New Poll of The Week!

Last week's "What Wine is Your Fave?" poll ended with an overwhelming amount of votes for Cabernet Sauvignon.

I'm impressed with the results because I love a good Cab Sav as well. I so anticipated that it would take the cake that when I went to Ruston last weekend, I picked up a bottle of this in order to celebrate what I thought would be the winning category:

With a label called Cupcake, I figured it had to be good. I mean, who doesn't like a cupcake? I haven't tried it yet because I don't want it to interfere with the Neti-Potting (Summer colds are officially the WORST!!!), but when I do, I'll let you guys know how it turns out. No worries though, there was a four-way tie for 2nd place. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio and Miller Lite (for you non-wine drinkers) all had 4 votes each. I'm pretty sure that was the most successful poll to date!

On to this week's poll. So last night, under the medication of NyQuil, I had a dream that took me back to elementary school. At that age, I was OBSESSED with The Babysitter's Club book series. My mother purchased me one at some point, and by the end of 6th grade I had probably 60 of them. I absolutely LOVED those books. I would read one a day during the summers and wished so badly that I could have been a member. I was one of the few children on my street so I didn't have many friends, so my best friends that I never had were Kristy Thomas, Claudia Kishi, Mary Anne Spier, Stacey McGill, Dawn Schafer, Mallory Pike and Jessi Ramsey. My first pseudo-boyfriend was Logan Bruno. Sigh. Mary Anne made a BIG mistake when she decided to break up with him. Ugh, at least he was still an alternate member of the BC after that.

Anyway, last night I dreamt that I was hanging out in Claudia's room on either a Monday, Wednesday or Friday at 5:30 and we were having our weekly meeting. They were getting on to me for slacking on my job duties lately. Stacey was eating some saltines and Claudia and her almond-shaped eyes were going through her always trendy closet. Then I woke up. So I always wanted to be Dawn. I imagined her to have the most beautiful hair, since she was a California girl and all. Take a gander at some of these book covers to take you back in time. And vote on which Babysitter's Club Member you always wanted to be. Happy Thursday!

Of All The Times To Get Sick

Well, I went to Ruston on Saturday and hung out and had the best time with the girls, however, I woke up Sunday morning with a flaming throat, stopped up right nostril and stopped up right ear. BOOOO! Normally I wouldn't give a crap, but I have a VERY IMPORTANT job interview tomorrow at 12:30PM and have got to be at 100%. I brought back a bucket of peaches for Sue, but they have so much Vitamin C that I've been devouring them like cough drops. So, for those of you who are the praying kind, pray that the peaches, and this works:

This is a Neti Pot. You pour a nasal rinse packet into the pot, fill it up with warm water, then point in one nostril, while hanging your head over the sink, and the saline solution drains out the other nostril. Some people get squeamish at the thought, but if you are desperate enough (like me), you will do anything to feel better. It honestly works. Like a sinus massage or something.

So anyway, the weekend was super fun. I need to get this job. I won't say what I am interviewing for because it involves a Confidentiality Agreement. But it's really good. MUST FEEL BETTER!!!!

Ways That You Should NOT Run Your Business

Yesterday afternoon, before I headed to wine night, I stopped my liquor store of choice to pick up my very favorite $8.99 Penfolds' Rawson's Retreat Chardonnay. I ALWAYS go to the Thrifty on Youree near LSUS because the people there know me. They never stop me for ID, and I know where everything is so I can always just go straight to the R.R. and be on my way.

So, like I was saying, I stopped in yesterday and the same guy is working that is always working. He has a large variety of tattoos all over himself. He has dyed black (sometimes aqua) hair that is sometimes shaped into a mohawk or sometimes just hanging all in his face. If you have ever been in there, you know the guy that I'm talking about. So, I'm waiting patiently in like with the R.R., waiting on the black lady in front of me to finally lose with her scratch off lotto tickets, after playing them one by one then purchasing more tickets with the winnings, WHILE IN LINE!!! Seriously, move along lady so I can leave already. I try to spend as little time as possible in liquor stores, just because they are pretty skeevy places. Yet, are very similar to town halls, what with the bills that can be paid there, and whatnot.

