Wine o' the week

This week's wine selection is Cline's 2004 Cool Climate Syrah (see the website here). It has a "deep color, rich blueberry and black pepper characters combined with a cedary-smooth finish and bright acidity. It pairs well with seafood pasta dishes."
It has a pretty spicy taste (the pepper), but the aftertaste is really cooling. It has a fantastic flavor. It retails around $16.
Reminiscing.... here's a pic of us at the Cline Winery. That's not the wine o'the week we're drinking in the photo, but it's the right location!

Yay!

Perhaps I've seemed stressed lately?

Look at what one of my 8th graders gave me today. Now that's genius. And yup, it says it in Spanish. And yes, it DOES somehow (strangely) make me feel better. Ahhh... I just hit it now. If you give it a little punch that helps even more. Facil. Yes, indeedy.
Well, it's funny nonetheless.

Weekend fun-ity

Neil Diamond says...

Happy Birthday to my Papa Bear!

A very very very happy birthday to my Pa! Thanks for always taking care of all your girls. You're the best. I hope you have a great day, and a RELAXING weekend! LOVE YOU very much!!

Oh, happy day

Ready for a happy post from me? Here we go!

• Pooty has recovered quite nicely from her surgery. She's still upset that we stole her womanhood, but she's getting over it. She still loves us.


• I get to go to a play today for a field trip- hooray!


• I've been exercising more now- Wednesdays with Kat & Kristen (DESPITE torrential downpour, ha ha) & the elliptical. Yeah, me.


• I am taking my bloggity blog in a new direction once a week (spun from Kat's "Corners"), and I'm going to talk about something I know best... wine. So I am going to recommend a wine of the week for you guys- something I've tried and loved. Or liked. First post follows....


• Yearbook is O.V.E.R. and is my last "official" huge time commitment for school- I start to get my afternoons back now!


• Mission accomlished for camping- we're going to Petit Jean this weekend.


• Jeremy finishes his first grad school class this weekend- wish him luck on his final! Hooray for baby. Gettin' that education. Makes me proud.


• I get to go to Florida this month for Spring Break '07!!! This is when you squeal and throw your hands up in the air and yell, "SPRING BREAK '07!!!!! Whooooooooooo!"


• Things are good. Very, very good.

Wine o' the week

For a cheap-o wine, this one is quite tasty. Even though it's called just a "red," it's a GSM mix (impress people at wine stores and toss this term around), which is a Grenache, Syrah, Mouvedre combo. It is described as "a complex blend of Rhone and Bordeaux varietals, exhibiting blackberry, boysenberry and black cherry fruit flavors along with blueberry, smoke, vanilla, nutmeg and anise on the nose. Frontier Red is designed to be the perfect complement to the foods found at most backyard cookouts and barbecues."
It costs around $10. Mmmmmmmm good! Don't be thrown off by the twist-off cap- it's the newest thing in wines. No more cork! The % of alcohol (see label) doesn't hurt the flava' either. You will enjoy.
Go try it today.

The great outdoors

With all this beautiful weather, I've gotten all anxious to go backpacking again. Following Chandle's lead, Jeremy and I went to Gander Mountain, the Wal-Mart of outdoor supplies (PS, the FIREARM section was the busiest in the store. I was frightened). I bought an inflatable sleep pad, a compression sack (so I can make all my clothes and hoodies shrink down to this big ), and new hiking boots! That's right- hiking boots. I'm pumped. They were originally $85, and I got them for like $35. They feel like tennis shoes, and they're very exciting. SO.... going camping soon. Just as soon as I figure out a weekend to go. Gotta use my new gear, yo!
Weekend was good- Trevor's bday party was quite fun (and tasty!) at the Oyster Bar (deeeelish pie, Brooke). People are still finding our cache that we made. Still waiting for you guys to find it! :) Jump on the bandwagon!

PS-- ooh, ooh! My beloved Marti Noxon co-wrote those last episodes of Grey's (read the Grey Matter blog over there.....)! Let's hope she stays.

Could this be a longer week? No.

nataliedee.com Made me laugh today. Speaking of pups, send happy vibes to Parker Posey Poo Poo today, who is getting her woman surgery. :( Poor thing. We thought for a second about NOT doing it since she's so dang cute and we could get top dollar. Ha ha. But, noooo.... So be thinking of her today. She's in good hands with Judith.
I had parent-teacher conferences yesterday, which made for the longest day ever, adding to the longest week ever. I think it's because it's pretty outside. Gets me all stir-crazy at work. But the weekend's here, so enjoy!

Ummmmmmm and when did everyone stop commenting here....? I'm lucky if I get a couple of comments a week! I'm going to go sulk now. :( You guys just go over to Kat's blog and add to her 10 comments per post! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
I'm kidding.
Mostly.

This is the coolest!

We have hidden our first geocache! Go to this link to see our first puzzle, multi-stage cache that we have created! If you have a gps, create a geocache account and go find it!
Hooray us!

UPDATE: there is more bloggiture to be had today- read on.

PHAT Tuesday '07... a couple of days later. Cause it's Thursday.

