Such a perfect day for walking! I wanted to walk a different route today, but half way through I decided to really go farther away and walk around one of the local universities since I haven't been over that way yet.

Eudora Welty House. It is so cool to look in the windows and see her things sitting where she left them!

Love the big open green space.

I had no idea how far I was walking, but I was surprised that I went 2.5 miles!

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What a cool night! Not only was it cooler outside, but I had all an invite to the opening gala of the MS International Film Festival. There were definitely some characters (pun intended). Plus, the catered food from Bravo! was awesome as well.

Goat cheese, roasted peppers, caramelized onions, tasty dip, and pumpkin tart. Yum!

The party was set up in the planetarium in the hallway revolving around the theatre. Pretty cool!

But, Erin and I weren't ready to call it a night just yet. After a suggestion from my boss, we headed to Bon Ami. You see, my boss and I agree THE best dessert in town (in the state? in the country?) is the caramel brownie with coffee ice cream. TO DIE FOR.

Ohhh myyyyyyyyy gosh. 'Nuff said.

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Last night I went to one of the coolest events I've been to in a while, the Annual Dialog and Friendship Dinner put on by the Institute of Interfaith Dialog. It was so amazing to see so many people of different backgrounds, religions, nationalities.

Trying to be incognito, I snapped a few photos, but the night was really about talking to your neighbors.

Erin and I sat next to a guy with a new radio show on MPB. He was really interesting.

Hope you are having a great week!

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When I was thinking about getting a cat, I had this idyllic picture of a kitty sitting on a chair looking the window. So far Kitty Witty hasn't seemed interested in the outside world and, really, she does her own thing around the house too. But this morning while I was in the kitchen, I looked in the living room and saw this:

My cat looking out the window. She's not the most curious cat, but she noticed the birds in the tree outside the window and couldn't take her eyes off of them.

Soon as the birds left, she wasn't interested anymore and went on her merry way. So much for idyllic.

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I love walking through my neighborhood in the evenings. When all the homes are so cute, it definitely motivates you to walk to the next street to see the next rows of homes.

I especially love looking at the homes and wondering what's inside. So cute!

I also love the Halloween decor! All the pumpkins are so cute (can you see the stack of pumpkins on the doorstep below?).

Hope you're having a great weekend!

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It's Friday...

Hope you have a great weekend. Shalom y'all.

Greetings! I have a fun morning today at work with a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker Unveiling this morning down the street from the office.

Mayor Johnson being interviewed by news organizations...

A view of the marker.

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I think we have a little performer on our hands! Check out my little star...

Last night was a little crazy getting used to her walking around at night, in my bed, meowing, etc. but I think it'll be ok!

In other news... research and work that I did for the JFP was mentioned in the New York Times yesterday! Click if you would like. While I did help write some of the articles in the series, I mostly did the research for this project Ronni and I did. As you can see in the NYT story (and can read about as Donna documents here), I did the research about the five men to find their back story. Radley then took our stories and wrote another series about them a year later. It's pretty cool to see my work going places outside my state!

I think Kitty Witty has adjusted quite well to her new place...

I mean, she looks pretty comfortable to me!

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I Saw a Kitty Today

Quick post because Sital told me to. This morning I welcomed a new member to the family... Kitty Witty! Yes, that's seriously her name. Maybe I'll change it, maybe I won't...


She's cute and sweet for sure! Hopefully she will come out from under my bed today...
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Just a quick post about dinners! Because I'm a young professional, I'm stuck in this weird place between "I want things to taste good" and "I don't want to pay a lot." Honestly, it's not nearly as bad as I thought, it just takes a little planning.

Dinner 1: The Olive Cheese Bread I posted about the other day. I totaled it up and buying all new ingredients (mayo, bread, 2 types of olives, cheese, onion), the total came to $4.77 and I am still not through all of it!

Dinner 2: Spaghetti with ground turkey and leftover Olive Cheese Bread. Using a $2.99 pack of turkey, pasta I got for free with a coupon, this only set me back $3 (figuring I used 2/3 of the turkey, pasta, sauce and leftover bread).

Dinner 3: BBQ Meatloaf a la Pioneer Woman with roasted local sweet potatoes. Using the leftover 1/3 turkey, I made meatballs and roasted local taters from the farmers market. With the potatoes only $.69, turkey left over and ketchup as my main sauce, this meal was probably under $3.

While some people may hardly pay anything for their groceries because they use coupons, I can't eat all processed food! I do have fun with coupons and last week I saved 57 percent. Not that bad!

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Phew! I just went to one of the craziest events yet for my job - the ribbon cutting of the Standard Life flats. For those that don't know, the Standard Life is one of Jackson's "skyscrapers" that has recently been renovated into apartments. I love all of the Art Deco.

It was pretty nuts!

There was a nice reception going on during/after the program. No photos, but I tried duck with fig plus a portabella and goat cheese slice. So good!

They also had sweets, but I was more interested in getting water at that point!

