Bern's Steak House

Ok, so the reason Fred and I flew to sunny, crazy Florida was to eat at Bern's Steak House. Fred described his memories of the restaurant to me and it sounded like THE place to eat steak. Seemed like a good idea so celebrate our birthdays in a big way because it's a big birthday for Fred :)

A family owned restaurant that includes it's own organic garden, cattle ranch, huge wine collection sounds wonderful doesn't it? To be a waiter there, one must apprentice for 5 years. As a diner one can spend 4 hours eating delicious steak, touring the kitchen and the wine cellar (the 100,000 bottle collection was impressive), and enjoying a private desert room upstairs. This made it all sound worth a trip to Florida.

Covered valet parking, replicas of sculptures made by famous artists, and a two story foyer were three pieces of the amazingly interesting decor. Other awesome adornments included a blood red carpet, school building ceilings, fold up tables and cheap antique chairs. Those things you will never find at a pricey restaurant in Asheville I felt confused. I'm thinking, is this for real? We are about to spend a couple hundred dollars in a restaurant with folding tables in a Stephen King's Shining-like atmosphere? It didn't even qualify as kitsch.

Not to mention that every other person dining there seemed to be there just to say they had been there. I was one of them! yikes. I had a great view of two teenagers that were either on their way to prom or very over dressed. And who brings their KIDS to a restaurant like this? Floridians.

Well, our server was very good. We tasted two wines before settling on a champagne to drink with our appetizers. We had a red with the steak that was fabulous. The appetizers were good, but not nearly as memorable as the tuna with wasabe appetizer we had at Snapper's the next night. The steak was steak. I'm not qualified to judge that. The sides that came with the steak ... not so good. And substituting other sides for the ones you don't want requires paying extra. I'm sorry though ... onion rings and onion soup???? Are you trying to kill me?

The real treat was the desert room. It felt private, had it's own music system, and also included very good service. I had cheesecake, chocolate ice cream with cocoa nibs, and fresh blackberries. Fred ordered us a flight of Taylor's port. We shared the 10 yr, 20 yr, 30 yr, and 40 yr. Nice. That was yummy. As it gets older it gets very smooth and yummy. Plus, it is cool to drink something that's older than I am.

To top off the night I got a mint coffee drink with some kind of alcohol in it. And that coffee drink put me over edge. 2 a.m. was not pretty.

So, my advice is: don't travel to Florida to find good food. Especially when you live in a city FULL of good food.

It's been a while ...

So, at least I know there's one person out there that notices when I don't post for a while :)

The random danger bug became the focal point of my Summer. When I wasn't dusting shelves at the Gallery of the Mountains or visiting my friend in Woodfin, I diligently searched for meals for my new pet wheel bug. He is quite well, and for those who do not look at my flickr page often, I have a plethora of photos of the wheel bug enjoying his meals.

I caught him as an adolescent and he has since molted once. I came home to find him 85 % outside of his old skin, and bright orange. I spoke with him about the inappropriateness of his little naked pink butt after I shot some nudes of him.

The other highlight of my Summer was taking a trip to Tampa. It was too short, and involved too much travel time, but seeing as how I took it with my favorite man, it was all worth it.

The highlights were 1. sitting in a cabana near the pool, drinking pina coladas, and watching the olympics on the private T.V. 2. Taking first class flights from ATL to Charlotte. We drank Jack and Cokes in the 15 minutes it took for the plane to fill up, ate milano cookies instead of "gourmet pretzels", and the flight attendant was very entertaining. Over the radio he said his name was Shaggy and that the other assistants were Velma and Daphne. He also said that in the event of an emergency we should put our own oxygen masks on before assisting a child, another customer, or a customer acting like a child. Lastly he made us laugh when he pointed out that "there may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there only 7 exits on the plane." That experience (and sitting next to my honey on the plane (the whole reason we upgraded to first class)) really made up for the time it took to get to and from ATL. 3. Driving around in a lipstick red mustang with a cup holder that lights up in different colors. 4. The food. We ate at two fantastic restaurants. Bern's Steak House is the reason we went to Tampa, and we also ate at Snapper's ( I think), which had awesome crab legs, and a tuna appetizer.

More about Bern's in another blog ... this is already getting lengthy :)

Random Danger Bug

So, if you haven't realized it by now, I am a random blogger. Now that I am nearly recovered from my devastating loss of Jackson and enjoying my Summer vacation, I take pictures a LOT!

So check it out; a vicious killer nymph. Ok, not a killer ... but it could hurt if it stuck it's long fang into your skin. Read what I found out about this "wheel bug nymph" in the comments area of my picture on flickr. If I'd known this bug could hurt me, I would have stayed further away.

Introducing Giovanni Jackson Benjamin Goodson-Graham

My cockatiel. He is sweet, cute and fun to watch. He doesn't say much, but we hope to teach him a few of the most important words in the English language (whatever words you are thinking of right now says a lot about who you are).





He showed up at our school last week trying to make his way into classrooms by pecking on windows and looking cute. Finally he realized that the best way to get into the building would be to land on a students shoulder and ride his way in. After finding an old cage and capturing our friend I volunteered to take him home. After all, I've been wanting a pet, but I'm not allowed to have big furry ones. I haven't checked the lease agreement to see if feathered ones are allowed. I will plead ignorance if I find I'm not supposed to have him.



He ate a lot of food his first days here, including a peanut butter cracker and a piece of english muffin with blueberry jam. He loves that I'm a jewelry maker, because all of the little shiny objects I use to make said jewelry are of absolute intrigue to Jackson(we've decided to go by his first middle name). He also enjoys being rubbed on his head and neck and any human shoulder is good enough to sleep or groom upon. Really. Anytime. Bathing, pooping, blogging, exercising ... he's on my shoulder. More pics of my new addition to come...

I have a new camera

Good macro capabilities. But I still can't tell if I took a picture of this thing's butt or it's head.

Great day in my life as an artist!

A picture I took at Maymont Park in Richmond, VA is published at Shmap. AND two pictures that I took during the DITLO project have been selected by the official DITLO judges!! Oh yeah, oh yeah, doing the fantastical day dance!

DITLO-Asheville, 36 hours of fun

A Day In The Life of Asheville. Last weekend a 36 hour event took place that allowed us to stay out late and take photographs of Asheville! Fred, Catherine and I went out Friday night to take some shots, and Fred and I went out again on Saturday. Between the two of us we took over 500 pictures. If you haven't joined flickr, now is the time. There will probably be another DITLO project in the Fall and it is a lot of fun. Check out all of the photos in the DITLO project by clicking on the title of this blog. Mine are here, Catherine's are here, and Fred's are here. Anything with a tag "ditloa2008submit" is part of the project. The winning pictures will go up at the Pact Library, but I'm not sure when. Enjoy looking at the photos and become a flickr member!
Friday we started in the parking garage, went down to wall street, then met up with Catherine and photographed the "Women in Black." Various shots were taken on the streets of downtown Asheville, and after dinner at the Laughing Seed, dancing at the drum circle and a trip further down to the Cox Ave. Pizza Co., Fred and I took a break at the Thirsty Monk. Saturday was just as fun, so look at the photos to seen where we've been.