Big Update. … AKA… I thought I already updated this blog several times.. and I didn’t.

I didn’t realize that this part of the blog hasn’t been updated in so long… so… let’s see… we’ll start off with some scenery of downtown…

So… you can see… Staunton is a very photogenic town… there are plenty of good looking old buildings… and lots of good spots to walk around..

My personal favorite, when Virginia drags me kicking and screaming out for a walk, is to go downtown to walk around. This is because the downtown is littered with cool little places to go grab a beer. So, walk for a few blocks…. stop in to the local Irish Pub for a beer… walk a bit more.. drop by a beer garden… walk a bit more…. what’s that you say? A free wine tasting? Well then.. we’ll be right in.

Also, we decided to try to take in some local fun in the area…. so, the above picture is from our short foray to the Churchville carnival. It was…. … … … interesting. Of course we didn’t grab the best parking.. and it started to rain as we were walking around… so we had to hide under the BINGO tent for a little while. That’s one drawback of hauling around the big camera all of the time.. it doesn’t like the weather, and it doesn’t stow easily when the bad weather does come…. I need to get my little camera back from my mom.. Anyhow… the carnival…. The carnival was a big change for us, because we haven’t been to a carnival back in this area for a long time. As far as carnivals in Southwest Virginia go, this one was nothing amazingly odd. However when you’re used to “Fairs” and whatnot in Boone that are full of the upper middle class folks that can actually afford to live in Boone, and their children in their outfits that make them look like they fell out of the J-Crew catalog….  the missing teeth, Gravedigger Monster Truck T-Shirts (With sleeves ripped off), and Confederate Flag hats of Southwest Virginia are a bit of a change….

Now… another scenic part of Staunton….

 

Purty ain’t it? Ok… one more from this location…

Yeah… it’s a cemetery. Specifically, it’s the Thornrose Cemetery here in Staunton. The place is HUGE.  We’ve gone here to walk around for a little bit…. it’s good for about an hour’s worth of walking if you take all of the various little paths around… and there’s some interesting stuff to see… some very old gravestones… a lot of civil war monuments…. I need to find out more about this place at some point… also, the clouds around here have been crazy lately… I don’t know what the deal is… but it’s like I haven’t seen clouds for years… the clouds around here tend to amaze me on a near daily basis.

This isn’t so much a cloud shot… or related to what I was talking about… but… it’s a shot of one of the downtown theaters…. there are two of them downtown… both are pretty old and historic….

Farmer’s Market and lake trip!

So… we just got back from a busy weekend.. but it was a good one… We started off with a trip to the Staunton farmer’s market….

We weren’t sure what to expect… and honestly, we’ve been a bit spoiled with the Boone farmer’s market… but… it was pretty awesome…

 

There were flowers, plants, eggs, meats, cheeses… it’s pretty damn amazing…. We picked up some veggies.. Virginia got some fresh tomatoes, some basil… and we got some home-made fresh mozzarella … and some home-made fresh ricotta… we took out freshly acquired fresh goodies… hopped back in the car, and headed to the lake to met up with the Oliver folks….

Good times were had at the lake…

A short break-down…. Virginia made bruschetta… I made ravioli… with a little help from Erin…

 

I went swimming with my phone in my pocket… we went out and played on a boat… all in all… a good time….

Beginning of July…

So… the last update really took you through the end of June… so I suppose I can pick up with July….

July 1st, I woke up, having made another revolution around the sun (it was my birthday for the slow folks out there) after creaking around the house for a little bit, and drinking some coffee, Virginia and I loaded the cats into the car, then she took off to drop them at my parents’ house, and I hopped on the motorcycle. We both got on the road, and drove and drove for a while… things were relatively uneventful on the bike, but apparently, the cats were being rather evil for Virginia in the car. Virginia pushed on like a trooper, dropped off the cats, then headed up towards Staunton… We met back up on the highway, and arrived to our new home in Staunton in time to meet the new landlord and sign the lease papers…. Then, it was off to drop off the bike, then spend the weekend spending time with our families and enjoying festivities related to the Independence Day celebration….

Up at the VMI parade grounds, there was live music, hot air balloons, vendors, food, and fireworks… So, we spent some time up there..  went up early with mom one morning to watch a balloon launch…

The 4th was a wonderful day… it was Virginia’s celebration of making another revolution around the sun as well… and w celebrated with food, drinks, and desserts… but… when it came time for the fireworks… well… it had been raining and crappy… so, we didn’t want to go sit on the grass up at VMI… so, we watched the fireworks from the top of the hill over by the Page household.. and that was an interesting change of venue… there were more people up at the top of the hill than I expected… including some young-ish girls behind us that would occasionally erupt with a “They’re so PRETTY!!!” … I had to work to stifle my laughter..

Then.. it was back to Boone.. and back to the grindstone of moving …so… we got boxes.. we were packing stuff.. we got bubble wrap… totally good times…

but… eventually, we got everything into boxes.. we rented a truck.. and left Boone for Staunton…. pictures of the new place will be coming as soon as I figure out where everything goes… for now, there are still a few boxes left to be unpacked, and a few pictures left to be hung… oh.. also… if anyone has an extra 200 square feet of kitchen space available.. I could use it…

In other news.. I shot a local autocross event here in the new area… it was a rather good time…. Jonathan was out there having fun….

and there were some Subaru WRX’s out there having fun… (*hint hint* to one certain reader….)

 

So… good times so far… I got us a new washer and dryer… and I’m still trying to get everything in the house where it belongs… and trying to find a job…. so… super good times…

This weekend….

