Morning sundog
It normally doesn't get cold enough here to see sundogs so seeing this came as a little bit of a surprise.
Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Charleston Eats: New Norm's
In a bit of restaurant drama, Norm's closed down a few months ago and reopened last week under new management.
The menu is largely the same, slightly expanded from the old menu. Norm's has a fresh coat of paint, new tables and some interior redecorating, but it's still looks mostly the same. Regulars of old Norm's will feel right at home in new Norm's.
Norm's Italian Combo sub (salami, pastrami and ham) and fries
Pizza
Ziti and sausage
Ted’s Sweet Italian Sausage / Baked Ziti with Fresh-made Mozzarella / Smoked Eggplant and Zucchini Caponata / Lemon Pudding Cake
Photos on exhibit
One of the co-organizers for the photo meetup group, Kevin, arranged to have photos taken by meetup members put up on exhibit at the West Ashley Barnes and Noble for the month of February. There's a pretty amazing selection of photos that were submitted and the first set of photos went up on display last week. Stop in and check them out!
This is the photo I'll have on display when the next set goes up
Aside from the photo gallery, it will be the first time I've had any of my photos out on display in public. How exciting!
I had a 16x20 printed out at Sam's Club, which turned out really good. The large format print seems like it has a much bigger impact than the same photo on the computer. Must be the size.
Cliq: Month 1
I still don't remember what the phone number for this thing is. Have to look in my PDA for it still. If you ask me for my number and I say I can't give it to you, it's not that I don't want to (well, actually I probably don't want to) but because I can't remember it to give to you.
Battery life seems better after a couple of deep discharge/charge cycles along with dumping a few apps that I decided I don't need, and turning off notifications I can live without. I can leave it alone in stand-by mode all day and it's only down to ~90% charge, rather than less than 50% charge. Actually using the phone still sucks down the battery pretty fast though, especially with wi-fi turned on.
Starting to get by with Google Calendar for keeping track of appointments and calendar-y stuff. It's definitely no DateBk though.
Note Everything and Astrid are filling in nicely for Memo and ToDo.
Could really use a simple relational database app like SmartList To Go.
Starting to break out of the habit of trying to Grafitti text. At least the keyboard is pretty decent.
Getting used to it clipped to my waist and clanging against the pager, but I don't always notice when it's not there. That means I will happily not notice that I've forgotten the phone at home. That also probably means I will not notice if it gets bumped off or forgotten somewhere (which hopefully won't happen).
Cliq is growing on me, but the T3 is still the first thing I reach for.
Barkley: Year 1
Barkley was adopted just over a year ago and today I got another update from his new family. It's so great to hear about former foster dogs doing so well.
First anniversary, which we consider his birthday was this Monday! The only reason he kept from freaking out wearing the hat was because we were holding pizza. (we tried to put one on him for maggies birthday, without the allure of pizza, and he ran to the third floor and hid.)
We flipped past ST:TNG last night and watched, because you said Barkley was named for a character, so we were trying to spot him! I looked up the character, because you said they were similar, and read that Barclay was afraid of the transporter! Perfect!
He is still terrified of vacuums. He still needs a nylabone constantly- really likes to gnaw at midnight and 6am on the bed. He still rolls around on his back kicking his legs when he's entertaining himself. He now drops a tennis ball at my feet all day long- and when I'm in bed on my head all night long. He's a good runner, we do 3 miles a day. Many days the finish line of our run is the fish store, so they each get a cooked shrimp as a reward. He saw his first crane (as in the bird) on the river and went cuckoo, since it's on our running path he searchs for it every day. He doesn't seem to mind the snow.
Winter Wonderland in Charleston
a.k.a. Snowmageddon Charleston 2010
This is what I'd call the first significant snow I've seen in Charleston since moving here. It's definitely an event that people will remember for a while.
I'm supposed to be heading off to volunteer at the Aquarium and then at SEWE for Wild Heir Lab Rescue, but I'm kind of afraid to get on the road. Not because of the road conditions, but because of the way people around here will drive in them.
