Two years ago as a long suffering San Francisco Giants fan, I reaped my reward in 2010 when the Giants (finally!) won the world series and Bug Selig handed over this:
Tonight, the Giants won it all again.
And Mr. Selig, who is no fan of the Giants, had to hand over another trophy. Heh.
Now we got a matched set! Like salt and pepper shakers.
Reunited and it feels so good!
Last year was a tough one at the Southern New Mexico State Fair. My two amazing goddaughters raised pigs as part of their 4H work and then entered them into the fair. They had high expectations, only to learn some hard lessons about business, politics and collusion.
Their pigs didn’t place, didn’t make it to the auction and were sold at packer rates, which amounted to about $300, then loaded on the truck. This is not something they have yet recovered from.
So this year they got smart.
They decided to diversify into rabbits. Yes, I said rabbits.
Seeing as their Uncle is superintendent of the rabbit judging at the local fair and he also breeds and sells champion rabbits, it seemed like a good idea.
And it was.
Their cousin took first and grand reserve, my younger goddaughter took second and the oldest took third.
Then the goddaughters sold their rabbits at auction. Younger girl got $1,100 and older brought home $1,000.
The best thing about rabbit auction? The buyer almost always gives the animal back to the kid and takes the tax deduction on the sale. No packer truck means no big sad this year.
My girls are turning into brilliant business women, and for better and worse, learning how to play the game.
Even as I hate how good ol’ boy corrupt the whole animal showing and auction goes (it always has been), I’m proud of them for figuring it out.
That’s an education you don’t get at school.
Meanwhile, The Good Man says, “There’s money in rabbits!” and is plotting an extensive distribution channel of eatin’ rabbits. There are plenty of local high end restaurants who serve it and “peasant food” is so on trend these days. If a restaurant can charge $30 for a rabbit plate (I’m not making this up) then we can surely get the girls some back end on that deal.
It’s all about who you know.
All I know is I gotta stick close to my girls. Today the Southern New Mexico State Fair auction barn, tomorrow the world.
Photo from ©2011 livestock auction
Photo Copyright 2011, Karen Fayeth, and subject to the Creative Commons License in the far right column of this page. Taken with a Canon Rebel.
My weekend, told in a few words with iPhone photos to illustrate.
On Friday, The Good Man and I did an early dash away from work and drove up to Napa.
We checked into our B&B and went outside to sit on their peaceful back patio to decompress after a crazy week. And to partake of the B&B’s delicious French press coffee.
Only, we weren’t alone.
This creature doesn’t belong to the B&B. No one is really sure where it came from. Creepy Stalker Chicken seemed to think we were going to feed her. She was especially targeted The Good Man who is used to being shaken down for kibble by The Feline. Apparently we were unable to escape hungry domesticated animals for the weekend.
Which kind of made us hungry. After a fantastic (non-poultry) dinner and a good night’s sleep, we headed out the next day to do what it is most people do while visiting Napa.
A lot.
Oh, and at one winery, we still weren’t alone.
Apparently Creepy Stalker Chickens were the weekend theme. This one was wearing chicken pants.
But no matter. There was still this…
And then more
And a WHOLE lot more
“Heeeeeey, schhhicken, scccchhhhicken, ssssssshicken…”
Then on Saturday night, we headed out to take in some live music at The Uptown Theater. An acoustic Roseanne Cash show (with Shawn Mullins as the opening act).
It was *awesome*.
We slept good that night. Had a kick butt breakfast.
Then sadly it was Sunday and time to head back home.
With a whoooole lotta wine in the trunk of the car.
It’s medicinal. Really.
All photos Copyright 2010 or 2012, Karen Fayeth, and subject to the Creative Commons license in the far right column of this page. All taken with an iPhone 4s and the Camera+ up, except for the Golden Gate Bridge photo which was taken with the QuadCamera app.
The scene: Tuesday evening in Opelika, Alabama at a delicious little restaurant called the Warehouse Bistro.
