Saying Farewell (for now at least...)

Exactly four months ago, my dream of getting dreads came true! While I am thoroughly glad I got them, I have decided that my hair is not very conducive to maintaining the knotted look. 

I have asked Matt to shave my head when he comes out to Indiana in September but until then I decided to chop my hair myself! I chopped all of the dreads out and then Nealy helped me shape it up a bit. But it really looked pretty good right after I just hacked everything off! 

I'm hoping Matt chooses to accept my proposition and then I have this crazy hope that my hair will grow back frizzy so I can get some good looking dreads that will last!

For a more thorough viewing of this farewell process, you can visit my facebook page.

Slingin the Slang

After our visit to Pike's Peak on Saturday we went to Columbus to enjoy a little dessert at Zaharakos. It was a really neat old ice cream parlor that had been closed for a couple of years and just reopened in June. As soon as we were seated, we were entertained by our enlightening placemats. I particularly liked this one that has a bit of early 1900s lingo on it. 

The Indiana Mountain

For those of you who don't remember or perhaps did not see my post about Pike's Peak, IN I'd like to direct you back to that post so you can better appreciate this post. 

The other day Courto and Emily, a friend from IWU and myself went to check out the mountain in Indiana! Here we are at the summit of Pike's Peak, Elev. 840 ft. 

We took some back country roads through Brown County territory (up in highlands) to get there. Besides the mountain, I didn't really know what to expect from Pike's Peak, IN. Our directions ended shortly after turning onto Bellsville Road. We drove by Crouch's Market but it still looked a little rural so we decided to trek a little further to find the heart of town. However, in a mile or less we saw a church bearing the name "Harmony" and decided to retreat to Crouch's Market. Apparently, the market is the heart of town as it is the only business and non-residential establishment besides the Church of Christ. 

The market was a mini Walmart, faithfully serving the needs of the community at the foot of Pike's Peak. In the back corner was this fantastic little section that filled  with hats, t-shirts, and sweatshirts, all at least 20 years old or more. I absolutely loved these shirts and am proudly modeling my find in the picture!

 As a little bonus to our trip to Pike's Peak, IN we found this great little stone head mile marker just outside of town. We decided to have our lunch by him. Apparently all of the motorists who drove by thought this was funny but I didn't get to see their humored facial expressions because my back was to them. 

Dining Alfresco

Last Sunday Courto, Danielle and I went on a picnic. We had chicken salad and lemonade in my new glass bottle! And of course we got to use my new picnic basket! It was simply magnificent. However, I will admit to a few flaws. I was the creator of the chicken salad and I chose not to have the chicken diced really small (Courto did the cutting). I wasn't really thinking about how they can be a bit sloppy in a croissant and small pieces help it stay inside better.Plus, it just spreads the chicken goodness around more! The other fault of the chicken salad is that I forgot to put the walnuts in! I made the salad on Saturday afternoon and didn'twant the nuts to get soggy. So I'm not sure what's better... soggy nuts or no nuts. But to make up for my chicken salad mishaps, I did make some pretty good sour cream cookies. 

P.S. Sorry for the sloppy layout. I gave up on Blogger!

Coffee News

The other day I stopped in at The Bean Cup and picked up the latest issue of Coffee News. These things are simply fantastic! It is filled with local news, random quotes, trivia and interesting facts. And you can enter to win a $200 prize pack! Why have I not paid better attention to these gold-mines of information and opportunity?! For those of you who may also have been neglecting your local Coffee News, let me share some interesting facts for you that I have learned from my issue. 

A Quoteable Quote:

"Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."       Albert Einstein

Did You Know...

The average hippopotamus can hold up to 400 pounds of food in its belly. Despite its tremendous size, it can run short distances at 30 mph, faster than an Olympic sprinter.

Let Us Mend Our Pace

I have just begun reading The Pilgrim's Progress and am finding the old English to be rather entertaining. One quote I have especially enjoyed is made by Pliable after Christian has been explaining the wonders of the heaven: "Well, my good Companion, glad am I to hear of these things; come on, let us mend our pace." I can't wait to tell someone to mend their pace when they are being a bit too putsy!

Pickles!

I really need to hit the sack but I just discovered something so exciting I would burst if I could not share it somehow! 

A while ago I learned about Sechler's Pickle Factory and wrote it down in my notebook as a place of interest after learning you could get orange, lemon, apple cinnamon and raisin flavored pickles. 

Tonight I thought I'd find out where where this place was at and in the process I learned another wonderful bit of information about Sechler's... they have a Pickle Festival in August! And at this 13th Annual Pickle Festival one of the many great things you can do is acquaint your taste-buds with pickle ice cream!