Not a girl, not yet a wino!

But almost! Jake and I were bored a few weeks ago and we decided to check out this winery not too far from where we live, Satek Winery in Fremont. It was fun to go and see the way they do things and to get to taste the wines. You can sample up to 10, they are currently offering 26 varieties. I have never seen their wines for sale at the grocery stores in Auburn, but I have seen them in the local liquor store. Anyway, while we were there Jake and I bought a few bottles of the 101 Lakes Red.

I have always been a fan of Oliver Winery's Soft Red, but Satek's 101 Lake Red was WAY BETTER (in my opinion. Oliver still makes a hell of a wine!)

So all you wino's out there, try a bottle. You will not be disappointed if you like sweet wines. If you a around Fremont, IN it's worth a stop into see the folks at Satek's.

Baskin Robbins Honors Barack Obama With A New Flavor

In honor of the 44th President of the United States , Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream has issued a new flavor, " Barocky Road ."
Barocky Road is a blend of half vanilla, half chocolate, and surrounded by nuts and flakes. The vanilla portion of the mix is not openly advertised and usually denied as an ingredient. The Nuts and Flakes are all bitter and hard to swallow.
The cost is $100 per scoop. When purchased, it will be presented to you in a large beautiful cone, but then the Ice Cream is taken away and given to the person in line behind you. Thus you are left with an empty wallet, no change, holding an empty cone, with no hope of getting any ice cream.
Aren't you feeling stimulated?

Tehehe! You know how i'm a sucker for any joke about Obama! =)

Hill is the second child of authors Stephen and Tabitha King. He grew up in Bangor, Maine. His younger brother Owen is also a writer. Hill has three sons.
Hill chose to use an abbreviated form of his given name (a reference to executed labor leader Joe Hill, for whom he was named) in 1997, out of a desire to succeed based solely on his own merits rather than as the son of Stephen King. After achieving a degree of independent success, Hill publicly confirmed his identity in 2007 after an article the previous year in Variety broke his cover (although online speculation about Hill's family background had been appearing since 2005).[1]
Middle-aged rock star Judas Coyne collects morbid curios, so he doesn't think twice about buying a suit advertised at an online auction site as haunted by its dead owner's ghost. Only after it arrives does Jude discover that the suit belonged to Craddock McDermott, the stepfather of one of Coyne's discarded groupies, and that the old man's ghost is a malignant spirit determined to kill Judas in revenge for his stepdaughter's suicide. Judas and his girlfriend take to the road in an attempt to run from the ghost and to find a way to stop it.

The above information is from Wikipedia. If I would have read that "Joe Hill" is really "Joe King", I probably would not have read the book. I devoured it in 3 days. Loved it. BUT, parts of it were terrifying. In fact, there was a night that I didn't sleep well at all and I know it's because of what was going on in the book. While I don't know that I would read another one of his books, (Horror stories just aren't my things, and I hate reading about dogs getting shot or kicked.), it was very well written and while it was complex it was easy to follow. I finished it this afternoon when I was at lunch, and I have been recommending it to everyone that I know who likes to read and isn't easily freaked out by the ghosts of scary old men!

Corks for Charity

While I was digging around online looking for a place to buy my new favorite wine, I came across this website. How may wine drinkers out there have gobs of corks laying around with nothing to do with them? I know we do. I have a centerpiece on my dining room table filled with corks, a vase filled with them, shoe boxes filled. And you are sure to find a few in any given kitchen drawer! I did once see in a Pottery Barn catalog a bulletin board made of corks, so I have been saving some up so I can make one for myself rather than paying close to $100 for one! I figure, if you are going to spend $100 on corks, you might as well get the wine along with it!

Anyway, yesterday when I was looking to buy The Show I came across the above mentioned website. Here's what I found out about it...

