Not Your Cheese

I had a frozen thing for lunch today. I mean, it wasn't frozen after I put it in the microwave, but it was when I bought it at the store. As I usually do when I eat one of these delicacies for lunch, I went to the snack machine in the hallway to get a bag of chips. If you know me, you know I love me some Doritos.

So, I go to the machine with my dollar. Yes, a bag of chips costs a dollar in our new machine. Which is a rip off, but also better than going out in the cold to go buy a bag at the store. And it's not like I could buy a big bag assuming it would last longer. While it is much more cost-effective, I will eat the entire freaking thing in less than an hour because I have the self control of a wombat* and the appetite of a velociraptor.

Anyway, I go to buy my Nacho Cheese Doritos. All is fine and dandy - unlike our old machine, this one rarely tries to keep your chips by getting them stuck on its innards, and for that, we usually get along well. The chips drop to the bottom, I retrieve them happily, and am about to go back to my desk to feast when I see the following:

Cool Ranch Doritos! And it's not that I didn't notice them in a different spot - they were lurking behind the Nacho Cheese ones where I couldn't see them. What the eff, Vending Machine Stocker Guy - who in their right mind puts a DIFFERENT flavor behind the other flavor? What if I wanted those instead? And, I did! If I had known they were there, I would've pestered coworkers until they went and bought the Nacho Cheese Doritos and got them out of my damn way, and I would've had those lovely Cool Ranch ones. Not that Nacho Cheese aren't great - they are one of the world's most perfect foods - but I wanted Cool Ranch. Damn you, Vending Machine Man! (And don't tell me I should've bought both - read above to see what happens when I am around large amounts of Doritos. It's much better for everyone if there is a definitive amount that I have access to.)

Arrgh. I swear, lunch = ruined. All because of the Vending Machine Man's trickery.

*Wombats have very little self control. In case you were wondering.

He Always Had Some Mighty Fine Wine

After Saturday's trip back in time, Ken and I took to celebrating her birthday on Sunday. This involved a number of very important activities. The first one consisted of me trying to convince McKenna that she would make a good hat:

Sadly, McKenna did not agree, so hatless I went off to church with Ken, where they provided celebratory materials for Ken and the other churchgoer whose birthday was that day. They also all sang Happy Birthday to both of the birthday girls, which was very sweet of them.

After church, we headed out on our merry way to go winery-hopping up the side of Lake Cayuga. The first winery, Americana Vineyards, was a particularly appropriate stop given the holiday.

They also had a cafe, so we were able to get brunch before we started tasting. If you're ever in the area, I would highly recommend the smoked salmon omelette and the pimosa (a mimosa made with pineapple juice instead of orange juice).

Our meal was supervised by Theo, the winery cat. He spent the entire meal underneath the chair next to Ken, and seemed quite perturbed that we were disturbing his nap.

There were also a pair of chocolate labs roaming the grounds, keeping the winery safe from trouble.

The wine itself was very good. Some better than others, but that's standard for most wineries.

All of the bottles had very cute patriotic labels, and would make very good gifts. I would highly recommend the Revolutionary Red.

Next, we traveled a short while to Bellwether Hard Cider, which produces a variety of hard ciders.

This place was awesome. All of their ciders were great, and we left with several bottles. I am waiting for a good reason to open them, particularly the Cherry Street variety. The cidery was also run by two dogs, including the unfortunately-named Sugie, who seemed to be quite put out by all of these people disturbing his naptime.

Soon we left Bellwether and traveled to Lucas Vineyards, the oldest winery on the Cayuga Wine Trail.

This winery was super crowded, but we were still able to get a place at the tasting counter fairly quickly. They featured a number of wines, including quite a few with nautical-themed names. Apparently the founder was a tugboat captain. Despite some pretty good sales, we left this place empty-handed, as we had already bought far too much at the two previous places. On the way out, though, we did stop to visit some baby wine grapes.

The last winery we visited was called Sheldrake Point. This one was the closest to the lake, and boasted the best view.

