I’m visiting Augusta, GA this weekend for the conference of the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association.  I came to deliver a presentation on one of our projects at work and I’m glad to say that it went well!

Then, last night, my colleagues and I had a FABULOUS dinner at Boll Weevil Cafe and Sweetery.

Boll Weevil Cafe'  On the Levee in Augusta Ga

Despite the name, the food was delicious! But you know what was even better than the food? THE CAKE!  omg. we split up three different types of cakes between us and they all tasted good. We were told even Paula Dean has given her stamp of approval so you know it must be good (and must be really bad for you – have you seen how much butter she adds to her food???!)  LOL

After dinner, one of my colleagues and I decided to walk around historic Downtown Augusta. The first Friday of each month they do an Art Walk and so we knew there would be stuff to see.  Augusta’s Art Walk was quite different than Nashville’s.   As one of my coworkers pointed it, it has an almost Nawlins feel to it – just how there are so many people hanging out in the streets.  I was not expecting however to encounter zombies.

We had a nice time walking around and just people watching. We passed members of the local roller girls team, the Soul City Sirens.  They have an upcoming bout so even though I won’t be here I’ll root for them since they’re not playing against Nashville. :-)

We wandered in and out of stores and saw a neat honeycomb structure made of rolled up book pages at the Book Tavern.

On the streets we went by a local music group that was being showcased by the Augusta Public Library. Props to the library for interesting programming.

The best part of the evening was at Club Tropicabana though.   As we were walking by earlier in the evening they told us about free Salsa lessons at 9.  Apparently, they do this every Friday.  So, we went, and it was so much fun!  Towards the end the steps/moves started to get a little tricky, but maybe next time I’ll pick it up better. Now, I must find some place in Nashville to do it. :-)

Do you think I’d be good enough one day to do Salsa like this? :-)

Yesterday we went to a friend’s house to help him celebrate his 11th birthday. Oh, we had so much fun! I was particularly taken by the Michael Jackson Experience game on the wii.  I did one song – Dirty Diana and now I want this video game.

Here are two of the boys doing Smooth Criminal.

Kaleya has been all about some Kidz Bop these days.  Now we’ve even been watching the videos.  I personally loved this one  of Beyonce’s Sweet Dreams.

This weekend has been a fairly quiet one for us.  It did not start off very well for me – I either caught a stomach virus or had a case of food poisoning on Friday and as a result spent ALL DAY in bed.  I felt really horrible and was very glad to see Saturday morning come and my vigor return.   I even felt well enough to keep to our plans for the day – a birthday party and a Nashville RollerGirls game.

The birthday party was held at Centennial Park and was for one of Kaleya’s good friends who turned 7 this week. Unfortunately, I did not take many pictures at all of the party itself,  just one of most of the group.

birthday party gathering in the park

Since we were in the park, I did wish to take the kids to go see the Athena statue in the Parthenon. My last visit was years ago, well before she was gilded in gold, so I too wanted to see it.  Jihad was able to tell me all the details about Athena for he’d been studying Greek Mythology in school – I was duly impressed. :-)

kids in front of the statue of Athena in the Parthenon

After the party we came home and I spent about an hour or so tidying the house – then we had to get ready for the Nashville RollerGirls (NRG) season operner  game.  We are fans and I did a great post last year related to a game we went to for Jihad’s birthday.  This weekend, they played Kansas City and KC was no joke! Unfortunately, NRG lost but it was still a great game.

Here’s a video clip of a jam by Rambo Sambo

and one of part of the halftime show by the JeerLeaders; this is great b/c you see one of the fans really getting into the performance (about 14 seconds in).  I am hoping maybe someone else got an even better video of this!

Had a great day overall.  Today we rested, doing much of nothing.  I was honestly a little wiped out from having been out most of the day yesterday.  This upcoming week is going to be extremely busy so a girl needs her rest.

 

A favorite in our household these days :-)

Random snow fun from earlier this month!

Over the weekend, Kaleya showed me one of the routines they have her class do in PE class at school. I thought it was great! Obviously a way of doing some strength-training with the kids. Kaleya is already pretty strong, but one-armed pushups??  Puts me to shame :-)

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One week, Jihad even came home and said they were doing a Michael Jackson routine as a whole grade exercise at his school.  How cool.   Nothing like PE was when I was young.

Over the weekend we held a birthday party for Kaleya’s 6th birthday and had a fabulous time! Despite the fact that we just moved into our new place and there were boxes around, we still made it work. :-)  Having no living room furniture yet worked to our advantage so we could set up tables and chairs for everyone.

Throughout the course of the afternoon we had about 10 kids and 10 adults there and we were so glad everyone came out.  Kaleya and her pals ran around mostly among the rooms upstairs, watched tv, ate cake,  played games and just had fun being kids.  Her true birthday was last weekend on October 16th, so on that day, she had one of her very good friends with her

and they had a great time playing with Kaleya’s new dollhouse

For yesterday’s party, the cake was a Princess & the Frog cake — right now one of Kaleya’s favorite movies – though, from the expression of her face in this photo you wouldn’t quite know it :-)

But, she perked back up – really got into opening the presents and we enjoyed getting to hang out with her and her friends.

Happy 6th Birthday Kaleya!!!!   Can’t wait to do it again next year :-)

Last week, Kalonji reported that Kaleya crossed the street by herself for the first time! So, the next day I went with and took a video clip :-)

Cute :-)