I like wine.

A day that ends with a glass of wine is fun. A day that ends with a box of wine delivered to your front door is awesome.  A box containing two bottles of wine is delivered to us once a month from wine.com. My cousin Angela’s wedding gift to Brent and me was a monthly subscription to their wines of the month club. Her thoughtfulness has become one of our most favorite presents! On Friday afternoon I was delighted to find two “wines of the world,” one red and one white, waiting for me when I came home. Both are safely stowed away in my wine fridge (another favorite gift, this one from my sweet husband), waiting to be uncorked during an upcoming special occasion.

If you’re looking for a wine-filled end to your day and you haven’t been blessed with a door-to-door delivery,
Square Deal Wine Company is my favorite neighborhood wine shop.  They sell “wines made for slurping,” collected from small vineyards in Oregon, the US and around the world. Average bottle price is between 15 and 20 bucks, but the real deal is their monthly 6 for $66 special. November’s collection is all Spanish and the bottle that I’ve already consumed was very tasty. 

I like visiting the shop. Mostly what I know about wine is that I like to drink it, so I love that I can walk in and tell the sommelier what we’re having for dinner and walk out with the perfect bottle. They offer tastings on most weekend days AND Steve’s Cheese is located within the shop. Sign up for their newsletter to find out about the monthly wine special and their events. Earlier this year we spent an afternoon tasting and then watched Steve cut an 80 lb. weel of parmesan. Very fun.

Wherever it comes from, I hope you’re drinking wine and enjoying life. If you have a wine recommendation, please share. I’m always looking for new wine adventures. Wine is fun.

[Via http://myllisa.com]

24

“You’re some kind of weird gold that wants to stay melted in the furnace,
so you won’t have to become coins.” — Rumi

===

Turning wine into water:
Why would you do that? Rob says

from a kitchen table where he’s hooked
up to Skype and earphones, night’s old

street blinds, bike reflectors, Germany.
He doesn’t believe Jesus could do

that. I admit, my Bible didn’t mention
opposite directions, and I can’t right any

dance if I learn it left. Nate’s baby must
by now be shaking loose, but once we

watched him rocking on linoleum, stuck
zooming back. Future meteor on rewind.

[Via http://winterfat.wordpress.com]

I Am

This was one of my first ever spoken word pieces….enjoy

I vibe off a thought try to write a little poetry
Wont put my name on it but still you know it’s me
Subject, flow, timing, vocabulary
Hints of emotion, lo and behold you know it’s me

The plain and simple
The unspectacular
Till I fight into your senses
With adjectives to back me up
Against a wall of truth
I survive on the unseen eternal fruits

You see I have an underground vineyard
Everything I produce connoisseurs wanna sample the
Laboured for fruits of my youth
In a quake off the Richter scale my roots wouldn’t move
And I have nothing to prove for I’m that deep

Reluctantly fashionable I only work for big companies yet its not big company I keep
And I hold real not prototyped hyped new age beliefs

I am the topside of a chocolate digestive
Provoking gluttonous lusts yet the most resisted
So I take calculated risks if victory exists
And at the site of beauty I just lick my lips
For its just its…
The don king of moments
The little bit of crazy that everyone goes with

The versatile black that flows with any outfit
Make gold look good
Softly spoken realist
Spiritual apprentice
I was bought by love
Will never be rented
I AM

[Via http://poetic7poetry.wordpress.com]

That was original...

Ok, this is not Domestic Goddess kind of stuff, but it’s just so damned funny, I had to share.

I have two children whom I love more than anything else on this planet.  They are the most precious gifts I have ever had the privilege of receiving.  They are exactly one week shy of being three years apart.  They are best friends one minute and mortal enemies the next.  Last year we bought our son a double bed and sometimes on weekends they like to have ’sleepovers’ and camp together in his bed.  It’s fun for them, kind of like a mini-vacation.

So tonite I tell them if they wanna do a sleepover, I”m cool with it.  As long as I don’t hear a lot of racket coming from them and they actually go to sleep.  Fat chance.  I hear some noise, and then I hear my daughter start crying and calling me.  I go  upstairs to see what the commotion is and she’s upset because my boy has called her a name.  What name did he call her? Nothing that I’ve ever heard, I think it’s his own original creation.

“Mom, Spencer called me a….(sniff sniff) he called me a ….(more sniffing for theatrical/drama purposes) butt crack.’

“You called her a what??”

‘But mom she was…”

“It doesn’t matter what she was doing.  I never want to hear that come from either one of you.  If I do, you will be getting your mouth washed out with soap.  Am I clear?”

“yes, ma’am.’

Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a straight face when you’re scolding someone for doing something,  but it’s so freaking funny and you don’t want them to see that, because it’s encouraging the behavior?  Yeah, it’s really tough, hence a post about name calling on a domestic blog.

A little peek into my life.  I promptly removed my daughter back to her own bed and came downstairs to a lovely, wonderful waiting glass of Cabernet. Aaah.  That’s better.

[Via http://1domesticgoddess.wordpress.com]

K&L "Best Seller" List: Makin' life easy

K&L Wine Merchants

A while ago, I expressed my delight in discovering that K&L Wine Merchants not only carries some hard-to-find, special occasion wines, but also has a great under-$20 wine selection.  (Click here for the story).  As I gear up to host friends for the holidays, I wanted to pick up a few extra bottles, and was wondering how I would go about finding some new and interesting wines.

Someone must read my mind, because the next day I received this handy email:  a list of K&L’s “best sellers.”   K&L 11-18-2009 Repeat Purchase List

Ever just buy one bottle of wine, and then–after tasting it–you run back to the store to buy a couple more of the same? Turns out K&L keeps tabs on these repeat purchases, and has compiled a list of wines that 20 or more customers have come back to buy.  And even better:  there are a ton of great bargains, including many wines in the $10-$15 bottle range.  And, as always, K&L has compiled the professional reviews, along with their own comments about each wine, making it easy to find something (or in my case, many things) that would be great additions to you wine rack.

Only thing that would make this easier would be a spreadsheet so you could sort by region, varietal, or price.  But given all this great info, its hard to really complain!

[Via http://sfwine.wordpress.com]

Sydney fun

After we got back to circular quey we decided to go for a walk through the botanic gardens. Standing outside a bottle-o Ben (jokingly) suggested we get a bottle of wine for the gardens. Hehe, so I dragged him into the store, and we got a bottle of wine.
We spent hours in the gardens, so much so that we hot locked in! So we jumped the fence, perhaps not the best idea we’ve ever had but fun none the less.
We headed on back toward the train station. On the way to grabbing some dinner at a nice quiet pub, we saw a really cool christmas tree. It was made from 7000 unwanted blue and green plastic bottles! So pretty.

[Via http://crystalslife.wordpress.com]

Escape from the Holidays on Dec. 4

I’m excited to be a part of a unique Holiday Escape event hosted by Rivercity Pilates in Coralville on Friday, Dec. 4. All you have to do is show up, and bring a friend or two (or more). You’ll get some complimentary refreshments and get a taste of the good life in your skin, in your body and of course, in your photos and more!

So mark it on your calendars now before you get sucked into the holiday shopping craziness!