I took this photo about 1,174 days ago in Beijing, in May of 2005. This clock in Tiananmen Square was counting down the days until the 2008 Summer Olympics. And now…they’re here!

RH and I visited KM and AM to watch part of the Opening Ceremonies last night. I saw some folks I used to work with years ago who I hadn’t seen in forever, so that was fun. Then we headed to MR’s house for the second shindig of the evening. We walked in just as Team USA was entering the stadium. I was glad we got to see the American athletes, and I was pleased that I hadn’t missed the South Korean athletes either. Those are always the two countries I’m most interested in seeing.

While we missed parts of the ceremonies because we were driving, the portions we did see were absolutely incredible. I was most impressed by the undulating towers that formed mesmerizing ripples and precise formations, entirely controlled by people.

I’m sad to read the news this morning of the American tourist who was killed near the Forbidden City. The article stated that the Chinese people are very concerned about safety during the Olympics and are known for being friendly and welcoming to Americans. I can vouch for that…I had nothing but a wonderful experience when I was in Beijing.

We’re still trying to plan out our two-week trip to Korea in September. Seeing the footage of Beijing last night made me long to go back to Asia, so now I’m really excited about my journey to the motherland!

I almost forgot to mention this…when RH and I were leaving Publix this evening, a girl on her way in stopped me and asked if I had a blog. I said “yes,” thinking that it might be some random question totally not connected to me in any way. Then she asked me “Is it called sweetfrenchtoast?” and I cracked up and said “yes!” Apparently she recognized me from this very site. She was very cute and nice, and I thoroughly enjoyed my little moment of mini-celebritydom. So thanks for saying hi, Publix girl!

RH and I have really eaten like kings recently. We have been eating at home more than ever, and we’ve made some pretty amazing meals. We’ve now grilled the Mar-a-Lago turkey burgers three times, and they were excellent each time—even after being frozen and thawed a few days later. Now that we’re eating at home more, going out to eat is more of a treat. We had dinner at Fritti on Friday night, and we sat outside (despite RH’s constant concerned comments that it might rain). Our meal was excellent, and we followed it by a duo of desserts at Murphy’s in the Higlands. That’s right…two desserts—the Tollhouse cookie pie (which is definitely in the running for best dessert in Atlanta) and the housemade s’mores. It was quite decadent.

Then Saturday we took Mom to Top Spice for an excellent Thai/Malaysian birthday lunch, and we had homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting later that afternoon. (I’ve finally found a chocolate frosting recipe that I like, and now I’m looking forward to baking more chocolate stuff.)

Today’s incredible meal was cedar plank-grilled Hawaiian-marinated salmon and bay scallops, along with an awesome couscous side from Whole Foods. It was a late dinner full of learnings and laughs because RH caught the plank on fire during the first attempt, turning the plank into a charred piece of wood that was near the point of crumbling into black nothingness. It still makes me laugh to think of how burnt the plank was. The second try went much better, and the $20 I spent on seafood was well worth it.

The other notable event for today was going to the High to see the “History Remixed” photography exhibit that chronicles the Civil Rights movement and post-1968 artwork by contemporary artists inspired by the movement. The first exhibit, full of photos of beaten protestors, determined, youthful faces, and hate-filled scowls, was honestly a little difficult to get through. It was very moving, and very important—I think everyone who can should go see this exhibit. It seems so far in the past for people like me, but I thought several times today that we still have such a long way to go before everyone really has equal rights in the U.S. And I do mean everyone.

It’s very late, and I need to hit the sack so I can start another crazy week tomorrow! Goodnight.

Ever since I saw the Mar-a-Lago chef share his turkey burger recipe on Oprah’s favorite things episode a few weeks ago, I’ve wanted to try it out for myself. Since RH has discovered the grill at the pool (”I LOVE the grill,” he often proclaims enthusiastically), I thought it would be a nice meal to cook on the grill, and I love turkey burgers anyway.

I bought all the ingredients last night and prepared the burgers, leaving them to refrigerate overnight. Tonight, when we got home from work, I made the pear chutney to top the burgers, and I made a spicy black bean salad as a side. RH threw two burgers on the grill, insisting that I hang out by the pool with him (because, I’m sure, he wanted me to be a participant in case anything went wrong on the grill).

After cooking the massive burgers for a hair longer than the recommended seven minutes per side, I brought the grilled burgers inside and prepared them on sesame buns. I spooned a generous portion of the pear chutney topping on each burger and added some black bean salad to each plate. RH and I sat down to take our first bite and we each laughed, “it’s the moment of truth.”

Not long after we each tried the first bite, we both agreed—this is the best turkey burger we’ve ever had in our entire lives. I might even go so far as to say it’s the best burger I’ve ever had, period. It’s fat and moist, but not fatty and dripping grossness like some hamburgers. It’s got a full, spicy flavor that dances around the sweetness of the chutney topping. It is really incredible.

We’ve decided this is a great dish to make for company. And I’m glad we still have four burgers left…two in the fridge and two in the freezer! These really are awesome! They even gave RH a reason to acknowledge that Oprah has some redeeming value and good content every now and then. “That woman who became a man who is giving birth…yeah, I don’t care about that,” he snorted. “Now this…” he said, nodding towards his burger. “This is good stuff.”

