eee!

In case anyone cares, the baby went to sleep easy as pie last night. Hooray! (Because I'm sure you all want to read about my daughter's sleep habits. Heh.)

Yesterday was good. Did the wine festival, which was fun. It was an all-you-can-drink wine fest with about sixty tables, all of which had at least six bottles at them. I didn't drink nearly as much as I normally do at these events, which was fine by me. I didn't want to feel icky for the rest of the day/all day today. We ordered a few bottles, as did my sister-in-law. Then we came home and the Scientist took a nap. Unfortunately during this time I realized that we have no food in our house. I was going to make mac & cheese for VEE because she loves it and will always eat it, but then I realized we have about one tablespoon of butter. Not enough for that. But that IS enough for a grilled cheese sandwich... except we have no bread. We didn't even have enough milk for her. UGH. And I couldn't go out because my car was boxed in (long story, don't ask). So in the end, my sister-in-law ran to McDonald's and got VEE a Happy Meal with milk and apple slices and a cheeseburger. She ate all of the former and only a quarter of the latter. Parental FAIL. Oh well. So needless to say, we're going grocery shopping today.

In movie news, the Scientist went to see Now You See Me with his siblings last night while VEE and I crashed out. He liked it. Earlier this week he and I went to see The Fast and the Furious 6, which was totally redonkulous and a rollicking good time. If you even remotely enjoy action movies, this is worth the money. Not as good as Fast 5, but still a super-fun time.

Oh, and if anyone's interested in seeing photos from our zoo trips (including animatronic dinosaurs), you can find my Flickr set here.

As sad as I an to have now seen the last episode ever of EUREKA, I am very happy with the series finale. What a good, fun show. Also, it deserves more credit for showing that smart people can be fun, smart people can be sexy, and smart people can be of any gender or race. That was probably the most diverse show on TV.

On the bright side, WAREHOUSE 13 starts next week, yay!

I think this weekend the Scientist still start making his own wine. I hope he enjoys doing it.

I think this is the first year that no one on my flist went to SDCC. Just an observation.

Almost done reading CHAMBER OF SECRETS.

That's all I've got.

...the wine blog has been updated. Reviews of lots of different types of wine, as well as our unexpected tour of the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trial.

It was a pretty good weekend for me. Saturday was the debacle that was Sex and the City 2. That one's going down as the worst film of the year. FOR REAL. That night after the Scientist got home, fava_bean stuck around and hung out with us for a while. Her family was off watching the Blackhawks game, which she wasn't interested in. So it was nice to chill with her for a while.

Sunday the Scientist and I met up with his parents, and the four of us went to the Rock & Gem show out at the DuPage County Fairgrounds. His dad goes every year, and this is my second year attending. I really enjoy looking at all of the sparkly gems, and dinosaur fossils (mastodons!), and carved rocks, and beads, and... To sum up, it's the ultimate experience for someone who has "racoon syndrome," or in other words get distracted by shiny things. I ended up purchasing two loose gems, London blue topaz, and having them set as earrings. They're HUGE for studs (3½ carats each), but I don't care because they're pretty. Then the Scientist bought me a ring with red, yellow, and green amber in it, which matches the earrings he bought me on our cruise back in October. And then he also bought me a silver pendant with an amethyst in it, as well as a giant honkin' pendant with either purple topaz or purple quartz in it. And then he surprised me with a tanzanite, which will match the tanzanite earrings he bought when we were in the Bahamas. He's the best, I tell ya. I was sneaky in my own right and bought him an owl statuette, carved out of fossilized ivory. (It's not illegal to sell fossilized ivory, just "fresh" ivory.)

We spent Sunday night at his parents' house for dinner, and we watched a few episodes of Dollhouse, which his father had received for his birthday. I have to say, the idea behind that show still creeps me out. For all the talk about the "dolls" freely choosing to get their minds wiped and becoming "operatives," I'm not seeing that. From what the first aired episode shows, Caroline/Echo is rather forced into becoming a doll. And the idea that she gets her mind wiped so that she can do "missions" or whatever is one thing... until sex and/or murder comes into play. That just doesn't sit right with me. Maybe it gets better, but honestly, I just don't like the concept. Blech.

