Saturday afternoon, we began excursion #2 of the day. We went by Gabes, the Cool Springs discount store. It was a LOT busier than in January when we went. Matter of fact, just people in your way a little more than you wanted. The isles are small and with a buggy two people can’t go down them well. But we got through the maze. I bought a couple of clothing pieces. I had my cart stacked with pants to try on as I just knew the fitting rooms would be open. But no, they lost some sales since I could not try on clothes. I mean…really? At this point they need to be open!!
I am going to put a “pants buying” mission on the calendar so I can get a shopping day for this. I also could use a few summer pieces for week since I have gained weight again and had given away all my large sizes. Ugh! I need to go the other direction. It’s always a battle on a normal basis, but give us a year like last year and then like this year – and we are having to eat horribly on the go, fast food and such. Plus Mom eats a lot of fattening type foods (white bread, not whole grain, a lot of burgers, regular pasta and not whole grain, fried foods, etc.) and we end up eating it too. For example, I gave up chips but those are back in the house. A huge temptation for me. So once I get myself a bit settled, I need to go back to working on my weight. ::sigh:: Once I lose again, I have two big containers of clothes waiting on me!
So I only have the two pair of jean capris for summer and really need at least ONE more pair to avoid having to do extra darks. Anyway, at Gabes, I bought a lot of the pump hand soap. We go through that pretty fast and I like to buy different kinds. I buy those face wash towelettes and I bought a bunch of those and some cosmetic items. It’s “the hunt” and the “good buys” that are fun to find.
George got a gift card to the Bottle shop. I think it was for letting Katy and Cody have his car for a week. So we went and picked out a few things from there. It’s just a great place for finding a few special bottles of wine with good prices. They also have a few liquor items and also craft beer that you can take home in growlers. We never do though as we are usually doing other things and not going straight home. They also have a little gift section, including cards.
You may have heard me talk about Gamay before. We had bought this and really liked it. I kept it in my photos for a long time so we could buy another one. And then I didn’t find it again, and finally just erased the photo. Now I found it! lol
We then had just enough time to get to our 5:30 reservations at Americana Taphouse. I picked this restaurant as the others nearby, Gray’s, 55 South, and a few others were just a little more pricey than I really thought we should spend right now. Instead $25 to $35 for an entre plate plus ala carte for everything you add, I was looking for $15 to $24 ish. We always add drinks, sometimes an appetizer or salad anyway. So “the price was right” at this restaurant. I had fish and chips and added a Caesar salad.
As six o’clock approached, more people began arriving and the place was almost entirely full by the time we left. Note to self: five-thirty is an excellent time to eat dinner out around these parts!
The Americana Taphouse is still owned by Puckets. It’s no longer Pucket’s Boathouse. It was hard to keep fresh seafood coming in and they flipped it around to be more accommodating for what they could resource. So it’s kinda like REALLY GOOD pub food, but with a few extra Nashville like flairs, like George’s Hot Chicken PBLT – Pimiento, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato sandwich. They also had fish tacos. I almost had that, but I really wanted the cod (fish and chips). It was all really good!
I would have taken a pic of the food but we were so deep in conversation about a few things and having a great time talking so I didn’t even think about it.
Shopping on Main Street in Franklin is quite fun. Best to go before night time as many shops close, and even some were closed for the 4th weekend. Some are family owned type of shops, so anything goes. But some chose to be open. This spice store, The Savory Spice Shop, was open. We bought some pork chop seasoning and some dried shallots. They are very attentive and will let you try anything as long as they open it for you and give you the sample. A great little place!
“Oops! We have time left over, we shopped all around, what we gonna do now?”
“Well, there is little Wine Bar down the street? Wanna sip a glass of wine til concert time?”
The wine bar inside was calm, dimly lit, and quiet. Honestly, it was really really nice! The outside vibe was sunny with laughter and conversation. We chose the quiet spot with air conditioning, lol. We enjoyed picking the wine from the menu. I chose a French wine and we sipped, talked, and also sat some in quietness, checked phones, etc. We had an hour after all, so we could do it all. The bathrooms were nice. It was a converted old house and in the bathroom you could see the “charm” of the old house. It gave me a quick desire to “redo an old house” but then I thought of my age and quickly changed my mind. I just love to decorate is all. And it would be fun to decorate an old house into a comfort zone mixture of lace and wood. I’d have to give up my beach vibe rooms. Ahh, fun to dream but, enhhhh, probably more fun to just travel and decorate a cottage up if I ever did have to move again or RV’d with a little cottage base. (hint hint). Not gonna happen, but fun to dream.
Then on to the Franklin Theatre where our concert would be. Often I end up way behind George. He thinks I’m with him and I’ve stopped to take a pic. He looks around often though, he’s used to it. He’ll discover I’m not by him and I’m somewhere behind taking pics. I noticed my iPhone was not taking good pics also – I think I changed the settings back when River was here. I adjusted it a bit to get some type of photo and I guess never changed it back. I changed it back yesterday and it should be set to take more pics and adjust itself to the lighting. Either that or Apple’s done something with an update to make it worse where you will want the next new phone, lol. They wouldn’t do that really would they? Wait didn’t they do something to the battery life so you’d you buy the next one? I think they admitted that one didn’t they? If you know, let me know.
