I must admit that I am procrastinating this morning. I've got a bunch of little stuff to accomplish before I take off to work at the Queensbury Farmers Market.
I've got two gallery orders to fill and I don't feel like having to pack them up and schlep them off to the post office. And I've got to mail out some overdue graduation gifts. And I've got to get over to Temple Sinai and reserve their function room for our 'going away' party. Like I said..I've got lots of little stuff to do. Oh, and shower. Don't forget to shower.
I am going to be a procrastination enabler to myself and tell you some about my trip to Paducah.
First and foremost...I FORGOT TO BRING MY CAMERA. This is the second time I have been to Paducah and forgot to bring my camera. Jeeze, huh? I don't like to borrow other people's cameras either so I don't have very many pictures of our trip.
Here is a list of anecdotes and some groovy things that we did:
*We went downtown to walk around and went into a store that was going out of business. We bought a Mexican sink for $50 for my mother's bathroom in her apartment. I even have a picture of it. It's not the totally cool Talevera tile that I love but it is sweet.
*On that same walk downtown we went into an antique annex and spotted a bureau. This bureau is HUGE. It's made for two people, it's got a large mirror on the top, and it's beautifully carved. It was only $250 so Michael and I bought it for our new master bedroom. Xan was very put out because she wanted it but it is too wide for her bedroom. I don't have a picture of that. I kept meaning to go back and take one but....
*We went to Gatlinburg, TN so that we could go and hang out in the Smokies. That was way fun and very interesting. Gatlinburg is 'cheesetastic'. That is Artie's very own made up word. We all could have done with less 'cheesetastic' but it was a goof and entertaining. We did a couple of small hikes in the early mornings to avoid people and bugs. It was very nice. I would go back for the mountains and skip Gatlinburg. Michael spent a few hours at an art school called "Arrowmont". Very cool and hip place in the middle of cheesetastic-ville.
*We went to Dollywood. Yeah, we did. Been there - done that. Wasn't so terribly impressed. They had a water gun raft ride that we REALLY wanted to go on. When we got to the ride, after having paid to put our bags in a locker, the ride closed because a magnificent thunder and lightning storm hit the park. We hid in an arcade and played a bazillion games of air hockey. We talked a handy man into passing out garbage bags and we made makeshift rain ponchos so that we could get to our car. I was disappointed that we did not get into the Dolly museum. I like Dolly Parton and I was interested. This is a picture of Artie and Xan on one of the rides.
*It was hot, hot, hot! Hot during the day and HOT at night. Ick! Artie asked me why we keep moving to places where the bugs get bigger and bigger. I had no good answer for her.
*I got to see a bunch of transformation on our house. I got to see the addition being torn down and the new one being put up. I got to see the staircase come down, get flipped around, and ready to put up on it's new place. Most of the framing was done so you could see exactly what room was what. It was all very cool.
*Michael and I spent a lot of time making decisions. Picking out flooring, appliances, siding, counter tops, and designing the back yard. I don't like having to make decisions so quickly I had a headache for a whole week! In our new home we will have 3 kitchens. I know, crazy. We have our personal kitchen, the kitchen for the apartment, and the kitchen for the Kookie Bar. We decided that we do not need to go out and buy all new appliances for all of them so we are looking for used everything. That meant a bunch of running around. We did find a good used appliance place and we liked the guy in charge. He seems to like us and he wants us to buy a used Sub-Zero commercial fridge from him for $300. You could have knocked us over with a feather. Sub-Zeros are expensive. Apparently this is one that someone wanted fixed then changed their mind, someone else was going to purchase it then changed their mind, the repair guy just wants his money out of it and get it out of his hair. It just might be ours.
*I met so many delightful people that my head started to hurt. I did mention that headache. By the middle of the second week I told Michael that I just couldn't bear to meet anyone else. I have many years of living there to get to know everyone and to have Michael try to squeeze it into a week was insane.
*I got to have dinner Patience & Bill Renzulli. I adore them! I truly look forward to getting to know them better.
*I got to have dinner with Larry (from the bank) and his wife. Another lovely couple and I look forward to getting to know better.
*I got to meet Kevin. What an interesting man.
*I got to meet Nikki May. She is wonderful.
*I got to meet Charlotte and Ike. What great folk.
*And so many more...I moving into a very rich and vibrant community.
OK folks it's now 9am and I need to get on with my day.
Procrastination time is over!
This is us underground.
We walked through the caverns. This place used to be an underground bar. During the prohibition some smart-thinking local set up a bar down there. Apparently too many people got way too rip roaring drunk and fell up the hand carved stairs one too many times and they had to close the operation down. Later food rations were stored down there. When the current owners bought the place an entire cavern was filled with these cracker rations.
And this is when the guide turned out the lights.
I have to include this picture because I can't tell which end is up. Seriously I've been flipping the thing around for minutes trying to figure it. What do you think? Did I get it right?
This is my artsy fartsy picture of a small waterfall that we saw.
This part of Tennessee has many underground caverns. I want to go back and do some more exploring. The boat ride was very cool! A while back the owners wanted to figure out where the lake ran into so they tagged a bunch of trout and stocked the lake. The tagged trout have never been discovered anywhere. They just stay in the lake so now the owners keep stocking it with more trout. They have these big lights that are kept on so that the trout won't go blind and all that they eat is Purina trout food. No kidding.
