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Never Ending Crap
A couple weeks ago there was a big snowstorm. Zoe and I were driving home from a local restaurant* and the cars in front of us started to slide on the ice, in order to keep from crashing into them (at a nice slow pace of 10 mph) I went head-on into the snowbank in the median. I tried to turn, I tried to stop, but the ice prevented any and all cooperation with my brakes and steering wheel. I seriously did NOT think there was any damage. Wrong. The front end is off kilter, and on Saturday something underneath my car started to drag along the ground. Did I mention that I have a $1000 deductible? I do.
Then, the three of us went in for annual eye exams. It turns out that Zoe has a very bad eye infection that needs to be treated with eye drops three times a day. Good Lord, you’d think we were torturing her! We are on day 3 of the eye drops, and it’s gotten much better, but those first two days were terrible. Have you ever tried to hold open a 6 year old’s eyelid while admistering eyedrops AND holding her arms down at the same time? It’s not fun.
And then ….. I made her come with me to the dermatologist today because she’s had these spots near her arm pit that won’t go away. She’s got a viral infection that can be treated with little success using topical cream, or very good success using liquid nitrogen. Ouch! I couldn’t bear to do the liquid nitrogen today, so we are giving the cream a whirl. Maybe it’ll work. I did buy Lucky Bamboo yesterday, you know.
I’ve been on vacation since before Christmas, it’s been wonderful to stay up as late as I want, and sleep in as long as I want, but let me tell you there’s a reason parents work and kids go to school. It’s to keep everyone from strangling one another.
We’ve watched the entire first season of Dexter, which is very good. We are now on the second season, but we usually don’t start watching them until 9 p.m., which means that by the end of the show I’ve fallen asleep and have to rewatch the episode again the next day.
We went to see National Treasure, it was very good. I also read The Cinderella Pact, by Sarah Strohmeyer, I couldn’t put it down.
*The restaurant server changed his tip on my credit card by $0.80 and I was complaining about it. They made me come to the restaurant to get a refund. I blame the waiter for my accident. If he would have been honest with my credit card, then I wouldn’t have had to come in. See how that works?
Boulder of Ice
You will not believe what happened on Saturday. I let my dogs outside around 4:30 p.m. and when I looked into the backyard there was a HUGE hole in our cedar fence!! We live in a subdivision, however we are the first house and the yard faces a very busy street, my heart just sank because it would have been devastating if my dogs had found their way out of the yard and onto the street.
The fence looked like it had been kicked in from the outside, but with the snow we’d see footprints if that was the case. There was a big boulder of ice (like 2′ long and 40 lbs. heavy boulder of ice) right inside the fence — it took us a while to piece it together that the snowplow had passed the house and in doing so shot the ice right through the fence. I figured we had nothing to lose, so this morning I left a voicemail with the person in charge of the snowplowing with my village. I got a voicemail this afternoon saying that he came out, looked at the fence, and would have it repaired this spring. In the meantime, my husband covered the hole with three 6″ wide planks of wood. That’s how big that hole is!!!
Oh, and on Sunday night my windshield on my car cracked clear across from one side to the other. My week hasn’t been going well.
Today my husband, Zoe and my brother-in-law all went to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. It was a great time to go, not crowded at all. I’ve never been to a planetarium before, and quite honestly, don’t really know all that much about science and space. We saw a show on black holes, and a different show on the stars in the night sky above Chicago. Thank God the guy doing the presentation admit that he didn’t see the Little Bear, or Ursa Minor either, because I seriously thought I was the only one. I can see the Big Dipper just fine, but that’s about it. Everything else is just blinky lights in the sky.
My brother-in-law was introduced to the game of “Would You Rather” where you get to pose two choices and the person you are playing with has to choose which one they’d rather do. Everything is fair game with Zoe and she came up with the mother of all questions on the ride home. Would you rather sky dive while jumping on a trampoline? – or something else, which I can’t remember right now, but it’s not important because my brother-in-law was trying to tell her that she couldn’t ask that question because it was impossible to do. That doesn’t matter to her in the land of Would You Rather, because she usually asks the most obscure questions you could possibly imagine, and they usually have something to do with jumping on a pogo stick and being dressed in a chicken suit.
Is Expensive Wine Better?
Last week Friday my wine club had their Holiday splurge on wines. We all pitched in $25, and there were about 13 of us, so that gave us a generous budget to work with. All wines were purchased at Waterford Wine Co., (located on Milwaukee’s Brady Street) under the advise of Ben. Here’s what we tasted:
Henri Goutorbe Cuvee Prestige Champagne, Premier Crue, Brut. Approximately $50. This was devine, and I wish I could provide you a link, but I can’t quite find this exact champagne for you. From my tasting experience, I believe this champagne was made from the pinot noir grape. It’s from Champagne, France, which is where all champagne is from, if it’s not made there, it must be called sparkling white wine.
