Happy Hour Friday

Hi and welcome to Happy Hour Friday. I know, I know, you don't have to tell me... I am a big slacker. It's been an entire week since I've posted. In fact, I'm surprised to see that I've only lost one follower considering the fact that I not only haven't posted, I also haven't read nor commented on any blogs this week.

In my defense, it's been a hectic week. If you read my last post, you know that I took my two chickadees to chicago for a few days. We had a fabulous time.

we saw the city

we saw some wildlife at Shedd Aquarium

we saw some dead stuff at the Field Museum

we walked -- a lot

we looked at feet

we marveled at 'the bean'

we made a new friend irl (Tori)

we did some touristy stuff - the billy goat tavern

we hung out with my cousin joey

(but now that he's an adult he prefers Joe -- too bad, he's still joey to me)

and we shopped a little lot.

can you believe I forgot to take a pic of the Magnificent Mile sign? Grr.

All in all, the girls and I (plus joey and his girlfriend meaghan) had a great weekend. I can't wait to go back and see tori again -- whether she wants me to or not. Chicago is just a very cool place to be.

Anyway, I was back for a day and then hopped a plane to Reno to see my mom

and her kitty, cj

So yes, I have been a very bad blogger buddy. hopefully you can forgive me. I tell ya what, why don't you belly on up to the bar and I'll buy the first round of drinks... happy friday.

Happy Hour Friday

Can you believe it's already time for a Happy Hour Friday post? This week seems to have flown by. Well, I have several things to be happy about this weekend.

I am taking my 2 girls to chicago for the weekend and I'm pretty happy about that. We don't have any plans, just shopping. We are staying right on the Mile (or is it the loop?), so hopefully I won't have to drive anywhere. Plus my cousin lives there so we might have a little tour guide. Not sure how much he'll want to shop tho... I'll leave him at home for that part of it. He has a new woman in his life so I'm a little anxious about meeting her. Also... guess who else lives in chicago... Tori! I think we are going to try to play, and I'm very excited about that. A little nervous. Trying to decide if I should bring an ax. But I don't want to be walking around on Michigan Ave with an ax, so I probably won't. I just hope she doesn't hack up my kids. Or steal all of our newly purchased goods. Or, more importantly, drink all my wine...

After chicago I'll be home just long enough to change clothes then it's off to Reno to visit my mom and... you guessed it-- Sara! That makes me pretty darn happy too. I already know Sara and she won't hack me up... even tho she does have axes... I've seen them. Zena the non-blogger will be there too which always makes me happy.

I'm happy that husband decided he'd like to have Wang Gang for dinner so that I don't have to cook. Ever since Bee posted about pad thai on domestic sensualist I've been craving it, but I don't think I have the ability to master the dish on my own. I'd rather have it delivered thankyouverymuch even tho I have a le cruset wok (it's yellow).

Husband showed me this last night and I about died. I've been trying to figure out how to get the actual video into this post but I'm not smart enough (obviously). Just click on the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uejv2zz6bU

I've moved to 12th in the pool on Doc's blog, and I'm hoping that Butler can pull it out tonight so that I might have a chance at beating my good buddy Beav (you don't know him... yet) in Memphis. It's half time as I'm writing this and Butler is ahead by 10. Keep it up boys!

Okay well I hope you'll belly on up to the bar and join me for a few drinks. Have a great weekend!

Rants and Raves

Rant: I am at work and can't get the cool button from Little Ms Blogger to work!!!

Rant: I am at work and people keep interrupting me! How am I supposed to concentrate on my post?

Rant: What is up with Blogger lately? I'll hit 'enter' to go down a couple lines and the little blinky thing will just stare at me like I'm an idiot. Move down blinky thing. Sheesh.

Rant: My kids are pissed at me. Well, one is. The 17yo. We were supposed to go prom dress shopping and...

Rant: I AM AT WORK!

Okay how about some RAVES to spice things up a little?

Rave: Husband likes it when I work. I like it when husband is happy. Maybe I can take advantage of him tonight. Oh yeah. I said it. (woot woot)

Rave: Slasher Norm is almost done with the new floors in the basement. It's taken him a while, but in his defense he can only work on it a couple days a week. Plus I keep giving him other small jobs to do in between. However, I'm ready to have my craft room all finished and purty and the basement all nice and have people over for a fun party.

