Each year Serenbe hosts Les Dames d’Escoffier’s “Afternoon in the Country”.
It’s an opportunity for anyone willing to take the 45 minute drive south of Atlanta… to Palmetto, Georgia… a chance to sample some of the best food and wine offered in our area. Just ask some of Atlanta’s top chefs, restaurant owners and food lovers about the event… they’ll probably tell you it’s one of thier favorites. I have to say, it quickly became mine as well. We spent most of the day tasting and sipping but they also had a hayride, a live band and you could walk off of few of those calories just checking out the animals and countryside at Serenbe. If you get a chance to go next year… take my word for it… it’s worth it.

While everyone else was getting dressed up to head out on the town for Halloween. The entire Better Mornings Atlanta team was getting dressed up to head into the studio for a special Primetime edition of BMA.
The special show had been weeks in the making and included a rainbow of characters. It was a great sample of you get to see everyday on BMA… but in just a condensed version.
One of our special guests was a horse from Medieval Times. “Toffee” as he’s named… was quite a show-stopper. Jennifer, Mike and I could wait to take our picture with him… along with his trainer.

I am certainly not a pumpkin carving expert… and I learned just how difficult it is last weekend when I tried to create a Halloween masterpiece last weekend with my daughter.
I wish I had gotten the great advice from the folks at Sterling On The Lake before I pulled out the knife.
Patrick Clark and Jennifer Landers from Newland Communities visited Better Mornings Atlanta for a few tips on carving.
The best tip of all… put vaseline inside your pumpkin after you carve it to keep it fresh.

I have to say I didn’t expect it, but I was completely entertained by a great performance of Rain at the Fox Theater Tuesday night.
Rain: A Tribute To The Beatles is playing at the Fox in midtown Atlanta through Sunday.
The performance features the world-famous beatles cover band that’s actually been together longer than the beatles themselves.
Even if you only like a few Beatles tunes you will no doubt find yourself humming or singing along.
These four men sing live and play all the instruments live on stage… it was just like watching the real Beatles perform.
As I was watching I realized just how many hits the fab four kicked out over thier careers. I also realized there was a reason that Michael Jackson paid big money for the Beatles catalog… he was a smart businessman, and all those songs are truly timeless.

Have you ever had something so fresh you could taste the difference? That’s what it’s like when you experience farm to table. It’s basically when something is plucked fresh from the soil of the farm that morning, and it’s on your plate that evening for dinner. It’s what the community of Serenbe, in the Chattahoochee Hills Country, does best. They’ve got three restaurants in the community that use food grown right in their backyard, which happens to be Serenbe Farms. So what’s on the menu that night depends heavily on what’s growing in the garden that season. Marie Nygren, a chef at The Farmhouse in Serenbe, showed us how to use Kale from from the garden on Better Mornings Atlanta. We also learned how to creat our own container garden with the help of Rebecca Williams of Serenbe Farms.

There is one thing about most women… we love our shoes. And there are some lovely ladies in south Hall County that are making a difference with their sneakers.
They call themselves the blue sneakers club… locals recognize them by their brightly decorated tennis shoes.
These seniors live in an active adult community in south Hall County called Village at Deaton Creek.
The group which has more than 100 members now, says they stay young by doing what they can for the commuity. Sometimes the members volunteer with Meals On Wheels or they make blankets for patients at the hospitals and women’s shelters.
The ladies of the Blue Sneakers Club stay busy by “stepping out” for others.

It’s always great to meet some of our Better Mornings Atlanta viewers when we are out and about and I got a chance to chat with Renee this past weekend.
There are very few times that I get a chance to dress up and stay out late… simply because we have to wake up so early to get a 5am show started. But this past weekend I had a great time as Mistress of Ceremonies at the 17th Annual Casino Royale for 100 Black Men of Dekalb County. It’s the single largest fundraiser for thier Leadership Academy. There was a lot going on that night, a really cool casino (play money of course) a silent auction and a live auction too. It was also a chance to recognize the students who’ve been through the Leadership Academy and who are now Seniors. I had a chance to chat with a few of them for some of my Good Deeds segments on CBS Atlanta… and they are some amazing students. If they are an example of our future… we’re in good hands.

I wanted to tell you about a really great Good Deeds story I’m featuring on CBS Atlanta.
Of course it’s hard to resist the big eyes and the fluffy fur of a new puppy.
That’s why one non profit group is going to new heights… you could say… to save the lives of little dogs.
Over the 4th of July holiday weekend, while many of us were enjoying cookouts and fireworks… a group of pilots with the non-profit, all volunteer group… Pilots N Paws flew 18 puppies from Athens, Georgia to Bridgeport, Conneticut.
It was truly a team effort because the dogs were basically on death row when they were rescued by Colbert Veterinary Rescue services in Colbert, Georgia.
Tod Peavy… a P-N-P pilot flew the puppies north to meet up with Steve Hall… another P-N-P pilot who got them to Conneticut where the dogs were taken to the SPCA where they will be fostered and adopted into a loving home.
One good news story I’m happy to talk about.

All I can say, is how cute is this… it’s little Lamb Chop and she hasn’t aged a day since her big debut in 1957! We had a great time on Better Mornings Atlanta with Mallory Lewis and her “older” sister Lamb Chop. Of course Mallory’s mother Shari Lewis had Lamb Chop as a companion through the 60’s 70, 80’s and 90’s. Now Mallory is carring on the tradition and I’ll have to say she is doing it quite well. Not only was she a great guest… she was so sweet and patient during the entire two hours, despite a freezing cold set, and lack of sleep from changing time zones.
Mallory was in Atlanta for the “Puppets Take Atlanta & Beyond: An International Festival of Magic and Wonder.” Mallory even left each of us with a “baby” Lamb Chop to remember her by.

I still can’t understand why infidelity and politics seem to cross paths so often… but they do. And it’s happened again with South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. This week he admitted to secretly flying to Argentina to visit the woman he was having an affair with. This all happend over Father’s Day weekend while his wife and four boys were at home… and while staffers at the Governor’s office supposedly couldn’t reach him.
We talked about it on Better Mornings Atlanta and as we looked back at other politicans who’ve jepardized thier careers by straying… like Bill Clinton, John Edwards and Jim McGreevy… it was interesting that none of them made an addmission until their cheating was about to be revealed. Why couldn’t they just come out and tell the truth? Is there anyone who will ever be able to answer that question honestly? I think it was best stated by a longtime friend of Gov. Sanford… Warren Culbertson who said “Any man can fall. But it takes a real man to get up and honestly, from his heart, confess that he was wrong.”