A (post?) Covid Summer

Saturday, ,June 5 - Well, our projects at Evie's Bungalow are getting bigger and bolder!  We put a new faux tile floor down in the kitchen and think it looks pretty good!  Ashlee did all the hard work with cutting pieces for all the corners.  Evie's Bungalow on AirBnb is slated for a July 1 opening! 

Friday,  June 11 - We've actually never had dinner here at Catch 22 in Mt. Juliet.  I love the food (and the craft beer, of course), so I suggested it for a date-night location tonight.  Our food was fantastic, as always.  We've definitely got to put this place in our regular rotation! 

Sunday, June 13 - We had an amazing sunset today after a lovely day in and around the pool.  This was the first day that really felt like summer in the water.

Sunday, June 20 - I won four tickets to see comedian, Josh Wolf, tonight at Zanies Comedy Club in Nashville where he's taping a new live album over two shows there. We chose the early show since it was a "school night."  We've seen Josh in the past here actually (way back in 2012) and always enjoyed him on the late, great E! Network show "Chelsea Lately" (RIP).    Our friends, Wendy and Charly, went with us and we had a great time.  Josh was hilarious and his guests included some pretty good musicians and singers including a former boy-band member singing about weed! 

A great weekend of hanging out at the pool including our first night swim of the season.  Did we mention our A/C is out in the house and has been for a couple weeks now??  Thank God for the pool!! 

Tuesday, June 22 - We had a date night of sorts tonight as we headed over to West Nashville for some shopping at Costco and Trader Joe's which we can get on our side of town.  Beforehand, we had a tasty dinner at J. Alexander's.  This was our first time eating here together in the long-time established regional eatery chain, but it won't be our last!  Yum! Yum!  (Editor's note:  We were saddened to see that the Sushi Train Restaurant that we've enjoyed in the past has closed.  Probably a victim of the pandemic.  Too bad. ) 

Friday, June 25 - New year, new backyard fawn!  Ain't he a cutie!  

Monday, June 28 - We checked out the brand new Oscars Taco Shop in Mt. Juliet tonight for dinner.  The food was great!  This was actually our second choice as another Mexican place called Memo's wasn't open tonight.  We'll check you out next, hombre! 

Wednesday, June 30 - We got all dressed up tonight to finally (we've had to reschedule twice) check out the fancy House of Cards Restaurant in Nashville with our friends, Danny and Brenda.  Ashlee's been once before, but this was our first time together.  Man, the food was fantastic. The place is killer cool too.  This 30' waterfall shown above is out on their sunken patio. And the magic in their small theater and close-up at a couple of spots throughout the venue was very good.

While we are not big fans of magic, the performers at House of Cards were top notch.  Our favorite (and most spooky) trick of the night was when the magician gathered a bunch of random number from a group of strangers around him including us.  The first number was Brenda's birthday.  He then asked us to put the numbers in our phone calculators and somehow got them all to add up to today's date (6/30) and the exact time of the end of the trick (905).  Amazing!  The photo above is a screenshot of my phone as proof of the time.    

Friday, July 2 - We headed to an East Nashville tribute show tonight to The Traveling Wilburys plus songs of each member of the supergroup.  The show featured a couple of our local favorites, Butch Walker and Will Hoge, plus 14 other performers at The Basement East.  With such a great line-up at a great price ($15), of course the show was SOLD OUT fast!  Besides the pandemic mess, the Basement East also got hammered by a tornado last spring as well, so it was great to see a  reopened, packed venue once again.  We kept thinking we would stay for an hour, maybe two, but the performances were so great and the venue so nice, we stayed for almost the entire show.  Our favorites, Will Hoge and Butch Walker, closed out the show, so it was worth the wait to hear Will cover Tom Petty's "American Girl" and hear Butch belt out ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down!"   We also really enjoyed "discovering" Jon Latham, Raul Malo of The Mavericks and the "house band" and hosts of the night,  Andrew Leahey and the Homestead who we will get to see again soon on The Rock Boat in November!   Plus all the money went to East C.A.N. a local dog shelter and placement organization.

Before the show we had a great dinner outside in the surprisingly humidity-free early July evening at Post and Riot, a brand new German beer haus in Mt. Juliet.  The food was great and place was very nice.  We will be back!! 

Sunday, July 4 - We hosted a Christmas in July Pool Party today to celebrate Independence Day (and to let Ashlee get all her Christmas crap out for more than once a year!).  I got us a huge order of smoked wings from The Town Square Social restaurant up on The Square.  They were excellent.  We also had hot dogs and hamburgers and A LOT of libations.  It was a great day had by all.

Our summer-themed Christmas tree at the entrance to the pool party turned out pretty nice.  We had a ton of fun decorations all around the pool thanks to Ashlee's large supply of Christmas-themed goodies.  Thanks to Ashlee's cousins, Leslie and LeeAnn, for making the trek down from Cincinnati for the party and for coming in early and helping us set up and decorate.  Thanks to all who came to the soiree as well.  Happy birthday, America, and happy Summer Feliz Navidad as well! 

Sunday, July 11 - A rainy day meant no pool today, so we took a drive up to Old Hickory to visit the cool little plant store called the Lawrence and Clark Cacti Company.  What a neat little place!  We bought a nice hanging goldfish plant for our bedroom. and I picked up this odd little guy for my work desk at home which is a Euphorbia Lactea Coral Cactus, but I just thought it looked like broccoli.   Finding lunch was a bit of a chore with pour-downs and packed places after church, so we settle for 5 Guys Burgers and Fries in Mt. Juliet which was great as usual although we haven't been in years.

Monday,  July 12 - It's official!  We now have an AirBnB rental in Chattanooga!  Let's hope the money rolls in and the problems don't!!   We start renting August 1st! 

Friday, July 16 - We attended at Jimmy Buffet (rescheduled from Covid last year) concert at The Ascend Amphitheater in downtown Nashville tonight.   The weather forecast was not looking great (storms to the left, storms to the right - good "Fins" joke by Ashlee), but other than a little rain spattering when we were in line to get in, it turned out to be a beautiful night with light breezes and a little bit of relief from the humidity.  Jimmy and his band were in solid form.  This was their third show here in the last couple weeks, so we were impressed how good it was.  We also found a dandy new parking lot for shows here, and had some tasty food and craft beer at the show, so it was a great night on all aspects. 

Saturday, July 17 - We headed back to Nashville today to the SRX (Superstar Racing Experience) at the historic Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway with our friend, Bethany, who's way more into racing than we are, but we agreed to check it out with her.  It was actually quite the event.  It was completely sold out which they announced had not happened here in decades.   It was also a pretty cool concept as it was a series of races by retired and current racing stars and this one here was the culmination of the series.  There were huge names driving like Bill Elliot (65 years young), his son, Chase, Tony Stewart and recent Indy 500 winner, Helio Castroneves (who we were pulling for since we met him briefly at the Indy 500 several year ago).  Chase Elliot wound up winning the main-event 77-lap race.  Helio did win one of the 25-lap heats.  And Tony Stewart won the series with his second place finish in tonight's finale.  We also got to see the current state of the new MLS stadium going up next door.  It's going to be a beauty!  Go NSC!! 

Sunday, July 25 - Man, talk about a Key West vibe!  We've got the old deck at the AirBnB house looking like The Eden House!!  The paint choice was bold, but we are very happy with the result.  Our first guests arrive this coming weekend.  But in another update, it looks like Ashlee's cousin Alexis, and her boyfriend, Hunter, might rent the place long-term starting in October.  We shall see....

The month of August is filled up at the new AirBnB!!