Almost makes me feel like being back home.
Snowmageddon remnants
People here seem to have survived the Big Snow of 2010 without nearly as much chaos as I expected. I think the fact that the snow didn't happen until late evening when most people were already inside help a lot.
Around downtown and my end of James Island, the snow was pretty much gone by noon the next day, except for a few shady areas.
These sad little snowman carcasses are pretty much all that remain from Snowmageddon CHS 2010. Even those are probably being slowly melted away by the rain we're getting this afternoon.
Do Hush Puppies make you mosey?
Around here, most people think of these when you mention hush puppies
(Photo credit: Lela's Hush Puppies posted at myrecipes.com)
I'm not from around here, so I think of these
The shoes, not the dog. I just couldn't get Nala to move out of the way.
I was in need of new shoes a few weeks ago and picked up a couple of pairs of Hush Puppies on sale at Phillips Shoes. Once I got them broken in a little, they turned out to be pretty comfortable and living up to their reputation.
Saturday I wore them instead of my usual running shoes during my volunteer shift at the Aquarium and noticed something. I wasn't moving around as fast as I normally do.
I was moseying. I was ambling.
Now, I'm not exactly the type of person that's always rushing around from place to place like a mouse on speed. Far from it. As I was going about my routine Saturday, it occurred to me that I was just doing everything at a much slower, much more relaxed pace than usual.
Is it the shoes? Are they just that comfortable? Have I become 'south-ified' in my movements after being here for 10 years? Maybe I'm just getting fat and lazy in my old age?
The science geek in me has been thinking about how to go about quantifying the effect of the shoes on the way I do things and the pace I move. Maybe a more qualitative approach like a log or journal. The problem is that being aware of moving slower (or even just the perception of it) will introduce bias into any experiment I come up with.
I think I'll just observe and make notes for now.
Charleston Eats: Sublime Pies and Cakes
A few years ago I discovered the deliciously edible creations from Sublime Pies. Then back in 2008 or so, they moved shop and then disappeared for a while.
Now thanks to Judith Moore at Charleston Cookie Company, Sublime Pies are back!
I am quite happy to report that despite the hiatus and Charleston Cookie Company taking over the making of the pies (but still with Sublime's recipe), the key lime pies are just as delicious as I remember.
So if you're like me and have been missing your Sublime Pies, make the trip down to Charleston Cookie Company on James Island and pick one up. If you haven't tried one yet, you're missing out.
Ethereal
Daytime fog presents such interesting photo possibilities and give a neat ghostly effect to things.
Large cargo
Yesterday I managed to catch the MSC Rita, the largest container ship to visit Charleston so far, as it was heading back out to sea.
It was definitely a large ship. Here it is passing under the bridge, looking through the salt marsh exhibit at the SC Aquarium and two layers of mesh screen.
Passing by the aquarium.
Not sure why the tug was spraying water, but it was doing it pretty much the entire way down the channel.
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Charleston Eats: Fish
Fish has been around for a few years now, but tonight was my first visit there. Forgot to bring my camera with me, so I had to settle for the camera phone.
We started off with some of the steamed clams and the butternut squash soup
Mmmm, clams.
Triggerfish was the special for tonight, served with something resembling fried rice. My first time having triggerfish. A firm fish with a hearty mouth feel to it, but still mild tasting. The fried rice was good, although a little heavy on the soy sauce.
There was also vermilion snapper filet, served with coconut rice and a coconut based sauce. Very Caribbean island-y flavours.
Finally we finished off the evening with dessert: the chocolate malt souffle and the banana cake. The souffle was flambéd, but by the time the camera app started, the flames had disappeared.
Fish can be a little on the spendy side, but the food was excellently prepared and all of it was delicious. Definitely a place worth checking out.
Charleston Eats: Quyen
Seafood Pho from Quyen.
Note to self: have them make it without the cilantro and onion next time.