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.

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.)

Catch-Up

We did two unique Tulsa things these last couple weeks, but as they are not repeatable events, I will not evaluate them in my former fasion:

1. We went to the last game at Driller's Stadium, which is right down the street from our house. It was fun, as much as a baseball game can be. The best part was the countdown to the last time the lights went out at the stadium. Whoever was running the countdown never quite got the rhythm of the crowd. We said, "twenty-nine...ttttttttttwenty-eighttwentyseven...tttttttt" You get the picture. For a while, they stopped the numbers on the screen altogether. Then they came back slower than ever. Then they skipped some numbers. Everyone was cracking up by the time we got to zero. What a send off!

2. We went to Megan and Derek's wedding at Holy Family Cathedral. It turns out that someone there had the Swine Flu, and all Protestants gave a sigh of relief that they weren't allowed to share the communion cup. It was beautiful though - congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Weinkauf!

Otherwise, I've been sewing my little heart out. I finished the baby quilts for my expecting friends and am almost done with a winter jacket. I just have to sew a button-hole, which for some reason I find wholly intimidating. Here is the dinosaur quilt for Devin Burton, Jr (who should be making his debut on Friday):


Adelaide keeps me company while I sew by taking up all the area under my work table:

Yes, she fell asleep with her front and back legs in different directions. Not very ladylike, or vertebrate-like for that matter.

Perfect People

I was in the checkout line of the grocery store when the man behind me with his little daughter complimented me on my hair. I said thank you and turned back to eyeing the silly-but-kind-of-interesting magazine covers thinking that was going to be it. Now, I don't mind talking to strangers so when he started talking on about redheads, I politely returned the conversation. Then he complimented me on my shirt, saying to his daughter, "Isn't orange your favorite color?" Which is fine, but my shirt was definitely yellow. Finally he said this gem: "I think that God needed a way to identify the perfect people in the world, so he gave them red hair."

Hm, I may have agreed with him, but he was a redhead and somewhat of a creeper. There goes that theory.

Not Good Enough

A while ago we were visiting some of Josh's friends from school and we brought blackberry cobbler to share. While we were waiting for them to answer their trendy skyrise-apartment door, a guy came out of the place just next to us. He was stumbling by when he stopped, put his face uncomfortably close to the food I was holding, and said, "Duuuuude, are those brownies?!" I told him no, it was blackberry cobbler. He made a disgusted face and said, "Oh, well never mind then."

"Never mind" what, you possibly drunk, fancy apartment dweller? Whether they were brownies or not, they were not for you. You, who oh so rudely denounced my tasty dessert, were not going to get any anyway!

I was a little offended by this stranger. I got over it when he tripped on the carpet on his way down the hall.

Pint Nights

Monday is Pint Night at McNellie’s, which means if you order a pint of their featured beer, you get it in a custom glass that you get to keep! Depending on the beer, we’ve spent anywhere from $2-5 on a pint. Josh decided that his med school class should go to every pint night this year - even to last week's that featured Miller High Life (seriously? Out of the hundreds of beers that McNellie’s sells?)! So on Mondays, somewhere between 5 and 7, you can find five or so fourth year medical students (and me) relaxing with a usually tasty pint. You can find a list of the upcoming pints here.

It’s not as crowded as $3 burger nights (Wednesdays. Totally delicious.), so you don’t have to worry about getting there early to make sure to get a seat. Just come when you can, enjoy the company, enjoy the snacks (may I recommend the sweet potato fries?) and if you like, enjoy the beer.

I should probably confess that I don’t drink carbonated beverages, so I usually just have a sip or two of Josh’s pint. But even for weirdos like me, pint night is a good time!

A New Skill

I like to sew. Most of the time I quilt, and that is usually done for friends expecting babies. I discovered the other day that I have an embroidery foot which means I can quilt in pretty patterns instead of just straight lines. I had to get out the old screwdriver and take the fabric feeders off my machine since the cover I have for them doesn't fit. I may have dropped a screw somewhere into the depths of my sewing machine, but it still works fine, and I was able to create this:



And a close up of the flowery design:



Next I have to figure out what pattern to use on the dinosaur quilt I'm piecing. Hmmm.