Piedmont Park Fountain

My friend Birdtracks suggested I take the little one to the new Legacy Fountain at Piedmont Park. I had no idea it was being built, but I’m sure glad I took his advice.

The area is on the far north side of the park, yet easily accessible from the parking deck.  I have to admit that I haven’t spent much time at Piedmont lately.  I used to walk over there all time when living in Midtown, but now we have so many great parks near our current home that it sort of escaped me that all these renovations were going on.  The park looks amazing and there is so much more to it now – the dog park is huge and the parking deck is awesome.

Last Sunday was a scorcher, so we decided to venture out and splash around the fountains.  Mia’s never been to a proper sprayground.  There is a little fountain at our neighborhood pool which isn’t really the same, so this was a first for her in some way.

She stayed away from the big fountain in the middle, but she was delighted to have the little ones that were just her size. She walked from fountain to fountain and stuck her hands in them, plus had fun watching the other kids play. I think she’ll build up some courage and brave the bigger ones soon!

The fountain area is equipped with restrooms to change in, as well as a refreshment cart. There is seating along a stone wall and some stone benches, but there’s also plenty of room on the grass. Have fun!

Farm Mobile

Sometimes I forget how easy things are here in the city.  I complain about having to drive OTP to get real Chinese food or having to fill up the tank more than once a month, quickly forgetting how different things were when I lived in Florida.  But we have so many great things available to us that make living here grand (and yes, I should blog about those more).  For instance, Farm Mobile.

Farm Mobile is a mobile farmers market on wheels brought to us by local organic farmers Riverview Farms. Inside, shelves are stocked with organic locally- grown produce, free-range eggs, breads from H&F Bread Co., and sustainable meats.  They stop at various neighborhoods around town, alerting people via Facebook or Twitter to their schedule updates, and one of their stops is right in our neighborhood.  Could shopping locally-grown get any easier?

Little Farm Mobile fan (whose face and hands are purple from eating Super Puffs!)

Mia picks out some turnips and greens

Our haul – H&F bread, hakurei turnips, swiss chard, braising greens, and Riverview Farms hot italian sausage – yum!

Zoo!

We met up with friends & neighbors to take advantage of a sunny day at the zoo.  We are members and have taken Mia several times, but this was definitely the first time she recognized the animals and reacted to them in such a lively way. Since it was morning/ feeding time, almost all of the animals were out and active, and it was a lot of fun to see her so animated.

She also got to wear her new “I love tacos” t-shirt:

Mia watching the meerkats scurry about:

Afterward we had a fun lunch at Six Feet Under (oysters and beer for mommy – yay!).

Sunshiny Day

It has been a huge blessing that the last few days have brought us sun and warmer temps. I can surely say that it’s lifted all of our moods and getting us out of the house to enjoy it.

No autographs, please…

Six Feet Under

The Mr. and I had a date night on Sunday to try out our new babysitter (who is awesome and wholly deserving of another post).  It was a gorgeous night, so we headed over to Six Feet Under’s rooftop patio for drinks and munchies.

Seated directly across from Oakland Cemetery, we noticed there was one grave people kept flocking to and getting their pictures taken with.  It was an odd location for a “famous” grave (literally backing up to Memorial Drive), so we were really curious.  We continued with dinner and drinks into the dark evening, yet the caretakers had not closed the gates yet.  So what did we do?  Of course we did.

I had never been in Oakland at night and I have to say it’s even more fascinating and spooky.  I loved it.  And the grave?  Well here ya go:

Hello, Summer

It got hot.  Fast.  The city is sweltering, the smog hovers above, and we’re all gross and sticky.  Luckily we have a few sweet treats around intown to cool ourselves off with:

First is the King of Pops.  Steven Carse’s mobile popsicle unit at N. Highland and North Ave. (in the Buddy’s lot) is a lifesaver on sweltering days (and often a pit-stop for me and the girl on our way home from daycare).  With exotic flavors like Blueberry Lemongrass or Honeydew Lime Zest, it’s a sure pick-me-up when you’re sticking to your leather interior.

Another popular spot is Orleagian Snowballs at Moreland & Ponce.   Who doesn’t love sweet, fluffy shaved ice on a hot summer day?  Yummy flavors like Blackberry and Raspberry combine for a sweet treat (even sweeter is the surprise gummy bear!).

Last is something that you don’t need to leave home for (well, at least you can pick it up in the grocery aisle) – a good ol’ pint of ice cream.  But thankfully this isn’t any old ice cream – Haagen-Dazs Five ice creams are all natural with only five ingredients.  My personal favorite is Passion Fruit.  It’s tangy and creamy at the same time, with the fresh taste of tart passion fruit shining through.  With new flavors like lemon and strawberry coming out, I’ll be happy to cool off with a spoon inside where the AC is kicking.

Men In Black

While the Mr. and I were headed to another OB appointment yesterday, we noticed something … um.. fuhreaky.

At the corner of 10th and Peachtree, there were not 1 or 2 bald white men in suits, but at least 9.  There were groups of them at every corner of the intersection.  They all looked a bit lost and kind of wandered from corner to corner.  Then by the time the light changed, they sort of moved from the Fed. Reserve Building side over toward the Margaret Mitchell House side of Peachtree.

I couldn’t figure out what the deal was – nothing in the papers or blogs.

Voter

Unhappy voter. Originally uploaded by mingaling

I voted yesterday after complaining about having to do so all week.

The hot ticket was the Atlanta mayoral race, which was my biggest complaint of all. I can’t get really excited about doing my civic duty when I have to choose from the least shitty candidate out of 6, you know? Honestly, they all kinda suck. It wasn’t easy to choose.

And wouldn’t you know it – there’s a runoff! Now I have to pick amongst the lesser of two people I’m not entirely fond of and who will ultimately make me regret the decision (disclaimer: I did vote for one of them initially, so I guess I’ll stick with that one?).

Star Wars and More

Last weekend I took the Mr. to his very first symphony performance.  Of course not just any performance would do, it had to be ASO’s Star Wars and More.

I hadn’t been to the Verizon Ampitheater yet, and although it’s all the way up in Alpharetta, I have to say I like it.  It’s probably one of the nicest outdoor venues I’ve been to, and my god – they have at least 50 women’s bathroom stalls.  HEAVEN.  (See?  Doesn’t take much to make me happy.)

Plus it’s not every day you get to see a conductor with a light saber.

And when they played the Imperial March:

PSA for the day

Apparently Atlanta and its infrastructure don’t know how to deal with RAIN.

Please take note.