Once it's finally my turn to check out, the mohawk guy makes me feel a little uneasy. Like he looks at me as if he is going to ask me a really embarrassing question in front of everyone there. I usually try to say as little as possible to avoid provoking him. So, right before he asks me "Will that be all?", he proceeds to pick up a Church's chicken leg, eat the entire contents of the leg in one swift swoop, sucking all remnants off of the bone before throwing it away. Then, he slurps up all remaining grease from his fingers, wipes his hand on his pants, picks up my bottle of wine, scans it, puts it in a bag, takes my debit card, hands me my receipt and sends me on my way. I WAS REPULSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My proof of this true story:

I have never been more grossed out in my life. Thinking about it even now makes me want to vomit. WHO EATS FRIED CHICKEN WHILE CHECKING OUT CUSTOMERS, HANDLING THEIR MERCHANDISE AND MONEY?? I realize that you work at Thrifty Liquor, but still. You are on Youree Drive, man! Have some self respect! After a few glasses last night, I finally got over it but I just wanted you all to know ways to NOT behave if you work in retail. That's what breakrooms are for!!! And chicken strips!!!!

Wine Night Wednesdays!

Well, yesterday was a rough day all around. My grandmother made me cry, my bosses acted like jerks to me, John was sick, Jessie nominated Casey and NOT Ronnie (WHICH WAS THE PLAN!!!) AND it rained all day. It seems that I must have predicted that yesterday was going to be a bad one a week ago when I scheduled a wine night with Sass and this little darling:

Everyone, meet Paige! (Hi, Paige!) Let me just give you all a little background on her. So, a few years ago (back when Sass and I were each others' only friend after we moved back from college), we would frequent my brother's youth group events. We loved the kids. They were super fun. It's also nice to give some high schoolers some insight as to why you are definitely not going to marry your high school boyfriend and things like that. (If I had married mine, then I would have been in for a rude awakening because he turned out gay. So that's that.)

Well, we were Paige's camp counselor one year and we absolutely hit it off. She is a bright, spunky girl with a straightforward attitude, she asks a lot of questions, and she is open to anything. I love her!

So fast forward a few years. Paige went off to college. She came back and has desperately been trying to get together with Sass and I. We all decided on tonight for a wine night! It may be weird to drink wine with the Baptist youth group grown up, but I feel like Baptists who drink, all share a secret bond of some sort. Like we really know what the other Baptists are missing out on....

Things I Look Forward To (Part 2)

In 2003, I was a senior at Louisiana Tech University. At the beginning of that school year, the Visual Arts Center decided to offer a new program for it's students called the French Quarter. With the discontinuation of Tech's "Tech Rome" program, this would be the replacement. When I found out that it was to be offered I begged and begged and begged (literally, for weeks) my parents to let me go. They were always hesitant about me traveling (anywhere) after 9/11. I said 'Mom, I cannot live my life in a 'What if?' mode, and please please please let me go.' So, after MUCH thought and prayer, they finally caved and let me go. Woot!

So, I was to spend 3.5 weeks in Paris. I was pumped. The only other people that I knew were two girls from the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry). So, we get to Paris and lo and behold, what did I do? I ventured out of that shy comfort zone of mine and made some new friends. Specifically, these three:

At the Louvre

Dara, Hillary and Aarin were all photography majors and that would be the reason why I had never met them... until now!!! We had the best time venturing all across the city together seeing sights, trying new food and most of all, enjoying wine (they are the ones who introduced me to it, after all). I will let you readers get to know these girls better via pictures so that you can see for yourselves why I love them so much:

On a 'Photo Safari' at Notre Dame and the Seine River.

At the Arc du Triomphe

In the Hotel Elevator

At Versailles

With Colin's Hats

At Versailles (again)

In Les Halles (outside of a public restroom)

Wine Night in the Lobby

Wine Night in the Lobby (Part 57)

At the Paris Zoo

At Aarin and Ray's wedding

At Dara's Bachelorette Party (with tiaras)

Dara's Bachelorette Party (Again)

The girls are the main reason why I finally came out of my shell. I opened up to meeting new people and making new friends. I truly believe that they helped shape me into the person that I am today. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have made some of the best decisions of my life. Thanks girls!

