Josh left me for a month. He went to Oregon to do an FP sub-internship and live with my parents, and eat my mom's cooking, and hang out with my friends. I do get to head out there next weekend, but other than that I won't see him until Thanksgiving in Houston. So now I'm living on my own.
I think I have successfully filled my time so far. I winterized our backyard and went to Oktoberfest with Ashley on Saturday. I've been taking Ada for walks at Woodward Park and working on a couple priority sewing projects. Small group at Dave and Ruth's is awesome on Mondays, and I bet they wouldn't mind if I came by slightly more often than that.
I was a little worried about cooking for one, but I came up with a brilliant solution: soup.
You can make a pot of soup at the beginning of the week, and it can feed one person (who doesn't mind eating the same thing over and over again) for days. Since he had to leave, I'm glad Josh went in the fall because soup in the fall is fantastic. I'm on night three of minestrone right now and I have a pot of chicken tortilla soup planned. I make a mean creamy-turkey soup, and I want to try my hand at butternut squash soup. I had some in Eureka Springs last week (at the Lovin' Oven!) with roasted squash seeds on top, and it was one of the best things ever.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Official Announcement
Oktoberfest is the best Tulsa festival for people watching.
There is one important quality that bumped it over Tulsa State Fair people watching: drunk people are funny. Everyone was everybody's friend; everyone danced the chicken dance; everyone was smiling and chatty - it was great. They had an impressive selection of beer including 3 varieties from Boulevard, Shiner bock, Stella, and a dark lager from that German brand that starts with a W (sorry, it's escaping me now). If you, like me, aren't a big beer drinker, go anyway! Designated Drivers get free water and soda, you can get some bratwurst or strudel, and you can watch (and party with) some of the friendliest, happiest festival-goers in Tulsa.
Best: The guy in the German band whose job it was to yell randomly during the songs. I'm pretty sure he was wearing three sets of suspenders, and yelled excitedly into the mic no matter what song was playing. Also, you can bring your dog!
Worst: A pint is $7, yikes!
There is one important quality that bumped it over Tulsa State Fair people watching: drunk people are funny. Everyone was everybody's friend; everyone danced the chicken dance; everyone was smiling and chatty - it was great. They had an impressive selection of beer including 3 varieties from Boulevard, Shiner bock, Stella, and a dark lager from that German brand that starts with a W (sorry, it's escaping me now). If you, like me, aren't a big beer drinker, go anyway! Designated Drivers get free water and soda, you can get some bratwurst or strudel, and you can watch (and party with) some of the friendliest, happiest festival-goers in Tulsa.
Best: The guy in the German band whose job it was to yell randomly during the songs. I'm pretty sure he was wearing three sets of suspenders, and yelled excitedly into the mic no matter what song was playing. Also, you can bring your dog!
Worst: A pint is $7, yikes!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Festival Fail
Don't ever go to the Stone Bluff Wine Festival. We went with the Ibanezes this weekend and we all agreed it was awful. First of all, you have to pay $5 per person just for the privilege of standing on their muddy lawn looking at the few things there are to do. You can only look, because each of those things to do charged an additional fee. Other wine festivals that have an entry fee at least give you free food or five free tastings or something. Stone Bluff didn't even provide something to taste from. You had to buy a poorly made, ugly wine glass for $4 and then pay $1 per scanty taste of wine. They probably made more money off of a tasting bottle than they would have just selling it regularly. Also, the volunteers that poured the wine were extra cranky and getting any information out of them about the wines you were tasting was like pulling teeth...from an annoyed buffalo. Yikes!
Finally, in our opinion, the wine was bad. They were all too sickly sweet and syrupy, like when you don't add the appropriate amount of water to your Kool-Aid. Their dryest wine, the Syrah, was okay but is what we usually consider a middle-of-the-road wine. The Terre Rouge tasted like your grandmother's perfume and smelled worse.
If ever you find yourself heading out to Stone Bluff, do yourself a favor, turn left rather than right and visit the Lavender Hills Vineyard instead. They were awesome. We pulled up and they said, "Here are the four wines we are tasting for free today. We even have cups you can use!" Their wines fit our preferences much better, having flavors other than sugar. Their Sweet Red was delicious, not too sweet, and had nice spicy flavors. As the lady said, "You could drink this wine all day. You could get drunk off this wine. I am." Loved her!
Inside their store, they had wine-a-ritas (wine slushies) and gave us generous free samples. Plus, they are also a lavender farm so they had bundles of lavender, soaps, and lotions for sale that all smelled awesome. The Ibanezes bought three bottles of wine, I bought some lavender, and we all left feeling much better about our afternoon.
When Josh and I have our vineyard, we know whose example we'll follow.
