Petro's, pancreases, and pilates

I love a good holiday week. Something about not having a Monday makes a week go by so much faster. On Labor Day, Fox's band, Bellwether Station (check them out on Facebook or at http://www.bellwetherstationatl.com/), started the recording process for their first album in our basement. They record each song one instrument, or "track," at a time on an eight track recorder, then merge all the tracks together to make the finished song. The process yields much better quality recordings than the live recordings the band currently has, but is very slow going. Hopefully the album will be finished in the next two months.

On Thursday, we went to see Fox's old friend Billy Wayne Davis perform at the Laughing Skull Lounge. Billy Wayne is a stand-up comedian (no, seriously -- it is his real job, and he's very good at it) who was in town from Seattle for four days of performances. After the show, we spent some time catching up with him, which is always a pleasure. If you have the chance to be good friends with a stand-up comedian, I highly recommend it. The conversation is outstanding.

Saturday we headed up to Knoxville again, this time to take on the Ducks of Oregon (not us personally, but the Vols). I was especially excited about this game because several of my friends from high school were coming up for the game. Living in Atlanta, I rarely get the pleasure of seeing my old homies. And of course, they did not disappoint. I miss y'all!

I almost forgot to take pictures this weekend. Luckily right before we left the tailgate, I remembered to get this gem of the Gobbles, Drew, and me. To the rest of you who escaped my camera -- I'm sorry or you're welcome... whichever you prefer. The blog has made me realize how little of my life I photographically document (unless I'm on vacation). Hopefully this will be remedied, but I did backslide this week and take even less photos than last week.

We then headed to the University Center (or UC in collegespeak) to feed my addiction to Petro's (http://www.petros.com/). For those of you unfortunate enough to be unfamiliar with the Petro, it was invented at the 1982 World's Fair, which took place in fair Knoxville. It consists of a layer of corn chips, covered in chili (or in my case, vegetarian chili), topped with shredded cheese, tomatoes, green onions, and sour cream, with optional black olives and jalapenos -- which I highly recommend adding. It is served in a cup and eaten with a fork, though my understanding of Petro's history is that at the World's Fair, it was served in the corn chip bag. Some people claim it has been in existence long before 1982 and call it "Frito pie" or "chili pie," but it's always a Petro to me, and I stick with the original story. Fox and I often ponder the success of opening a franchise in Atlanta.

The game got off to a great start, even through a light drizzle. The Vols were clearly fired up to be playing the number 7 team in the country, and finished their opening drive with a field goal. Then we forced a fumble and scored another field goal to make it 6-0. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side and reports of a heavy thunderstorm caused the officials to delay the game. We got out of our seats to seek shelter in a covered part of the stadium and saw a spectacular thunderstorm, though honestly I was pretty scared. The lightning was so close, you could practically feel the electricity. After about a 70-minute delay, football resumed. I won't go over the rest of the game, because we lost.

On the Baby Fox front, we're cruising along in our 22 week. This week, I'm making a pancreas! I know, I know -- pretty exciting stuff. Sorta makes you feel like you are much less busy than I am, right? I also assembled the Pack n' Play, which was really exciting. I took a couple of pictures for y'all just now to make this a little more interesting.



This is from the Little Hoot collection, of which I'm a big fan. We picked it out long ago, and Baby Fox was getting it whether she was a boy or girl. I hope she likes it as much as we do. When I next check in with you, she will be the size of a mango and likely just as sweet (fingers crossed -- if I say it enough, I'm sure it will be true).

I begin our pregnancy pilates class tomorrow, about which I'm very excited. I've been taking a combo class for pregnancy fitness, toning, and yoga, and I enjoyed it very much. I'm hoping pilates will give me as much of a workout as the combo class -- I really don't have a good sense of exactly what pilates are. However, Oh Baby! Fitness claims they make labor easier, and I'm all for that.

I will leave you with these lovely mini-irises. Sweet Fox just got back from the grocery store and surprised me with them, though I have suspicions that they are really for Baby Fox. I hope you all have a wonderful week!