Taste Like Chicken Weekend 7/17-18

Kathy, part of the G'burg expansion is up the mountain. Anakeesta has new places that have opened and I think you have to take the Sky Lift to get to them. Downtown was pretty much untouched from the fires except by a lot of smoke. I have to wonder if some businesses closed last year and new businesses have moved in downtown. But I don't plan to go there to find out if that's the case. I remember back in the 90s when we used to go there with DMIL/DFIL, it was busy, but not even close to what it is today. Yes, the Pekin duck is solid white, so that may have been what you saw. They are supposed to be one of the friendliest ducks, which is why they make good pets. I had to slow down swimming the other day because of how close I was to it and it wasn't a bit phased by me.

Congrats on the late birthday dinner, Linda. The restaurant sounds like they have things figured out, but I don't blame you for not wanting to eat indoors again for a while. Sorry you may lose a tree but in all that heat, I know you have to work hard to keep plants alive. I'm surprised the peppers are still alive but not surprised the tomatoes aren't. What unusual noontime weather you had yesterday. Sorry Micki's test results weren't better. Sounds like this may be common in Micki's breed. I'll bet most of the 200 questionable things would be able to be easily explained if Cyber Ninjas knew what they were doing. Maybe the other states won't be rushing to have a duplicate audit if there was no fraud found. If someone came to my door "to ask questions", I wouldn't be alone--I would have Smith and Wesson with me. Hopefully the donations will slow down now that they see it's a futile effort. But you're right that there will be no bottom as long as there is money to be made.

Becky, those pesky cucumbers have to be hiding from you for them to get that big. The cattle will love the new flavors. I picked my first cucumber this morning and I almost didn't see it, but it's about 6 inches long, so it was there. It will be part of dinner. That's great that your bites no longer itch. I wouldn't have thought of using Aquaphor. I know we have some. I have a variety of tomatoes planted and I think I planted them a bit too thick and hope I can get to all of them. The one I picked yesterday is a sungold, which is a gold cherry. I also have a few varieties of red tomatoes, a burgundy called Midnight Snacker, and another darkish one called Indigo Rose. We will be swimming in tomatoes soon. Arya loves apples. She also loves bananas. Phoebe loved berries but Arya hates them. They are all so different. I bake an oven full of sweet potatoes at a time and Arya gets a medium one for dinner every night. She loves them and it gives me something pliable to hide pills, etc. in. Odd that Scooter wanted kibble so early and then again a couple hours later yesterday morning.

Have you been watching the TDF, Chele? I'm really suspicious of Podacar winning the two most difficult mountain stages on consecutive days Wednesday and Thursday. We've been watching the tour for at least 20 years and don't remember that ever happening. I hope he's racing clean and/or doesn't have any illegal gear on his bike that's helping him get up those mountains. How was YS?

Liz, did you get all your errands done today? Is Zoe continuing to improve?

What's going on, Denise? Are you still working a lot?

Dale seems to be having more reaction to his first Shingrix jab than he did to either of his Modernas. I did my workout, cooked eggs for Arya, and may just hang around. We did spend over an hour in the workout room because the TV went out on me when I shut it down after my workout yesterday. We did everything we could find on Google or YouTube and it still isn't working. It may be a bad power supply, which is similar to a computer motherboard. The TV is 10 years old, so we could replace it for about what we could repair it. I will be calling the company that installed our Dish, alarm system, and all our TVs to get them to come out to replace it and haul the old one off. I watched a YouTube video this morning on the treadmill and that worked out fairly well but that might be a challenge on the rowing machine. Maybe they will be able to do it quickly so I won't have to find out. Hope everyone is having an enjoyable weekend.

Linda, most of the tourist stuff is on one main road that goes through the town. It's very small town kitschy tourist stuff for the most part though and not big theme parks like Orlando. They've done a good job of making it look like a quaint mountain town as opposed to nearby Pigeon Forge which looks more like a trashy version of the strip at Las Vegas. We've liked it over the years as a convenient place to stay to get to the Smoky Mountains National Park, so that's why we stay near the park.

I think a Swiss company built the tram for Ober Gatlinburg. They do have an Octoberfest up there, but I don't know if there was a German population there. I don't think I've ever been up there, so guess we should go sometime. The first family to settle there was the Ogle family and you see that name everywhere there. I don't think they were German though. My sister was born in Knoxville and my parents loved the Smokies, so it's just been one of our favorite vacation spots over the years. It's a nice change from Florida and the closest mountains.

