Had great fun last night watching the Halloween masses work up and down Hanover Av. here in Richmond.
We got invited down to a friend’s house for the show. I remember it being jam-packed with people, but this was way more than expected.
More work miles here. I was sure the novelty of Virginia greenery would start to wear off by now, but it hasn’t happened yet. I do love a scenic overlook.
As fate and fortune would have it, the office I visited was just down the road from the county fairgrounds and the fair was in town. I mean, we had lunch options, but we’d have been fools to go anywhere but the fair.
1/4 fried chicken and a Dr. Wham? Yeah, 1/4 fried chicken and a Dr. Wham.
The fair at lunch doesn’t run the rides, but they’re all ready to go. We also missed the monster truck show the night before, and we were going to miss the tractor pull and demolition derby later in the week (but I did get to meet the guy who hauls the demolition derby’d cars off of the track). I’m just glad those things are happening somewhere.
There were also cows.
Had a recent work run that took me to Roanoke, Marion, and Abingdon Virginia. It was a good chunk of driving to a part of the state I hadn’t yet visited. I took the non-highway route to Roanoke, because it’s pretty.
Good breakfast and a clean mid-2000’s 4Runner.
Abingdon has a special charm, and a revolutionary-war-era Tavern that now holds a great steak house.
There isn’t a way back from Abingdon that isn’t on Interstate 81, but there were still some sights.
This is the most bold of the crow gang at the house. This was after the morning batch of crackers and peanuts, so I think maybe they were hoping for one more shot before I left for work (they got another handful of peanuts).
There are a couple of bald crows in the gang now. The internet suggests that it is just normal molting, so maybe they’re juveniles?
Dunno.
Sometime in the early 2010’s, my kids were getting ready to start summer day camp and they’d need to pack a lunch every day.
Rather than getting lunchboxes that would either get lost or impossibly dirty at camp, my wife bought a box of brown paper lunch bags. Classics.
There were 500 of them. Now, after a dozen years, this is the last of them, dutifully carrying my sandwich and apple for lunch today.
I don’t mind getting experimental with food, you win some and you lose some.
This chocolate-dipped flakes version of Special K goes firmly in the L column. No bueno.
I’m going back to the straight Red Berries next time.
Adam and I have been having some fun cereal-based conversations on the podcast and I was excited to try out this Strawberry Cheesecake Special K, since it seemed like an outlier to the generally “healthy” image the Special K branding goes for.
Turns out, it’s boring as hell. And it makes the milk a gross pink.
Do not recommend.
My sister was over for the game and she brought some Taylor Swift-inspred, Blake Lively-promoted cocktail recipes.
First was this Aperol, simple syrup, orange juice, tonic water adventure called “Better Than Revenger (49ers Version)”. I’m assuming the names are based on T Swift songs, but I’m tragically ignorant in that category. The drink was fine. Too sweet for me, and I don’t know that Aperol is enough to base a cocktail on. I think this one was constructed to easily be alcohol-free.
The next one was this tequila, pineapple juice, and Meyer lemon club soda mix-up called “Gold Rush Spritz”. I made them with 130% of the tequila called for and it was delicious. There wasn’t much pineapple juice, so it didn’t get too sweet, and the flavored club soda was a nice touch. There were a couple of rounds of this one. We liked it a lot.
And it wouldn’t be a cocktail post with a good ol’ Negroni to pull the anchor leg. I’ve been using the Dolin rouge vermouth and it’s been a nice switch up from the normal recipe.
The game was also exciting, eventually.
A fresh tub of protein with two scoops that are both at the top?!?
Truly a Meathead Miracle.
This cherry tomato plant has been super-productive.