2017 draws to a close...

Thursday, November 2 - We went and saw the new Marvel movie, Thor: Ragnarok in IMAX tonight.  It was funny, fast-paced and very enjoyable.

We know it's Thor's movie, but we like The Hulk better...well I do, anyway...Ashlee is pretty big fan of Chris Hemsworth...

Sunday, November 5 - We broke our old record of November 1st today as the latest day in the year that we have gotten in the pool.  The air temps were great in the upper 70's, but the water was cold enough that neither of us stayed in long,  but we each did a full lap. 

Saturday, November 11 - We were in Chattanooga this weekend for the not-so-fun reason that Ashlee's mom was in the hospital.  We took a break from there and checked out the brand new Heaven and Ale Brewing in North Chattanooga.  Great beer, a delicious cheese plate and a beautiful facility.  We will definitely be putting more visits in here in the future!

Thursday, November 16 - It was another opening night for us as we saw Justice League in IMAX.  Despite rather poor early reviews, we thought it was pretty decent.

Friday, November 17 - We went to Opening Night of the 2017 Dancing Lights of Christmas Mega Drive-Thru Light Show tonight.  We were thrilled when it was announced this year that this long-time Nashville holiday tradition was moving from the Opryland area to right in our own back yard at the Wilson County Fairgrounds.  It's a spectacular show and we have a ticket to see it again for sure this season.

Thursday - Sunday, November 23-26:  We continued a Thanksgiving tradition this year by renting a house down in Destin, Florida, for the holiday week.   I worked  the first part of the week and then on  Thanksgiving morning I flew down to the Panama City to join Ashlee, her mom, sister and niece at the beach.

Thursday, November 23 -  Are we in the Bahamas?  We have never seen The Gulf this clear.  We had what we thought was great weather last year, but this year was even better with mid-70's temps and water warm enough to wade in.

Friday, November 24 -  It was another beautiful weather day and after sleeping in on our giant bed in the nice house Ashlee found to rent in the Destiny East gated community, we took our included golf cart on a ten-minute ride back to the beach for more sun and fun.

Another beautiful day (and sunset) at Destin Beach.

Saturday, November 25 -  The temps were still warm today, but there was a good bit of cloud cover which made for some interesting and artistic beach pictures.  The drive back o Sunday, November 26 was uneventful other than the fact we made great time and dodged a lot of heavy traffic by leaving pretty early.    

Thursday, November 30 -  We had a tasty dinner  and drinks downtown tonight before the Marc Roberge, (lead singer of O/A/R)  acoustic show at the City Winery which was excellent.  Marc even brought our O/A/R drummer (and friend since childhood), Chris Culos, for a few songs.

Sunday, December 3 - We caught the last of six SOLD OUT shows featuring one of our favorite new comedians,  Trae Crowder, at Zanies Comedy Club in Nashville.  Look for Trae on sit-com TV very soon.   Our VIP tickets also got us up-close seating and a Meet and Greet after the show.   Also performing were Corey Forrester (who turned out to be our favorite of the evening) and Drew Morgan in the WellRED Comedy Tour "From Dixie with Love".  There were also two guest appearances by Stewart Huff and Jenn Snyder.  What a great, laugh-filled evening!

Meetin' n greetin' with (L to R) Corey Forrester, Trae Crowder and Drew Morgan.

Saturday, December 9 -  We hosted our Christmas "Partay" (Trailer-Park Themed) tonight and it was a blast!  We had well over 20 people show up "in character" and characters they were!  We left good taste at the door and had a lot of fun with junk food and a Steamer Pack of Krystal cheeseburgers to eat, a good amount of alcohol in various forms, a hilarious "wife-beater" tank-top T-shirt art contest, and a rousing couple of rounds of Cards Against Humanity.  
Photo courtesy of Swearnet.com

Sunday, December 10 - We fired up our new MoviePass cards tonight and caught a screening of  the silly, but entertaining, Daddy's Home 2 at our new and improved all-recliners Roxy 10 Movie Theater here in Lebanon. 


Tuesday, December 12 - It was MoviePass time again, this time at the Regal Theaters in Green Hills (which also went all recliners recently).  We saw the highly-lauded Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which was a little disturbing, but full of incredible performances that created some unforgettable characters.   This one's gonna do some damage come awards season we think.  (Editor's Note: 3/4/18 - two acting Oscars nabbed by Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell tonight.)

Thursday, December 14 - We opted out of the MoviePass goodness tonight and shelled out real money for the Star Wars VII: The Last Jedi special fan screening in RPX.  The "special event" turned out to be a real disappointing flop, but the movie was decent enough.

Monday, December 25 - A toast to a Merry Christmas and some thankful peace and quiet once we got back home from seeing the family over the holiday weekend.    This bottle of Arrington Vineyards bubbly brought to us by some poker winnings of mine a while back.  

Wednesday, December 27 - We saw Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle  tonight thanks to MoviePass at the all-recliners UEC Roxy Theater here in Lebanon.  It was actually a pretty good, fun film.

December 28 - We were having some relatives staying over at the house this long holiday weekend and since it was too cold to stay in the garage, we dropped Zippy off for a few days at the local cat spa, The Chatter Cat Inn. 
Here he is literally "rockin' the cat spa."

Saturday, December 30 -  We went and checked out the 2017 Dancing Lights of Christmas Mega Drive-Thru Light Show (see photo above) again tonight and enjoyed them just as much the second time!

Sunday, December 31 - We stayed home for New Year's Eve this year and decided to ride the Music City Star train to downtown Nashville from Lebanon.  Our friend, Bethany, joined us and we had a pleasant (and warm) ride down while sipping on a little Fireball Whiskey at each stop.  Evidently, we didn't have to hide our booze as we saw several people openly carry adult beverages on board.  Who knew!?!  But what a great idea to keep impaired drivers off the road.  We climbed back on at 1:30 A.M. and were home a little after 2.  

Ashlee got us tickets for Acme Feed and Seed's New Year's Eve bash.  They had two excellent bands playing and we were able to get a table for the night as well.  We enjoyed a large plate of tasty sushi from the second floor sushi bar also.