Sunday, April 10, 2011

A Hot Spring Weekend

What do you find yourself doing on a hot spring weekend? And by hot I mean, 85 degrees and humid...ick.

Friday my Sister rolled into town from Lexington. We had a nice dinner on mom's patio and enjoyed telling stories and catching up.

On Saturday Sean and I joined our 3rd annual MS Walk with The Pirates (a.k.a. my friend Sherri). Our team raised over $1500 this year!!! Many thanks to all of you who contributed to our fundraising efforts. The team walked proudly together through Edwin Warner Park on Saturday (sweating, of course) and then we celebrated over a Mexican lunch. Murphy got to join us at the restaurant, too, and he was one happy pup.

Following lunch, Sean attempted to re-build the pergola. And after a 4 hour battle (which included a trip to Home Depot), he lost the fight. But not for long! He got back at it again today with more nuts, bolts and duct tape, and he won!!! The pergola is standing tall on the patio this evening as if the pseudo-tornado never happened. I watched him laboring from my kitchen window, and all I can say is Thank God for Husbands. You heard me. I would have NEVER had the patience or the skill to re-build a pile of metal scraps.

Late in the afternoon, I met up with my sister and little bro for a walk in the park. The weather kept us hot and sticky so we didn't stay out too long. We tried to cool ourselves in the shade, but with no money to spend on the ice cream truck we decided to head home to the cool AC!

Saturday night turned into a lovely Date Night for Sean and me. Earlier in the week I stumbled across an ad for a pizzeria called Bella Napoli. Me being the pizza lover that I am decided that we MUST try it...and soon! The restaurant venue is adorable and romantic. Most of the tables are placed outside in a private alley, beneath a canopy of white Christmas lights. Sitting snug between the buildings reminded us of our honeymoon in Italy. Going to Bella Napoli gave also gave us a chance to see a part of Nashville that we'd never explored - Edgehill Village. As suburbanites, we've really lost touch with the downtown area so I think this date night helped us restore some of our coolness. Oh, and the pizza was delish! Perfect crispy crust, fresh ingredients...MMmmmmm....

Just as we were leaving the restaurant - bellys full and quite content - we spotted owner/chef Paolo. We know Paolo from his work at Valentino's, an up-scale Italian restaurant just up the road. Paolo may not know it, but he had a personal hand in making our honeymoon very special. Four years ago as we were leaving for Italy, Paolo insisted that we meet up with his sister-in-law in Florence. He made sure she had our names and the name of our hotel, and upon arriving (very late and with no luggage) we had a message from Emanuella, that she had been by to see us. Two days later Emanuella gave us a tour of the city and took us to her favorite restaurant. We had the most amazing time hanging out with her, and felt so lucky to receive local hospitality from Nashville all the way to Florence. I didn't stop and speak to Paolo last night because I wasn't quite sure it was him until after we got in the car...but next time I'll be sure to speak to him. And there will be a next time! (hopefully not too long from now).

I woke up early this Sunday morning, about 6:30, and everything was so quiet and beautifully lit by the morning sun. The air was still somewhat cool (anything is cool compared to 85), so I stayed outside a little longer and snapped a photo of my pretty pink dogwood. Then I fixed scratch biscuits for breakfast before heading to church. Church was followed by jog, which was followed by lunch at Sperry's with the family. We said our farewells to Sister - sad to see her go because I barely got to see her, but we'll meet up again next month for our Sisters Weekend in NYC!



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