This year we used our long vacation from Christmas through New Years to go on a long road trip to see relatives in Texas, with several stops on the way.   We spent a few nights in New Orleans, where I saw my favorite new band, Rebirth Brass Band.  They were so good and I felt really inspired listening to them and seeing the audience dancing and having fun.   I love the New Orleans music scene.   We stopped in Houston, Comfort, Boerne, Austin, and San Antonio.   Joel's grandpa really lit up when we stopped by, he just couldn't get over how Joel grew up, and it was fun spending time with his aunt Mary and uncle Bob.   We hiked the rocks and falls at Pedernales near Austin and saw the Alamo and missions of San Antonio.  We saw a little of the Austin music scene, which is also fun because of the dancing.  On the way back we stopped in a little town my uncle Joe liked and hung around the bayou and the swamps.   I bought fresh satsuma oranges right off the tree of a farmer.  It was a great trip.   

My grandparents came to Georgia for Thanksgiving.  They spent a little time at our house, and since we both love Gone with the Wind I was excited grandma got to see Margaret Mitchell's house.  Sadly we didn't go on the full tour but it was still fun.   We went to Savannah, where my parents treated us to a meal at the famous Big Pink House.  I had a salad of roasted beets, pistachios and vanilla bean vinaigrette over greens and a filet mignon in a chestnut mushroom ragu for Thanksgiving.  My grandpa's favorite stop on the trip was touring civil war site Fort Pulaski, visited on a whim after taking them on a boat ride from Tybee to see some dolphins.  Savannah is a beautiful place to hang out with your family at. Being a musician's wife means being alone most of the time, especially since I'm far from friends and family, so it was really nice to have people who care about me to talk to and do things with every day.  

Last night my favorite theater, Plaza, played John Water's dark comedy Female Trouble.   This movie might not be for everyone.  His pre-Hairspray films are just raunchy, debauchy cult classics.   The Blast Off Burlesqe did a show before the movie complete with the drag queens dressed as Dawn Davenport and friends that you see above.  

Since I love my quotes, here you go:

"I've thrown Gator out and started divorce proceedings. I don't want to seem overly bitter, but I want you to destroy all of his belonging." -Dawn Davenport

Instead of boundaries between a couple and people outside the marriage, the band wife deals with boundaries between the band and her own marriage. 

I joined a new gym, a fancy spa gym across the street from my office that I managed to negotiate a good price for.  The gym is small, but they have good equipment and amenities and I love that they are connected to the marta train. Not only do they provide nice little things like shampoo, deodorant, razors, disposable toothbrushes, towel services, full spa services (for which you pay extra), I get my own locker with laundry services (for free, and if you know me you know how I love free things).  I put my dirty clothes in a bag and they have them washed and returned the next  day.   I love to sit in the marble aromatherapy steam room after I run.   Last night they threw a party so after I worked out they had a buffet table set up, a wine bar, and free massages.   The pampering is so soothing and stress-relieving.    They are treating me to a welcome pedicure tomorrow for signing up.   It's really nice to have a little pampering. 
 

My new foster bunnies Lola and Sasha come from the same rescue I got the other bunnies from.  They are sweet and adorable, one is a lionhead and the other has Cleopatra eyes.  I tried to do some cheesy glamor shots of them with pumpkins for their petfinder page.  Neither wanted to vogue, and little Sasha was eating the pumpkin stem in most of my pictures.  I might be taking care of them for a long time at this rate.  Let me now if you know someone looking for pets.

Yesterday I filled in at the last minute for an injured team member at the Atlanta Marathon and Marathon Relay.   Collectively we managed to achieve my own personal goal of running a sub 4 marathon, pretty good for my first relay and also my first full marathon (of sorts).   I ran the last 7.5 miles of the course.  We met up at Atlantic Station at 5:45am to get numbers and do gear check, then I was bussed to mile 18.7.  The hundred or so other anchor runners gathered like refugees in a nearby Kroger and waited for our teams to show.  I read magazines, talked to a man dressed as Wonder Woman (his whole team had a theme), and group called Black Girls RUN.  The first runners came through about 2 hours after.  A guy raced by our station pumping his fist and screaming "EVERY DAY EVERY NIGHT OCCUPY WALL STREET," at the top of his lungs.   A few minutes later I was really inspired by a group of pace team girls, also doing the full marathon, hoisting their pace flags of 2:55.   I cheered, "YOU RUN LIKE A BUNCH OF GIRLS!"  My team came by much later.  Since I was really sick and unsure I could go full speed, and because the course was full of hills, I held back with a strategy of conserving energy.  I picked up my pace at mile 24 began really passing hordes of exhausted people, and pushed into my best sprint after the mile 26 marker and the clock was still under four hours when I passed the finish line.   The free long sleeve running shirt and pizza were a nice touch.

I just read Jaycee Dugard's book.  Nancy Garrido is harder for me to understand than Phillip. I just can't imagine putting up with all that, let alone being an accomplice.  It's amazing that with all the policing, parole process, and neighbors that this actually happened, AND that it was just a chance occurrence, two campus cops just using women's intuition, that solved the case that experts could not. 

Daniel Rose, executive chef at Spring Restaurant in Paris, is a GENIUS.  Last night I made his roasted eggplant with pomegranate vinaigrette recipe. Eggplant is one of my favorites, and this is perfect for fall when pomegranates are in season, as are the Georgia-grown eggplant at my farmers market.  The price is good, I am paying about 75 cents per pound for very fresh eggplant right now.   Joel said it was the best eggplant he ever had in his life.  It is a good balance of earthy, smoky, herbal, and fresh flavors.  And it's reasonably low in calories and healthy, too.  Here is the recipe:
 
Ingredients
1 large eggplant
1 pomegranate, arils seeded
1 granny smith apple, diced small to approx size of pomegranate
1 shallot, finely diced
1 oz cured/dried chorizo, diced very small, approx size of fruit
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 cup mint, parsley, and/or cilantro, chopped
salt/pepper to taste
 
Preheat oven to 350.  Wash and cut eggplant into 4 wedges.   Pierce, brush with  olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast in the oven 45 minutes or until done.

While the eggplant is in the oven, you can prepare the vinaigrette.  Toast the walnuts, seed the pomegranate (this is the most time-consuming part of the recipe), chop everything.  Combine everything in a bowl, except the herbs and walnuts, which you should fold in just before serving.    When the eggplant is ready, serve with the vinaigrette mixture spooned over the top.  

A company came to the gym with an expo of their cookware-non-reactive pans that cook without oil or water.   I ate a sample of something they call salad cake.  Salad cake is made with regular spice cake mix from a box hydrated with only zucchini, cabbage, and celery, and an egg scrambled in.  It was delicious and only about 20 calories in the small slice I had.   They offer home parties where they send a rep to your house to cook a meal with their pans.  I signed up.   A lady came over tonight and made crispy "fried" chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, cole slaw, and a salad cake, less than 500 calories per person.   The chicken and vegetables were excellent, seasoned with herbs but no butter or salt, but the cake was the real star for me.   She had a fancy grater with different blades and a hand crank.   Since she knew I tried the zucchini salad cake at the gym, she did a different variation.   We grated apples and bananas through the grater, mixed it with a spice cake mix from a box, added egg, and put it in one of the pans on a burner on low for about 20 minutes.   The cake slid right out of the skillet, and was quickly frosted while piping hot with a very thin layer of frosting, just to give it a little color and sweetness but at reduced calories.   The price tag attached to the pans is ASTRONOMICAL so I gracefully declined.   I'll let you know if it is possible to turn out a salad cake in a regular stainless steel skillet next time I have the urge for cake.