Jean Francois-Mercieau Sparkling White Wine. $18, from Frances Loire Valley. It was not nearly as good at Goutorbe, and I believe it was made from the chardonnay grape.
Kistler Les Noisetiers Chardonnay, 2006. Approximately $40-50. $60.99, (gulp, I said “Holy Balls!” when I saw the price tag). This wine came from California’s Sonoma Coast. It was buttery and delicious (as far as chardonnay goes, I’m not a huge fan), and definitely was oaked in french barrels. This was a limited vintage, and our bottle was #68,591 of 92,220. In fact, I checked their website and this wine is produced to be sold only to restaurants with limited sales in stores. I believe I’m going to pick up a bottle for my husband so he can experience chardonnay the way it was meant to be.
Kali Hart Chardonnay, 2006. Approximately $20. Produced by Robert Talbott Vineyards in Monetary, California. This wine had tropical notes and was fermented in both oak and stainless steel. Barrelling in stainless steel gives wine a mineraly taste, whereas barrelling in American oak will give it a bold and robust taste, and French oak givs it a buttery taste.
Bishops Peak Pinot Noir, 2006. $50. Produced by Talley Family Winery in the Central Coast Region of California. This was our fourth wine of the night, and sadly, I wrote down nothing about it.
Woodenhead Pinot Noir, 2004. $20. From the Russian River Region in California. While this was the less expensive pinot noir, I remember it being the only one we felt was better than the expensive selection.
Isley Cabernet Sauvignon, 2003. $50. I knew this was a winner when I saw it was produced in the Stags Leap District. This wine was excellent, and by far my favorite. I haven’t tasted wine this good since the 2001 Smith-Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa.
R. Collection Cabernet Sauvignon, 2003. Approximately $20. Produced by Raymond Estates in Napa Valley, California. This was a worthy red, silky with flavors of blueberries and blackberries.
While we enjoyed the more expensive wines the most, you can definitely purchase a good wine for $20 or less. Not everyone is able to splurge on a $40-50 bottle of wine, myself included. That’s why I love my wine club so much, not only have I made friendships over the last 2-1/2 years that I value, I’ve also learned quite a bit about wine and I’m not purchasing something based on how cute the picture on the label is anymore. (Yes. That is how I used to pick my wine.)
Here are some great holiday suggestions from my own wine tasting journal in the $10-20 price range:
Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel, $16
Duck Pond Pinot Noir, $19 (my husband found this at Whole Foods)
Solane Santi Ripasso Classico Superiore Valpolicella (an Italian red, similar to Chianti), $14
Columbia Crest Reserve Chardonnay, $15
King Estate Oregon Pinot Gris, $14
Crush Pad Red, $14 (a blend of red grapes)
Cathedral Cellar Shiraz, $16
Bogle Petite Syrah, $10-12 (all time favorite!)
(Also posted @ I’m Just Saying)
Coming soon!
Coming soon (I promise!) is the full wine report from last week’s wine club meeting: Is Expensive Wine Better? We enjoyed champagne, chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet sauvignon. All of the wine was purchased from Waterford Wine, on Milwaukee’s east side. The owner, Ben, has always taken very good care of our bigger tastings and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
Landmark 1, Mid-America 0
On Wednesday I finally closed our checking and savings accounts at Mid-America Bank. If you are following my banking saga you’ll remember that my husband and I recently switched to Landmark Credit Union. The process (at Mid-America) I had to go through to close the account was minor, and after all the security issues I had with Landmark I was appalled that I didn’t have to show any identification to prove that I was indeed who I said I was. All I had to do was spell my last name, and then choose to either have a check written for the balance, or receive cash.
Seriously, I could have been ANYONE, and they could have just given ANYONE all of my money, and closed my accounts too. They are pretty darn lucky that it was really me closing my accounts.
I arrived home, check in hand, to find a letter from Landmark Credit Union waiting for me. What’s this? What have I done now?
It was a letter from the Vice President of Marketing, who read my blog entry The Other Landmark Credit Union, from November 3rd. To sum up the letter she apologized for my troubles in locating the correct LCU website and wrote: “I have alerted our staff to this problem and hope from now on that they will highlight our Web address as well as warn members about the Web sites of other Landmarks.”
Wow. I’m so impressed with Landmark Credit Union. Someone took the time and initiative to write me a letter, and to apologize for my inconvenience (even though I think it’s pretty darn clear that the inconvenience was 100% my fault). Pat, if you are reading this, Thank You!
I asked my husband if I could consider this letter my first piece of fan mail? He said yes. So there ya go. I’ve got fan mail.
(Cross posted @ I’m Just Saying)
American Girl Dolls
Zoe recently circled just about everything in the American Girl Doll catalog. Last night I was flipping through and found that she’d also added a bit of facial hair, and glasses.
Strange, don’t you think?
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