North Chat fence

I'm baaaacck! On the road tomorrow again and --

It looks like we have a plan. The last several days chez L and W in North Chattanooga, where the hospitality is warm and the towels are thirsty, have been wonderful. Such a gift to be able to spend time with them, sharing stories, catching up and eating good food. Chattanooga, or Chatt as the locals call it -- is a swell town where they seem to totally, well almost totally, get the revitalize-sans-terrorize-the-neighbors idea. It's a gracious mix of old and new with an obvious appreciation of what was special about past architecture and design. It's a very Euro city in that way, on a human scale like many euro cities. Not too big, not too small.

Fun birthday celebration with friends of W and L at Rain, a Thai place, last night, where I had the best sweet and sour chicken ( I know -- pretty pedestrian of me, but it was fresh thin slices of chicken breast, lightly floured with rice flour, fried, and with a charming collection of veg delicately cut -- not the usual chunky glob you get when ordering this dish) I've ever had. L and W's friends are charming and interesting, and a good time was had by all.

This a.m. we tried to get into Aretha's for Sunday breakfast, but an hour was too long a wait so we found ourselves, thanks to T's awesome deftness with her blackberry and urbanspoon.com, at a place called Blue Plate downtown that served Aretha's pancakes anyway! Cool place, although staff a little pouty IMHO in that self consciously nouveau urban cool kind of way. But the coffee was really good, local foods, free range eggs (giving me the opportunity to show W the diff twixt his eggs and mine, mine being bright orange!), nice fresh squeezed oj at a reasonable price. I liked it, although the waitress' lingo seemed limited to the phrase "no problem" no matter what we ordered or said to her. Implying there could have been a problem with whatever we said, but she'll forgive us. We could have said pretty much anything and she'd have mindlessly said "no problem" in response. I thought she'd catch on eventually, but .... no. Oh well. It was fun, down by the river, as Neil Young would say.

Tomorrow is L's birthday, and a happy 28th to her, fab gal that she is! Many happy reruns, girl. I know W will help make it a special day for her. They are a really loving couple and that is nice to see in this age of memememe.

And we are off to Rock Hill, North CArolina in the a.m. to visit with my first grand niece (9 mo old), Mattingly Mayes, and my nephew and his wife, who I have yet to meet. So -- totally psyched there. We have to go clear down near ATlanta to get there, then northward again as all the roads through the mountains are washed out or rockstrewn and I am not in the mood for that kinda hairy drive. Then onward to T2's for another quick visit, another day trip into Charleston. Then northward to visit an old pal, I hope and on to the Jersey shore where we have taken us a leetle cottage belonging to a new friend until the first of May. We intended to rent in Pawley's Island but were too late to grab the winter rate. Alas! Next time.

See you at the coast. Where we hope the sun (haven't seen it in days) will shine again...