Weddings are always special

We were invited to a friend's son's wedding yesterday. Here's the proud mom and dad of the groom.



The groom has been back from Iraq for less than a month - so this wedding was super-special.




A beautiful ceremony, dinner and cake!

OK, Spring, I'm Looking For YOU!!

The tree limbs know it's time....the daffy's know it's time....now I want the thermometer to reflect that it's time....for SPRING!!!!

Another Kitty Cat Finds a Home

It's another dreary day - actually snowing just a spit.....we were surprised to see a flight planned into Siler City this morning.

Then this nice lady showed up in the terminal building to deliver a cat to someone flying in. It is the most friendly cat I think I've ever seen. It's called a Singapura.


I got into the action a little too - I haven't had a cat since we were at New Hill - Robert was a baby - so that is at least 20 yrs!


The owners-to-be made the approach in marginal weather - this is one special cat!



And there you go - she's found her new home!

Boat Weekend - short sail to River Dunes

Finally a bright, sunny weekend!!

We flew down to the boat yesterday and had a wonderful (chilly) sail.

I always love to see the boats with spinnakers flying....always so pretty and colorful. We'll have one some day...as it is, our boat does pretty well in "light airs" (read - very little wind).




We turned off the motor just outside of the Oriental channel markers and sailed up to River Dunes. It's a marina/community that is just being build about 10 miles north of Oriental. Here is Glory Days alongside their nice teak docks. Wow, how can they put teak down for docks? One little piece for the boat costs $50! A very helpful girl came out and helped us tie off.



Then it was on to the very nice restaurant for lunch.

Here is the view from our wonderful, sunny table next to the window.

And the food was wonderful!! And inexpensive, I thought. Duane's blue cheese burger and fresh fruit was $8 and my delicious Jamaican shrimp/chutney po-boy was $10. Those potato chips were obviously fried fresh moments before they were served to me. Always nice to find a place like this in close boating distance.


We ended up using the motor to go back home....the wind was right on our nose and we were chasing daylight.


Capt'n Karen all bundled up! Nice and warm now on the boat!

NC State Basketball......oh well, always next year!!

Our buddy/owner of the marina in Oriental invited us to accompany him to the NC State basketball game again last night.



It was CHILLY!!! Come on, Duane, let's make for the RBC Center, quick!! Really, the season pass parking is really close, very nice and right at the door. I'm wearing my NC State shirt that Robert says is obnoxious...


Our gracious host, John Cox....did I really say gracious in describing John??? I agree with the guy on the step below him - who is this crazy dude???


It actually was a good game 1st half - NC State was up by 10 points for a good while.....then came 2nd half....ugh.



Oh well - this was kindof fun to watch at a break in the action.

One of John's friends (he seems to know everyone in the stadium...) was chosen to play a game on the court for a $500 jewelry certificate. They blindfolded him - put his wife at the other side of the arena - and let the crowd tell him how to find his wife. Mr. Wolfe stayed with him - and Mrs. Wolfe stayed with his wife.




As he turned the wrong way, the crowd boo'd.


The crowd really boo'd loud when he was walking this way.....


But they cheered loudly when he finally got moving in the right direction. I didn't get a photo of
his wife - but he did find her and won the $500 prize!! A good, fun time!

Karen finally gets to eat some beef!! Well, sorta,,,,

This post will probably be tedious to those who have not seen the chick flick "Julie/Julia"...in the movie, the modern Julie makes Julia Child's Beef Á La Bourguignonne. Really, it's just a fancy beef stew - takes hours to make.

I'll show you my finished product:



Yum, looks like real beef stew - but, of course, it's not! My allergy makes it impossible for me to eat the real thing. A couple of days ago, my sis showed a process to "vegan-ize" the stew....works perfect for me!

Now I'll show you what all I did. (I would have never come up with this myself...I followed my sis's steps, thanks!)

