0045 - Big day out!

Yesterday we took the Dodge to a dealership in Cookeville for a recall on the tie-rod, and during that process they determined that we also needed to replace our front and rear brake pads. Yipes! Since that was going to take most of the day to complete, we rented a car and set off about our business.

Item one on the agenda... I really don't know why we try...  seriously, we must thive on calamity. Mexican food. It's a neverending quest fraught with disappointment and gastronomic peril. We pulled up reviews this time, and we decided to try Pueblo Viejo. Once again the salsa came in a carrafe, which I think is cool but never seems to bode well... but I have to admit it was the best salsa yet. Still tasted like it came from a jar, but it had chunks of onion, and I saw tiny pieces of what appeared to be fresh cilantro.

Where they lost us was the main course... my steak tacos were not two distinct soft tacos with rice, beans, sour cream and guacamole on the side (as pictured on the menu)... instead it was smothered in rice and none of the rest of that stuff was anywhere to be seen. But... mine still appeared to be edible. Mike's on the other hand... I could only laugh (nervously) when I saw it. The taco was normal. The chile relleno looked like someone took a pile of baby shit, melted some cheese on it and the rest of the plate was a large puddle of refried beans. The relleno itself was completely flat and no more than 1-1/2" in diameter. The waitress asked us if everything looked good and Mike said no, then asked where his relleno was. He ultimately sent it back, I packed mine up to go and we moved on. No point in dawdling.

Still determined, we made our way over to El Tapatio. I figured Tapatio sauce is one of Mike's favorite things ever, and there were a ton of cars outside... maybe it was a sign. They even had margaritas and beer, whereas PV didn't. The salsa had oregano in it, I kid you not. It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever put in my mouth. In the backwoods maybe you can convince people that oregano belongs in salsa, but Cookeville is a decent-sized town and they should know better. The fajitas, however, were pretty good and Mike seemed happy with his dish. Still... we are underwhelmed by the selection of Mexican food in Cookeville, Granville, Gainesboro and Carthage.

After that we went to the Del Monaco winery in Baxter. The wine was good, we tried several and came home with several. I'm digging the muscadine, it has a sweet muscadine flavor with a nice honey finish. My favorite two things though, are the salsa cheese... sooooo tasty, almost like Parmesan with a mellow pepperjack flavor but you can taste a hint of tomato. And my new wine glass that has a flower painted around the outside. It's a big improvement from the plain old drinking glass I was using, at least I feel more sophisticated when I'm using it.

Today we headed toward Murfreesboro, which is about 67.9 miles from where we currently "reside." You see... in Murfreesboro they have one of these:

And that ^ is like crack to me. I haven't been in one of those ^ in about four months - not even online... I am a voracious reader, I got separation anxiety. I damn near went into hysterics when we pulled into the parking lot. Ask Mike, he called me gently retarded or something like that.

So... I used gift cards to get about eight books (I did NOT go crazy - you shut it!):

• Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness is the sequel to a book I picked up in Dubai called A Discovery of Witches. It was surprisingly good for something I randomly chose and I was hoping there would be more from her. Even better, since it just came out it was 30% off.

• I pre-ordered A Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. I didn't even know what it was about, I just know that I loved Harry Potter, and when I find an author I like, I will read every single book they publish until they stop entertaining me. After reading the description I'm not sure what to think, but I'm putting my faith in JKR.

• I love the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Meade and when I saw that she had begun a new series based off of one of the characters I decided it was worth a look. So I picked up Bloodlines to see if I like it.

• Anita Blake is one of my favorite characters ever, she's such a badass too complicated to explain in a short paragraph, but she's spunky and interesting and I like her. Sometimes the author, Laurell K. Hamilton, goes in a direction I don't particularly care for with her romantic scenes, but overall I enjoy the series and I am quite addicted. When Borders when out of business I picked up what they had in stock, but there was a gap, so I filled in that gap tonight with Skin Trade, Flirt... and the new one was out for 30% off so I went ahead and grabbed that one, too. Excuses? I got 'em by the truckload!

• Another series I enjoy is the Undead and... series by Mary Janice Davidson. It's about a vampire queen/shopping addict who doesn't want to be a vampire queen. It's what most people call a beach read, a quick, easy, entertaining story. I don't usually pick up books that make me laugh, but the series is hilarious. So I picked up Undead and Unappreciated, and Undead and Unreturnable.

• I just finished Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell, which is a prequel to Sex and the City. It was interesting to see how the characters met, and how little sex was in the books compared to the television show. Yeah they still talked about it, but Carrie was a virgin, Samantha was engaged, Miranda wasn't an attorney yet, and you didn't meet Charlotte until the end of the book... totally different. The strangest part is that Sarah Jessica Parker was so intrinsically Carrie for me, that the whole book was in her voice with her inflections... all the characters were.

After that we drove around and ran across The Trail of Tears and The Stones River National Battlefield. The hard part about visiting a battlefield is that it is a just a field and you have to use your imagination to replay what took place or you miss out. So the battlefield itself wasn't much to look at without the historical perspective, but the cemetery... my god... so many dead. If the numbers started at 1, there were 5,138 grave markers, and some of those contained the remains of multiple soldiers. Try to imagine it, it was a sea of grave markers that went on forever.

With our cell phones this is the best we could do:

After that we went to a gun shop and range to look around for a bit and then I decided I was hungry. Mike pointed out a Carrabba's earlier in the day, and a Chuy's, so I'd been pretty much obsessing about the two of them all day like some lovesick, half-starved third-world child. Carrabba's won out because we've had so much Mexican "food" lately... but I swear... next time I have a craving for Mexican and I don't want to cook it myself - we're heading to Chuy's. I'm done with the local crap. I wanted to eat locally and support the small businesses, but at the end of the day, I want something that doesn't make me want to gag. Oh - and they have Marble Slab and WingStop too. If they can squeeze a Pappa's Seafood House in there, and a Lupe Tortilla, I'd have just about all my favorite places in one spot.