Knoxville wrap-up

[draggonlaady]

Things I forgot to mention about Thursday:

We hit Market Square during a demo/show-off of a bunch of electric cars and renewable resource stuff. Got to ride on a Segway and poke around at some electric trucks. Saw a really cute electric lawn tractor. Won a couple pint glasses from Tennessee Green Fuels for our mad bean bag throwing skillz.

We also accidentally found a gay bar while looking for the titty bar. If you ever need to track down the rainbow folk in Knoxville, try Club XYZ. Or, you might wanna talk to the extravagantly be-jeweled gent at Bliss in Market Square.

On to Friday:

Friday we abandoned our goal of busing due to rain. We walked 2 blocks; by the end of the first, Bruce declared that I was indecent. Something to do with the water soaking my shirt down to me. We took shelter in Cafe 4, which was atrociously busy, and had a radio show broadcasting from the patio. Apparently they do not stir their mochas there... Not sure why. But if your first drink tastes like straight espresso, try stirring it. The pulled pork quesadilla was YUMMY. Parmesan on fries is a grand idea, but I think the truffle oil was wasted on fries. Bruce had the tomato bisque, and said "that's about as good as tomato soup gets".

Then off to brave the airlines again. Got to the airport early to request seat reassignments next to each other. Which means that since all flights to and from Chicago were delayed by weather, we got to spend 3 hours at the gate. Yay. But this time we actually got gasp good customer service, and the gent at the podium got us seated next to each other on all 3 planes.
So, flight #1 from Knoxville to Chicago left at 5 instead of 3:30. Fortunately for us, flight #2 out of Chicago was also running late, so we had an ample 30 minutes to get to our next plane. Unfortunately, that means that we arrived in SeaTac after our flight out was already boarded. I have a serious gripe about the airport here. There was NO ONE at any of the gates to ask questions of... no customer service to direct us to our next gate. We had to go all the way back out to the end of the concourse to find a board with flight info posted, then all the way back down the concourse to our gate. Inconvenient, to say the least.

Anyway, we arrived home at about 1AM. Tried to start a fire, it being rather colder in the mountains of home than it is in Knoxville. Well, actually, I DID start a fire. Unfortunately, for some reason we have not figured out, the chimney would NOT draw. Had smoke coming back out the air intakes under the stove and around the door seal, but it would NOT go up the flue. Made for a less than incredibly pleasant atmosphere inside. The really really weird thing here is that it works JUST FINE today. Maybe there was a raccoon sleeping across the top or something.

Okay, think I'm done with this travel log of sorts. Now I'm gonna go make Bruce paint my toenails and help him look for rope tying instructions for later...

Comments

[neogrammarian.livejournal.com]

Um, because you don't stir mochas? The banding is part of the show.

(Though the espresso & chocolate may be stirred, and the heavier milk may blend on its own with the espresso as it continues to separate out from the foam as it cools).

Sounds like it was a fun trip- and I am sorry that it was year after I was no longer in the region. Woulda been nice to have a (sort of) close way to see you!

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

nononononono.... the point of putting chocolate in is so that i can't taste the coffee!

yeah, wish we'd had more time in chicago to harass you and/or benchilada. 'course it was a weekday both trips through anyway so you'd probably have been working :(

[neogrammarian.livejournal.com]

Well, Ben works 3.5 hrs from Chicago, and I work 16 hrs from Chicago, so it would've been tricky.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

16 hours?! eeesh. I thought you were much closer than that!

[neogrammarian.livejournal.com]

Chicago's in the middle. Philadelphia's on the coast.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Ah. see, I was all screwed up. Sorry.

[la-roja.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit sad to hear the truffle on your french fries was useless. A plate of parmesan and truffle salt fries is on my list of top food moments. Generally speaking truffles and potatoes are two great tastes that taste great together.

[la-roja.livejournal.com]

P.S.--We had terrible trouble with our fireplace for a long time sometimes it would work and sometimes it just wouldn't draw. It was very frustrating. A couple years after we moved in we had it cleaned and the chimney sweep took one look at it and told us we needed to have it sealed. He put some stuff on the mortar lines and it has worked perfectly ever since. I inhaled a lot of smoke and didn't light a lot of fires because I assumed nothing could be done. If the problem persists I wouldn't advise waiting a couple years to call someone out, lol.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Has worked fine since (3 fires now). I'm assuming it was just so cold it wouldn't draw... but even so, we've lit it colder before and got it going without smoke coming back out the air intakes! If we have issues with it again, I'll look into sealing the chimney, thanks!

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I couldn't taste a significant difference in the fries themselves. They were not greasy, which may be because of the different oil, but that can be achieved by not over-cooking and by draining/drying well, so I not sure you can credit that to the truffle oil. Just tasted like fries with Parmesan, which is not in a complaint, they were quite yummy! I just couldn't discern any specific difference the truffle oil made.