A Nashville area foundation called Sports 4 All has come up with an ingenious way to raise money. They are asking for your used wine corks. They are gathering corks from local restaurants, individuals and retailers, sorting them, and then they sell them to artists all over the country and beyond. "There is an artist in California who has a large standing order we can't fill at the moment", Sara Koppelman, Program Manager told me recently. Sports 4 All raises money and solicits sporting equipment and provides equipment and recreational opportunities for disabled persons of all ages.
Sara and Sports 4 All President Kris Salisbury do most of the work at Sports 4 All, but all of the proceeds of their work goes into the foundation. They don't receive payment for their work. The two came together about 2 years ago when Koppelman was working at a Down's Syndrome camp and needed equipment. She met Kris and they began working together on the foundation that Salisbury, a Down's Syndrome parent had begun over 10 years ago. Sara and Kris share a love for wine, and it was over a glass that they had the bright idea now known as "Corks 4 Charity".
It has worked. Now they are putting the word out to do more of it. "The market is there", Sara told me. We have signed up local restaurants like J. Alexander's and Park Cafe, and put the word out to local tasting events and to our friends. On a bi-weekly basis, Sports 4 All makes a “cork run” (cork retrieval trip) and collects the corks which then get separated into groups of 100. The lots of 100 corks are then sold to artists for creative projects including: picture frame ornamentation, furniture design, dartboard backsplashes, wreaths, and many other artistic endeavors. When we get a bunch of corks, we get together for "cork therapy", when we sort them out, separating out the real corks from the synthetic ones. "We market on eBay, and when artists find out we have corks available, we become a supplier to them. "We can sell as many corks as we can gather."
"Corks 4 Charity creates a community of recycling and giving, providing unique corks to creative minds and artists, raising awareness of Sports 4 All Foundation, and offering a reliable funding source to fulfill Sports 4 All’s Mission: to improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities by providing funding and equipment to enable full participation in sports and recreation activities. Corks 4 Charity is an easy was to give back to the community and recycle – simultaneously."

Should you have corks you wish to donate, or you have questions, you may contact:

Sports 4 All Foundation Kris Salisbury & Sara Koppelman 5827 Charlotte Pike Nashville, TN 615-354-6454 http://www.s4af.org

I'm a Karen!

YIKES!

Uncork this!

As many of you may already know, I LOVE wine. Jake and I were regular tasters with the Dekalb County Wine Society, (although I think they may have dis-banded?), and you have probably seen the pictures...

I picked up a bottle of this at World Market ages ago because I liked the cowboy on the bottle. I was hooked from the first taste. I never could find it again though, not even at that same store. UNTIL, they were going out of business and they had 1 bottle left. Of course I bought it!! I googled it and here's what I found...

Rebel Wine Co. – The Show Cabernet Sauvignon
Technically speaking, The Show 2005 Cab is 80% Cabernet, the vast majority from Monterey and Paso Robles with a smidgen from Napa, plus 8% Merlot from Monterey, 6% Cab Franc from Napa, 3% Petite Sirah from Dry Creek and 3% Petite Verdot from Napa. The 10,000 cases produced saw French and American oak prior to bottling.
Excellent value ($15). Closure: Real cork. Alcohol content: 13.9%.
Style: Lush, fruit forward, with some oak spice.
Tasting Notes: Appearance: Deep ruby with a purple tint, translucent. Aromas: Black cherry, blackcurrant, vanilla, sweet tobacco and hints of sage flowers. Spicy, moderately tart and medium-bodied, the mouth filling dried red to black fruit and spicy oak flavors lead to a bucking good finish.
Comment: The only watch out is the classy heavyweight bottle. You might think there is still some wine left in it and find yourself empty handed.
You can bet I will be asking our local Gay's Hops and Schnapps to start carrying this one!

Missy Come Home!

My darling Beagle, Missy Wylde has been missing for about a week. I have been devastated! This has happened before as she has a hunkering for getting off her chain when she's outside, but someone close by has always found her and called either us or the shelter. When I came home and found her gone I immediately called the shelter, the vet's office, and the police station. I have yet to get any calls back.

Yesterday when I was driving through Auburn, I glanced over and saw a woman driving a car with a big Irish Setter in the back seat and a long-legged Beagle with a hot pink collar in the front seat. I a 99.99% SURE this was my long-legged Beagle. She was wearing a hot pink collar with a purple name tag hanging from it. So was MY dog!

I doubt there's any chance the person driving that car will read this, but just in case I have to say: Please, PLEASE bring my dog back to me. She may bring joy to you and you may think that's worth keeping her, but also remember that she brought joy to me, and now she is gone.

My Little Darlings

Please ignore the FILTHY floor! Missy and Peanut had been outside all this afternoon playing like crazy and they were both pooped! Aren't the adorable?

WTF? Seriously!

The view of my back yard on this Monday morning April 6, 2009. As I said: WTF?!

Florida Court Sets Atheist Holy Day

In Florida, an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter & Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews & observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized day.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed."

