#169 He Isn't a Fan

Weekend I’d Forget

My weekends haven't been too thrilling. But that is the point of Weekend I'd Forget after all, isn't it? To take an otherwise ordinary weekend and see the good in it.

This is what I have been doing with most of my days as I continue to fill my Good Things Jar with good things that have happened during my week. So far, my good things have included things like surviving my first root canal and going to see the final part of The Hobbit.

Thrilling, I know.


This weekend was perfectly boring. Even with an extra day off on Monday, most of my time was spent at home...doing not much of anything. The Type-A, overachiever side of me rolls her eyes at this, while the side that won, my secret sloth, grins giddily.

Here is how overly unproductive my weekend was: the most exciting outing Hubby and I took was a result of us laying around watching TV.

A few weeks ago, Hubby and I got cable. This is the first time in my life I have ever had cable. You would think I instantly became a cable junkie, sitting in front of the TV until the wee hours of the morning like Ralph Kramden did when he got his first TV in The Honeymooners*. 



But instead the cable has hardly been used. This is, in all fairness, to the fact that we had major issues with connectivity at first. But even now that it is somewhat working correctly, it isn't something we rush to with each free moment of our time.

*You might think I'm showing my age by referring to a show like this, but I promise, I'm not.

That said, Hubby put The Food Network on as we ate lunch Saturday afternoon and there I sat from lunch until early evening*.

*Squeezing in a quick Starbucks run, of course.

On the show "Best. Ever" they covered Best.BBQ.Ever and one of the locations they highlighted was Sweet Lucy's Smokehouse in Philadelphia.

Coincidentally, only moments before Hubby and I had been discussing what to do for dinner.

Sweet Lucy's was the natural choice.

Before I tell you about our Sweet Lucy's experience, let me first forewarn you that I am not a fan of Philly.

There, I've said it.

And I'm sorry.

Well, not really.

If anything, I'm honest and prefer not keeping such key details away from you.

For some reason, most of my experiences with Philly have led me to have a deep dislike for the city. With each time I go, I discover more reasons to fall in love with NYC.

If you're a Philly lover, can we please still be friends?

Sweet Lucy's is located on State Road and it was a pleasant surprise to see that there was a decent sized parking lot. It was not a pleasant surprise, however, to discover that you place your order first and then are given a seat.

The waiting area was chaos with groups of people sporadically lumped all over. It reached such a point that I needed to put on my teacher hat and usher the people in front of us to the left so that the people behind us wouldn't eagerly cut in front.

Ah, Philly.

The Best.Ever episode focused on their BBQ pulled chicken, so I knew I would be ordering that. Then I realized that I could do a combo platter and the world was suddenly a beautiful wonderful place, even in Philly. I was going to be a polite little lady and order the "Double the Fun" which is a choice of two meats, but then I decided I needed to show this place my true colors and went with the "Triple the Pleasure". I ordered the BBQ pulled chicken, the chopped Texas brisket, and the Memphis baby back ribs. With each combo you get three sides (three!) and an Italian roll or cornbread. For my sides I ordered a side salad, garlic mashed potatoes, and a brownie (oh yes). All for the price of $16.99.

Not bad.

Hubby ordered the same thing, but for his sides he got the mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and chili. He also got an Italian roll and then ordered additional cornbread.

I really wish we had ordered a dozen cornbread for $9.50 to take home. It was that good. Perfectly sweet and moist throughout.

The mashed potatoes were just alright, a little too watery and garlicy for my taste. Hubby loved the macaroni and cheese and the chili, too.

The meats were outstanding, as I'm sure you've already figured out. Though Food Network raved about the chicken, Hubby and I both loved the brisket. Usually when I get a pulled pork sandwich, I end up eating the meat and tossing most of the roll. Hubby wisely used his Italian roll for the brisket and changed my world view on pulled meat sandwiches.

Though the building is certainly humble in outward appearance and its entry, it makes up for it in the eating area. The staff were attentive to our every need, even to the point of making sure we didn't miss our complimentary tootsie rolls before taking our trash and bagging our food. The cashier was also extremely pleasant, which, let's be honest, isn't always the case.

This delightful meal led to Hubby choosing to be a little adventurous. We headed into Center City to shop at Macy's. Only to discover, after parking and walking a few blocks, that Macy's closes at 8 pm on Saturdays.

This baffled my mind. A department store closing at 8 pm on a Saturday?!

This led to a bitter Philly taste in our mouth and we turned around and headed back to our car. The parking attendant first aggravated, then amused us. We stood on the second level of the garage waiting for our car which was in plain sight and more than likely still had the keys inside. We watched as he pulled another customer's car out, then attempted to back another car into the empty spot, while in the process swiping the car against another two times.

He only helped to add to my list of reasons not to go to Philly.

#168 He Sells

Weekend I’d Forget

My most exciting news for this past weekend, though definitely exciting, is mostly bittersweet.

We listed our home for sale on Saturday.

It is something we have talked about for over a year.

