Another Update On Me

You may be asking yourselves if I’m locking myself in a room and furiously typing out angry blog entries about Cousinfucker day after day.  No, I do it out in the open, right in the living room! I kid.  Before I ever hit publish on my first post I had amassed about 25-30 entries, which is why I’ve been able to update my blog every day so far.  I’m not planning on going anywhere anytime soon but the entries may start to become a little sparser once I’ve run out of entries already written.

Anyway, thanks to the pre-written entries I was able to have a wonderful visit with my mom and her friend and still post every day!  What have I been up to, you may be asking?  Let me tell you.  I think it’s nice to mix up the vitriol with some happiness, don’t you?

Wine!  That’s the first thing I’ve been doing.  We have two wineries within about 20 minutes of me in either direction.  We visited the smaller vineyard Thursday, mainly because they make a delicious Moscato.  I know it’s very in vogue to drink red but I like what I like.  I’m a fruity drinker.  Fruity and tart.  I like frozen strawberry margaritas (any flavor really), vodka and cranberry juice, fruity rum drinks, Long Island Ice Teas, Pomegranate Cosmos, and sweet wine, dammit!  I refuse to apologize for it anymore.  I love Moscato!

We started off the day (afternoon) with a trip to my mom’s favorite store- Dollar Tree.  I can’t mock her because I ended up spending over $30 there.  I bought asparagus, dishwasher detergent, batteries, Valentine’s Day treats for my kids… the list goes on.  Who knew Dollar Tree had so much to offer?  She went in for a card and I came out with over $30 of stuff I absolutely needed!  Then we were on to one of her favorite restaurants in my area.  It serves homemade food and the menu changes each day.  It’s always a surprise, although not really.  I’m sure there is a pattern but I don’t go often enough to unravel that mystery.  Once our bellies were stuffed full with all that yummy homemade cooking we decided to shop a little.  There are quite a few Farmer’s Markets and little shops around the area.  I ended up buying a bunch of whimsical things I did not need.  Buying the Muddy Buddy trail mix was a big fat bust though because I came in today to find that my damn dogs had knocked it off the counter and were gobbling it up!  It is earlier similar to the day I came home to find my gourmet chocolate dipped caramel apple knocked off the table and eaten by a dog.  I still have my micro marshmallows and Chai mix, thankfully.  And we ate the cinnamon rolls before they could.  While we were there someone suggested the wineries. We opted for the closer option (plus- Moscato) and it was very nice.  I’d never been there before but it turns out they have entertainment and food trucks in the summer months.  It sounds like a lot of fun so I’m hoping to go back this spring/summer.  We did a tasting and then had a full glass of wine before heading back home.  I ended up buying 2 bottles of Moscato to take home and I’ve been enjoying a glass each night before I go to bed.

Friday we went to the other winery and did another tasting.  They, too, have a lot of events, including the popular Sip and Paint.  The wine was good but again, I’m more of a sweet wine person and I did the full tasting with all of their reds and whites plus the 2 dessert wines.  They did have a delicious red dessert wine and I ended up buying a bottle of that.  Mainly, I liked what my mom and her friend were having because they went with the fruit tasting.  We did our tasting, grabbed an additional glass of wine (this time I went with the apple infused white wine) and then headed to the restaurant adjoining the tasting room.  I had the best burger I think I’ve ever tasted, along with a delightful brie fondue complete with bread drizzled with honey.  It was sooooo good.

Saturday was spent shopping.  That’s not my idea of a picture perfect afternoon but I have a fifteen year old daughter with a serious shopping habit.  She was in heaven!  My trunk was filled to the brim by the time we got home.  Now, in fairness I did buy 2 sets of pillows and those suckers take up a lot of room.  Plus, I will say my daughter is an excellent shopper.  While Harley’s daughter is picking out $300+ dresses at fancy boutiques my own kid is picking out $5-$20 dresses online from some website that ships from China.  She’s equally thrifty in her favorite stores, always heading off to the clearance racks.  She had been wanting a pair of Michael Kors boots she saw at TJ Maxx the other day and we were going to grab those for her that day.  Instead she decided, “I’m fifteen.  What do I need with Michael Kors boots?”  I’m so proud of that girl!

Sunday we went to church and then took the hour long drive to go to Olive Garden.  Yes, that’s correct.  We have no Olive Garden and the closest one is an hour from us.  Probably more like an hour and ten minutes.  We made the drive, had to wait for 30 minutes and found out Olive Garden offers half price glasses of wine when you have to wait.  I don’t know if that’s particular to our area or if that’s a storewide policy but if you like Olive Garden and you like wine and you hate to wait- check it out!  I ended up having a glass of their lovely Roscato, which as you probably guessed from the name, is a red Moscato.  See?  I like red occasionally!

Yesterday was my mom’s last day with me and we met a friend of mine at another local downtown restaurant.  I hear it’s where all the hipsters hang out.  The important thing is they have good food, excellent lattes and best of all, Mimosas.  This is just a random fact but I like that when they serve their lattes, coffees, chais, whatever, they’re all served in different mugs.  That is, no two mugs look alike.  It’s almost like when they decided to start up the restaurant the owners asked around for any spare coffee mugs anyone might have.  I love it, though.  And the servers kinda flirt with you which is fun because I know I am old enough to be their mother.

Oh, how can I forget this part?  One of my Dollar Tree purchases was an alarm for the door.  I believe I have made reference to CF’s ninja skills in getting in and out of the house without us hearing him.  Now for one measly dollar every time he opens the door a loud, shrieking alarm goes off until the door is shut.  It doesn’t matter how quietly he opens it.  Nope, not at all.  Welcome home, Cousinfucker!