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter & others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur & Hanukkah. Yet my client & all other atheists have no such holidays."

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do, counsel, your client is woefully ignorant." The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is 'April Fools Day.' Psalm 14:1 states 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned!

Guess what I am going to be doing in 164 days...

That's right! METALLICA will be at the Conseco Fieldhouse

in Indianapolis, IN on Thursday, September 17.

You can't tell that I am just a *little* excited, can you?

READ THIS BOOK!

The Innocent by Harlan Coben

My sister, who is not a reader, turned me onto this author. She read his book The Woods and was hooked from then on. She went out and bought all of his books that were in stock at Borders and devoured them in days. (This is the same girl that took 2 years to read The Smoke Jumper!) I read The Woods, and I liked it, but it was nothing that I would write a blog post about. Sunday morning I picked up The Innocent and barely put it down all day. When I turned off the light that night I was 3/4 of the way through it.

Now I am not good at giving quick little blurbs about books that I like because I am bad at just telling what happens so I am not going to say anything except READ IT. If you want a review or a summary, look it up on Amazon. AND, don't just stop with The Innocent. Why not consider joining me in devouring all of Harlan Coben's books just like my sister did! I already have the list printed out and the first ones I am going for are the Myron Bolitar series, because you know how I love series books.

Which brings me to something else I was thinking about the other night. It was probably about a year ago that I posted about how I was going to start posting about books that I am reading and what I think of them. Just in case anyone cares what/who I am reading and what I think of them/it. I haven't really done that, but as I go to the library probably 3 times a week I am really starting to regret that. I have checked out more books that I have already read than I even care to admit to. Of course the ones that I really like (Beach Road, The Quickie being the only ones I did actually post about), or series that I have gotten into (Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich and Kinsey Millhone by Sue Grafton), I remember reading and I can tel you about what happened in them and I don't accidentally re-check them out.

SO, I have typed list of books and authors that I want to read that is about 10 pages long! Most of the books come from recommendations or from the Book Bitches' Blog. Any author that I have been recommended like Harlan Coben, or if I have read something of theirs and really liked it, I have challenged myself to read everything they have written. I have been highlighting my list also to help me keep track, but I am going to try and post something about the books on here too. I will try to spend some time going back through books I have already read and post a little something about them too.

While I am on the subject of my love of reading and books...I just want to say that I am SO HAPPY for my friend Brenda and my sister Kristin!! Brenda wasn't much of a reader, but then I introduced her to Mark from Elizabeth Valdez's Passion and Janet Evanovich's first Stephanie Plum novel One For The Money and she was hooked. She bought a huge lot of Janet Evanovich's paperbacks, and she has started re-reading some of her old favorites and even sharing them with me...but we'll save that for another post! *wink, wink* And just the fact that my sister picked up a book and read the whole thing in an amount of time that she probably didn't forget what it was about before she was done is wonderful in itself. But what is even better with her is that she found a really good author and was finally able to share with me!

Friday Funnies

I took my dad to the mall the other day, to buy some new shoes [he is 92]. We decided to grab a bite at the food court.
I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him. The teenager had spiked hair in all different colors; green, red, orange, and blue. My dad kept staring at him. The teenager would look and find him staring every time.
When the teenager had finally had enough, he sarcastically asked, "What's the matter old man? Never done anything wild in your life?"
Knowing my dad, I quickly swallowed my food, so that I would not choke on his response [knowing he would have a good one].
And, in classic style, he did not bat an eye in his response; "I got drunk once and had sex with a peacock. I was just wondering if you were my son."

And this one is even funnier! Listen to the guy in the middle laugh!

This POOR kid!

I think I would simply kill my parents if they posted something like this of me! Can you imagine growing up as the kid who freaked out on dental medicine on the Internet? Too funny!!

BEWARE!!! WARNING!!! BEWARE!!!

Over the weekend the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden. They loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog Calypso decided that the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk . Half way through the walk, she had a seizure and died instantly.

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company's website, this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.

Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim that 'It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it.' (What is the Hershey Company known famously for making? CHOCOLATE! What is one of the biggest no-no's to feed your pets? CHOCOLATE! What is the name of the mulch in question? COCOA Mulch! What is CHOCOLATE made from? COCOA!)

This Snopes site gives the following information:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp

Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and other Garden supply stores, contains a lethal ingredient called ' Theobromine'. It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks. Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate which is toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.