Wine trumps ice cream

I was just thinking about how long it has been since I've had ice cream. It's really the only thing I have a sweet tooth for. But it has been a really long time since I've had any. I used to have a bowl at least once a week... or... more....  How sad is this? Well... probably better off. The lack of ice cream consumption is most likely at least partially to blame for shedding some Oregon flabbery. So... I guess in that respect, yea for me.

What I miss in ice cream, I'm making up for in wine. Yum. Not a bad trade.

Welp... That's all I got tonight.

Ordinary Adventures

It's freakin' chilly outside. Came home to a fire in the fireplace. True story. Ahhh, cozy.

Sitting here in the dark with my glass of wine, Jason Wade on Pandora, candles lit all over...

I love wine. I have to admit I miss all the vineyards in Oregon. It was so nice to just wake up some Saturday morning and decide to go vineyard hopping and wine tasting. I could spend an entire day visiting vineyards and hardly travel 15 miles. They're just everywhere. I've heard (several times now) about the wine in Colorado. Apparently there are vineyards on the western slope, but... I have yet to travel there to check it out. That would be a treat, though. (Anyone up for a road trip?)

There were a few little flakes of snow falling this evening. And so it begins... We missed the snow, and... well... here it comes. I'm sure by March we'll be saying, "That's too much. That's too much f-ing snow." But, as it stands, I'm looking forward to it. I actually want to shovel my door step. (It is really stupid of me to have written this. I'm sure that I will now be the sole door step shoveler. Shoot.) I want to make snow angels... in front of the drive-thru window at Starbucks. (My spousal unit paid me a dollar to do this last year. I would have done it for free.) I want to chuck firmly packed snowballs right at Scott's neck. I'm not gonna lie. He's an ass. He deserves it. I'm just sayin'. Unfortunately for me, this means paybacks tenfold, which usually means a full body-slam and/or face plant into a pile of snow, with a decent chance of getting a bloody nose from either 1) the impact, b) the cold, or 3) both. But... it would totally be worth it.

I want to get up early in the morning, while the snow is still falling gently, and be the first to make tracks, hearing the crunch of the snow under the weight of my footsteps.  I want to lay on my back and feel the chill of snowflakes landing on my eyelashes.

I wonder if I'll need to plug my car in here... I never knew about that until I lived in Montana.

When it's 40 below zero, there's a good chance your car won't start without it.

The unknown.  I love experiencing things for the first time.  Especially when those experiences take your breath away.

I love to savor every moment - drinking it all in and burning it onto the walls of my memory.

Adventures! Like... traveling to new places. I've seen some pretty amazing places, but there are so many others that I'd love to visit. And I don't mean just spending a day or two on some whirlwind vacation to 6 different countries in 14 days. I mean, spending a good two weeks or more in one location - several times a year. Or... ideally, spending an entire year (or more) traveling, immersing myself into the culture, visiting with the locals and perhaps making a friend or two in the process. Like bellying up to a pub in Ireland, gathering around a piano and signing American showtunes. (My aunt & uncle have done this... I'm so envious.)  Or sitting at a tiny little wrought iron table with a bottle of wine, overlooking a beautiful hillside vineyard in Italy. Or trying on puffy sweaters with big snowflakes on it in Switzerland.

Or admiring priceless pieces of art at the Louvre in Paris. Or... sitting at the end of a long dock with my feet dangling in the Mississippi.

I don't care how close or how far, I want to see it all. Taste it all. Experience all of it. Making an ordinary day an extraordinary memory.

Every day is an adventure if you look for it. Like sitting at a Starbucks for two hours with a friend answering questions you've never been asked before. Or offering a hug to someone who just looks like they needed one. Or helping a stranger who had a flat tire at a busy intersection. Or just gazing into each other's eyes and somehow knowing exactly what the other is thinking and feeling without a word being spoken.

Life is too short to let those moments pass by. I like to keep my eyes open. I'd hate to miss something that could have been meaningful.

Update: Spousal unit just told me that if I even come close to chucking a firmly packed snowball at his neck, I'll be seeing white for the next month, followed by, "That's a good way to Piss. Me. Off."

Just for the record, I still think it would be worth it. **diabolical laughing"  His empty threats do not sway me in the slightest.

Update: Spousal unit just said, "I'm really fast in the snow. I'm like a friggen magical leopard. I practically run on top of the snow."

Um... even not being a magical leopard, would you still not run on top of the snow? I mean, You wouldn't be running underneath it. I'm just sayin'.

Update:  Spousal unit just said, "What's important is the magical leopard part."

My response: Which part would that be?

Sucker for red

To add to yesternight's post, I forgot to mention Edgefield.  I love Edgefield.  It's part of the McMenamins thang, but different from the regular McMenamins bar. Edgefield holds a special place in my heart for many reasons. 1) It's quiet. B) It has a blown glass gallery - as well as an actual dude that blows glass right there in front of you. I don't know about you, but this fascinates me to no end. I wish I had a talent like that.   3) Edgefield has this cool wine tasting room that sits almost underground. It's a lovely place to belly up, chill with a glass (or five) of wine, and maybe strike up a conversation with the bartender. Not that I've ever done this (**cough cough**). Ok... yes, I have. It was right after work. My friend, Erin, and I took a little road trip across the city to hang out and we ended up in the wine tasting room. I don't remember the bartender's name, but he was cute, and I was hoping to hook Erin up with him. Good thing that didn't work out so well, because since then she has met a fine fellow by the name of Michael. Scott performed their wedding. Guess where? Not Edgefield, but another vineyard. Wine is just part of the Oregon culture.