Sunday we had the Scientist's sister J and fava_bean come over. We planned a trip to Utica to hit up the wineries one last time before fava_bean moves to NYC. Of course, as soon as the girls arrived it started to DOWNPOUR. The weather forecast had called for a 40% chance of "showers" with a chance of a thunderstorm. Bull. It was a solid, torrential downpour for at least three hours. We eventually gave up on waiting for the storm to let up and made a run for the car (with beach towels over our heads for protection). Then we drove for who knows how long through the storm and out to Utica. However, once we were there things started to clear up. We visited Illinois River Winery and August Hill Winery, as well as a little shop outside of town that had tastings. It was a good time. The drive home was blissfully free of rain. Hooray! Then fava went home, and J stuck around and we watched Daybreakers, which continues to be awesome.

And that was my weekend.

The rest of my weekend went pretty well. Saturday we did the wine thing in Oswego, which was nice. There was a chef on hand making pears poached in wine with chocolate ganache, and it was KILLER. And I got to try a new wine they had created for Valentine's Day called "Amore." It smelled like chocolate, and tasted like chocolate port. Yum! When we got home, the Scientist gave me a bottle of it as a Valentine's gift. It seems he had called ahead to put a bottle on reserve for me. Sneaky!

So then we kind of sat around like "What are we gonna do until dinner?" And I decided to give the Scientist his present a day early as well. I bought him a Wii. I know, I know. But it's a twofold gift. I've been putting money aside so that I could get him something nice to celebrate when he got a full-time job. And it just so happened to coincide with Valentine's Day, so I was like "Screw it, he's getting the Wii." So his brother G came over to help us set it up, and soon after he was playing games on it. So the two of us did that for a little while, and then went to Toscana's for dinner. The food there was excellent, especially our appetizer of spinach and rice balls flash-fried and served with sundried tomato aioli. YUM. And we got so much food that we took the leftovers home, and that's lunch today. Hooray! Then we skipped out seeing Wolfman in order to go home and play more Wii. That was a wise decision, I think.

Sunday I woke up to find he'd not only made me breakfast, but he'd snuck out and bought me a dozen roses. Awwww. Then he had to go to a meeting at the theater. Boooo. I did some cleaning while he was gone and chatted with xica_s for the first time in forever. Then he came home and more Wii was played. He did boxing for a good twenty minutes (and says he's feeling it in his arms today), and then I discovered I'm actually decent at golf. Who knew? Not me! I then did some grocery shopping, talked to my parents, and then the Scientist and I updated the wine blog. From there we headed over to his parents' house, caught the last half of Survivors on BBC America, played Skip-Bo with J, and had dinner. It was a good day.

And now I'm back at work, so that's that.

***

In other news, it seems that good old RPattz has created a media firestorm over his "I'm allergic to vaginas" comment in Details. I will say, if this is a well-calculated move on his part to alienate the rabid fans then good job, kid. But I still love is this comment from a CNN reader:

"Little does this pretentious little dork know, most vagina (the grown-up variety that isn't 13 and brainwashed by media) is likely allergic to him."

Bwa ha ha ha ha! Priceless.

My sister-in-law loaned me her copy of Twilight for the second time for me to watch. (The first time we tried, the DVD had scratches.) I'm sorry to everyone who loves it, but you should probably stop reading right now, because this movie is KILLING ME. Honest to God, I think I've called deeablo about four times while watching this, either in peals of laughter or groaning in pain. Really, Bella? Really, Edward? REALLY, Stephanie Meyers? Just... REALLY??????????

Please, someone tell me that "You better hang on tight, spider monkey" is a direct quote from the book. Because otherwise I'm going to have to track down the screenwriter and simultaneously bitchslap her and thank her for the LOLs.

There just isn't enough wine in the world to get through this movie in one take.

