Blog for adaysouting.com

I spent a wonderful 4 days away with my husband in Asheville, NC.  It was needed, as I have been working a whole lot lately.  I’ll write a long detailed post on what a great destination it was when I come up for air, hopefully soon.  But, just a quick funny…

We had decided to spend part of a day walking around Asheville’s fabulous downtown.  That day, the winds were like a hurricane and it was COLD!  We went into the Colburn Gem and Mineral Museum, which I loved because it was warm and my husband loved because he’s a geeky rock-loving guy.  Then we decided to walk around the shops and restaurants.  As we walked along, all I could think was this is awful, really awful.  It was COLD and grit was blowing in my eyes and teeth, yuck!  But, he seemed quite happy, so I trudged along.  Finally, never usually being one to hold back, I said what I had been feeling, “this is awful!”  He was so relieved.  I couldn’t believe after 15 years of marriage,  we were both still trying to be a good sport…I guess that’s a good thing?

I think Asheville is the Boulder, CO of the East.  I loved it and can’t wait to go back.

I took a trip to the brand new Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, recently. The modern glass and steel building is amazing. Although, when the building was under construction it sparked a bit of controversy, but I think that it intermixes beautifully with the century old brick buildings and the tall business towers.

On our trip through the museum, we stopped and looked at different exhibits. I enjoyed the futuristic display of the Judith Leiber Handbags. The one that mesmerized my children was the tattoo exhibit, “Pens and Needles: Drawings for Tattoos.”  As we began entering the tattoo exhibit, I was quietly warned by a volunteer that I might not find the art appropriate for children. I appreciated the warning, and we all appreciated the tattoo art.

On our way home, we stopped by Roanoke Valley Printworks.  It is right next door to the museum’s entrance, and it is packed with amazing books, stationary and one of a kind prints. I consider this little gem of a store to be a destination in and of itself.

Having grown up in Roanoke, VA, I have watched dedicated women and men transform the downtown area to make it the wonderful place that it is today.  The farmers market, Center in the Square and now the Taubman Museum of Art provide us with an opportunity to enjoy the vast art, theatre, heritage and culture that Roanoke has to offer.

Just a quick note for all of the Martha Stewart moms out there…  I used to be one of those moms who tried to do all the holidays perfectly with her children.  At Valentine’s we’d get out the pink and red construction paper, doilies and glitter and make the homemade cards.  We would bake my favorite sugar cookies from Cook’s Illustrated, decorate them and then deliver them to neighbors and the kid’s classrooms.  I have to say I loved it and would end up staying up by myself decorating and eating the cookie dough.

Well, have I said I have been a little busy lately?  My second grade daughter of course made her own Valentine’s two weeks ahead of time with everyone’s names perfectly written on the cards for her class.  I kind of forgot about the fifth grader’s class.  Friday morning at 6:30, my son wants to know where his Valentine’s are.  Thinking quickly, I remembered a bag of Halloween Skittles still on the upper reaches of the pantry and tossed them to him.  What does he think?  He says, “Sweet, there’s way more than I need for my class and I don’t have to write anything.  Thanks Mom”.  Ugg…

By the way, the second grader reported that afternoon that the fifth grader ate tons of Skittles on the way to school and wouldn’t share.  Breakfast of Champions…

I have small dragon claws pushing their way through the soil all around my yard.  At least that’s what the tips of daffodils look like to me.  Each year I have planted dozens of daffodils around our home.  Except this past Fall….I was a bit busy with a crazy new company!  But in past years, bulb after bulb have gone in.

I am one of those nuts that love botanical gardens, private garden tours and garden shows.  I really enjoy seeing how professional designers and backyard gardeners layout their spaces.  I love seeing the plants they choose and how they mix them together so that there is beauty all year round.  On a visit somewhere, I don’t remember where, I saw that the gardeners had intermixed the daffodils with day lilies.  That way when the daffodils were on their way out, the new growth of the day lilies would cover up the dying daffodil leaves.  I have tried it in my garden, and it works beautifully.

Now, it is still winter, so the day lilies are nowhere to be found, but I can see green tips of the daffodils.  Or maybe, they really are sleeping dragons beginning to wake up from their winter naps and poking their toes upward.  You never really know in a garden.

We just spent a great Friday out with our 10 year old at Mas in Charlottesville. It’s great for us to have some one on one with him while his sister is at sleepovers and we get to be out at a fun place.  It’s becoming about a once a month tradition for us.

Mas is a tapas restaurant where the menu has fabulous seasonal foods as well as regular favorites.  Our little guy loves the bacon wrapped dates and unfortunately the Solomillo de Kobe (thinly sliced Kobe beef strip loin very rare only w/ manchego cheese, a smizzala of white truffle oil over arugula).  We sit way down at the end of the bar in front of the open kitchen and the cooks and staff now know our son as the Kobe kid.  My favorite is the Pollo confitado (slowly roasted local, organic chicken cured w/ preserved lemon, anise, and cinnamon in it’s own juices).  If anyone can give me the recipe for this, I would love you forever.

Mas inspires us to head down to the Charlottesville Farmer’s Market and spend our Sunday cooking. We have kidded with the staff that we can’t wait to bring our favorite celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain there with us, we know it’s his kind of food. Anthony, if you are out there, come and be our guest!

We hope you enjoy our site and continue to use it as a resource for years to come.  We have been working for a little more than a year now to bring our dream to life.  We are two moms who wanted this tool and knew others would love to have it too.  It started one weekend when Elizabeth visited her mom in Roanoke, VA with her two monkeys and tried to find a day trip they would all enjoy.  She had an impossible time trying to piece together things from on line newspapers and weekly magazines. That weekend A Day’s Outing was born.

We have navigated through the high tech world of web design, database schemas, massive Excel documents, on line credit card payments, root access, Ruby on Rails, Linux, and we will never forget the endless stream of acronyms… SMO, MySQL, PHP, CPM, you name it.  We have laughed and laughed, felt sick to our stomachs and occasionally wanted to strangle someone.

So many people have stepped in to help us.  Carmen Hughes, our adviser, has continually been a resource to help with everything, anytime of the day, from editing to funding.  Chris, our ever-patient lead developer with his much appreciated laid back Caribbean attitude, has abilities that never seem to meet a wall that he can’t hurdle.  Karen West, our unbelievably talented artist, brings so much emotion to the site and has brought our sweet Floyd to life.   And last, but definitely not least, our friend Emily and the entire team at Electric Pulp, without them we would never have gotten to where we are today.  Not only did they read our mind and build an amazing site, they helped us continually to navigate the high tech world. Many thanks to Marshall Kirkpatrick for helping us find them.

We’re now on our way. Please keep coming back and watch us grow. We are two girls with a dream that love to get out and go with our friends and family.  We can’t wait to be nationwide! **Cathy & Elizabeth