Street view: SL on the left, King Edward to the right. The King Edward is another development on the same block, which also opened up in the past year or so. Unlike SL, King Edward is mix-use with a flagship hotel, coffee shop, and two floors of apartments.

Love. my. job.

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Gotta love the fair!

Being so close to the fair (and promoting it like crazy), there was no way I couldn't visit for lunch at least one day while it's in town. While chicken-on-a-stick is a mainstay of fair fare, I just wasn't feeling it this year. I know, I know... I can already hear the groans.

Instead, I was on the hunt for two things:

Corndog. So, so good.

Pineapple whip. By far one of my favorite things at the fair. On this hot day, it was perfect. I would go to the fair just for that!

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It's been such a great day in a way I didn't expect. Last night, I got a call from our HR Director telling us that our CEO was letting us have the day off today for Columbus Day! I guess as a quasi-governmental organization we can do that and, man, was I happy about that.

After the news sunk in, I started to think, "What the heck am I going to do with myself?" Being so busy the past couple of weeks I honestly didn't know what to do first. I knew I wanted to make something great for dinner but that's about as far as it went.

So, I did a little rearranging in my bedroom and added a new table I'd been needing for all my essentials.

This new little piece? It's TV tray I found at Goodwill for $2 and painted black with the leftover paint from the dresser. With a small bathroom and just as little space on my dresser top, I needed something that could be hidden but still be functional. I think for $2 it fits the bill!

Then I searched through my cook books (gotta love my Patty Roper books from my Mississippi Magazine days) and knew exactly what to make... PW's Olive Cheese Bread.

I don't say it enough, buy I love love love this book.

Drain the olives, chop, chop, chop...

Sidenote: Ever seen or used one of these? This stainless steel bar takes out any stinky smells from your hands. It worked wonders after I chopped an onion.

At $.79 the bread helps make this super affordable too!

It's more yellow than PW's because I used cheddar instead of Monterey Jack. Gotta use what you have!

If that wasn't enough, I also made a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I know, I need to stop.

Hope tomorrow is just as great as it was today.

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REE-dic-ulous

Guf. What a crazy weekend! Actually, Saturday was just NUTS. Starting very, very early, Erin and I headed to Hattiesburg and the coast for a day of fun. We started off well, but little did we know we picked the craziest weekend to be in south Mississippi. With homecoming at USM and Cruisin' the Coast, people were EVERYWHERE.

In Hattiesburg, we attempted to visit one of our haunts, Southbound Bagel, but with the impending homecoming parade about to close off the roads and the longest wait to actually get a bagel, we aborted our plans and headed to Hudson's.

Once finally on the coast, we had lunch and headed to Keesler Air Force Base to lay flowers on Erin's grandparent's grave. Little did we know, everyone in town also wanted to be on U.S. 90 at the same time for Cruisin' the Coast! Using our trusty Garmin, we navigated some back roads and finally made it to the cemetery. Again, little did we know, (Do you see the pattern??) the bathrooms were closed on weekends, so we had to navigate out. Guf!

Coming back, we grabbed the plastic vase mandated that you use for the graves. Erin filled it up with water and handed it to me so we could drive down to the grave. I still plead that it was a ghost that did it, but somehow all of the water (atleast a cup or two) landed in my lap. Guf guf! There I was in a south Mississippi cemetery with no backup pants and my jeans are SOAKED from my waist down.

Luckily, Erin had a blanket in the back and the air conditioning dried out my pants for the most part before we went to the outlet mall. (Sorry Ash, we didn't go in the Ralph Lauren store, but we did think of you when we passed it by)

After a bit of shopping, we made it back to Hattiesburg to one of our absolute favorite places for dinner, Old Athens Grill. Unfortunately, everyone had parked all around the restaurant and the surrounding neighborhood for the homecoming game. Grr! So, we parked about 4 blocks away and walked to the restaurant (We were bound and determined to have some hummus).

The food was fabulous as always. I wish I could bottle that restaurant up and bring it here. Sorry Keifer's, Old Athens is where it's at.

Finally, we made it home around 9:30 and I was beat! Probably one of the craziest days I've had in a while.

Sunrise

Maybe it's because of my job or maybe because I really want to get back into photography, I got up a little earlier this morning so I could take pictures of... the fair. Ok, I know it's 7:15 in the morning and no one is there, but I had this idea in my head to try to take some shots of the fair from Amite Street, looking down the hill to the western side.

While it may not seem as exciting as the actual fair, I had so much fun taking different shots this morning. (Sorry I can't show you more, they're work property now!) I'm excited to be able to use my creativity and (maybe) apply them to my job and the city that I love.

Doesn't hurt that there was a great coffee shop across the street to enjoy some breakfast before work either.

Have a great weekend!

Man, it's been a while since I've posted and I promise to catch up soon. Almost two weeks ago my Papaw had a stroke, so most of my time has been spent visiting him and family members at the hospital. While it's been sad to see them because of the situation, I've really enjoyed seeing them.

Liking the new blog layout? Just trying a couple of new things.