Anyway, on Friday afternoon (after I cut out of here early) I am going to Ruston to Aarin's new home for a weekend visit. Hillary is travelling in from Arkansas and Dara is coming from College Station. I cannot wait. No one is pregnant, so we can all enjoy our old mutual friend wine and take silly pictures together. We are all going to bring along our sketchbooks and photo albums to go through and reminisce. It sounds like it should be super girly, yet extremely nostalgic weekend. I cannot wait to get away and semi-travel back in time and pick up right where we left off!

Guess What Question My Team Got? (Plus Bonus Recipe)

John and I had a blast at game night on Saturday. The A Team dominated (as predicted) over the B Team (although the B Team was twice as large), and took the game of Trivial Pursuit with a blaze of glory. You guys will NEVER guess which question came up during the game... I will give you a hint, it involved this little beauty:

That's right. My team got a question about the Guggenheim Bilbao and everyone was shocked that I knew the answer. Oh well, they should have read the blog, then they would have been prepared. Also, I provided the snacks for the event. I made a lemon pie, the Turkey Pinwheel things and this:
I apologize for the crappy photo quality, but I forgot to take a photo of mine and Campbell's likes to have super tiny photos with their recipes. So let me just tell you how good this Double Cheese Crab Dip turned out to be. Sass ate more than half of it. So it really was good. Here is how to make it:

You'll Need:
1 Cup Pace Salsa (Campbell's has to push Pace since I think they're the same company)
1 Teaspoon Chili Powder
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese (softened, i.e. heat in microwave for 15 seconds)
1 Can (8 oz) refrigerated crab meat (although I used the crab sticks from the Upscale Brookshire's and it was just as good and fresh)
1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup sliced pitted ripe olives (although I left this out because, let's face it, some people are picky and won't eat them)
Pita triangles/tortilla chips/fresh vegetables for dipping

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine and stir salsa and chili pepper in a small bowl. Spread cream cheese on bottom of 9 inch pie pan. Top with salsa mixture, crab meat (if you get the sticks, you should shred them with a fork and knife first), cheddar cheese and olives. Bake for 15 minutes or until the mixture is hot and bubbling. Top with additional salsa (whatever's left in the jar after your take out your cup full). Serve with pita triangles, tortilla chips or fresh vegetables for dipping. I used tortilla chips.

After we played Trivial Pursuit, we whipped out Loaded Questions and all had some good laughs. The best question of the night would definitely have to be: "What are three words that you would use to describe the word black?" I feel like after that question that the group really loosened up. I also learned some new vocabulary words. Happy Monday!

Weekend Forecast

So, I got this new map on my blog that tells me the locale of my readers. I had no idea that the Cob was such a popular place in Hungary, Canada and the UK (although I'm 99% sure that the UK is pin-pointed due to my friends Frances and Baby Money checking in on me). I'm pretty sure that I don't know any Canadians or Hungarians so this is a special shout out to them. In honor of Britney coming to see me in Shreveport this fall, I would like to present to you, one of my favorite Britney videos. She represents Louisiana well.



The events scheduled for this weekend include lounging around doing nothing as well as Game Night on Saturday at the Schillage residence. Dear Sass (whose Birthday Dinner Part Deux was held last night and I was unable to attend due to home plumbing issues), Dobber, Rex and Flavor of the Week, John, myself and the Skills are going to play some games. I'm hoping that Sass, Rex, John and I are on the same team. I am confident that we would be UNSTOPPABLE. (Did you know that the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is made of Titanium? Because I do.)

Also, I am going to prepare a crab dip that I found on Campbell's Recipes or something.com and if it turns out to my liking, I will share the recipe with you. I am a modern day Betty Crocker, I'll tell you. Last night I made THIS and even edited the recipe by adding some black beans. I like to call that 'using my artistic license'. Sunday, John and I are going to look at a house with our realtor friend, Chris David (pronounced Dahveeed). Let's hope that John likes it, because I sure do.

