FEBS 2018

One of our New Year's resolutions is to dedicate at last one night a week to turning off the TV, phones and computers and to play games.  We've stuck with it so far and actually really enjoyed it.  We finally broke out our beautiful mahjong set we got in China a few years back and learned to how to play.  I also learned that Ashlee is very, very good at it!  We've also been playing a new card game called BLDR that I got for Ashlee for Christmas which was a Kickstarter project of a young kid from Nashville.  It's a very well-developed, fast-paced and enjoyable game.

Ms. Bea thinks I have a  really lousy BLDR hand.

Photo courtesy of the songbirdsguitars.com.

Friday, February 2 - We drove down to Chattanooga after work today to catch a show by Scott Miller at the new Songbirds Guitar Museum along with our friends, Tim and Lavonda.  We have seen Scott many times and this time was especially memorable due to the fact that he and his family flipped their van on icy conditions in Virginia (photo courtesy of Scott's Facebook page) early this morning and still made it to the show with no one hurt thankfully.  This new venue and museum are very cool.  It is located above the Revelry Room venue that we have been to before a couple times and is another great addition to the new vision of the Chattanooga Choo Choo area down on Broad Street.  After the show we stopped by the (also new) Frothy Monkey for a late night (low-calorie) bite to eat and a couple drinks.  The food was exceptional.

A bonus to buying a ticket to see a show at Songbirds is also free admission to the impressive museum they have there.  It's an incredibly large collection of vintage guitars and other stringed instruments.  

Tuesday, February 6 -  Ashlee and I headed over to the Roxy Theater here in town and kicked back in a couple of the recliner seats there to catch a showing of the quirky fantasy love story, The Shape of Water.  This was my second viewing of the film which has 13 Oscar nominations including a shot at Best Picture.   \I thought it was just as good the second time seeing it, and Ashlee liked it a lot as well.
 (Editor's Note:  3/4/18 - First science fiction movie to ever win Best Picture!) 

Wednesday, February 7 -  We decided sort of last minute to go check out one of our favorite voices in music today, Dan Layus (of Augustana) at 3rd and Lindsley tonight.  Our reason for the hesitation was two-fold:  first, another artist we like, Andy Frasco, was also playing in town -- secondly, the last time we saw Dan he didn't play anything from his Augustana days which was  a bit disappointing to us.  We like his new solo stuff, but the Augustana tunes are our favorites.  Since he was the headliner tonight, we figured he had to do some Augustana tunes and we were not disappointed!  It was a great show sprinkled with new songs, solo stuff and some classic Augustana hits.  He even hinted that the band may be getting together again which I predict might be aimed at 2020 when his best-known song, "Boston", turns 15 years old.  (photo courtesy of Dan Layus' Facebook page). 

Wednesday, February 14 - Valentine's Day is supposed to be all about love, so we spent our morning traveling to Knoxville to visit a vet oncologist regarding our oldest cat, Mabel, who has mouth cancer.  They are the only place in the state that treats cancer in animals with radiation and we were hoping our sweet girl might be a candidate.   She was not, unfortunately, but we got a little bit of encouragement with another option of chemotherapy.  We will bring her back next week for her first treatment and see how it goes.  WE LOVE YOU, MABEL!! 

On a happier note, we did spent Valentine's Day evening at dinner at Waffle House, yes Waffle House, where once a year you can make a reservation there, sit at a table with white tablecloths, flowers and mood lighting and have a "romantic" hash-brown or two.  

Oh, so fancy! 

Thanks to our friends, Danny and Brenda, for joining us in the silly Waffle House fun on Valentine's Day.  Next year it's White Castle for a contrast and compare experience! 

February 16 - 22: We took a great cruise to Cuba this week.  See previous blog entry for details.



Friday, February 23 - It was another road trip to Knoxville today with Mabel for her first chemo treatment for her mouth cancer.  She was a trooper and handled it well.  We are hoping for positive results from the treatment in reducing and slowing the growth of the tumor.  On a more fun note, we did have a great breakfast nearby while Mabel was getting her treatment at a little place called First Watch.

Saturday, February 24 - After  spending the afternoon helping our pal, Wayne, do some packing for his upcoming move from Nolensville, we headed back to Lebanon tonight to catch a showing of the new dark comedy, Game Night at the Roxy Theaters thanks to MoviePass.  It was pretty good and Jason Bateman continues to be one of our favorite comedic actors working today.

Tuesday, February 27 -  Ashlee got us tickets to see one of favorite live performers tonight, Brett Dennen at the City Winery in downtown Nashville (photo courtesy of City Winery).  He had a good opener, Dean Lewis, a crooning Aussie with a great voice.  Brett's show was solid as usual and it was a nice post-vacation evening for us.