Rave: Last night I looked out the window and saw this foxy little lady:


Rave: I'm done. I can't concentrate here. Plus I have ce I need to finish so I'm going to go be productive.

Have a great Wednesday, and don't forget to go see Little Ms Blogger and see what has everyone else in a tizzy.

F&@K Me! Did it really take over an hour to do this post?

Hello and welcome to the first in a series of Wine Tasting Posts for your complete pleasure and enjoyment... not to mention our complete pleasure and enjoyment... we get to actually drink the wine whilst blogging... now there's a concept. 

Let me introduce myself... I am McGillicutty from Inner Ramblings of a Mid Life Mama.....

And I think you know who I am... I'm rxBams from right here.

Though several emails, texts, IMs, etc, McGilli and I realized that there was one recurring theme to our conversations: We Like Wine.  There are several of our friends, both cyber and IRL, who tell us they "just don't like wine". Well that, my friends, is like saying you don't like food. There are so many different types of wines out there to please so many palates. If you think you don't like wine, you probably just haven't found the right one for you.

We thought a fun way to enhance your wine drinking experience was for us to drink the wine and tell you our thoughts on it. Are you ready? Here we go!

 

And it's back to me....remember me.. McGilli...OK Bambs, like your point there.. there's a wine for everyone and everyone for a wine.. tonight I have decided to go with a cheapo wine from Walmart... yes.. can you believe it... it was $4.97 and it's called Lucky Dick... ooops no it's not it's called Lucky Duck!!!!  It comes in several different types but tonight I am reviewing the Cabernet Sauvignon. It's usually one of the bolder reds so this should be interesting.. what you sippin' on Bambs????

I chose to  go with a mid-priced wine from my local wine store. It's a Hess Chardonnay from the Su'skol Vineyard in Napa. It retails for about $20. My initial impression is that this wouldn't be the wine for beginners. It is fairly light in color, but don't let that fool you, it has a big oaky taste to it. Personally I love the oakiness in my chardonnays, but I have found that many winers, especially the newbies, don't care for the heady oak flavor. Our readers that love chardonnays will love it tho. This wine also has hints of pear and citrus. How is your Cab, McGilli??

 Just what you'd expect from a five buck bottle of fruit juice from Wally World!!! next week you can test the cheapo beginners wine....this would be a great wine to serve en mass at a fundraiser or picnic where the emphasis is to cater to every taste and get people shit faced so they'll spend lots of money.  I'm on my second rather large glass and I can tell. Over to you Bambs.... tell me what foods you'd pair your delicious Chardonnay with???? 

That's a great question, McGilli. Tonight we had ribs. I didn't like them though (they were very fatty... but that's another story). Anyway there is a school of thought that you drink red wine with red meat and red pasta sauces and white wine with everything else. Personally I don't subscribe to that theory. Drink what you like and don't worry about what color it is. However, since this is a bolder wine, I'd serve it with something like rosemary chicken and risotto or maybe a pasta... something that will fill your mouth.
 My "thing" is that I usually drink a white wine when it's warm out because whites are normally served chilled. Conversely, if it's cold out I'll usually pick a red wine because they are traditionally served at room temp. But again, I don't always stick to that. I drink what I feel like drinking. McGilli...?

Have to agree with you on that one. I'm a big red drinker but when it's warm out there's nothing like a chilled glass of white on the patio. 

To sum up... I'm pretty toasted on this red, it's way too easy to drink and although the blackberry fruit certainly shines through very nicely it's not as bold as I like in a Cab.I can't wait, however to try the Hess... you've described it well and seeing as I love Oakiness I think I'll get some tomorrow and try it with some Broccoli Con Pasta or Pasta Con Broccoli or whatever that super recipe you gave me was. I'm off to take two Advil and go to bed!!! This Lucky Ducky has kicked my ass!!! LOL.  

 

I've had the pleasure of sharing my chardonnay with my husband, so I can say it hasn't hit too hard yet. Just to recap:

Lucky Duck Cab: good for beginners, crowds, and cheapos.

Hess Chardonnay: good for chardonnay lovers willing to spend a little cash for a great wine. 

 

We hope you enjoyed our first installment. Let us know what you think as we would like to make this a regular feature.

 

 

 

seeing double

I honestly never thought it would happen to me. It was always those other people. You know, like my sister. But no. It's official. I am one of them.

 

here is Jenny...

Here is Juneau.

And here is Juneau again... 

No... Wait.

Is it?

Nope. It's not.