This summer cold has kicked my butt eight ways to Sunday. Seriously, it's been bad. Last night I was so tired, I didn't even watch Project Runway. I know, right? Bah. When the Scientist got home from work last night, he found me passed out in bed and covered in Vick's Vap-O-Rub. That stuff may stink, but it sure helps. I woke up and he gave me some decongestant, some pill to make me sleep (boy, did I ever!), a cold compress for my forehead, and a warm compress for my cheek where it was swollen from sinus pain. Man, he is the best.

Thankfully, today I'm feeling much better. I'm still mildly congested, but my body is working through it. So I should be up and running at full speed tomorrow, just in time for the weekend. Yay! I think that tomorrow fava_bean may come over to watch Point Break with me. (Hey, it's the only Swayze movie I own, people. And it's awesome.) Then on Sunday, the Scientist and I are hitting up the Vintage Illinois wine festival out at Starved Rock State Park. It's the biggest wine fest in the state, and there will be wineries from all over Illinois coming to this. We're just planning to hit up the ones from Southern Illinois, as we can't get to those easily. This will be the last fling of wine season, and I'm looking forward to it.

What else? Last night I watched The Vampire Diaries while on the phone with deeablo. Man, that show is BORING when Ian Somerhalder is offscreen. Seriously, he makes that show. What amazes me is that Paul Wesley (formerly Wasilewski -- I still miss misspelling that name) was so charismatic as Lucas Luthor on Smallville, and was fun to watch in Fallen, and supposedly quite good during his stint on Everwood as well. Unfortunately, this show just sucks all the life right out of him. As for the lead girl... I just don't like her. I really find this show just so dull when it's about Stefan and Elena. Just bring on Ian Somerhalder already, and let him be an asshole. At least he's fun to watch!

This was a nice weekend. Friday night I honestly don't remember what I did. I think the Scientist and I just hung out around the house, watched Eureka, etc.

On Saturday he went to work, and fishdoctorpost came out to visit. I was like "I don't know what we'll do until the Scientist gets home." It ended up that we talked for something like three hours, nonstop. Heh. Then he came home, we introduced her to The Middleman and ate salsa, and then hung out some more. fava_bean was running late, so we had dinner without her. Bison burgers = mmmmm! Then the Scientist had to go back to work at the theater (back to school party for the college kids) around 11, so he took fishdoctorpost back to the train.

Yesterday we woke up early (especially for him, as he only got four hours of sleep). We picked up his sister J and fava, and then headed down to the Peoria area for a wine trip. First we stopped at Mackinaw Valley Vineyard, which was very pretty and has a lovely outdoor area complete with a stage for bands. From there, we drove through crazy rainstorms on our way to Kickapoo Creek Winery outside of Peoria. We had tried their chocolate strawberry wine at the Oswego wine fest earlier this year and all loved it. It tastes like chocolate-covered strawberries thrown in a blender. Amazing. Anyway, it turns out they were having a grape stomping competition that we didn't know about (not on the website), and we had to pay $5 a head to get in. However, this covered all of our tastings, so we more than made up for it. Then we drove through Peoria, through a town called Eureka (which is not even close to the Eureka on TV), and headed north to Utica. August Hill Winery is there, and the Scientist and I went there over Valentine's Day. Unfortunately we got there five minutes before closing, so we couldn't try anything, but we did buy a few bottles we liked when we were there before. Then we came home, dropped off fava, had dinner at his parents' house, and came home and collapsed into bed by 9:00. LAME. But it felt good to sleep.

This weekend marked our one-year wedding anniversary. The Scientist had to work Friday night and Saturday during the day, but Saturday night when he got home we took off for Chicago. One of our first dates was going to Greek Islands restaurant in Greektown, so we decided to hit up Greektown again. We went to Parthenon this time, and the food was wonderful. After that we came home, cracked open at 20-something-year-old bottle of wine and watched a romcom together.

