Dixie Chick.

... Aforementioned boxes are off, soon to be up & away! 

Ginny meanwhile, in complete disregard for her cousins of the Northern climes,
is focusing more towards acclimating herself as a Dixie chick.

Pasta IS Fancy.

And so it was that one by one, my 'theatre daughters' left our nest & flew away to Study Land once more. (That's what happens when you have an in-house recycling system and a compohst system and you favour early bedtimes; you get to be Mom.)

Yup. Aren't they lovely?

For Jenny, there was only one way to say goodbye: 
  The manifestation of Pasta as truly Fancy.

c.f.: A Fancy Backstory.

Invite:
 "pasta is fancy. i'm cooking pasta. come eat pasta. pasta.pasta.pasta. you get the picture."

Prompting some good questions from the Invitees
         as well as a few conflicts of interest:

   Katie:  "Will there be pasta?"
   Emily: "I'm allergic to pasta.
  Can you make me steak instead?"
                 
 Nonetheless, fancy preparations progressed: 

(Pasta! Penguin! Craft!)
 

with Homemade Garlic Bread.
Très Fancy.

..............................

Household.

 Another ae fond goodbye:

08-09-16: 

Jenny: nikki, why are you so fancy?

me: because i like pasta and i'm short

......

08-06-16:

Jenny: "Nikki, you're so talented!"

me: "It's because I'm short. 

God had to give me something to make up for being this close to the ground." 

JK crafted it. So clever & so pretty!

End of Run Signals...

Yes.

Party Time!

Goodbye Professor. Goodbye WFW... 

So long Trouble,

Thank you lovely actor-types!

  So long River City. So long!

We started on the Saturday, with Hardywood. 

VA Blackberry release day!
Summer in a pint glass.

Exciting times.

                              ^ See?                                                            In a cone too! Woo, Gelati Celesti.

This is what Strike looks like.

So many lovely empty & available hangers again!

My Word of the Week.
Although I'm calling it "Sparkle".

It being Jenny's last week in town, there were also some final explorations to be made.

Galaxy Diner, Carytown:

                   Where they serve you Kitchen Roll                       Jenny drove the Pickle Car in Busytown;                 
                                instead of napkins. Hah.                                  hence the excellent always-Awkward Pickle face.

I'd never noticed this particular store before but
it's sort of hard to overlook a Royal Watermelon baby.

Sarah organised drinks at Strangeways.
 

This time I got to meet Mike in person & he gave
us a tour of his workspace, both interesting & insightful about the actual brewing process.

<  Mike identifies the lactose (used in cream ales &
 milk stouts) & talks through his selection of tea leaves,
 as added into the Curiosities beer.

 We got to meet the "three sisters" of bourbon barrels:

 

I discovered a Strangeways beer with my very name on it.

Hurrah!

Plus a sneak preview-tasting of the Strangeways' Sour
due for release later on that week.

Namely, 'WORD!' They're all about the blueberries at the craft breweries at present.

Lunch prior to Camp at Willow Lawn,

A sandwich shop even more elaborate than Subway.

Branded red Sharpie's have a certain appeal. Tick! Tick!

More on Camp soon. We had crafting costume fun!

"Killing Kennedy" on Broad.

The film crew came downtown for a day to borrow the Rep as a movie theatre stand-in:

I'd like to tell tales of rubbing shoulders with movie stars but it was pretty much a normal day -
save for numerous trailing cables & a fight to get back into the building after lunch.

Music Man was swapped out as we paused to advertise instead
the film Oswald went on to see after the shooting of JFK.

Another fifties' car on Broad.

Advertising slightly different wares to what 110,
the scene shop next door, normally has to offer.

They were loading out the ice-cream booth as we left for the day.
Julie Paint painted that!

Meanwhile, on the corner at Jackson Hewitt,
there was a whole different N'orleans theme going on.

Words! & Maps!

So Tropical Storm Andrea brought a lot of rain to Richmond & has now moved on up the coast. I was sort of disappointed in that I would've liked more tropical for my time. Falling pineapples, mangoes, citrus descending from on high .... The key's quite clearly in the name, Andrea!

Conversations on sou'westers led onto my telling of the Lollipop Lady. Here it's a 'Crossing Guard': infinitely more proper & official-sounding but general consenus prevailed that the lady with the lolllipop stick is much more appealing albeit somewhat misleading.

Other words taught, proper pronunications conferred: 

Manky.  (Well, I'd already let them in on skanky. Now they can make it rhyme!)

Compost.  - Much like 'ga-rahge', I was keen to highlight that for me, there is & will be no '-pohst'. It's just -post & so I will not be subscribing to pronounce something faux-South.


Scone. (skon) - I made some. No-one was allowed to enjoy them until they asked for them in proper Northern speak, so spoken to rhyme with 'gone'.

: "a rich quick bread cut into usually triangular shapes & ..baked on a sheet.".... Rhymes with: blown, bone, clone, cone, crone, drone, flown, groan ...  

Och. You get my gist. 

Hah! Bad America, I will set you right. 
This is not a Scone.

We are not serving up shortbread nor cake.

Arugula. 
                  - Another of the greens, this one has passed me
by awhile because that's what eating K.Roger's American Blend does for both your vocabulary & your diet. 
                                                                              - a.k.a Rocket.

(Not this week, mind! This week, blessed by free greens
& friendly Radish, I made my own!) 

Also & informatively, this map of great divide. Being adopted into the American South, I am fluent, as & when required, in the understanding of soda, slaw, y'all, crawfish, tennis shoes as well as - thanks to the Midwestern influences around me - bubblers & crayfish. Thanks to Lauren, 'pee-KAHN' always appears as a bird's cry in my head now. 
  Then there's my oft-requested party trick by Molly - joining with NJ & MA in being able to pronounce apart & distinctly: mary, merry & mary. It's a gift, I tell you.

The Deepest Linguistic Conflicts in America.

Brunch Brunch Munch.

Festival season has begun once more in Richmond!

I do love their skyline edit.

But of course.

 Saturday:  

 
 

So no need to be cooking breakfast then!
NB: Grape leaves: there'll be no such talk of Vines.

 It was darn hot out. We walked around the agora, drank some lemonada & then found
the shadiest spot in which to sit, eat & watch the dancing - from little 'uns up to teenagers.

1. Hold hands. Form a horsehoe.
2. Walk around. Occasionally nod to the floor, or hop.

The variety of costumes for each of the different age groups was fun to take in!

Sunday:  

No need to make breakfast with this festival also happening right outside on our doorstep!
Four blocks worth from Adams (by the Rep) down to Monroe & utterly crammed with stalls.

It took two circuits before any of us - myself, Katie or Natalie - 

could so much as start to form a choice.

Spicy shrimp & grits (the best grits I've eaten yet)
from Mansionfive-26.

And oozy gooey nutella wonton goodness..
The line at this stall one almost equalled that of the oyster fans.

 Starr Hill Pale Ale - = - Jack (hop) ?? - Center of the Universe -Roanoke Switch Monkey