Hubby drives an hour each way to work every day. He also is moving up in the world which means longer hours. Combined with his long drive means that I barely see him during the week.

But talking and actually doing are vastly different things.

Finding our first home was a journey filled with gulps of hope and hiccups of disappointment. In the year we were engaged, neither of us were at our permanent full-time job, so deciding on the location was pretty much a shot in the dark.

I don't recommend taking shots in the dark.

Fortunately, every home we bid on fell through until we found a home not only perfect in location for our future jobs but also perfect in size for our unnecessary bulge of worldly possessions.

I'm going to miss my kitchen.

I'm going to miss my bookcase hidden in the wall.

I'm going to miss the porches we updated only months ago.*

*Could August really only have been months ago?

Ordinarily, I'm not one to get sentimental over things.  I like my things, but I don't pour my emotions into them.

Still I think this first home of ours is going to be hard to walk away from.

I know there is better out there. I know there are new and exciting things that wait. Yet part of me is going to yearn for the irreplaceable things like the wooden planks and brick walls that make up our first home together.

#167 He Values His Hobbit Hole

Weekend I’d Forget

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.  

But, sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell."

-The Hobbit, The Return Journey

Yesterday, we went to see the final Hobbit movie: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

I must live under a rock, because I didn't realize the book had been broken into three, that's THREE, films until the credits started rolling as Hubby and I sat in the theater last year watching The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

I might have shrieked a little over that. Especially since they really, really, really could have finished the book in two movies rather than stretching it out into a third.

Regardless, I naturally wanted to see the third.

Before going any further, I should probably let you know that I am not a geek for The Hobbit.

Get all your gasps of shock out right now.

It just seemed like one of those books you are supposed to read. Somehow, I hadn't. So I did.

Of course, after I read it, as is the natural desire of most readers, I wanted to see how well my mind's eye of the story and Hollywood's view of the story would relate.

I'm not going to get into that because while the characters and scene choices are wonderful, drastic changes were made to the story line. I'm a purist and can't manage to wrap my little brain around trying to understand why a story would ever need to be drastically changed when put into movie form.

Especially with the computer graphics we are capable of creating today.

(Note: If you don't know how The Hobbit ends and don't want to read one of the major details of the end---stop reading here.)

That said, I press on to the quote that struck me during the movie. It was stated a little differently in the movie than as was written in the book (the quote at the top of this post), but the sentiment is still the same.

In the movie, as Thorin Oakenshield, the Dwarven king, lies dying, he speaks to Bilbo. After making mends with Bilbo over a previous altercation, he says, "If more of us valued home above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world,"

Upon hearing that quote, I thought about the money hungry of our world, of those who seek only power and prominence, regardless of its cost. I thought of how nations destroy one another in order to be at the top, to rule it all. This thought that Thorin realizes only too late in life, brings me to pity those like him who only value "hoarded gold". 

I pity that they probably never knew a home good enough to long for over riches.

When Bilbo begins his adventure with this group of dwarves far different from himself, the only things he wants for are his hobbit hole, his tea time, and the warm food of his home. Knowing there are treasures ahead, he many times still wishes to return to the comfort of his home.

While gold and adventure both have their time and place, considering the merriment of home helps to keep me humble. It makes me heartbroken for those without a true home, their own place of comfort where there is food, cheer and song. And it reminds me when my head gets a little to big, when I start to lose focus of what is most important, that ultimately I am happiest when I am in my own little hobbit hole. 

#166 He Finds Good Things

On New Year's Eve last year, I posted about the highlights of 2013 here at Somewhere That's Green. Though it had not been my intention, doing so helped to change my perspective when reflecting on the year. Too often, our gut instinct is to down play our year. But when I look over everything that I have cataloged through blog posts and pictures throughout the year, I am always amazed at how much happened.

While nothing so spectacular as discovering the cure for cancer or hitting the lottery occurred in my life, the things that did happen were wonderful and worth celebrating.

To me, New Year's shouldn't be about letting out a sigh of relief that the previous year is over. Instead it should be about gaining a breath of excitement for the opportunity to make the next year even better.

I've seen a lot of bloggers commit to starting a Good Things Jar and I have decided to do one, too. I see it as my reward on New Year's Eve for being positive during the year. After all, there will be some things that happen that I won't have a chance to capture on film or I might not be able to write an entire blog post about, but I can certainly scribble a sentence down on paper and toss it into a jar.

That said, if I had started a Good Things Jar last year, here are a few things that might have been included:

February
Our trip to Baltimore

May
Wedding in North Carolina
Hubby turned 30

June

The entire month of June

Our trip to Vegas

July
My return to the violin

August
Writer's Digest Conference
Our trip with Jonathan to: Knobels, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Jamestown, NY, and Niagara Falls

September

My first time in the Empire State Building and the start of Weekend I'd Forget

October
Our first Pakistani wedding and my first time in a saree

You might not start a Good Things Jar, but see if you can find the good in each day of the year, rather than the bad. It will make not only your New Year's Eve, but your entire year that much more enjoyable.