Category Archives: personal

Wine on a Friday

In lieu of my usual Lame Post Friday, I shall offer a brief shout-out to a local liquor store and a California winery.  I went to a wine tasting at Valley Wine and Liquor in Herkimer which featured Michael David Winery of Lodi, California.

I often go to Valley Wine and Liquor on a Friday, because they often offer a tasting.  I often take notes, thinking I might make a blog post, then don’t.  Today I will.  Steven was off work, so our friend Kim picked both of us up at five, and we made our way to Valley Wine and Liquor.  Kim was disappointed when we found out they were sampling four dry red wines, because she likes sweet, but I said, “I will try them all!”

The first one we tried was the Earthquake Zinfandel.  I pronounced it “yummy,” which regular readers know is my highest accolade.  We also tried Petite Petit, a blend of Petite Syrah and Petit Verdot; 6th Sense Syrah; and Ink Blot, a Cabernet Franc.  Steven liked them all.  My favorite was the Zinfandel with the Ink Blot  in second place.  We decided to purchase the Petite Petit, because the label featured two elephants.  My sister, Diane, collects elephants.  I said we would buy it and save it till we got together with Diane.

“We’d better get together with her soon,” Steven said.

Kim and I plan to return tomorrow afternoon, when they are sampling Swedish Hill Winery, a New York State winery I have been to more than once.  Most of their wines are sweet, so Kim will be happy.  If I don’t like the wine, at least I can write another blog post.

 

Good Walk, Dull Post

Today I decided I would do what I should have done yesterday: put on my flood boots and walk instead of run.  Then I thought I could write a Pedestrian Post.  For one reason, I realized after I hit Publish that I did not even mention the weather yesterday and it was WONDERFUL!  I should have waxed rhapsodic on nature’s Preview of Coming Attractions.  OK, I have never waxed rhapsodic in my life, but I have always wanted to use that phrase in a sentence.

I second-guessed myself a I left work, because the walk to the parking lot was so dry and bare.  If the sidewalks of Herkimer were similar to that, I would feel bad for not running.  Then I thought there would probably be plenty of ice and puddles to walk through.  I was right.

The weather was even a little warmer than yesterday’s mid-40s.  Oh, it felt good.  I really, truly believed that spring is coming and will get here, and that is something that is often hard to believe in the middle of February.  I had on a raincoat and my crazy old lady hat.  I put a knitted headband in my pocked in case my ears got cold.  On the other hand (in fact, in the other pocket), I also carried my prescription sunglasses, in case it got too sunny.  Neither was needed, but I like to be prepared.

Right in front of my house was one of the iciest, puddliest patches.  That happens sometimes when you shovel a narrow path between snow banks, but what else can I do?  We are supposed to keep our sidewalks reasonably clear.  I try to at least do a shovel-width.  I walked slowly and carefully and was happy to get to a snowier patch further on.  I like walking in the snow.  I used to hate it, when I was always walking to get somewhere, sliding back a little for each step forward.  Now I appreciate the extra effort, because it may burn a few more calories.

I did not look around a whole lot at the scenery while I walked, because I had to be careful where I stepped.  I did not bring the Tablet to take pictures, because I felt there was too great a chance of me dropping it in a puddle.  I am quite clumsy.  So I guess that makes this a kind of a boring Pedestrian Post.  Sorry about that.

I walked for 35 minutes and feel pretty good about exercising two days in a row.  I’m going to go for three, and try to make it a daily habit.  I think it is good for me.  Eventually I hope to have more energy, so I can have more Mohawk Valley adventures, and write better blog posts.  I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

Lousy Run, But I Petted Pudge

I thought of a better headline at the beginning of my run, but I do not remember it.  Perhaps I could if I really thought about it, but I am strangely disinclined to do so.  I like the headline I used better.  For one reason, it kind of tells it all.  Now I don’t have to write the post.

Oh, OK, I’ll write the blog post.

This afternoon I got a graphic demonstration of why we are not supposed to run twice in four days then not at all for ten.  Of course I already knew this, but what else could I do?  It was too late to go running on the ten days past.  As I ran, I thought it would have been a better idea to walk.  For one reason, the roads and sidewalks were TERRIBLE with puddles and ice.  For a walk, I could have worn my flood boots and waded through the puddles.  And it probably would have felt a lot better than my shuffling run. However, by the time I thought of this, that ship, too, had sailed.

Some of you may be thinking, “Hmm, blogger’s sick day yesterday, going running today, was she goldbricking?”   I assure you I was not.  In fact, I wasn’t feeling a whole lot better for most of the day, but I thought a little exercise might help.  Also, I needed something to write a blog post about.

I spent most of my run on the roads, avoiding deep puddles by running practically in the middle of the road.  I tried to stick to quiet streets, but there was still traffic.  At one point, I tried to run around a car stopped at a stop sign and almost ran right in front of a truck turning left onto that street.  I put both hands on my head in a gesture of distress, as an apology to the stopped car, which I was directly in front of at the moment.  I don’t know if you can picture it, but I laughed at myself.  I can only hope the drivers were similarly amused.