Gathered the ingredients. The only odd things in the stew were Tofu and Vital Wheat Gluten. Oh, and nutritional yeast. All readily available at Whole Foods.




Blended up the tofu, various spices and sauces. Oh - it contains Beef Bouillon - the Food Lion brand - amazingly - has NO beef whatsoever!!


Added the vital wheat gluten (like a flour).



Kneaded it into a stiff dough.



After letting it "rest" for a while, I cut it into chunks (to resemble the "beef")



Saute some onions and carrots....



Dump it all together with some Red, Red, Red Wine! and more bouillon. Bake for a couple of hours until the wine is mostly absorbed and the remaining sauce is thick.




Meanwhile saute some pearl onions in more beef bouillon....gotta add that beef flavor!


Add some mushrooms....


Same photo again....all of it mixed together and baked a little more....yum. It really was good!!


And then - more excitement....Robert called and said that Ray, his bud and room-mate's car had broken down in Raleigh. So....they used our tow-dolly to pull his car back home for repairs. They stuck it in the hangar to await the weekend when they have time.


But they were hungry - so I invited them to sample some of the stew.


They ate a good bit of it - either they liked it or they were just being nice!!!

Snow and Valentines!

We had a little snowfall - thank goodness this one was shortlived in true southern fashion!! Pretty, though.


Ahhh - Valentine's Day - My sweetie brought me a HUGE slice of Maggiano's Zuccoto cake. YUM, the best cake in the world! The light-colored chocolate is a creamy mousse and the icing is actually closer to a lush french-chocolate melt-in-your mouth dark candy bar. Then they drizzle a chocolate syrup and melted caramel on top.


I stole the above photo off the web - forgot to snap a photo of my cake before it was gone.....here all that was left....I wash and keep the containers - then I use them as disposables tote stuff to potlucks. A very nice Valentines!

Would YOU Fly a Citation Jet from Mississippi for Liver Mush???

Really, they didn't!! But it sounded like a nice title!!

We've seen these folks several times at the Siler City Airport - the owner of the plane has some local friends that he and his wife visit on occasion. We took care of them this afternoon- got them settled and off in their rental car for a long weekend.

Meanwhile, one of the pilots had an errand to run for a friend back in Mississippi - the friend wanted some Liver Mush!! Apparently, it's not available outside of North Carolina/Virginia. The pilot had never heard of it (and didn't like the sound of it, by the way!!)

But, alas, we knew where to send him!! To the local Piggly Wiggly!! He came back with a tremendous amount - what a good friend he is!!


The two pilots agreed that they did NOT want the Liver Pudding in the cockpit with them....luckily, they have a separate baggage compartment in the nose of the aircraft. And there went the Neese's!


So, hope the friend enjoys his prize!!! Off they flew to (hopefully) warmer climes!!

Confused Cactus

Another rainy day in paradise!! I meant to mention this earlier - my Christmas Cactus didn't bloom properly at Christmas Time....it has decided to go all out and put on a show now.....pretty and cheerful in all this dreary weather for sure!



I have to show you what I found on our recent trip to Hendersonville at the Purple Sage wine shop....our boat namesake wine!!! Glory Days...hope it's good!!! I bought 6 bottles!

50th BDay Surprise !

Saturday was my brother, Eddie's, 50th birthday. His wife Trudi orchestrated a great surprise party for him at the Purple Sage in downtown Hendersonville.




We were all to appear at 7pm sharp with a "memory to share". Hey, he's FIFTY, not dead!!!

Tom at the Purple Sage did a wonderful job in the "wine cellar" - yummy food, great company and (of course) great wine!

We all took turns with funny stories from Eddie's first 50 years.




Mom told about the "burning the lawnmower, almost burning the house down" incident from circa 1965....


Truly a memorable birthday for Eddie!


Watch out Keith - you'll be there before you know it!!


Pretty snow view from Mom's house....our snow is mostly gone now, thank goodness!!


Quick trip - the view driving down Old Fort mountain was spectacular!!!