Karen, nice new avatar. Is it a woodpecker? How is Dale feeling this morning? Our TV is 10 yrs old and has started acting weird. Sometimes if you increase/decrease volume, the volume indicator freezes. Then eventually the TV turns itself off. We have been watching the TDF off and on. Iggy gets annoyed that the winner of the stage doesn’t get a shirt. We kept wondering when Pogacar was going to make a move or if he was going to sit back and let his team keep killing themselves for him. I never thought about him juicing to get up those mountains twice in a row first. There were too many T-storms for is to go to YS.

Hi, Kathy. What’s new? Bit boring here. We were looking forward to doing more things this summer, but with the Delta variant we don’t dare risk going to more places. 😞

Linda, I am sorry to hear about Micki’s numbers. You are doing your best for him. That’s all you can do and he is happy. I would probably have a desert garden in your shoes, because I am lazy.

Becky, I know what you mean about planting too close together. Dogs are funny about food. The stereotype is that they will eat anything and that is just not true for all dogs. I learned that the hard way with a picky eater. I am glad you found something to ease the pain of the bites.

Waving to Liz and Denise.

We will be watching the British Open golf and the cycling today. That’s our

Chele, not much new here either. We thought we'd be planning some trips by now, but I just don't have the desire to get on a plane or stay in a hotel or rental place. I'm wondering how much longer it will be before we do feel comfortable with traveling. It doesn't look good for this winter with all the anti-vaxers and anti-maskers (which I think are mostly the same people). Lots of people are traveling though, so sometimes I wonder if we're being too cautious. DS has been told they're returning to the office in August, but I think they're still working out details. I'm glad to be retired and not dealing with that.

Karen, we take The Spur too depending on where we're going. We've stayed in less touristy places on some trips, but we like that spot in G'burg at the end of the main strip near the park entrance. We spend most of our time there going into the park, but it's nice to have some other things to do on rainy days. There is a book called Murder in Gatlinburg where two detectives go into all the tacky tourist places. It had me laughing out loud in parts. I'm sure it's much funnier when you recognize the places they're talking about. The resort they stayed at in the book is one of the ones that burned down.

Kathy, the touristy places can be pretty loud from what I've heard. If you were spending time at the park anyway, those are the better places to stay. But in the case of inclement weather, it's good to have options. I have Murder in Gatlinburg downloaded on my Kindle but haven't read it yet. I'll need to do that. I keep forgetting it's there when I'm looking for a little light reading. Depending upon when it was published, some of the places may have changed. There is another book in the series called A Body in Pigeon Forge. Have you read that one? The author must have local ties. They did lose several resorts to the fires and some of them probably won't be rebuilt. I haven't heard anything recently, but I know in 2019 they were only about 68% rebuilt. It sounds like your DF had several reasons to relocate the fam to FL. That is too bad that UT didn't have a program that would have allowed your DS a tuition break because she was born here. Hummers LOVE hibiscus, so I'm not surprised your DM has seen several. They also seem to be drawn to the color red. Dale is still a little tired but his fever finally broke overnight. His arm is still a bit sore but he plans to go trail running tomorrow. I have a feeling he won't be out as long as he usually is, however. If I hadn't been able to get a direct flight to an airport near DB, I wouldn't have gone last month. And, despite the direct flight, if they didn't have room for me to stay with them, I wouldn't have gone. Too many unknowns about cleaning regimens at hotels and even rental properties.

When I get dehydrated, Linda, the primary symptom is a headache, which I haven't had. I've been drinking a lot for the last few days anyway. I think it has to be allergies. It's letting up a little this afternoon. I had the Zostavax several years ago and remember a little arm soreness but nothing else. I went to work the following day. So now I'm really dragging my feet about getting Shingrix. Congrats on the rain and I hope you have more yesses than maybes on showers. I hope your vaccinated friends don't regret getting out as much as they currently are. I was feeling pretty confident with the vaccine until my friend's son got covid despite having had both his Pfizer shots several months earlier. He seems to be recovered, however, because he's back training for a marathon as of yesterday. It's too hot to eat outdoors around here right now, too, and we're only in the 90s or less.

We've gotten close to 1/2 inch of rain in the past 3 hours and some places in the area apparently got more because we have a flash flood warning. The lake should be pretty comfy in the morning. I'll swim early and Dale will leave for the state park after I get out of the water. I'll have to go in early for MG meeting to get set up before the rest of the board members start to arrive. While Dale is gone, I'll do the usual Monday stuff but try to rest more so I'll be fresher for the long evening.

Linda, I saw that about the cruises. If anywhere makes sense to require vaccinated people, it's on a cruise ship!