All the News That's Fit to Print

Lilah and I took a trip down to Tuscaloosa last weekend.  Nearly 3/4 of the people who I know still living down there live on the same street (so not kidding) and so we just had a great time perusing the neighborhood and visiting from house to house.

But the first order of business was getting my butt straight to the "Phoenix from the Flames" Taco Casa on 15th Street.

[Aside:  Being in town a week before the 1st anniversary of the monster tornado was a little weird.  Seeing how much things hadn't changed since I'd been there a 49 weeks earlier was somewhat odd.  I mean, there were apartments that still had the "all clear" markings on the doors...it very much reminds me of post-Katrina New Orleans, where some places look like it never happened while others look like it happened last week.]

Anyway:

Super Nom:  Two chicken tacos, hot sauce on the side and an order of regular nachos.  YES.

Lilah started out very happy with her small nachos and then traded in for my plain chips.  Won't each fake cheese nachos?  She may not be my child.

After dropping off our stuff at house number one,  we stopped by two doors down for a visit with my former theater 101 teacher, whose sweet little girl was turning 5.  I feel like we finagled an invite to the party of the year!  Lilah had a great time hanging out with the kids, though I am a little shocked and surprised that she wasn't more into the face painting lady.  That lady had serious skills.

HIS EYES ARE CLOSED!  

 

  

 

 

Lilah opted for a small, subtle nod to the Tide in order to match her outfit.


Or she was freaked out by paint.


Definitely one of those.

 

The birthday girl got a trampoline to mark the occasion, and Lilah enjoyed both watching the big kids jump and having a go at it herself.

Well, she ran around the thing in circles, so not much jumping, really.

Beautiful birthday girl with her awesome and delicious birthday cake. (I should know; Lilah worked each grandma for a piece...she thought the giraffe might taste different from the zebra.  She may be my child after all.  I love that kid.)

There were also thematic tattoos, and not surprisingly, Lilah chose this monkey...because it was pink.

Here, Lilah gets a little costume help from a seasoned theater veteran.

After the party we headed up to see Lee & Heather, and Lilah did millions of somersaults on their awesomely thick-pile carpet and got nearly molested by their dachshund, Rudy.

No pictures of that, because I am lame.

But they forgave our lameness and gave us a bowl of strawberry heaven.

THEN, I got to meet my great friend Kenina to see a FANTASTIC production of Chicago choreographed and directed by my aforementioned former theater teacher.

It has caused me to have black-sequined hot-pant envy.

I will find some.

I will wear them.

I will post pictures.

Somewhere.

Early the next day, we grabbed a quick bite for breakfast at the German bakery, Edelweiss.

I ordered the "German Breakfast," which consisted of two breads of your choice (I picked Kaiser roll), salami or ham (salami!) and cheese and butters and jams.

I swear on my life this is exactly what I ate for breakfast every morning that I was in Germany/Austria five years ago.   Sometimes I had an egg.  It was so good.  A little mouth memory.

Lilah had a bran muffin and a big dose of camera shy.  So we did a peek-a-boo pic.

Then we headed over to campus for a quick stroll on the quad before we hit the road back to Gramma's.

I tried like crazy to get her to pose for a beautifully framed Denny Chimes shot, but Miss L was simply not interested.

Camera Shy.

So I settled instead for these candids, which may not be so iconic, but are definitely awesome.

First we stopped to see the statues of the winning coaches at the mega entrance to the stadium.

We paid tribute to Bear in the way only a 3-year-old Princess could:

 Playing "Peak-A-Bear."

After we were finished checking out the grossly non-proportioned Coaches' statues, we passed the student media building on the way back to the car when Lilah spotted the newspaper box.

"OH!" she says.

"I need to go get mail from that thing there."

So off she ran to open the paper box and get a paper.

"Just one, Lilah.  Just take one."

 

She stopped at the steps with it, and I wasn't sure what she was planning.

But she simply wanted to stop and read it.

I use "read" loosely here, since she can only point out random letters on a page, but it's the start she needs.

And look how precious she is, newspaper in hand, on the steps on the media building, "reading."

Only thing that's missing is a cup of coffee.

And so that is our trip to Tuscaloosa in a very small nutshell.