Sooooo my Fat Tuesday was not quite as crazy as I think the "holiday" intends, but it was still rather amusing. I love a parade, and I really wanted to go see the one downtown. I hear it's no St. Louis.... but can we ever live up to them?? Huh, huh?? Kidding. It was still pretty funny. Trucks. Trailers. Beads. No boobs. Good times for all.
There were quite a lot of people out there. The parade lasted oh, about 20-30 minutes from start to finish. But a parade's a parade, I say.
Let me also say that THIS guy was quite obnoxious and about 8 feet tall, snatching all the beads that were clearly thrown to US, standing behind him. He grabbed them all.
And his lady friend in front of her was no better. Loud drunk chick. And her biker boyfriend. A match made in heaven.
For Lent: I'm giving up eating the crap they put in the teacher's lounge. NO MORE.

Hooray!

Congratulations to Jaime and Ryan, who got engaged this weekend! I love these kids, and I couldn't be happier for them! I must say I'm a little sad because I kind of love Jaime and he's stealing her from me, but I guess I can share. If I must.
Congrats, guys!!

Uhhhhh, wow.

Did you know that this exists? Because it's freaking delicious. Samoas are my favorite cookie- and I don't even LIKE cookies that much. I hoard them in my freezer when it's Girl Scout cookie time. Because when they're frozen, they're even tastier. And when they're in an ice cream with swirls of chocolate and caramel........

They also have Tagalongs and Thin Mint ice cream. Go buy it. And that's my consumer report for the day.

I swear I'll stop posting pictures of my incredibly cute dog... at some point.

For the time being, just bear with me. :) Thursday we had the pleasant surprise of a lovely dusting of snow. Parker absolutely loves the stuff. She runs around the deck, trying to eat all of it she can. The result of her warpath on the deck is snow all over her nose and beard.
I love that dog, I swear.
Have a good weekend, friends. Does anyone have Monday off...?

This is the week I've been having.

Kat sent these to me, and completely made my day. As a teacher. A frustrated teacher this week (it's the end of interim). Sigh... Is it Spring Break yet??

The elephant one is hilarious, and not unlike student responses I've seen before. No lie.

Happy Pooty-tine's Day!

A-geoaching we will go...!

Ok, guys. Most.fun.ever. Saturday and Sunday, Jeremy and I took part in this whole geocaching phenomenon (go the the website for more details). Basically, you use a GPS to locate different cache boxes in different locations. Inside the cache is a variety of treasures (examples to come). You get the coordinates from the website and you go treasure hunting. Very, very addicting and FUN. Our first one was on the NLR side of the Big Dam Bridge off the trail. The next one was a Butler Park (Butler's Booty was the name of it). Yesterday we went alllllll along the river trail for a two-parter (we had to solve a puzzle to get the coordinates of the second cache).
Here's the discovery of Butler's Booty.
Ooooooh! Treasure! You can't take anything from the box without leaving something. People put a bunch of stuff from the dollar store, but sometimes there is money or a gift card. But you have to get to it first.
What's this?? Magic, the Gathering????
Also inside each cache is a logbook that you sign, so you can see how long it's been there and how often people do this (it's crazy- for all ours, someone had been there just a day or two before).

Treasure!!

HIT!

In addition to our treasure hunting adventure, we had to see our Joe off. Of course, we had to get a hit on him before he left Arkansas. This was Saturday at his parental's house. Hit and run, baby. Hit and run.

Happy traaaaaiiiils to yooooooou!

Looks like our baby Joe is all growns up and is taking things to another hemisphere down in New Zealand. Way to go Joe! There's a par-tay for him tonight, so if you know him and you're interested, let me know if you wanna come (as soon as I get more details from Miss Annie herself). Much love to Joe! Arkansas will miss you.

I caught a crane kick to the face.

This video combines my very intense love of the greatest movie ever made, martial arts, and "where are they now?" (that's the REAL Johnny Cobra Cai himself, people!). It's well worth the 7 minutes. Well.worth.it. Oh, and Ralph Macchio (the love of my sister's childhood). And Mr. Belding. Watch it.
Oooh, bonus points to who can catch the hidden detail somewhere around 1:29 remaining in the video. Bonus points!

Purrrrrrrrple rain, purple rain.

I'm still in a daze. What a performance. Am.a.zing.

Watch him in all his Princely glory here!

Feels like old times...

Last night, right about the time it started snowing again, we went to White Water to watch Ben Nichols and Corey Branan. They were fantastic. They switched off and sang every other song with each other. Here, pretend like you were there with me.
Here's another one, I could go on and on.



And here's a Corey Branan for ya.

There is just nothing quite like being in a packed, semi-shady place with your friends listening to songs about getting your heart broken. While it snows outside.

Ohhhhhhhh, Leah!

Haaaaaapy birthday, Miss Leah! Welcome to the "we're on our way to thirty" club! Apparently Leah has a test tomorrow (boo!) so she is postponing the berfday celebration until tomorrow night. We're all going to gather at the casa de Brooke and Trevor. Let us know if you can make it! HAPPY BIRTHDAY until then, Leah! Much love!
Meanwhile, tonight is the big show at White Water for Ben Nichols and Cory Brannon. You should come. Fun will be had. Unless it is icy (did I mention school got canceled for me today? Holla!). :)