World meet Kodiak. 

Kodi meet the world. 

World, we are that crazy 3 dog family. 

With lots of dog hair. 

Everywhere.

What have I gotten myself into??

Happy Hour Friday?

or Where Did My Mojo Go-go?

Well here it is, time for another HHF and I'm just not feeling it yet. Granted, it is only Thursday afternoon, but since it's been 2 weeks since I've posted I figured I better not be late.

Most of the last two weeks I have been on vacation and internet access was a whopping $0.55/minute. Needless to say I didn't spend much time online other than the obligatory emails to kids and a few uploads to flickr. Now that I'm home you'd think I'd need my fill of blogging and flickring and even facebooking, but sadly that's not the case. I actually quite enjoyed my analog time. Sad, but true. My poor google reader has so many unread posts that it doesn't give a number. It just says 1000+. How sad is that? I'm afraid they are all going to be "Marked as Read" and I will start fresh with posts coming tonight or tmro, so if you've written something you really think I'd enjoy or deeply profound then be sure to tell me to read it.

A second area that's suffering is my photo-a-day project, the BC365 in 2010.  Of course I took a ton of photos on the trip, but I haven't even looked at my camera since I've been home. Although that could possibly change. I saw something today that begged to be in the PAD:

It'll be uploaded tomorrow. I have no idea why this *may* be responsible for my photo-mojo, I think just because it made me giggle. But after I took this iphone shot I started seeing other things I wanted to snap: my pretty pink tulips, the hawk that hangs out in the subdivision, Jessica's spring plantings, the buds on our flowering trees... etc.

The third area that has no mojo? Cleaning. Granted, this often comes and goes, but I have no desire to dust or vacuum and after 2 weeks it really really needs it. I grudgingly scrubbed the kitchen yesterday tho, but it was a forced clean; I was having a meeting at my house and couldn't let people actually see it that way. Did I ever tell you that I love Tilex? That is some good stuff. But be careful, it's ruined more than one article of clothing. It's worth it tho, I love the smell of bleach in a freshly cleaned house. Now I just need to get upstairs and the basement... but that wont be happening today. Or tomorrow.

You think that's the only mojo I've lost? Nope. Work-out mojo is MIA. I went to the gym the last couple days, but I haven't run in over a week. I'm not even sure I broke a sweat today. I'd really rather just hang out on the couch and nap.

As long as I'm not really making this a happy HHF, let me just say this. What the heck is the deal with my neck?? It looks old. I have Old Lady Neck. I'm very distressed about this. I'm only 39 for pete's sake... isn't that too young for OLN? And back fat. Seriously. Do I need back fat? No, I don't. But there it is anyway, totally ruining the way I look from behind. It's hard to focus on my tush when there's a big ripple of back fat staring at you. If you know how to get rid of OLN or back fat please let me know.

Okay well I think this was just cheery enough. If you have some good stuff to be happy about then link up and tell me all about it so I can get out of this funk!

Oh and ps, my vacay was fantastic. Just getting away made it marvelous, but there was also plenty of sunshine... maybe that's why it was so hard to come back. It's awfully gray here.

Happy Hour - Vacation Style

Hi everyone and welcome to a special edition of Happy Hour Friday. Why is it so special? Cuz I'm on vacation so it's going to be super short.

Actually, that's all I was going to say, but I have to tell you I'm happy about one other thing:

I have got the BEST SISTER IN THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD. Sorry folks, but she's my sister, not yours. Yesterday Bob and I were at the airport about to take the long and arduous trek through security when I realized I didn't have my awesome Crumpler camera bag.

No big deal, right? Well, had it only been my camera, I would have been bummed but could have gone on without it. BUT since I was using it as my carry-on bag, it also had all my medication AND my jewelry! I was so... so... I don't even know what I was. Amazed that I would have left something like that at home. I called Barb:
Barb: Hello?
me: what are you doing?
barb: I just got home and let the dogs out.
me: I forgot my camera bag... it has all meds in it
barb: well, then I'm going to the airport.

Period. That was it. No hemming and hawing. No "you stupid sister, how could you forget?" She just got in her car and drove to my house, said hi to my dogs and got my bag, then drove the 30 miles to the airport. Just to help out her little dumb-ass sis.

Don't you wish you had a sister like her? Well go see Barb and tell her she's awesome. She really is ya know.

If you want to join just click Mr Linky and meet me at the bar. I'll be here all week!