hardly even make myself go and do more returns, but not only did I finish quarter end a day early, I got the month end done on Friday. My month end is mini- compared to quarter end – it’s really about eight states I have to pay taxes in for the month. So I began organizing my world load for the next 8 weeks which is catching up on everything I couldn’t do last month, plus getting ready for the new quarter, moving files, storing files, and upgrading processes and procedures, and I have a big long list. Would you expect any different?

Also I have a few things on my list to do to prep for Mother’s Day. And just some extra things I need to look at and decide on the calendar. I’m going to do a Mother’s Day outing and I’ve chosen to go to the Hermitage (near by us) and learn of Andrew Jackson, see the garden’s area, and then do the wine tasting. I’ve wanted to do this for some time and this is the year. I have to look at the calendar and make our reservations.

Videos

I did not video anything from our Knoxville trip for YouTube. I just needed a break and complete getaway from everything. I’m so far behind in videos anyway – and my video’s end up being time sensitive and seasonal because so much of our lifestyle is wrapped around the season itself. And while I do have plans to catch up the channel – I’m also getting my head around a few things to do differently that will not be so time sensitive so it won’t matter what time of the year it is or how much time is passed. So the channel may change around some. However it evolves, it will be on my time frame. I still very much want to do them. I refuse to let life’s situations keep me from doing things I want to do. We’ll get it all done but it’ll just take longer to get things done. And this weekend, I wanted to be all in – plus we were in someone else’s home so all I did was take a pic of the outside, and then Anna’s little potty in the restroom. We needed a break. And we got a little break. And enjoyed our time with family. And we have some more “little breaks” we are planning excursions for as well – upcoming. It’s been a busy year and we have petered out in so many ways. I want to read more, cook more, plan more, write more, video more. I want to be out in nature more, travel more, and enjoy more. I want to work on goals and dreams and to do lists, lol. The fire is coming back in me when I allow the toxic things in my life to evaporate.

The Schedule

The schedule is pretty brutal, but when we get away for even a day, we feel like we are enjoying life again. Or even being home for a day will do that. Those days are so rare now. So today I’m feeling hopeful. But I do understand that tomorrow begins another Full Time work week + commute + plus taking care of Mom’s needs as my PT job – another doc appt, grocery run, church day and Mother’s Day come to play. I have so much laundry to do and it’s ready to be rebooted. So I’ll be back as the schedule allows and will pop in for another post. Meanwhile, Ozark is back and there’s Downton Abbey to keep us sidetracked for our nightly wind-downs. I think that is what I’ll start calling it! Our nightly Wind-Down.

What did YOU do this weekend?