It was a good day of chillin and grillin like villains at the Park over the weekend.

It’s true that when you get to Piedmont, you go like this:

Thanks http://wheninatl.tumblr.com

Visited the Dogwood Festival for the first time.  There was a lot of great artwork exhibited there from still life oil paintings to pottery as you see here. Unfortunately I couldn’t take photos of the artwork since I wasn’t allowed to due to intellectual property.  But I would go again next time…if I had the money to actually buy some of them.

First auto show ever! Maybe my last just because I’m not into cars but I went since my dear friend who works at Lexus gave me free tickets.

Perhaps the best thing that happened there was meeting up with an old friend whose wife told him that I was at the auto show as well when she saw my Facebook status update that I was there.  She was in Germany for work at the time but texted him to call me and I tagged along when he test drove a Prius, for which we got free Toyota baseball hats.

Oh the power of social media!

Have to credit Spiral Entertainment for organizing such a great Oysterfest.  The music was good, the crowd was good, the energy was good and of course the oysters were great. Well, except for  the one raw oyster that was still thawing, but fortunately I had a bucket of steamed oysters to shuck and slurp to wait for it to thaw. Fried oysters and the seasoned fries were also tasty.

It’s exactly what it sounds like; never been to anything like it. This was taken at Hand in Hand in the Highlands.

New Year’s dinner as prepared by my Ukrainian friends.

Hoping for a happy, healthy new year for y’all!

My Charlie Brown Christmas tree! December has been a busy month as expected.  As fun as all the company holiday parties and get-togethers can be, it has also been tiring.  I haven’t had much time to blog, and I realize I’m not updating my social media and taking photos during festivities and outings as much as I used to; I guess I’m just enjoying the moment instead.

Will try to update the blog more often for the new year   Happy holidays and happy 2012!

The first time I heard of Stone Mountain was last year when the brother of my Korean tutor in NY asked me if I ever heard of it. I didn’t.

I guess you’d only know of it if you live in ATL. It doesn’t help that I didn’t take a photo of it but just took photos of the views at the top.  Anyhow  it’s a nice, short and easy hike, but you have to pay$10 just to park.  Other than that; I would say it’s worth visiting at least once for the nice views when you reach the top.   When I went last week you can see the foliage and even some falcons.

It feels like time flies so much faster at the end of the year; perhaps because it’s darker out and it’s Christmas before you know it. In any case, I’ve been so busy that I will consider it a miracle if I can blog at least once a week. But fall has been fun; just a lot of football (Georgia!) and won a small, informal 5k for my boyfriend’s friend’s non-profit. Also enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch and dinner and trying to keep that attitude of gratitude.

Went to the Plaza for the first time last night to see Urbanized. It was great since I scored a free ticket by being a volunteer. I got to talk to the director, Gary H, briefly who struck me as a very nice, down-to-earth guy.

If you haven’t heard of the documentary, it’s a look into urban design and making cities better in many respects with transportation, environment, security, and community.  From the bus system in Bogota to New York City’s Highline, it’s an educational look into the small measures we can take to make cities livable and enjoyable.

I was hoping that there would be some magic solution to fix the traffic in Atlanta in the Q& A with Ellen Dunham-Jones (interviewed in the film) and Gary but there wasn’t.  There are different solutions for different cities and what may work in Bogota or Copenhagen may not work in the ATL, but we have to do something more than Peach Pass, which seems to be a band-aid solution to the rush hour madness here.  Urban sprawl, America’s dependence on cars, and the deterioration of our rail system has to be addressed; it’s not just ugly, it’s just not useful.

I don’t have any children or pets of my own so I made them pose for a photo that I can contribute to the Internet for Halloween.

I went over my boyfriend’s friend’s house where I helped give out treats. We ate Costco lasagne which was pretty awesome and Publix wings which were equally awesome. I finally got to meet Spence or “Big Red” too. He’s a good-looking, smart, super tall, red head so if there are any single ladies out there let me know. My boyfriend actually has a handful of good guy friends who just haven’t met “the one” yet, so ladies, post a comment if you’re interested.

I’m glad I’m not dealing with the white Halloween in the Northeast, especially with the power outages. I hate the cold as it is so I’m going to try to enjoy the fall as much as I can o’er here in the South.