Absolutely LOVED and enjoyed the Striking Matches concert. We had seen them years ago at Third and Lindsley. George bought their 3 CD’s Morning, Noon, and Night. And we got to meet them. What a treat!
A horrible and tired picture of me with half styled hair and not a lot of makeup or glam! But what a surprise! Was happy to have my picture taken with such talented folks that I’ve listened to for a long time. They have a YouTube Channel that they post some of their songs on. Just look for Striking Matches wherever you listen to your music.
These two met at Belmont and were thrown together in class to do a collaboration and what a collaboration it was! It’s funny how things come to be. Love watching them perform.
So we got home about 11:30 as we had to drive about 45 to an hour back to Mount Juliet. Bed felt good. I had clean sheets as I had changed them a bit earlier Saturday afternoon.
Sunday morning, I got up to get dressed for church so we could head out. George informed me that Mom had changed her mind and didn’t want to go and was fixing breakfast instead. So I grabbed a cup of coffee and breakfast was ready. Mom said we were out so late she thought it was best to stay home. I told her it wasn’t a problem that we were prepared to go as I had gotten up to get dressed. Then she said really the main reason was that she was hungry as she did not eat much the night before since we were gone.
So with breakfast on the table and the surprise last minute change of her plans, we didn’t go to church. I did my devo as I do EVERY day, not just on Sunday. And I guess we’ll see what next week brings. lol
So with not spending half a day out going to church, it opened up the morning. And I was able to take a walk after breakfast. I ate breakfast before I was really hungry. I usually wait til I’m hungry before eating. Anyway, didn’t want to be rude so I ate and then went for a walk to walk off dinner and breakfast.
The walk was nice.
We have some cherry tomatoes about to come in. And there are lots of herbs. George brought a lot of herbs in the house this weekend to dry.
Can you believe how busy our couple of days have been?
Then we went to see Paul and Judy yesterday. They are moving soon and had some things for sale and wanted to see if we wanted anything. George bought some books and Judy gave me a couple of books that she had bought that I’m looking forward to reading. It’s REALLY making me want to read. I think it’s a good time in my life to read more and get out of my own head a bit. I was so excited to meet their dog! Their dog was excited to meet us. We hit it off so well that Judy said “you can’t have my dog!” lol lol lol His name is Ozzie! He looks so much like Maisy dog only without the white spots.
Oh what fun and what delight this gave me, to pet and hug dog that looked and acted like my Maisy girl. I had prayed I would meet another dog like that. And I believe I did. He was a sweet dog. I’m so glad to meet him.
On the way home, George surprised me with a quick stop at a local taproom, Catch 22. We had a brewsky before heading home. Once home, I helped Mom change the sheets on her bed, fixed up a good lighted area for our “Puzzle Station”, which we started, and we watched some of my sailing shows, and George began fixing steaks. He actually grilled them! They were so good. They are good anyway he fixes them. We then began watching a history about Nashville after dinner – while waiting for dark thirty so the fireworks would start. We only got half way through. It’s very interesting.
Once it got dark we headed out to see the fireworks all around while sitting on the front porch. I do believe we made some memories. We had good disabilities for some fairly impressive shows. I think we were seeing a show from Circle K ranch not too far away and just at an angle where there were not many trees. Then neighbors down the street had some and a few streets over. We had some good ones.
We ate watermelon on the porch.
And most impressive was the view I saw from the news of the gathering in downtown Nashville. Wow. Just Wow. Everyone celebrating not only July 4 but just being able to get together as a crowd again. Here’s a screenshot.
Anyway, what a great 4th! One of the best ones I’ve had! Also want to share a pic that Mom shared on Facebook.
The scar on my right eyebrow (left in the pic, lol) shows. Before seatbelt requirements, I hit the dashboard once when the car driver slammed on the breaks – not sure who was driving. I don’t know what happened. A nurse was at Nanny’s house when we arrived and said “I think you better go get stitches” so we went to ER. Now I can “do my brows” – and have since high school – so you can’t see the scar. This pic was over 50 years ago I guess, lol.
Meanwhile in TX…….I can see River in my Dad. And Dad in River! lol
Ok ya’ll. What an entry. That should keep you for a few days. I’ll be back sometime before the work week is over – 2 to 3 days. So here’s what’s up:
I have to do two days worth of work tomorrow so it’s a LONG day – going in early and possibly staying late. Today we have a low key day, don’t wanna go anywhere but probably the store. I need to make sure Mom is set up for the week and me too, with lunches and snacks for work. I need to do some ironing for the week. I will try to do the bucket list and read and puzzle and make my Italian chicken cooked in a bag today. This week is kinda low key. We may do trivia night Thursday night with friends. Next Saturday is the day we go to look at flooring. 😉 We will be planning Mom’s birthday later in the month. I think she wants to do Hermitage Steakhouse so we’ll get that on the calendar and make reservations. Glad for a low key week though and now maybe things will settle a bit and we can relax some. I’ve enjoyed having a peaceful two hours to work on the blog. Need to get breakfast and start on some chores/cleaning so I can enjoy the day later.