Dinner with LLS last night was fun! We both have changed a lot since high school, but in a lot of ways we’re really still very much the same as we were all those years ago. I think the differences just have to do with growing up a bit.

I’m getting ready to hit the sack…early for me…so that I can get up and do the Peachtree Road Race in the morning with RH. We plan on taking it easy since we haven’t been training. It should be fun!

The closing went fine, and Mom’s house is officially sold!

There is much dancing and celebration.

Many thanks to JWD for her expert real estate services and advice, RH (not mine) for letting us borrow his tools and actually putting in some time at the house, AR for offering to help, and RH (mine) for being the best boyfriend ever. Seriously…ever.

Now I need to turn my focus to the condo I still own with JW. That’s next up on the real estate chopping block, so keep those good home-selling thoughts coming my way. That’s one of the four properties we’ll have to address in some way before any new real estate purchases occur for me, RH and Mom. (The others being my condo, Mom’s condo, and RH’s house.)

On another note, RH and I are meeting one of my old high school friends for dinner tonight. I literally haven’t seen her since my senior year of high school (which was longer ago than I’d like to admit). We’re meeting her, her husband, and her three kids at The Old Spaghetti Factory, which is another blast from the past—I haven’t been there in ages. It should be fun to see her and catch up. I’m sure there will be much reliving of high school memories, which our significant others are angels for agreeing to sit through!

So the closing was delayed because they hadn’t received the appraisal yet. And this was the day before closing was supposed to happen! When I learned that, I got freaked and thought that the whole thing was going to fall apart. I mean, to compound matters, when I tried to extend the utilities due to the delayed closing, I learned that the buyers had not yet submitted orders to have the utilities transferred into their name. That kind of put me in a panic that the something was going to go horribly wrong.

But today I got the call from my wonderful friend JWD who has been handling the listing for me, and she told me that closing was confirmed for 4 p.m. tomorrow. Hooray! But I’m still not celebrating until I walk away from the closing table….

The closing on Mom’s house was supposed to be tomorrow, but I heard today that it’s not happening. The paperwork isn’t ready, or something along those lines.

Now I’m a little freaked out. The utilities will be turned off soon, and I wasn’t able to get in touch with the power and water companies in time (don’t get me started on my call with Georgia Power that ended in tears), so if for some reason this closing doesn’t happen, I’ll be paying to reconnect everything.

Awesome.

Please say a good word for me, will you? I’m really hoping I can put this all behind me by Tuesday.

I’ve bought into the whole bring-your-own-bag thing at the grocery store. I have a variety of bags—including one with insulation for cold foods—and actually really like not having a slew of plastic bags to deal with after my jaunt to the neighborhood Kroger or Publix.

I do have one complaint though. I check myself out 99% of the time. (Err, at the U-Scan terminals…I’m really not that vain.) The self-checkout bagging area is not made for a byob situation at all. First of all, you either have to tell the U-Scan attendant that you’re using your own bags before you begin scanning and bagging, which is a major pain, or you have to bag your first item and place your first bag down at the same time. (It’s an art that I’m trying to perfect.)

Unfortunately, with the regular plastic bags taking up so much space in the bagging area, and the little bag stands made for said plastic bags, there’s no good place to put your own bag that ensures you don’t get a “please place the item in the bag” warning from the U-Scan disembodied voice lady. When RH and I ran to the store tonight to pick up a few items for us and for Mom, we had an incredibly frustrating experience that made me think perhaps I should start standing in the long lines to have a professional check me out.

Sigh.

So here’s my plea to all grocery stores: Please support the byob movement by doing more than selling your branded cloth and Tyvek bags. Make the appropriate changes to make shopping with reusable bags as pleasant an experience as using your paper and plastic bags.

/end rant

RH, LS, KC and I went to the Alice Peacock show at Eddie’s Attic this weekend. She’s one of my favorite singer/songwriters, and LS and I went to her show in Piedmont Park two summers ago and had a great time. This show was just as excellent, and even more irreverent and fun. She’s incredibly talented, and apparently she has many doppelgangers as she reminds LS and me of our friend JSW, and KC swears she looks like her cousin.

On another note, I continue to strive to get a better handle on my e-mail inbox at work and at home. At home, it’s been totally out of control with over 16,000 messages in my inbox. I was speaking with a friend and coworker today, and she suggested I just archive everything older than a month. If someone wrote me a month ago and still hasn’t heard back, they’re probably not expecting a response now. And if it’s something really important, I can always search for it later.

So I did it. I archived everything prior to 6/15/2008, and now I’m working my way through the 63 messages in my inbox. It’s kind of a weird feeling, like when you throw away the receipt and have a weird feeling that something’s going to break…but I am looking forward to making progress on my quest to become an e-mail ninja.

I’ve started another round of unsubscribing from newsletters, etc. and I was pleased to see that Tablet Hotels is now on Twitter. I was able to safely unsubscribe from their newsletter, knowing that I will not miss a single update on hotels I will probably never stay in but enjoy drooling over.

Yay!