Sunday morning we got up and went to Sweet Tomatoes for breakfast (we had a coupon). We filled up on biscuits & gravy and breakfast burritos, and all was well. Then we hopped in the car to road trip out to the country. We headed towards DeKalb and went to a town called Genoa, which is tiny and absolutely charming. The Prairie State Winery is there, and the guy working was really helpful and nice. We got a few bottles, including their Recession Noir, which not only tastes good, but has a great label and money from the sale of each bottle goes to the local Salvation Army. From there we headed south towards DeKalb, stopping in Sycamore to visit the Sycamore Winery. Unfortunately their wines weren't very good. Both the Scientist and I think that some of their wines had gone bad. We had heard (both on the website and from the guy at Prairie State) that the family that runs this winery was having health problems, and they were looking to get out of the business. I think because of that we felt obligated to buy, kind of out of pity. Luckily their pink grapefruit and pomegranate wines were good, so we got those. THEN we headed way south of DeKalb to a winery in the middle of nowhere. Waterman Winery is the only winery in northern Illinois to actually grow all their own grapes and fruits. Their winery is in their barn, next to all the giant John Deere tractors. The couple working were extremely nice, and talked with us for at least a half hour. Then the husband took us out to the other barn where they do all their winemaking to show us around. He even pointed out the different vines in the fields to tell us which ones make which wines. It was really interesting. When he found out it was our anniverary, he gave us complementary glasses of their watermelon wine. Very nice. THEN we drove to Geneva, which is one of the farthest western suburbs of Chicago. There was another winery there (a satellite location for a big winery close to Iowa), so we tried some more wine there and bought a few more bottles.

Needless to say, we are fully stocked when it comes to wine now.

We got home, and the Scientist took a nap while I watched TV. Then we went to Clara's for dinner. Clara's is this tiny Italian place near our house. They make all their own pasta, and it's WONDERFUL. The Scientist took me there for our first official date, and we haven't been back since. So I figured this was a good reason to return. The food was absolutely awesome. I couldn't finish it all, so guess what I'm having for dinner?

Today I am staying home from work to hang out with the Scientist. I had pre-approved this absence with my boss, so it's all good. I have no idea what we're going to do today, though. Originally we were hoping to go to the Oriental Institute, but they're closed Mondays. Then we were thinking of going to the Lincoln Park Zoo, but it's rainy and chilly. So I don't know what we'll be doing. We'll think of something. Right now he's downstairs making biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Mmmmm.

Anyway, it's been a great weekend. And it's been a great Year One. Despite having a whole bunch of bad shit thrown our way, this has been an absolutely wonderful year, and I've never been happier. :D

ETA: The Scientist is now putting our anniversary gift to use: a new Dyson vacuum. My parents and yakgirl went in to give us money for it, and combine that with the 20% off coupon that yakgirl sent, we only spent $140 on it! Nice. So the Scientist has been having fun sucking up cat hair and trying to attack me with the vacuum hose. Heh.

Thanks to yakgirl for the tip.

NPH on Sesame Street as the Shoe Fairy.

***

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday night the Scientist and I headed up to see my parents in Michigan. On Saturday we took off to see my grandma, which just wasn't good. We followed that up by going to the Michigan Wine & Harvest Festival in Paw Paw, which was a lot of fun. Both St. Julian and Warner Vineyards were open and hosting free tastings. We had a lot of wine. A LOT. I tried about eight different kinds at Warner, and then pretty much ever kind they had at St. Julian. We walked away with many bottles of wine, and a really awesome buzz. On me, that is. He was just fine. That night we ended up giving my parents a few bottles, so we had to stop again on the way home today. We got a few more. Whoops. We also drove my dad back to Chicagoland, as he was picking up his new 1980 white Corvette T-top. He's a happy guy, I'm sure. Next time we go to visit, he's promised us rides.

Oh, and fall is officially on its way. Not only are the leaves starting to change color, but last night I had pumpkin ice cream. Wooooo! You know what that means? Pumpkin spice latte season will soon be upon us (if it's not already -- I've put off checking just because I know it will sap my wallet dry).