SANDWHICH

Today I had the pleasure of lunching with my friend and former next door neighbor, Margaret. She suggested we go to SANDWHICH, a restaurant in downtown Chapel Hill I've always wanted to try.
Obviously, they serve sandwiches, homemade on homemade breads. They have such sandies as: chicken with pesto on foccacia; sweet potato with prosciutto, collard greens and goat cheese; and Niman ranch pork with mustard gravy and caramelized onions amongst others. All ingredients are fresh with free range meats and organic veggies.
I ordered the 1/2 sandwich (chicken salad) and soup (a wonderful pea soup-don't gasp, I LOVE pea soup). It was served with some marinated carrots, homemade potato chips, a drink and a large chocolate chip cookie. Everything was delicious.
The best part of this local treasure is the people, the owner carried our trays and helped us find a place to sit in a very full restaurant. Lovely. Hope you can visit soon.

Ahhh...the Coat

The other day my friend Jill and I went to a sort-of-secret store. My Overstock Boutique opens to the public only once a month, and is located in a warehouse in Mebane. It has racks and racks of high quality designer clothes on consignment from various boutiques. These are genuinely high end clothes that are exceedingly expensive at full price.

The deal is this: everything is at least 50% off, many items with much deeper discounts. Some items were just a mere $10. It is truly a warehouse, with makeshift dressing areas and an open back area without heat.

We had barely gotten there, learned the "rules of shopping" and I saw it. A beautiful, charcoal belted coat with front pockets made by Theory. It was made of virgin wool, angora and cashmere. Ahhhh. It was the softest coat (other than the fur coats worn by elder members of my family when I was a child) I had ever felt. It was also still quite expensive.

After we had looked through the whole store and I only had a handful of things to try on, I took it into the dressing room to just try it at the urging of Jill. So I did. Wow. It was perfect. Gorgeous, smart, sharp, slimming, and warm and comfortable to boot. It is the kind of garment that makes you want to go to New York because you feel so hip.

I made a decision that I would only buy it if they could cut the price in half again (25% of the original price). The owner did it with a smile on her face. Ahhhh. It's mine. I will have it forever and a day (unless I wear holes it in from just touching it so much). New York anyone?

Yard Sale

This past weekend I went skiing for the first time in almost 12 years. Happily, there were no broken bones.
I learned a new term on this ski trip. "Yard sale" refers to one of those skiing or snowboarding wipeouts where everything (skis, poles, hats, etc.) are strewn about, much like people's junk is strewn around in a yard sale.
My question is this: when did that term come to be? I had never heard it, but then again, I haven't been skiing in quite some time. I checked with some other folks today who haven't been skiing in several years as well, and they had never heard of it either. Anyone?

Big, Bright, Orange Sun

Today as I was driving west down Rosemary Street to pilates class, I was blinded by a HUGE bright orange setting sun. It was incredible, one of those rare sights that not only makes it difficult to drive, but makes reach for your camera.

So I did. At a stoplight, I reached for my Blackberry. Unfortunately, the car in front of me blocked my view. As I inched forward in evening traffic, I wasn't able to get a good shot. When I finally reached a peak in the road, the sun was down. Missed it.

What can we conclude from this? That the earth rotates faster than traffic moves at rush hour in Chapel Hill, of course.

Science!

My girls have this amazing science lab teacher, Ms. Templeton. She has the students do the coolest experiments...much more advanced, fun and interesting than anything I ever did at that age.

Today I was working in my kitchen and I came across a baggie (contents poorly pictured, right). I just about had a heart attack when I realized what it was. I remembered that SOMEONE mentioned yesterday that they dissected owl pellets (vomit, for lack of a better term) in science lab and theirs had a rodent skull in it. Note the skull at about 9 o'clock, nose pointing up and large eye sockets. Yum.

Yea Ms. Templeton!

Job Satisfaction

Let's face it, we all have "those days" at work. No matter how much you love what you do, there are just some days, that to put it bluntly, bite.
Today wasn't extraordinary in any way until the end. A client came to my office. He was initially a bit hesitant, but left with a genuine smile on his face and a definite look of appreciation. His happiness made me appreciate him. That is what I would term job satisfaction.

Insomnia

Ever since I was a kid, I have had trouble falling asleep. I generally don't have trouble staying asleep once I'm there. In fact, I have trouble waking up...but that's another story.
As a kid, I would dream up all these wild scenarios I would act out in my room until I could fall asleep (my parents sent me to bed at 7:30 every night which didn't help). As an adult, the 20-30 minutes average I spend each night thinking about how I'm going to fall asleep are not as fun...I am mostly resentful for a few reasons: my husband falls asleep in literally 20 seconds; I have to get up early for work; I know I'm going to be tired, etc.
I will periodically take Benadryl (helps my allergies also) and on a rare occasion will take Ambien. To take Ambien, you have to have a full 8 hours to devote to sleep. The trouble is, by the time you realize you can't sleep, you have WAY less than 8 hours left until you have to get up. So I usually have to have been sleep deprived for a few days, and plan it all out before I can take that medication. Probably a good thing...
The bad news tonight: I took a nap today. I'm screwed.

I WAS SEVENTH!

Although many of you probably have seen this already, I love this video. A little snippet of the mysterious racing world.

Click here to see.

I was seventh before this post, now I'm not.

Oh, the pressure

OK, so a fellow blogger recently redesigned his blog. The list of blogs he reads used to be in alphabetical order. I was midway down, as it went by first names. The new design lists the blogs with the most recent updates first.
That means that if you're busy, overtaxed or just plain not feeling creative, you'll slip down the list. Why I've even noticed this, I'm not sure, but I can tell you I now feel this pressure to write more. I'm guessing that was the idea.

New Year's Eve

I've always thought that New Year's Eve was a bit overrated. Don't get me wrong, I've had some really nice New Year's (including this year) but on the whole, not a huge holiday for me.

There was one, many, many years ago (before I met my husband) which was shaping up to be quite interesting. The interesting factor ended quite abruptly with the consumption of too much champagne. I learned my lesson. No champagne this year at all.

One of my BEST New Year's was at my friend's house when we lived in California. We had a seafood extravaganza in her beautiful home. It was a really lovely evening with good food, friends and merriment.

It seems, though, that as we were watching the Tar Heels play last night right until just after the clock struck midnight, our great evening could have been on any date, not just December 31st. I guess it just goes to show you that good food, drink and great friends can happen any day of the year. We don't need no stinkin' holiday for that.