Good morning! I typed up most of this post last night in order to use these few hours of the morning to scramble around and finish up packing. It’s been a little over a week in Harrogate but I’m already heading back to California. (No, I didn’t tire of “Dry County” yet. Surprisingly. I’m going back to California for Jen’s wedding!)

In a few hours, I’ll be driving 200 miles to Georgia so I can catch a flight from the airport in Atlanta. Knoxville doesn’t do direct flights and I’m not about to get on a teeny plane for the first leg of my trip. No. Thank. You.

But it’s a little exciting to get to be back and see everyone again. The last two weeks of June were so rushed that I didn’t really get to do proper goodbyes or enough hugs and squeezes. So, I’ll be getting my fill of those while I’m out there.

In any case, I hope all of you had a great weekend and are entering into the workweek feeling rested and rejuvenated. Our weekend was a good one despite the thunderstorm bit on Friday evening. We were equal parts productive, festive, and relaxed.

Friday:

The day was pretty fantastic. Even though it was a bit too humid for this California girl, it was sunny and green and I had a bottle of Sweet Tea Vodka that needed to be cracked open. Because, you know, I live in the south now. And that’s what they do. Right?

It was enjoyed, over ice and 15-calorie lemonade, while chatting with both Gina and Mama Albert. It’s really nice to not be working right now because I feel like I’m able to do a much better job of keeping in touch with people. Especially Gina! Gina’s work hours and my (old) work hours never worked well together. I went from 7:30AM – 5PM. And Gina went from 2PM – 10PM. (At which point, this grandma was already asleep).

I’ve also been spending a lot more time in the kitchen. Right now, I’m doing simpler things as we are still organizing and shuffling around all the stuff in our itty-bitty kitchen.

But we are definitely making progress and ALL boxes and suitcases are gone! Thank goodness. Once the final boxes were disposed of in the dump, I felt a huge sense of relief. Everything is out and visible. All that’s left is assembling a few things and hanging some stuff on the walls.

Speaking of which, I hung this thing up in the study room all. by. myself. This may seem a bit anti-climactic. However, I’ve never done this before. I’ve always had someone around to help me out. And this time, I’m the one that did the screwing. (“That’s what she said?”)

Saturday:

We started the day with breakfast, per usual.

And then Ankur started working while I tried to unpack some more. Not without the help of my diffuser, of course. This “energizing blend” is my jam right now. Makes the room smell so fresh and gives me that jolt I need to increase my productivity.

During unpacking, I got a fun delivery from Club W. There are so many things I love about this company.

1) They deliver to a dry county.

2) They have a description of each wine and it’s flavor. Along with when would be an appropriate time to drink it. (e.g. drink this wine when you’re day drinking!)

3) They include a recipe that would pair well with the specific bottle.

4) And, you know, they sell wine.

In addition to this package, we have the one Sister shipped to us right when we got here. Plus the bottles we brought from our apartment. So I’d say we are pretty well-stocked right now.

 

In the evening, we went to the gym and the grocery store and had a bit of a late dinner.

We picked up a pre-made Boboli crust which made the prep work a lot faster than when we make pizza using the Trader Joes dough. It was good. But not as tasty as when we use our favorite Trader Joes ingredients. (The garlic herb pizza dough AND the honey goat cheese!)

Although, it doesn’t really matter how things taste, to be honest. I drown everything in Sriracha.

Everything tastes better with Sriracha.

Sunday:

We decided to start the day off with a hike. This area may not have a lot of restaurants. Or bars. Or night life. Or shopping malls.

But the trails are unbeatable.

We decided to head to the Tri-State Peak.

It was a lot of uphill. And I can feel it in my booty today.

But it was SO COOL to be at the top and in all three states at one time.

Here Ankur is standing in Kentucky AND Tennessee AND Virginia. Crazy!

Being from California, I’m not used to the states being as close as they are over here on the east coast. I ran in circles a few times saying, “I’m in Kentucky. Oh wait, I’m in Tennessee! BUT WAIT! I’m in Virginia.”

Thank goodness we were alone up there.

The rest of the day consisted of a lot of cooking. And then cleaning. And then cooking. And then cleaning again. (The disadvantage of having a smaller kitchen is that you have to clean up your things right away. Otherwise they’ll all pile up and there will be no room to chop your veggies. I learned this the hard way. While attempting to chop veggies on the stove where the burner was still hot. Yikes.)

But the boxes are gone.

And the kitchen is cleaned up.

All that’s left is a little laundry and my packing!

With that, I’m off!

Have a fantastic Monday!

Questions of the Day:

• What’s your favorite low-prep recipe to make?
  
• What did you do this weekend?