Monday, December 17, 2012

Monday Malarkey - In which Tennessee welcomes us

Sorry for my absence.  I meant to pre-post a Fiona Friday photo but forgot to do so before we left for Northern Mississippi and Tennessee to stay in our "vacation home" (aka "Kiddo's apartment), visit with Eldest, DIL and grand-dog Peyton, attend a Straight No Chaser concert, shop a bit, spend another night in our vacation home and drive home in really yucky weather.  We had a blast, really.  Nashville has grown on me in recent years.


Straight No Chaser allowed photographs!  That was a nice surprise.  I just happen to have tucked a D-SLR in my purse, just in case, although I really expected a stern, "No photography!" announcement.  I didn't mess with settings because I tried to keep the amount of camera viewscreen light to a minimum for the sake of those around me, but the changing lights might have made settings difficult, anyway.  So . . . here are the singers grooving, overexposed, and slightly blocked by the head of hair I couldn't quite get my lens around:



Our grand-dog is currently undergoing heart worm treatment and not a happy camper.  But, she looked regal, as always, except when decapitating and removing the limbs of a stuffed monkey.  Poor monkey had been removed, by this point, although some of his stuffing remained next to her paws.



We got to briefly walk through the Nashville Public Library, on our way to the concert.  Oh, wow.  I definitely want to go back and wander around there, sometime.



We did a good bit of shopping, almost entirely for groceries (with a few last-minute Christmas gift items).  Both of us get a little carried away in terrific grocery stores, so we came back with quite a few boxes, jars and plenty of fresh produce from Trader Joe's, an Italian market called Coco's and a little from Whole Foods.  Isabel was most impressed with the fresh pears . . . to the point that I had to remove them from her grasp.



And, about Bookfoolery . . . the blog and the concept . . . I've been thinking about dropping the words "and Babble" for quite a while and removed them from my header, last night.  What do you think? I also considered changing, "and Babble" to "and Catfoolery".  Eh.  Not sure.  The babble was just starting to bug me.  As to the foolery, not a whole lot of reading occurred, this week, thanks to all the driving.  But, I have some books in progress and hope to finish something soon.  Not sure what I'll end up finishing, since I keep leaping from one book to another.  We shall see.  I got a couple books in the mail and bought some in Oxford at Off-Square Books.  I'll photograph them and share the titles, later in the week.  Tomorrow, I have some children's Christmas books to review.

Speaking of children, I had no idea that yet another school massacre had occurred on Friday until 11:30, that night.  Since there have been murmurs of poor, inaccurate and offensive media coverage, I am happy to have missed seeing anything on TV.  Not seeing the visuals doesn't change the facts, though, and when I found out, my first thought (after the initial stunned disbelief) was relief that I didn't post the normal Fiona Friday pic. It just wouldn't have seemed right to post something light-hearted on day that involved so much horror and grief.  My heart goes out to the parents, friends, loved ones and victims of the Newtown murders.  I'm not a political person but I think we've gone far beyond the time to take serious preventive action in the U.S., as stated in this New York Times op-ed.  Please don't be put off by the beginning of the article.  It's very logically stated.

More later.  It's almost 3am.  I have no idea why I'm so hyper, but I need to try to get some sleep.  Happy Monday to all!


©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

8 comments:

  1. I'm glad that you had a nice vacation, and that it was pleasant and stress-free. I also LOVE Straight No Chaser, and would love to see them in concert one day. They are just the best. I also found out late Friday about the shooting, and was really saddened and scared for my kids. It's crazy when this stuff happens, and it seems like it's not really all that uncommon anymore. So, so sad.

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    1. Thanks, Heather! We always have a great time when we go to Nashville. Sadly, Eldest & DIL will be moving to New Jersey in 2013. We'll probably still find excuses to go to Nashville. ;)

      I'm glad I wasn't the only person to find out so late about the horrible news. I really do think it was best missing out on TV coverage, though. It's always so upsetting -- just the fact that mass murder has become a regular thing is bad enough, but 20 innocent children? Unfathomable. It's more than sad; it's got to stop.

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  2. I think simple is always good (and sometimes wish that I would have thought of a blog name that was just one catchy word). I like "Bookfoolery."

    Trader Joe's is fun to shop at and a difficult place for me to have self-control in purchasing. So funny that your cat wanted to munch on the pears. Love the book sculpture outside of the library!

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    1. Thanks, Alyce! I'm already happier with my blog title. I'm glad you consider "Bookfoolery" catchy. It took me days to come up with it, way back when, but I've always loved it.

      Trader Joe's is definitely a fun place! We're so far away from a Trader Joe's that it's no big deal to go a little wild. It's not going to happen again for a long time. We got some wonderful fresh foods and then came back and found that some of the same foods were a lot more expensive at the local Fresh Market. Isabel was actually lifting that pear by the stem. She didn't bite into the pears but I'll see if she wants some when I cut one. They need a little ripening.

      Gotta love that book sculpture, don't you?

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  3. First of all I'm insanely jealous that you got to see Straight No Chaser in person.

    Secondly I like "Bookfoolery" all on its own.

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    1. You'll just have to chase them down, SuziQ. Straight No Chaser puts on a very entertaining show. We had a blast!

      Thank you. I don't know I waited so long to drop the "babble". It's bugged me for ages.

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  4. I think it would sound nice just as "Bookfoolery" as well. Easy to readjust to, for all us long-followers. And I love that image of the library with the huge book sculpture! I'd want to go in there, too.

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    1. Thanks, Jeane! Yes, not such a dramatic change. I've had a little trouble remembering the title of Les's blog since she changed it to Prairie Horizons (but now she's leaving, anyway, *sniff*). We briefly went through the Nashville library in that photo, as we were heading to the theater to see Straight No Chaser. It is definitely a place I could spend a lot of time. I was afraid to look around too thoroughly for fear I wouldn't want to leave!

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