This one also featured a great variety of wines, most of which we tasted. More importantly, this one had a bistro overlooking the lake, so we decided to take a dessert break. The menu at this cafe was great, and the drink menu was even better. Ken drove, so she had a lavender lemonade, and I had this lovely concotion that was called a Champagne Supernova.

On the way back home, I was able to get some good pictures of the boats on the lake.

After a mini-siesta at home, where we caught the end of 1776 on TCM, we headed back out to dinner at Corks and More. This place? Coolest place ever. They had machines like this throughout the restaurant, where you could purchase either a taste, a half glass, or a full glass of over 40 different wines. Between the two of us, we probably tasted about 3/4 of the wines they had.

Corks and More also had a great menu of appetizer-sized portions of various bits of awesomeness, including about 12 different crostini recipes,

a cheese tray with prosciutto,

and shrimp stuffed with crab and cornbread.

There were also quite a few fashion violations here, including a gentleman wearing jorts, sandals, and pulled up sweatsocks; and a gentleman sitting outside on the patio drinking a Miller Lite. Now, there's nothing wrong with Miller Lite, but good lord, you're at a wine bar. Drink wine! His dining companion was rather like me - she kept taking pictures of everything and everyone, and managed to do so all while holding and not spilling her wine.

After dinner, we went down to a park by the lake to wander around. Ken wanted to take a picture of herself in her super cool new Anthropologie dress, and I just like to take pictures of things. I also like to play fashion model, too, although sitting on that post was not a good choice. This is me almost falling off of said post.

I was able to get some good shots of the lighthouse in the distance, though, which was a lovely way to end the evening.

And then we went home, and decided that since McKenna didn't want to be my hat, she would get a new hat of her own. The contempt in her eyes when this happens never ceases to amuse me.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

As you most likely know, there was a bit of snow here last weekend. And by "a bit," I mean "like two feet." It started late Friday night as Tricia and I were coming home from the movies (side note - Up In the Air was a commendable, if not particularly happy, film. I'd highly recommend it.), and while the roads weren't bad yet, it was only a matter of time. The snow continued overnight, and by Saturday morning, my yard looked like this:

By noontime, Kathy was so bored that she made the trek over from her apartment. I made her measure the snow (9 inches at this point) before I'd let her inside.

She was so bored that she even offered to shovel my front walk.

She came inside after that, and I let her watch me make cookies. Don't ask me why the picture is flipped sideways...I blame Blogger.

After a few hours, you could barely tell that the walk had been shoveled.

The snow was up to 16 inches by then.Kathy re-shoveled the walk, because she is awesome.

By dusk, the snow was up to over 20 inches. It made the cars look like Snow Beasts.The snow stopped by the next morning, and the sun was out. Kathy and her shovel and I and my awesome snowbrush attacked the Snow Beasts.

We started with my car.

After awhile, the snowbrush got a bit saturated, but we didn't let that stop us.

We walked over to Kathy's to free her car too. That giant pile of snow on top? That's how much we got. Craziness.

Once we finished, I worked on Sunday's culinary boredom-killer: peppermint cupcakes with mint chocolate icing, as iced with the cupcake decorator Tricia gave me for Christmas. Even though my coworkers didn't get to eat them until Tuesday because everything was closed on Monday (yay snow day!), they still received rave reviews.

That's What She Said, Installment 4

Stolen from Ken, who found this in an old recipe book:
Lovely. I'm sure lots of people want to attend when you tell them that you're serving balls at your party.

Beach Blanket Bingo (Day 6) [a.k.a. Cinderella Story]

Thursday the weather was much nicer. Uncle Ray and I started the day by going to a Par 3 golf course in Rehoboth.

We got there pretty early, and it wasn't too croweded. A very nice lady helped us get settled, and we started on the putting green before moving to the driving range. Uncle Ray is full of golf knowledge, and also tips on how to be cheap. For instance, did you know you shouldn't ever buy new golf balls? They're always lying around golf courses to be taken, just like toilet paper. (To be fair, he was talking about used golf balls you can get in the shop, and not used toilet paper. I hope.)