Finally, in our opinion, the wine was bad. They were all too sickly sweet and syrupy, like when you don't add the appropriate amount of water to your Kool-Aid. Their dryest wine, the Syrah, was okay but is what we usually consider a middle-of-the-road wine. The Terre Rouge tasted like your grandmother's perfume and smelled worse.
If ever you find yourself heading out to Stone Bluff, do yourself a favor, turn left rather than right and visit the Lavender Hills Vineyard instead. They were awesome. We pulled up and they said, "Here are the four wines we are tasting for free today. We even have cups you can use!" Their wines fit our preferences much better, having flavors other than sugar. Their Sweet Red was delicious, not too sweet, and had nice spicy flavors. As the lady said, "You could drink this wine all day. You could get drunk off this wine. I am." Loved her!
Inside their store, they had wine-a-ritas (wine slushies) and gave us generous free samples. Plus, they are also a lavender farm so they had bundles of lavender, soaps, and lotions for sale that all smelled awesome. The Ibanezes bought three bottles of wine, I bought some lavender, and we all left feeling much better about our afternoon.
When Josh and I have our vineyard, we know whose example we'll follow.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Scots vs. Greeks
Two weeks ago we went to the Scottish Games (SGs) and last weekend we went to the Greek Festival. I'm just going to declare right now that Greeks totally win this battle.
The SGs got a little pricy as we had to pay for parking and an entry fee. Not so with the Greeks! (But Susan told me that if you ride your bike in the back way to River Park they let you come in to the SGs without paying).
The park where the SGs were held was waaaaay too big for the little amount they had going on, which made it look sparse and unexciting. They did have a Master-Scotch-Drinker there (really, he's one of five in the world) giving lessons about scotch and tastes for $15 which was easily the best part of the festival. The games were remarkably unexciting. I could only watch people pitch bags of oats and throw telephone poles for so long before I lost interest. There was a herding contest that was pretty cool, though.
There were dancers at both festivals, and they were pretty similar in that there's a lot of fancy foot-work, but not a lot of torso movement. The Greeks totally win this round because the Scottish dancers looked bored while their feet were a-tapping, but the Greek dancers were hooping and hollering and having a great time.
There wasn't much at the Greek Festival aside from food. But let's be honest and say that's why you go to the festival anyway. We didn't try any Scottish food at the SGs because it was all so expensive. That and it was sold state-fair-style along with indian tacos, so it didn't seem very authentic. At the GF you could watch the Greek ladies making your food right there. They had Spinach Pies for $1, Greek Coffee for $1, and Honey Puffs (awesome) 8 for $2 (the lady gave us 10!). The gyros, shish kabobs, and lamb were all more expensive, but totally worth it if you want to spend the money.
Lastly, the Scots may have turned the tables if they didn't discriminate and say only Scottish breed dogs were allowed. We saw that and didn't bring Ada, even though the Scots and Japanese are best friends. Seriously, Japan is the only other country Scotland will allow to call their whisky "Scotch." We didn't bring her, but we should have because I saw Rottweilers in there. Are those Scottish? (No.)
The SGs got a little pricy as we had to pay for parking and an entry fee. Not so with the Greeks! (But Susan told me that if you ride your bike in the back way to River Park they let you come in to the SGs without paying).
The park where the SGs were held was waaaaay too big for the little amount they had going on, which made it look sparse and unexciting. They did have a Master-Scotch-Drinker there (really, he's one of five in the world) giving lessons about scotch and tastes for $15 which was easily the best part of the festival. The games were remarkably unexciting. I could only watch people pitch bags of oats and throw telephone poles for so long before I lost interest. There was a herding contest that was pretty cool, though.
There were dancers at both festivals, and they were pretty similar in that there's a lot of fancy foot-work, but not a lot of torso movement. The Greeks totally win this round because the Scottish dancers looked bored while their feet were a-tapping, but the Greek dancers were hooping and hollering and having a great time.
There wasn't much at the Greek Festival aside from food. But let's be honest and say that's why you go to the festival anyway. We didn't try any Scottish food at the SGs because it was all so expensive. That and it was sold state-fair-style along with indian tacos, so it didn't seem very authentic. At the GF you could watch the Greek ladies making your food right there. They had Spinach Pies for $1, Greek Coffee for $1, and Honey Puffs (awesome) 8 for $2 (the lady gave us 10!). The gyros, shish kabobs, and lamb were all more expensive, but totally worth it if you want to spend the money.
Lastly, the Scots may have turned the tables if they didn't discriminate and say only Scottish breed dogs were allowed. We saw that and didn't bring Ada, even though the Scots and Japanese are best friends. Seriously, Japan is the only other country Scotland will allow to call their whisky "Scotch." We didn't bring her, but we should have because I saw Rottweilers in there. Are those Scottish? (No.)
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