Recipe of the Week (okay, probably month)

Back in the carefree days of college, my good pal Aarin and I would hang out at her house and she would bake stuff for seemingly no reason other than she liked to. So, I figured that I should probably watch her and get a recipe or two just to start out that recipe box of mine. This is what she would make:

I guess you would call these, um, Creamy Turkey Pinwheels. Yeah, I just made that up so call them whatever you want. To make you need:

1 pkg crescent rolls

A handful of baby spinach

1 pouch (1 oz) of cream cheese

6 slices of oven roasted turkey breast

So, you roll out the crescent rolls to where they are one giant rectangle of conjoined rolls. Then you take your pouch of cream cheese and spread over your rectangle. Take your baby spinach (pick off stems) and layer over the cream cheese. Then take your slices of turkey breast and spread over the spinach. So there should be 3 little layers. Roll your dough back into original cylindrical shape. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Put in freezer until it gets firm (not frozen). Slice into pinwheels (makes about 15). Place on baking pan and bake for 15 minutes (or however long it says on pkg of crescent rolls). Then you are done!

And they are delicious. You can edit recipe for low fat or fat free options and make a healthy snack to bring to a Game or Wine Night!

The Emerald City.

John and I leave tomorrow for Seattle. We are so excited that we can hardly sleep. People keep asking us what we are going to do while we are there (as if there is absolutely nothing that would be remotely interesting for these people to see), so I will tell you. I have planned out an itinerary to ensure that we get to see everything that we want to see while we are there since it is possible that we will never go back there if we hate it.

Thursday - Travel day.

We leave Longview at 320PM tomorrow and won't arrive until around 830PM. No worries because it doesn't get dark in Seattle until 10. We will probably eat something and then pass out from exhaustion of flying. Flying makes me so tired to the point of lethargic. Or we will rock it out at the Nite Lite. We will just have to see.

Friday - Pike Place Market.

This is where they throw the fish at you. There is also a bronze pig named Rachel who is the mascot of the city (who also doubles as a giant piggy bank that supports the Market's charities).

We want to stop by the original Starbucks, and also get half priced tickets at their information booth to anything we may want to do. Such as an Argosy Cruise around Puget Sound (I like at least one SUPER-touristy thing to do on vacation)! Woot.

Saturday - Get this. We are going to take the 'Victoria Clipper' and head over to Victoria, British Columbia (Yes. We have our passports)! They have lots of pubs, shops, parks and little points of interest. Example:

There is a place called Miniature World with a working miniature circus, miniature aliens, and (hopefully) midgets who run the place. This had better be good. Also, Victoria has a totem pole park. I thought that may be interesting as well as a museum that was listed in my bathroom book "1000 Places to See Before You Die." So I figure we should probably hit that up so I can cross it off the list.

Sunday - John's Day. We are going to do whatever he wants to do this day (isn't that nice of me), including going to the Seattle Sounders' soccer game after hanging out in historic Pioneer Square. We are bringing our Drew Carey glasses and scarves. Can't wait!

Monday - The Seattle Center. This is where the Space Needle is. I plan on venturing to the top and riding any roller coasters that may be secretly hidden up there (like at the Stratosphere in Vegas)! Also in the Seattle Center is the Pacific Science Center, the Experience Music Project (Jimi Hendrix exhibit), Aquarium, a carnival!, and fountains and whatnot. I'm pretty sure it was all built for the World's Fair in 1962.

Tuesday - Unplanned. I figure it would be best to leave this day open in case we see stuff that we want to go back to later. Or shopping, or doing nothing.

Wednesday - We come home :( or possibly :)

I am going to take my laptop with me on the trip in hopes that I may have an internet connection at the Moore (rolling eyes) so that I may upload a photo or two for you precious readers. I know that you will be extremely bored at work with nothing to read because I'll be gone, and I don't want to have that kind of pressure ruining my vacation.