D) Two of my favorite memories is at Edgefield. There was a large group of us one Saturday evening. I won't recall all of the details, but one of the funnier moments was when, essentially out of nowhere, I kicked Erin in the shin. There was a good reason, I'm sure of it. But I kicked her a little harder than anticipated. That was the wine talking. We made a lot of merriment that evening. (And if I remember correctly, we may have chased each other around the parking lot with the intention of jumping in puddles to splash one another. We were such crazy kids.)

Another time, Scott and I (pre-marriage perhaps...I honestly don't remember) ended up in this little shed where they serve fine spirits and everyone smokes cigars. 

Want to know another secret? I like cigars. I prefer something a tad sweet, but there's something I love about a quiet, cool evening, fellowship, laughs and conversation around a fire, and everyone lightin' up a stogie. 

Edgefield makes an amazing Syrah. Yum. 'Course, I am a sucker for a good red vino.  What can I say? 

On the subject / off the subject - I never get to bed at a reasonable hour. Life is so crazy-go-nuts right now that once the kids finally fade off, I just really enjoy the silence. I don't get much leisure time, so what I do get is precious and I do all I can to take advantage of it. 

Silence. 

It's wonderful. 

There's something very appealing about pouring myself a cocktail or a glass of wine and just sitting in the darkness and actually taking a deep breath - with my eyes closed - enjoying what may be a fleeting moment of solitude. 

I'm such an extrovert. But I've been learning that solitude is a gift. I get a lot of energy from other people, but the few moments of solitude that I do get are welcomed and refreshing. I wish I had more of that. I just long for stillness and simplicity. I remember back when I was a kid, growing up on the hill, a few miles from town where in the stillness of the night there were nothing but crickets and stars. 


Total.


Silence. 

Ahhhh... 

Add a glass of wine and that is damn near perfection.

Care to join me?

The color red

Last week, I had what was quite possibly the worst wine I've ever tasted. It was made by Red Guitar, which, if you go to their website looks (and sounds) like it might be delicious. But, in all actuality, it isn't fit to clean the inside of a toilet bowl.  Sadly, it was recommended by some grizzly liquor store owner in Keystone.  What's worse is it showed it got 92 points on the tasting. Yipes. And what's ever worser (is worser a word? If not, I'm going to use it anyway.), it cost almost $20.  You'd think you'd get a little more than a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner for $20.  **shaking head in shame**


After a long day of mingling and having to be on my A game last Thursday, I was looking forward to snuggling on the couch in front of a roaring fire (ok... maybe not roaring... really more of a dim flicker from  a gas fireplace) with a glass of wine. Imagine my disappointment when past my lips slipped what I can only describe as (pardon my English) shitty, cheap, tangy nastiness. Sorry, but true. Very disappointing. (But very memorable, I will tell you this. I've had a few laughs over it, intermingled with a few tears.)


After an experience like this, one just gets a case of the shiver-me-timbers at the thought of red wine. But... after about a week of recovery, I am ready to re-engage my seasoned taste buds.


Let me tell you a little something about cheap wine. Some people have a love affair with Two-Buck Chuck (that's Charles Shaw for the layperson). In most states, this wine actually does only cost $2 a bottle. In Oregon it was $3. Listen, for that kind of price, is it a bad wine? Not really. Is it a great wine? Certainly not. But it does the job and it's a nice basic wine to have around the house. (Gotta love Trader Joe's (TJ's, as we like to call it) for introducing a decent wine with an uber-low price tag.)


Even Target carries a decent cheap wine.  Bare Foot makes a great (gold medal) wine. A bottle of Merlot will run about $5. And it tastes pretty good. I mean... for the price. It's not great. But it isn't bad. It's acceptable. Much better than that crap wine I picked up in Keystone. 


Now... I'm not one to complain about the price of wine. You often get what you pay for. I was spoiled living in the Pacific Northwest, and more specifically the Willamette Valley, where the landscape is littered with vineyards and wineries. If there is one thing the Pac NW does right, it's Pinot Noir (among others).  We have done our share of wine tasting and winery tours. We've had our share of expensive wine. It's been a fun self-inflicted challenge to find that $100 bottle of wine for the low-low price of $18. There are plenty to choose from.  

One of my favorites is Willamette Valley Vineyards. I can say with all honesty and quite a bit of enthusiasm that I have never had a bad wine from Willamette Valley. It's quite good. The vineyard and winery isn't a bad spot to hang, either.  


Another winery that we're fond of is Redhawk. Their most popular wine is called Grateful Red. Kind of funny, with a great label. But... it's not my favorite. What Redhawk does really well is blend. They make an amazing Cuvee, which is a classic bordeaux blend, basically a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, and sometimes some other version of red for kicks.  It's full, but light, and always does very well in the tasting room. What's a bonus about Redhawk is we are acquaintances with the owners. We've been up to their tasting room many times when it was just us and them. (We also ran into them once at The Ram in Salem, and they paid for our drinks.) Lovely people who followed their hearts and took hold of their dream to own a winery. I love stories like that.


Apparently, Colorado has a fair share of wineries, as well. I think one of these days, when the wind is right and I get a fire in my belly, I just might take a road trip to see what all the hub-bub is about.


I loves me a good glass of wine.... or two... or five.