Atlanta - Visiting Relatives

I am blogging from Atlanta, being with my nieces and nephew who have been showing up on the photo blog these days. They are good kids and fun to be with (as are all of my nieces and nephews). I want to visit my sister near the Georgia coast soon, too. (Hi Bonnie!)

The only problem going to and from Atlanta (besides the traffic) is that, with my schedule, the sun is in the eyes driving out (in the morning) and it is in the eyes driving back (in the evening). I will tell my sister to move to Mississippi to avoid this "sun-in-your-face" experience. I am sure she will obey me since I am the older sister. :p

I know some folks that like to drive overnight so their children sleep instead of nag, "Are we there yet?" I could never do that because I like to sleep when its dark, too.

I love visiting Atlanta. This city is never boring. The shopping is good. The food is good. This neighborhood is good. The traffic is a nightmare. I guess everything can't be perfect.

Crispy Glazed Popcorn

We tried that new Pop Secret Crispy Glazed Popcorn. It pops up already covered in a sweet coating -- nothing to squirt over it (although that Cinnamon Redenbacher's looks interesting).

The verdict? I love it, my husband doesn't. The box says that it is "sweet and salty." (This is a phrase I see being used more often. I suppose its appealing to foodaholics because, after eating something salty, they crave something sweet or vice versa, so you might as well get it all at once.)

My husband expected something more salty. He thought it was too sweet. I thought it was just right -- not too sweet at all, but plenty sweet enough. This is hard to describe -- think of that canned caramel corn sold during holidays and imagine it fresh and hot. That's what this is.

And it is HOT. The bag gets much hotter than normal. You have to handle it very carefully. We scorched it on the first try, but got the hang of it later. It pops faster than regular popcorn and burns easily. After pouring it into a heat-proof bowl, it was still too hot to handle, requiring a lot of patience or blowing to get it cool enough.

Would I have it again? Oh yes, but each bag is over 500 calories, so I don't dare have it too often.

Cat and Dog

When my daughter got her Jack Russell Terrier puppy, we thought she'd be in for a roller-coaster ride, trying to keep up with a young cat, a puppy and a fiancé all at the same time. We wondered if the cat would go crazy or the dog and hurt each other.

Well, after several weeks, it looks like things are fine. The cat and puppy apparently love each other and like to play, rolling across the floor almost every minute I see them together. I get tired just watching them. I think the puppy is insatiable in play, but the cat can always jump somewhere out of the way when he gets worn out.

Its turning out to be a pretty good arrangement, after all. I think that cat (Myst) and dog (Cinnamon) are becoming best friends. Occasionally, Cinnamon chomps a little too hard, but Myst seems to like the play most of the time. Myst's Photo & Movie Page.

Blogs - The 20 Most-Popular

According to Blo.gs, here are their 20 most popular blogs. I like to check all of these every once in a while.

Atlanta - The Fastest Way

My sister and her family live in Atlanta. We have driven there many times from South Huntsville. I love Atlanta! (Well, except for the traffic. It rated two of the 10 worst traffic jams areas last year and I usually end up in both of them.)

There's a constant discussion in our family about the fastest way to get there. Coming from North Huntsville, there might be other, faster ways, but coming from the Grissom area, this is the fastest way to go: take the Four Mile Post extension over the mountain, get on 431 and go to Guntersville. Go past Wayne Feeds on 227, up the mountain and take County 413 to bypass Albertville, saving time. Go straight ahead over Sand Mountain then head through Collinsville, Center, Cave Springs, bypass Rome and the edge of Cartersville to get on 75 into Atlanta.

This is the fastest way. I dare anyone to find a faster route. Friends have told me that it is not the funnest drive, though, due to two-lane roads, mountains, small towns, etc. A. L. told me that her daughter prefers to go down I-65 to Birmingham then over to Atlanta, staying on the interstates, within cell phone range and going fast on bigger roads.

I've been that way in bad weather. It's a nice route - big cities, restaurants, more level roads, and it just feels like you are going faster but it takes a half hour longer to travel the extra miles. Folks in North Huntsville say going through Fort Payne is faster. I've been that way before, too. Going through Huntsville adds extra time for us in the south end, though.

Crossing Guard Duty

Because I walk by at school times, I usually end up making friends with the crossing guard who manages the intersection near our local school. Today, there was a police car at the intersection. The policeman waved so I waved back and walked on over. I jokingly said, "Crossing guards get police cars, now?"

Of course, I already knew that the last crossing guard quit for a better job. The policeman said that they hadn't gotten a replacement yet (even though they had all summer to find somebody -- maybe the job does not have many applicants).

Oh well, the policeman looked happy enough to do it. I think he was having a good time. Lots of people like to wave as they drive by. He probably felt appreciated for once.

Blogs Replace E-Mail?

In our just-arrived PC Magazine, the editor, Michael J. Miller says:

It sounds good to me, but I don't think e-mail is going away. We just get more used to dealing with the spam although I wish NOBODY would ever buy anything advertised in spam. It only encourages those evil folks.

I like a blog for keeping in touch with friends and family. That way, anyone who feels like it can read the news and those who don't, are not getting unwanted mail from me.

Unfortunately, IM spam is coming in more frequently. Then, there's blog comment spamming. I like Far From Perfect's way of handling it -- easy for those who want to post an honest comment but discouraging to spammers. Anyone who posts, sees a specially-displayed word that they have to type in before the posting goes through. I've seen this used on other sites, too.

Finding a "Mother-of-the-Bride" Dress

My daughter has given me permission to photograph tiny details of some wedding things such as the napkins, etc. The rest will have to wait until the wedding. I am having fun making a photo log of events to come. Here's the ongoing project. I'll be adding new photos as the event comes closer. Heck, I'll probably be walking around the wedding and reception with a camera in my hand at all times.

Yesterday, we went looking for "mother-of-the-bride" dresses. My daughter wanted to approve my dress since I tend to be a "blue-jeans-and-t-shirt" kind of person. We went into the bridal store here (David's Bridal) where they carry some of these kinds of dresses. Wow! The large supply of wedding dresses amazed me. They were beautiful and prices varied greatly, but many were around $1000. Fortunately, my daughter has already picked out her dress.

I didn't find anything there that I wanted to go with (too expensive for my tastes), so I went to the mall next door, to Dillard's (one of my favorite clothes stores) and found a nice outfit on the sales rack. My daughter will not allow me to show you the entire outfit -- hehehe -- but it is a light, champagne color - not too fancy. I think it needs a good necklace to go with it. H-m-m-m.

Alternate Word Meanings

Thanks to Lil S. for this e-mail. She says, "Once again, The Washington Post published its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for various words."

Cell Cam - Got a New One

I bought a new cell phone cam - a Samsung SGH-d415 from T-Mobile. It just arrived in our local store and supposedly has the best cell cam of their choices. While a cell cam is convenient for immediate photos (and I take a picture and shoot it off to my photo blog every once in a while), it still doesn't compare with a small digital camera (used for most of my photo blog images).

In most entries, there's now a the description which camera was used so viewers can see the quality themselves.

So far, I love this new cell phone. It is a slider instead of a flip phone involving about the same amount of work to use - maybe even a little easier. Text messaging is much easier, thank goodness. It was a pain to switch between upper and lower case, now it can be done more quickly. The display is crisper. The display screen is located on top of the phone, making it easier to scratch, but what the heck, I'll probably upgrade before it can get too scratched up.

What tipped me in favor of this phone (beside the better camera) is the photo Caller I.D. When someone calls, their photo appears on the top display - very cute and convenient for my old eyes.

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