RECAP

Oh sweet sweet grad school. It was a hectic four weeks, to say the least, but I'm officially 6 credits deep!! Sadly, the madness of it all sorta stole me away from the blog, sorry for the hiatus! As a peace offering, here's a brief recap of some FACTs we've experienced over the past few weeks. 

FACT: College football season is FINALLY here! Thursday night, Vandy played in their home opener against Ole Miss. As anticipated, they ran out of student tickets. BUT after a bit if sweet talking (props to D and Rach) we were able to find some "tickets" and even scored some seats in the special reserved section. We had a railing to lean on and a great view!

FACT: How am I just now discovering World Market?! We took a spontaneous excursion last weekend to check out some shopping plazas we hadn't yet explored. We happened upon a little place called World Market, which has, in one visit, become my new favorite store. They have food and decor from ALL OVER THE WORLD. It took me right back to my life abroad, I was even able to find some of the infamous EFES! 

FACT: The music scene is Nashville really is DA BOMB. Monday night in Nashville was really groovy. Country artist, Jake Owen, decided to throw a #1 single block party in the BMI parking lot (INFO HERE, right near campus) FREE OF CHARGE. Special guests (and apparently friends of Jake) Dierks Bentley, Florida Georgia Line, and Thomas Rhett, all made an appearance and Jake sang along with them to their top new hits. We waited for 2 hours in line (nothing compared to the people who were out there almost all day) and it was totally worth it! Free concerts thrown by top artists?! Uh, yeah, sign me up. Thanks, Nashville (and Jake Owen, too) for a fantastic (and free) pre-semester show!

FACT: August weddings are the best, as long as Mother Nature isn't PMS-ing. A few weekends ago, D and I nabbed a half-day off and made a journey to attend the wedding of his cousin Jamie (and new hubs Evan)! It was gorgeous; the bride, the dress, the location, the celebration. We had such a blast, and we're so very happy for J and E! Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to visit everyone we wanted to on our journey, but we did get to catch up with 2.0 and check out her new abode (which is super groovy)!

FACT: Nannying is the best form of birth control. Especially when your kids are as exciting as ours! My good pal Gee and I (ahem, Rach) recently started nannying for a wonderful fam nearby, and it's nothing but FUN! We take turns watching the brother/sister duo after school, and in the past 3 weeks we have officially played more games of tag than we ever played during our own childhoods. Never a dull moment with these two, definitely a gig that keeps us on our toes! 

FACT: We love visitors!! Two weekends ago, D and I were lucky enough to have B and K Reed (Dan's brother/sis-in-law) spend a weekend exploring Nashville with us! We hit a few spots we hadn't yet had a chance to visit ourselves, including The Pharmacy (the iconic beer garden and burger joint), The End (a little dive bar where we got to watch our friend Vuce aka Alex play with one of his bands), Hattie B's (hot chicken joint), McKay's (a gianormous warehouse of used books, movies, and music), and a tour of the VU campus. Can't wait to have them visit again, we have lots more exploring to do!

Now that all that has been settled, time to get back on the blog train. Stay tuned!

Love, 

D&E

FIGURED: Kahvaltı çok guzel

D and I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and prepare our first Turkish breakfast since my return to the US. I seriously can't believe it's already been over a month since I left Istanbul! Although it wasn't a perfect rendition (not nearly as fabulous as the one my dear friend, Mine, prepares), and missing two of my favorite staples (simit and poaça), it was still a fabulous way to start the week! We even had POWER Türk radio playing in the background! Almost felt like Istanbul :)

**Shoutout to all of the wonderful people I had a chance to meet in Turkey, I miss you all so much! 

Ok, time for a post-Turkish breakfast nap!

Love,

D&E

FACT: Nashville has a rockin' park system

The weekend passed so quickly, and we had to say goodbye to Amy on Tuesday morning :( We hope she enjoyed her visit as much as we did!! The rain FINALLY let up on Sat. night, so we were able to do some outdoor exploring. A highlight of the weekend was our trip to J. Percy Priest Reservior, where there are TONS of awesome trails, park spaces and outdoorsy things to do. 

We rented a boat (with oars) early in the afternoon and "cruised" around Couchville Lake then did a 4 mile hike along the reservior. It was humid, as usual, but a gorgeous day. And somehow, no one sustained any sunburn on our excursion, success!!

Can't wait to go back!

D&E

FIGURED: Breathing Fire

We started off our first Nashville 4th of July at the annual Music City Hot Chicken Festival on the east side of the city. Along with my college roommate and BFF, Amy (who is here for the weekend!), we headed down to the fest (in the pouring rain) to see what this hot chicken hullabaloo was all about. 

Beverages, in these novelty cups, provided  by Yazoo local brewery.

Tennessee hot chicken is simply fried chicken (perfectly fried, might I add) that is dipped, drenched, and coated in either a blend of hot spices or mouth burning sauce, served with slices of white bread and (traditionally) pickle slices. 

Amy and I opted for the "Medium" tenders from Hattie B's (a famous local joint) while Danny chose the "Damn Hot". Amy and I were pretty teary-eyed from the Medium, but Danny actually had real tears running down his face.

Flaming tears. But seriously, though.

I have to admit though, even with my mouth almost literally on fire, it was the best darn fried chicken I've ever had. 

Wanna try it for yourself? Come visit and we'll take you around to some of the most famous TN restaurants for hot chicken!

D&E

FACT: We're up and running!

It's hereeee!! Today I finally borrowed some inspiration from my cousin and blogging sensation, Erin, (check out her blog HERE if you don't already follow her!) and decided to start documenting the happenings of our crazy new life down here in TN! Danny and I wanted to start a blog not only to document our life and eats but also, and more importantly, to keep y'all who are interested up-to-date on what exactly is going on down here with us Nashvillians! Be prepared to see and hear about all sorts of things, we hope we can keep you entertained.

The name "Facts and Figureds" has nothing to do with math, in case that's the sort of thing you were hoping for. All "FACT:..." posts will just be the scoop on what we've been up to, stuff (or maybe famous people!) we see, places we visit, etc etc. All "FIGURED:..." posts will document our kitchen masterpieces, dining-out adventures, i.e. food related.

The idea for the title was birthed in part from Danny's imagination, and I guess a little bit of our combined wit went into it too =P When I was stuck on the name (I'll admit, I'm title-commitment-phobic), Danny created this scenario in his mind: a dinner conversation over a new dish/recipe he slaved over all day. He imagined it going something like this...

Me: "Baby, this is the best (menu item) I've ever had!"
Danny: "Yep, FIGURED!" 

In his mind, it "figured" that the dish was the most delicious we've ever eaten because he made them. He's hinting at two things here: 1) Homemade food is almost always better (agreed) and 2) He's a good cook (which my tastebuds can't argue). 

And so the blog title was birthed!

We hope you'll stay tuned to see how this unfolds. Don't forget to subscribe for email updates (look for the email box in the right-hand column of the page)!!



Love,
D&E