A case of the Mondays

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit

to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nashville home to BIG spenders

Woo-eee, do Nashvillians like to spend money!

According to Bundle.com, a site that lets you compare your own spending habits with those around the nation, Nashville ranks seventh on the list of the 25 top-spending cities. Austin, Texas, ranked No. 1. Nashville ranked higher than Miami, San Francisco or L.A.

The list ranks mostly discretionary spending and does not include mortgage, insurance or health insurance. What surprised me is that most of it is spent on eating out.

In Nashville, residents spend a little more than $500 per month dining out. But in my home county, Williamson, residents spend an unbelievable $700 per month eating out.

I can't even imagine. The things we could do with $700 a month...

This might be why Tennessee ranks second in the U.S. in personal bankruptcies.

All this just makes me want to hurry up and write my post, A Case For Cooking.

Small victories

The best way to bond with your 13-year-old son is when he's home for a sick day.

One of my twins called me to come get him in the middle of the day Tuesday. He came home and was VERY ill all afternoon. Then he slept without moving one bit for two solid hours.

It was like one of those red storm lines loving across the TV weather radar screen. A few hours of upheaval and disturbance and then ... peace.

He couldn't go to school Wednesday because he was so weak and needed rest. So I took full advantage of his weakened state and babied him like he's never been babied before. I tucked him in, brought him gallons of Gatorade upon request and made the best toast in the history of toast. And he let me.

When he left for school this morning, I went in to hug him, and he didn't recoil the way he usually does.

I call that a breakthrough.

This week's Brentwood Home Page column

The twins will be in eighth grade next year. They get to choose two of their classes. The choices aren't as clear as you might think.

Why hasn't this house sold?

At first glance, it's probably obvious why this house hasn't sold. It's located on a heavily traveled section of Moores Lane, which has become a shortcut from Nolensville and is a major connector road between East Brentwood and Cool Springs. Any time you'd want to get out of the driveway, you'd have to steel yourself.

Upon entering, you'd probably roll your eyes at the dated fixtures. The interior apparently has not been changed much since the original owners moved in in 1973.

EVEN SO, it is a perfect ranch on nearly two acres in Brentwood. It has four bedrooms and more than 3,000 square feet. The property is next door to a historic home, and it overlooks a golf course. At $389,983, it is priced for renovation (for Brentwood).

It's probably not cheap enough and the location's too difficult for a flip, but it'd be great for a family or empty-nesters.

So what's the deal?

Farewell, Fess Parker

It will be a tragic day in our house if Owen finds out that Fess Parker passed away.

Fess Parker is the actor who played Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone in those famous Disney series. We discovered Davy accidentally in the Brentwood Library one day, when Owen and I were perusing the free movies to check out. I noticed the silver spine of the special edition DVD of the Davy Crockett box set, which had six movies on it. It stood out from the primary colors of all the usual kids' shows, and I showed it to Owen.

I could tell that, 50 years later, Fess' pioneer gear, handsome gaze and confident gun pose on the cover were working their magic on my then-5-year-old. Of course, we brought it home.

I think we watched the entire thing straight through that day, and were still watching when my older boys came home from school that afternoon. They got caught up in the depiction of pioneer courage, the friendship between Davy and Georgie, portrayed by the always awesome Buddy Ebsen, and intense but not gory battles between Davy and The Bad Guys.

I eventually had to order our own copy of that DVD so as not to deprive the other Brentwood children from their own Davy experience.

Owen wanted go as Davy on Halloween that year, so I ordered him an amazing costume that he still tries to wear around the house. It kind of works, if you like your Davy Crockett to be clad in buckskin capri pants.

The hat, of course, would be the key to the costume, and the fake fur mess that came with the one I ordered looked like a bad toupee when Owen put it on. So I, of course, scoured the Internet for a better one.

Guess what I found? A website for Fess Parker's winery, which happened to sell authentic coonskin caps.

That hat is considered a true treasure in our house, and it will always be a part of Burgin family history.

Nashville is so Gwyneth

Gwyneth Paltrow has been spending the past few months in Nashville filming a movie called Love Don't Let Me Down with Tim McGraw, and she wrote detailed reviews of her favorite Nashvegas experiences on her GOOP website.

Lots of folks online make fun of GOOP for being about as full of out-of-touch advice as O Magazine, but I enjoyed reading her thoughts on places I might actually visit.

See what you think!