This weekend was a bit more chill than last weekend… Thursday, Lynette threw a going away party for us… which featured awesome food… awesome drinks.. and amazing conversation late into the evening….

Once again, I was slacking with the pictures… really, the only one I took was:

I need to get back to taking pictures more often… I always bring the gear, and plan to do it… but… it’s more fun to socialize than to sit there snapping away the entire time… I need to find a happy medium…

Today, we went to Asheville to spend some time with Courtney and Ashley… we started off with lunch at 12 Bones, a BBQ place that apparently President Obama eats at when he comes to Asheville.. it was some pretty good swine…

We then went for a walk around Asheville, which was unseasonably warm… but they were having some sort of art / craft sale thingie…

So… we walked around… Courtney tried to talk us into buying some sort of air plants…

I don’t know what they are… but… according to Courtney’s excitement about them… they make you fly. They make you have x-ray vision. They may even make you be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Courtney was rather excited about these things..

So.. we walked around… looked at stuff… then… of course it was time to get back to our regular scheduled programming… so… we found a wine shop that was doing a tasting… sampled some tasty white wines from New Zealand… then walked into a store that specializes in: Potato Chips. …. …. Really. They had all kinds of chips… a  menu you could order from… and even free samples of their plantain chips with a Nutella dipping sauce… they were pretty dang good… but… a whole store that sells nothing but potato chips? I’ll be looking to see if this store still exists in the future…

We also went into a pretty cool beer store… they had a rather amazing selection, but their prices were a bit higher on the beers that I recognized… They did have a huge selection.. and the above super-cool beer cabinet made out of a monk… the front of his robes do close… so.. yeah.. I’m adding this big burly beer bureau to my birthday list… I’ll figure out how to hook up a refrigeration system in his organ cavity….

After walking and sampling wine… and chips…. of course, it was time to eat again… so we hit a place that specialized in chocolate… beer… and ice cream… I had a macaroon brownie… Virginia got a “Stout Float” … yeah… Stout beer with 2 scoops  of vanilla ice cream in it…

It was an awesome trip to Asheville… spent with good people… eating good food… having good times… add trips like this and people like Courtney and Ashley to the list of things/people we’ll miss from Boone…

Farewell Boone….

Well… our time in Boone is coming to an end… and we’ve been making the most of it…

Last Friday, one of Virginia’s coworkers, Angel, hosted a going away party for us… AKA Trovatopalooza.. you may have seen the event on Facebook.. it was the biggest event in Boone in recent history. Given that it was such a huge event… I didn’t take many pictures….

The above is a wonderful creation that Josh came up with… it’s an awesome ham biscuit… with a deviled egg in it.. and a piece of teriyaki chicken… basically a combination of almost all of the foods available…. I made cannoli because Angel didn’t get to try the last batch, and I made some teriyaki wings… and some special hot wings…

The above would be a handful of Habaneros that I smoked on cedar planks… then, after getting them smoked to the point I wanted, I cranked up the heat to get a bit of flame on the cedar… just for picture purposes…

But.. the party was awesome… I just didn’t take pictures…

Saturday, we slept in a little bit… skipped the Farmer’s Market (we’re trying to eat all of the food out of our house…) Then, we went to Peabody’s for our regular Saturday afternoon wine tasting… we met there with Courtney, Ashley, and Josh to do the tasting… then to sit outside and have a few drinks before heading to our evening activity….

We drank some wine… it rained like crazy…. we had some cheese and crackers… then… we went to the Roller Derby.

I didn’t bring my good camera to the Derby… just the point and shoot… but, with the point and shoot I did make the video that I posted up last week…. so… this little ELPH 300HS isn’t a bad camera…

We started off sitting on the floor.. the “Suicide” seating… but.. my back wasn’t cooperating… in fact… my back hurt like hell… it hurt to stand.. it hurt to sit.. and it sure as hell hurt to be bent over, sitting on the floor… so… Saturday night, I headed home to a heating pad and the absolute strongest over the counter drugs that I could find..

Then Sunday… it was back into the car….

Then, on Sunday we went and visited Amanda in Greensboro… the above is a piece of campus artwork at Guilford College where she works… it’s an interesting campus…

The Hut … So… this sign belongs to the following building…

... and this building is apparently where the head Quaker dude on campus hangs out… they have meetings there… and… I dunno… they… make Oatmeal? I dunno…

According to the signs and whatnot around the area, Quakers decided to settle in the Greensboro / Guilford area…

We didn’t see a lot of these people walking around…

But… word on the street is that the Quakers run the college… in fact, Amanda was telling us something about all decisions by the governing bodies of the various parts of the school must be decided by consensus… which begs to raise the question… How do you fire someone? “Well, the board has reached an agreement… you’re fired” …. “See… I don’t agree with that.. I am in fact, not fired.” …. I see a flaw with the way they do things…

More to come soon….

Quick update from the Roller Derby....

So... a lot was going on this weekend... but... here's the easiest part to report.. the trip to watch the Appalachian Rollergirls....

Sunday Afternoon…

Well… after blogging this morning… we decided that we should get out of the house for a little bit… so… we hopped in the car.. drove over to Jefferson… and went for a little hike.

Mount Jefferson has a lovely hiking trail up at the top of the mountain… it takes you along the ridge of the mountain, and unlike 90% of the other trails around here… this one actually makes a loop…it also provides some great views along the way….

There were hawk/eagle-like birds flying around….

…and you can look down over huge sections of Ashe and surrounding counties….

The trails were well maintained… and there were the awesome flowering bush things all around…

Looking down on the surrounding areas made the towns look like models..

All in all… totally a fun trip…. a good hike.. not overly strenuous… but.. it had some great views….