Day 52: Dead in Decatur / Really Fancy 'Fancy Sauce'

After failing to get sold-out tickets to the Decatur Wine Festival on Friday (how do you sell out of tickets to a festival??) Mark and I decided that we would at least go to the ArtWalk the night before the big event. It was was free anyway and there were promises of free wine at the various art boutiques, so it ended up looking like a win-win situation. The hours were set from 5 PM to 10PM, so we decided that we would go after dinner around 8.

Upon arriving in Decatur, however, it was a ghost town. The only people we saw were hanging outside of restaurants smoking, making me think that Decatur must die after 8:30 PM. We didn't go out to Decatur to turn around and come home, so we wandered in a still-open jewelery store with an ArtWalk sign on the door to peek around.

A twenty-something, hippie-ish sales associate approached us and showed off some of the jewelery. I pegged a really great bracelet that I was quickly falling in love with, and she, of course, told me that no one has ever worn this piece better than me (right, whatever, I'll giggle and take the compliment), and such.

After looking around at other pieces for a while, I decided for sure I wanted to buy the bracelet. To my joyous surprise, Mark whipped out the credit card to get it for me (*I'm gushing* :)

While paying, the sales girl started up a conversation that made us realized she must be high.

Girl: "Hey so have you guys ever been here before?"

Me: "No, but we've been around this area."

Girl: "Oh, cool. So have you ever bought anything with us before?"

Me: "No, this is the first time we've been in this store, although I went to Iberian Pig across the plaza area for my birthday"

Girl: "Oh, wow, so you had a birthday this year??"

What I wish I could have said "No shit, Sherlock, and there's an 83% chance you've had one this year too!"

Me: "Yes, in September."

Girl: "Oh, that's great!"

That is your daily how-to ask a question about the answer your conversation partner just gave.

...and then I was done talking and staring really intently at my new prize:

 That you can wear like this:

Or like this:

Both of which I love!

After this shenanigan, all the art stores were officially closed, so we went over to the Iberian Pig to have their Jamon Iberico which is TO DIE FOR. It's a cured ham/prosciutto made from Spanish black pigs who are fed acorns for their whole lives, and which produces a deliciously oily, barely salty, firm, nutty and overall mind-blowingly unique treat.

Iberian Pig serves the ham with an espresso aioli, which, despite the fact that we had the same plate back in September, we noticed halfway through our snack on day 52. This time, we used it for dipping the ham and bread, which served as a really nice complement.

Mark, being ever-so-curious about food these days, asked one of the kitchen staff what was in it, to which he replied, "Mayo and shots of espresso. People love it so much that I think we should bottle it!"

We let him be excited and said something like "yeah, we would totally buy that!" *fingers crossed behind the back*. Then, next thing we know, he comes back to our table with a pint-sized container of the fancy sauce. Now Mark and I have a container of truly fancy 'fancy sauce,' espresso aioli.

I can safely say that has never happened before. That also represents my third Step Brothers reference in a week. What have I become??