Then, we went to the actual course. I discovered that I played really well when he told people that I was new to the sport. Not so much when there was no one around, though. And then it got really hot and we both started to suck.

After 9 holes, we headed back to Bethany, stopping at Wawa to get a drink, because it was wretchedly hot.

After cooling off, we headed down to the beach. Everyone else had been there all day, so they had gotten some really nice beach hair, as demonstrated by David in this picture.

After beach time, we showered and headed over to Uncle Fred's to pick up him, Aunt Mary Lou, and Michele for dinner.

We headed out to a restaurant in Rehoboth that Aunt Mary Lou wanted to try. It turned out to be a wine bar that featured local food on Thursdays.

The restaurant was really good - I had a ridiculously good prime rib burger, melon sangria, and a glass of red zinfandel. Other meals in our group included Kobe beef strip steak, veal chop, and tile fish. All were very good - others in the group voted this the best restaurant experience of the trip, and while I didn't agree, I did enjoy the place greatly. I'd highly recommend it to anyone in Rehoboth who didn't want to drive to Bethany to go to Bluecoast. Except for one thing - if you happen to get a salt shaker that is clogged, be forewarned that the tops do not screw off. And definitely don't send your great uncle out to the car for pliers to try to make the salt shaker open, because while the salt shaker will definitely open, you will spend the rest of the meal hoping your salted food doesn't have shards of glass in it.

After dinner, we headed back to Uncle Fred's house to hang out for awhile. There was talk of more Polish Horseshoes, but it was too late and dark to play, so we just talked and drank Firefly and lemonade. And I got divebombed by a cicada as I was leaving...the stupid thing got to second base with me, and chirped happily as I swatted him away. Stupid bug.

Beach Blanket Bingo (Day 5) [a.k.a. Sundae Will Never Be the Same]

Wednesday was an eventful day. Weather forecasts predicted scattered thunderstorms all day, so my mother headed down to the beach early to stake out an area for whatever sunshine there would be. She remarked how much she missed Niki and Derek because Derek helps her take things down to the beach early. She missed them for other reasons too, like because they're awesome, of course.

It was pretty cloudy over the ocean,

but you could see the clearer skies coming from the west.

Unfortunately, that sun didn't last too long - the rain and thunder started by noontime. My mother had already departed to go to lunch with Aunt Mary Lou, but the rest of us were left to our own devices for the afternoon. This explains why I wrote, like, four blog posts that day...we were a little bored. I also finished the fifth season of The Sopranos. A productive afternoon, if I do say so myself. That evening, we headed out to dinner. Pay no attention to my hair; this is what happens about 60% of the time when I let it air dry.

We went to a restaurant about 5 or 10 minutes away called the Fat Tuna Grill. We've been there before, but it had been a few years.

The food was very good - I got penne (or peenie, as my Uncle Ray pronounces it) with pesto, sundried tomatoes, shrimp, and scallops, which gave me enough for lunch leftovers. After dinner, we headed down to the boardwalk again.

We ran into Maura and Justin, who had escaped their parents and the rest of the entourage at Grotto Pizza to say hello.

And we succeeded in locating different types of ice cream. David got custard, my dad got Dippin' Dots,

and my mother and I went to Candy Kitchen. Sadly, they didn't have vanilla ice cream, so she bought peanut butter fudge instead. But I visited the Make-Your-Own-Sundae bar, the happiest place on the beach. I didn't make it for lunch, Niki, but at least I made it for dessert! We missed you!

There were a number of other sights on the Boardwalk that night, including multicolored hermit crabs,

and multicolored shoes.

The pending thunderstorm combined with the sunset to create some very pretty multicolored clouds, too.

Unfortunately, it started to storm soon after David found those pretty shoes in that store, so we headed back to the house to watch Role Models, a cinematic masterpiece if there ever was one.