My legs did not thank me for the exercise, but I was not looking for gratitude.  As I walked my cool-down walk, I felt only a kind of a dull satisfaction that I had done it at all.  That was when I saw a lady ahead of me on the sidewalk, and it looked as if she was walking a dog.  I felt that petting a nice dog would make the whole thing better, but she was far ahead of me.  Luckily, the dear little doggy (as I thought of him) stopped to sniff enough that by walking quickly, I was able to catch up.

It was my friend Pudge the pug!  I was delighted to pet him again.  I have not seen him in a long time.  I chatted briefly with his person, wished her a good day, and finished my walk.  Oh, I was tired, and when I stretched, I was stiff.  Well, these are the runs we must live through to get to the good ones.  Sorry about this dull post, but I’ll make sure I write about the good runs, too.

 

Here’s Yesterday’s Post

Yesterday I took a bloggers’ sick day.  It is now 4:27 in the morning and I am going to publish something, as has been my habit at these times.  As I lay in bed earlier this morning, I composed in my head a much better post than what I am now typing.  I can see some of you shaking your fingers or your heads at me, saying, “THAT is why you must always keep a notebook and pen by your bed!”

Frankly, I am not too regretful about it.  For one reason, waking up sufficiently to write something down would have woken me up for the day, and I certainly need my beauty sleep.  For another reason, it was probably only better in my head.  Any time I dream a “perfect” idea for a novel, I find on waking that it made much more sense in the dream.  Anything I thought of in the night, rolled over and wrote down, I later thought, “Why did I bother?”

Be all that as it may, here is what I typed in last night (as Truman Capote once said, “That’s not writing, that’s typing), before I found myself quite incapable of typing another word:

I think this post is going to be time-stamped Valentine’s Day, but as I type this, it is Feb. 13. I just returned from Little Falls, NY.  I went to Huckleberry Letterpress Co.  to purchase a Valentine for Steven.  I felt very fortunate when I saw on their Facebook page that they were open at the beginning of the week for Valentine’s shopping.  Now I feel bad that I did not plug them yesterday, so local readers may have had a chance to go there today.  No matter.  You can go there another day to get a different kind of card.  They have an excellent selection.

I wrote about Huckleberry Letterpress for the February issue of Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  They were also featured on the Sunday Mohawk Valley Living TV show.

(Back to present time): I decided to share those paragraphs, because, you know, waste not, want not (ooh, I do remember thinking, “waste not, want not” earlier, that was worth remembering).  Also, I had linked to the shop and the magazine.

After I typed in what I could, I felt really bad for not doing more for Valentine’s Day for my husband (I had declared we would celebrate it on Fat Tuesday, because Steven works later today), so I bestirred myself to go out to the kitchen and bake brownies.  I used a mix and added chocolate chips.  Steven liked them, and he liked the card.

So I guess this is yesterday’s post.  I see it is clocking in over 450 words. Yay me.  Kind of.  Happy Valentine’s Day.

 

Am I Write?

I always say writing begets writing.  The more you write, the more you will write.  Having typed in those two sentences, I sit here, typing in a third sentence and backspacing it out, several times, because it is a cliche, or because it is not quite what I wanted to say, or, oh well, any of the many reasons one decides to unwrite what one has written.

What I’m trying to say is, I have been writing since I got home from work and I’m tired.  On the brighter side, I finished and emailed two articles to Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  On the duller side, I am just barely ahead of deadline, and I had faithfully promised to do better this month.  In my defense, it cannot be denied that shit happens.

So this is a Monday Mental Meanderings post, and I guess my thoughts are indeed meandering.  This is what happens when one writes a daily blog and one clearly does not write enough.  If I wrote enough, I would have at least a couple of extra posts hanging around somewhere, just waiting for me to hit Publish.  Well, one cannot live one’s life on “if.”  What is that nursery rhyme: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Then again (see how I argue with myself?) what is a fiction writer (which I sometimes am) but somebody who continually asks and answers the question, “What if?”  What if several people all wanted a guy dead, and then he dropped dead?  That is the plot of most of my murder mysteries.  Oh that reminds me, I have to finish my script for Secrets at Suiter House, the murder mystery I am writing for Herkimer County Historical Society.  I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

 

We Went with Murder

When my husband Steven and I debated what movies to watch this afternoon, I said, “Murder or monsters.”  I thought that would make a good blog post title, then I decided to go with the above.  I hope I made the right decision.

Remember cigarette lighters? I remember my grandmother having one.

Our first movie was Strangers on a Train, a Hitchcock I am especially fond of.  I like that Farley Granger, who also starred in Rope, one of my all-time favorites.  He was a very good-looking young man, but in the extras of Rope, I see he became this really cool-looking older guy.  He looked like somebody you would enjoy to hang out with.  Alas, I never got the chance.  So many cool people to hang out with.  So little opportunity to do so.  But I must not wax philosophical on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

Looks sexy and mysterious, no?