Things That Suck

John, bless his heart, has been hard at work photo-documenting his trip for me. I told him to take as many pictures as he can and email them to me (with captions) so that I can feel as though I am right there with him. What an angel! This is the one that lulled me to sleep last night:

Most of John's photos are blurry because he is embarrassed to use the flash in front of people (I told him, "it's not like you'll ever see those people again. Flash away (not that kind of flashing)!"), so I have to deal with it and attempt to decipher these photos. Well, according to this photo he went last night to a San Diego watering hole and noticed that they served my favorite wine! This looks to me to be the Penfolds Hyland Shiraz that I blogged about a few weeks ago. John's Man-Training is finally starting to bear some fruit. It's only taken a year.

Anyway, so I was so excited about getting to enjoy some wine this weekend when I stumbled across this article online this morning:

WORST IDEA EVER!

If you can't or don't feel like reading the article, I'll summarize. Basically the government is going to increase the Sin Tax on beer/wine/hard liquor in order to pay for health care costs under the Messiah's Universal Health Care Plan. The people who will be paying the most tax are the (guess who) wine drinkers with a 233% tax increase per bottle. Beer drinkers will see a 145% increase per six pack and hard liquor drinkers will have 19% increase per fifth. (Note to self, Screwdrivers and Bloody Mary's will have to become new drink of choice.)

Oh also, soda (not diet soda) and sugary drinks will see a 3 cent tax increase on 12 ounce bottles. Yeah, because that's fair. So after 10 years, this tax will raise $50 billion to go towards healthcare for people who don't feel like paying for it.

Kate is officially mad. Why can't they increase tax on fast food? Plastic surgery? Elective surgery? Butter? Tanning? Potato chips? Televisions? Game systems? I mean seriously. I would consider moving to Europe or somewhere else, but they are worse off than America at this point.

Good Food, Good Friends

This weekend we celebrated the births of two dear friends Laura and Stephanie. We started the evening not getting the memo about a revised reservation time, so John and I show up a little early (I'm ALWAYS punctual) at 645 for dinner at the Cub and wait. And wait. And wait. Then we were told that the time had changed so we waited some more. At 752 we were finally seated.

John and I had the pleasure of sitting at a cozy booth with Amy and David Netherton, parents of birthday girl #2. Let me just say that I had the best time chatting them up about God only knows what (now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that David told us a story about "Shaking Baby Syndrome" and how he used to deal with his children). The food was excellent. I had my first taste of a new favorite: Soft-shelled crab. Delish! Once dinner was devoured, we moved on to Tiki Tavern, Hangout Extraordinaire, for some karaoke:

I'm pretty sure that was a rendition of "Fancy" by THE one and only Reba McIntyre. When we got to Tiki, another group of my friends was there as well, celebrating the birth of Travis Hart (pictured below). Birthdays all around! So we got to see these friends as well as the ones mentioned above:

Travis and I discussed the changes in the oil and gas business, Carie and I discussed possible new job options, Melissa and I discussed people with missing fingers, and Casey and I discussed John and how precious he is in photos.

The evening was an interesting one, that's for sure. I got to hear John and his roommate Rex sing "The American Trilogy" by Elvis (John is apparently, in prayer):

Then I got to hear John petition everyone to make it the new National Anthem. What a doll! Let's just say that we had a great time. Once again, Tiki Tavern teaches us a valuable lesson about life as well as song lyrics.

Trying Something New... Sorta

I was at Sam's last week when I decided to peruse their wine section. Not too shabby. And not too expensive either.

So I ran across a bottle of my favorite brand "Penfolds" Shiraz. I wouldn't consider myself a Shiraz fan, since I had never had it before... so I figured, why not try it. So I did. After reading the description on the back I nearly teared up. Lame, right? Here's what it said:

"This range of wines pay homage to the marriage of Thomas Hyland and Georgina Penfold and the life they had in Adelaide. The home of Penfolds."

Not even sappy, but I thought how romantic to have a line of wines created to celebrate your marriage. I need one of those. After I aquire the marriage of course.