Monday, September 5, 2005

Happy Birthday, Selena!

Relaxing Outside Cool Beans

It was almost as if Mother Nature wanted to specially thank all those who labor in the Atlanta area today. The weather today was absolutely perfect: sunny, a very slight breeze, and a temperature that was most agreeable (around 80 degrees). We managed to stick to our Labor Day resolution that we’d get a few chores done around the house for as long as we could. We started doing some cleaning and, of course, more wallpaper scraping. Finally around 1:30 we couldn’t stand it anymore and headed for the door.

Our first stop was a new eatery that we’d noticed from the road several times but hadn’t yet had the opportunity to visit. It’s called Metro Market, and it turned out to be fantastic! Since Chip was asleep in his car seat, it was decided that Patricia would be our envoy to the food. Even though one woman kept saying hi over and over again, every one else was super friendly (and not weird). The food was great, a good selection of various types of sandwiches and salads and soups and all manner of deli goodness. The ingredients seemed to be really fresh and they used a lot of them. Patty got a four cheese grilled cheese sandwich, which had gouda, swiss, dill havarti, and provolone (or something like that). Matt created his own sandwich, with turkey, sprouts, and cheddar on an onion focaccia roll. They were tasty and consumed rapidly in the car.

Then we were off to the Marietta Square. This weekend was Art in the Park, Marietta’s small art fair. There were probably 60 booths with the usual mix of types of media. There were also a number of kids’ crafts booths, including a booth from the Veterinary Clinic whose two dogs really liked Gabriel. Our favorite artist was Robert Griffis, but we didn’t buy anything. If we had $400 burning a hole in our pockets, though, this would have been a great way to use it.

We went through all of the booths pretty quickly, and got down to the important business of ice cream and coffee. Sarah Jean’s Ice Cream was a cute place that looked like the outside of a building and had a train going around a track near the ceiling that Gabriel loved. Other people were watching him watch the train. Cool Beans was the find of the day, with the best espresso PA’s had in a loooong time. They roast their own coffee and sell beans of lots of varieties and roasts. The girl behind the counter was very nice, even if she did say "expresso," and they even have free internet access. When Patty gets her own car, she and Gabriel will be spending lots of time there, unless we open our cafe first (we’re hoping to do that next year). We sat at a table out back in the shade of a big tree and enjoyed the nicest weather we’ve had in a long, long time. It was very calming.

On the way home, we stopped at the liquor sto' to buy some Erath Pinot Noir and some Aquinas Chardonnay. Erath is our all-time favorite, and Aquinas was something that looked interesting and is pretty good and definitely unique (we tasted apples and grapes and smelled popcorn!). We also stocked up on tonic water, because our gin’s been getting lonely.

We have a couple of photos today from the weekend. One is of Gabriel, who sat down in a chair when he wanted to watch TV in Selena’s room yesterday. The other is of Matthew’s new bonsai tree. Keep this one in your memory; in 5 years, you’ll see that it is... well, the exact same size, hopefully, but a really cool shape.

Gabriel and Selena watching the tube

Bonsai on the back deck