The people: Several of my coworkers, a large group of folks from the supplier we were visiting, and me.
The situation: We’d had a day long business meeting. It had been a full marathon session that was mostly good and occasionally heated. We ended the work day on a good note and headed off for drinks and good eats. We’d all started with a few mixed drinks, then beers and wine bottles were ordered, and delicious food was served. Near the end of the night as the servers cleared dessert plates the whole group was feeling quite convivial, there was a lot of good natured ribbing going back and forth.
I got a fair bit of grief for being from California. Things like “you buncha wine sniffing weirdos” and “You damn Californians!” I’m used to it, I get it back home in New Mexico too, so I know how to hold my own.
At the table were three guys who had driven over to Alabama from Daytona, Florida. It’s about a seven hour drive and they had seen the entire span of Georgia along the way. This one ol’ boy from Florida was the one leading the charge on giving people grief. He was dishing it out pretty hard to everyone at the table. Didn’t matter who you were or where you were from, you were gonna get your share. Even the guy from Australia.
So at one point he was talking about the drive over and saying, “geez, what is it with Georgia? All along the road all we saw were adult shops and fireworks stands. I mean all along I-10 that’s all there was. I couldn’t find a damn McDonalds but I could find all that crazy stuff. There’s gotta be something wrong with Georgia.”
Then he got an evil look in his eye.
He turned to the sweetest, quietest girl in the room who was sitting at the end of the table.
“Hey Cathy*, you’re from Georgia. What’s up with that? I mean, I thought this was the Bible Belt!”
She paused, took a sip of sweet tea, then said, very clearly so all could hear….”That’s because here in Georgia, we’re so good, when we’re done having a little fun we don’t smoke a cigarette, we light off a Roman candle.”
The room was quiet for one, two three beats….then came thunderous applause and laughter.
In the vernacular of our times, that ol’ boy from Florida just got served. In the most quiet, gentle and polite Southern way.
Loved it!
Image found at AnimalCapshunz.com * Not her real name
Oh, Atlanta/I hear you calling/
I’m coming back to you one fine day/
No need to worry/There ain’t no hurry/
cause I’m/On my way back to Georgia
— Atlanta, by Alison Krauss
Last month I typed into my Facebook status, “Holy crap. I’m actually in London” in the awe inspiring moments after I stepped off an airplane.
I considered typing something similar today.
I suppose “Holy crap I’m actually in Atlanta” holds a little less gravitas, but it’s no less sincere.
The holy crap comes to mind because it’s been a really long time since I was in beautiful Georgia.
Flying over the city I love to look out the window and I’m always amazed. Atlanta is so green. So many trees. So many old red brick buildings. Lovely!
I got a good adventure today, too. I picked up a rental car at the airport and got out on Highway 85 southbound. Today I drove across the left half of Georgia. It’s a jaunt that would take many, many hours in New Mexico, but turns out I only needed about 75 miles to get it done today.
The highway was wonderful. Smooth pavement, tall Georgia pines lining the route and well-tended velvety grass on both sides of the road.
I put my favorite Sirius station on the rental car radio and took a really nice drive.
It looked like this.
I love driving on easy open road. It’s very meditative. Some of my best thinking gets done on an uncrowded interstate.
And then after a little over an hour, I slipped over the border into Alabama and found my hotel.
This is the view from my hotel room. That is some big sky right there.
The population of this town is 7,897 and the folks here could not be any nicer. I took a drive around the town just to check it out and marveled at how pretty it is here in this little corner of Alabama.
Something so easy and so pretty about a warm summer night in the South.
And then I stopped off for a little dinner at a local institution.
Haven’t visited one of these in a while.
Feeling quite content, I’m back in my hotel and I’m smiling.
Atlanta may have been calling, but right now Alabama’s got my attention.
I was sort of worried about this trip, about the long drive and the weather and what this little town would be like.
It turns out I’m kind of having fun. On a work trip! Go figure.