Beautiful Day

Hanban, one of my closest friends from college and I walked from my house to the U2 concert playing at Scott Stadium on Thursday, October 1. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience in my opinion; U2, an international phenomenon.......Bono and The Edge.....need I say more? Here are some pics from the event:

And yes, Bono was wearing the same outfit he's always wearing. Hanban predicted it spot on.

My favorite song that they sang at the concert was "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

Mom's birthday was Sunday, October 4, so I took the long drive southbound on I-81 to Lebanon for the weekend. Mom had a yummy dinner fixed, roast beef, gravy, mashed Yukon gold potatoes out of the garden, fresh corn on the cob out of the garden, Mr. Stripey heirloom slices out of the garden, home-canned green beans from the 2008 garden, rolls, and butter, lots of butter. I'm quite positive that meal killed Elvis. So delicious. And the dessert, well, M's desserts are always always always delicious; a chocolate brownie with a chess bar-ish mixture swirled on top. Delectable. My brother Bran came up for dinner too, and he drove up in an unexpected vehicle: 1982 Mercedes Benz 240D. It's so cute. My aunt coined its name "Buttercream" at Mom's birthday party over at Granny's on Sunday. My brother, the 6'5" checkered shirt and Wrangler-wearin' manly man farmer, driving a butter-colored Mercedes-Benz around town; I love it.

It came with this unforgettable bumper sticker. My very politically active friend Dave informed me that this was a bumper sticker during the Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign (maybe I'm the only one that didn't know this).

Bran should hurry up and take that off of the back window or people will start to think that his political apathy has fallen away and he has joined one of the dreadful parties. But it's a great bumper sticker nonetheless.

Dad has become a vintner; his brand is called, "Medicine." He's got a sweet setup in the basement, and I got the grand tour on Friday night. He is making two different types of wine right now: Concord Grape and Bartlett Pear. They are still "working," as he calls it (I don't really know anything about the process) and won't be ready for bottling for another few weeks. Dad got some blackberries and his friend made a batch of blackberry wine and gave Dad half of it.

Dad made these labels himself.

As always, I love going home and wish I could go more often. Here is some corn that I fixed for dinner last night. M was kind enough to send it back up the road with me to Charlottesvegas......fresh corn out of the garden in October. When I was a little girl, corn on the cob was my favorite vegetable (besides the classic pile of mashed potatoes with gravy), and the best part was eating it off the cob. I used to get so tickled at my dad when he ate corn on the cob because it reminded me of a typewriter: he would chomp across the ear from left to right nonstop and when he got to the end, he would turn the ear and slide it back down to start at the same end. I always imagined hearing the "CHING" sound when he would hit up the next row.