After Strangers and dinner (roasted eggplant, yum!), we decided on A Perfect Murder, a rather stylish tale of suspense. So we have had two movies involving murder, and neither were mystery but were fine stories of suspense.  What direction shall we go in next?  The same?  Different?  Murder suspense, murder mystery, or maybe my original choice, monster?  Last night we opted for suspense noir, with Sudden Fear.  Joan Crawford and Gloria Grahame, what’s not to like?

“So pleased to meet you. Which of us will kill the other?”

You can’t see Gloria Grahame so good in this picture, but it’s a nice shot of Crawford and of the other point in the triangle, Jack Palance.  I confess to not being a particular fan of Palance, but that is not important now.  What is important now is that I am over 250 words on my blog post.  Quite respectable for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday post.  I must get on with fixing my husband some dessert.

 

Slacker Saturday, But Let’s Have Some Champagne.

Well, no Saturday Running Commentary, because I didn’t run; no Scattered Saturday, because I didn’t do a whole lot; no Slacker Saturday, because I at least did a little something; no Saturday Supper, because, oh I just don’t feel like retailing that whole thing I put together for our evening meal.  I guess maybe it is a Slacker Saturday, though, at least blog-wise.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I did a little something but it was certainly little enough to make a Slacker Saturday post perfectly eligible.

The weather was supposed to be a whole lot worse than it actually was. It was bad enough to keep me close to home.  I did venture out to do some grocery shopping, but I did not patronize a distinctive local store such as I love to highlight in this space.

I also ventured out to Valley Wine and Liquor in Herkimer for a Korbel and Chambord tasting.  That is, Korbel Champagne and Chambord Raspberry Liquor, mixed together.  I also tasted the champagne by itself.  It was Brut, which is dry, which is what I like.  I bought some.  Steven and I may mimose tomorrow.  We already have some orange juice in the fridge.  Or I may just sip it from a flute.  I love sipping champagne from a champagne flute.

We are currently watching Deadly Women, an ID (Investigation Discover) original series, On Demand.  It is sufficiently cheesy to be appropriate for a Slacker Saturday.  I would like to watch a movie next. I wonder if we could find something suitable to write tomorrow’s blog post about.  Time will tell.  In the meantime, I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

 

 

A Dog? Oh Boy!

It’s that awkward moment when you are about to write your blog post about one thing, then you think you ought to start with something else, and then you want to go another way.  Oh!  I just remembered:  it is Non-Sequitur Thursday!  Perfect!

The main thing I wanted to write about was this great dog Steven and I just met.  I mean, I wanted to plug a fundraiser.  You see, I had volunteered to donate one of my afghans to a fundraiser I had heard of.  The main reason I heard about it was that music will be provided by The Posers, one of my favorite local bands.  I have been messaging with a lady on Facebook about where to drop it off.  Today Steven and I wanted to go to dinner (we were given a gift card — thanks,Mom and Dad!), so I messaged that we would stop by after that.   The lady messaged back that it would be OK, the band would be practicing around 7, and there was a very friendly dog.  A dog?  Oh boy!

We had a little trouble finding the house (we’re not good at Ilion).  As I was walking toward the house, the lady came out, to save me a few steps.

“We were hoping to meet the dog,” I said.

“That can be arranged,” she answered.

What a nice dog!  He is a Springer Spaniel named Bruce Springersteen.  How cool is that?  We petted him and told him what a good boy he was.  So we were happy we had dropped the afghan off today.

Oh yes, to plug the fundraiser:  Team Rebecca’s Annual Fundraiser, for American Heart Association’s Greatest Heart Run and Walk, Saturday, Feb. 10, 6 p.m., Crowley-Barnum American Legion Post 25, 43 W.  Main St., Mohawk, NY.

Well, that was only a couple of directions.  I was also going to talk about the dinner we had, as well as a couple of other dinners we’ve had recently.  However, you can only have so much blog on Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

Wordless Wednesday with Love

I would really like to get back into making more “real” posts (although some of my readers seem to like the foolish ones) (I confess to enjoying them myself).  However, the Mohawk Valley weather conspires against me.  Wow, that makes me sound important:  the weather is purposefully doing things to keep me from having Mohawk Valley adventures.  In fact, the only adventure I was planning today was a run, about which I would write a Running Commentary post.  Instead, I spent 35 minutes shoveling the driveway (yes, I timed it, how else would I know if it could count as today’s exercise?).

Right now I am feeling a little sheepish, because I typed in the headline before beginning the post.  I see that I am not quite as wordless as I thought.  As a matter of fact, I took a further pictures of our Valentine decorations which I thought would make a good blog post.  Steven added a couple of decorations, and I had not noticed.  I will first share the original picture:

Another round of applause for Steven’s decorating prowess, please.

 

Oh, silly me, I neglected to turn on the juke box.

Did you see them?  Well, here are two close-ups:

“Wanna kiss me, duckies?” (that’s a line from a movie)

Perhaps the XOXO should be XXX, since he is next to a shot glass.

We have quite a collection of rubber duckies, acquired at various times.  Perhaps I will do a blog post on them one day.  In the meantime, I say Happy Wednesday!  The snow is supposed to stop soon.