Tag Archives: wine

Some Saturday Stuff

Posted on November 13, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

We can call this a Scattered Saturday or a Slacker Saturday, but I am composing this at the keyboard while I sip red wine, half look at a Vincent Price movie I DVR’d last month, and wait for Steven to get home.

I am paying very slack attention to this movie, because it is not one of his best.  It was made in the ’70s, when horror movies were becoming more gross, nasty and, well, mean.  They were more about dispatching as many victims as possible in the most disgusting fashions that could be devised.  Soon after came the slasher flicks, with more blood and less imagination. Oh, I know, many people adore such things. I live for the cheese factor and try to avoid anything that will turn my stomach.  I may watch this one again sometime and write about it, though, so I shall say no more at present.

In my quest to return to normalcy  (as normal as I can get, at any rate), I wanted to go running this morning.  It was some 30 degrees out, so I ran in place on the mini-tramp, while watching Phantom of the Opera,  the original, silent version.  For me, this is the best way to watch a silent movie.  When I’m sitting crocheting or knitting, I take my eyes off the screen too often.  I did not get through the entire movie, but I hope to run again tomorrow.

Later in the morning, I took a drive to Little Falls.  I went to the Winter Farmer’s Market, which is not yet in full swing.  Still, I chatted up the vendors that were there and took a few pictures, so perhaps I can do a full post on that tomorrow, in lieu of Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  I also walked through Paca Gardens. I would really like to purchase some of their socks, among other things.  I wanted to stop at Fall Hill Bead and Gems, but they were not yet open.

Coming back to Herkimer, I hung out at my house till Steven came home from lunch.  I like to have even a short visit with my honey.  I did not mention that I had taken Spunky for a walk before heading to Little Falls. Well, I did, and I took him out again shortly after Steven returned.  Then I drove to Ilion.  Before leaving Herkimer, I stopped in at Valley Wine and Liquors, because I thought they were having a wine tasting.  After sampling three red wines, I bought a dry blend.

In Ilion, I visited Earthly Matters, where I bought myself a pair of earrings.  I just couldn’t resist them.  Then I went to Cornerstone Consignments, where I chatted with the clerk about how some of the books were categorized “Male.”  From there, I stopped in at New 2 You Consignments, where I found two Taylor Caldwell paperbacks.  Score!  At least, I think it’s a score.  I know my mom used to read Taylor Caldwell.  I can’t remember if I read anything by her or if I liked it if I did.  I’ll soon find out.

I made a quick stop at Ilion Wine & Spirits before heading home.  After some indecision I got a bottle of champagne.  It is an inexpensive but tasty brand I have had before.  I put it in the refrigerator to chill when I got home.

And now I am sipping a glass of the red I got at Valley and have only a vague idea of what is happening in this movie.  I think it is the dramatic conclusion. Ooh, yeah, that was pretty dramatic.  I won’t tell you about it, though, because I did not include a spoiler alert.  I hope you are all having a grand Saturday.

 

 

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W(h)ine on Wuss-out Wednesday

Posted on September 15, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I thought an iced coffee would help, I really did. Sometimes eating ice cream helps.  Sometimes eating dinner helps.  Sometimes nothing will help but yet I must just sit down and make my goddam blog post.

Welcome to Wuss-out Wednesday.

Sorry, folks, but the bad posts continue.  I typed the above before I had to go pick up Steven at work.  Actually, I still had to shower and get dressed.  It took me a LONG time to get dressed (that is, almost ten minutes, I think), because I have a lousy wardrobe.  I have a lot of clothes but most of them don’t fit, don’t go together or are unwearable at the moment for all sorts of stupid reasons.  I put together a not unreasonable outfit and thought that would make a good blog post.  Unfortunately, I had not time.

And isn’t that ironic?  I did something I thought I could write a blog post about, but because I did it, I did not have time to make the blog post.  Am I the only one who finds that striking?  Perhaps I am.

So why am I not writing that blog post now?  Did I not mention this is Wuss-out Wednesday?  In fact, when I picked up Steven, I pointed out my fun little outfit and said if he wanted to go get something to eat, we could.  I fully expected him to say he just wanted to go home and relax, but dinner sounded good to him.  We ended up at Jamo’s, where they had a Date Night special going on which included a carafe of wine.

Yes, I have sipped and typed before (a carafe is only two glasses apiece; I did not tie one one, so stop making that unbearably superior smirk at me) (you know who you are).  Today I am tired.  That is three days in a row of being tired!  I think I need a different approach.  I’ll work on it tomorrow, on Non-Sequitur Thursday, when I will try not to wine so much.

 

 

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Scattered Saturday Blog Postte

Posted on August 21, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Earlier today I had thought to write a post beginning, “We interrupt these Mohawk Valley adventures to make a Scattered Saturday post…”  But I was continuing my adventures so was afraid the post would be incomplete.  So I continued my scattered gyrations and now interrupt the wine drinking portion of the evening to make my post.

Just kidding.  I’m not interrupting my wine drinking; Steven just brought me another glass.  To anybody who objects to such alcohol-related activities, sorry.  This is the way I roll.

Steven has a rare weekend off, and we slept in this morning to nearly 6:30.  I wasn’t even going to run (which I have not been doing in any case; more about that in the next Running Commentary post) but reconsidered after two cups of coffee.  I took a short run, then a good shower, put on a cute outfit and called my mother.  Then I wrote some postcards.  I have been dreadfully remiss about my postcard writing in recent weeks.  I finally wrote some last Sunday so was happy to be doing so again today.

Eventually, Steven and I made it out the door to get some breakfast.  I was quite hungry.  We first stopped by the post office (to mail the post cards) and the ATM to get some cash, then it was on to Ilion.  I wanted to eat at Farm House Restuarant, right across from The Medicine Shoppe (I always have to dash over to Facebook to check if it’s “Shop” or “Shoppe”), where I had a couple of prescriptions to pick up.  Can you believe Farm House was closed today only?  So it was.  We drove on to Frankfort for a great meal at The Knight Spot (here’s a point to ponder next Lame Post Friday: why is it always “Spot” and not “Spotte”?).

From there we went to Hummel’s Office Plus (“Plusse”?) to purchase a birthday present and card for a friend.  Their Halloween stuff was out already. Yay!  We love Halloween!  There are several things I may stop back and purchase.  What’s a few more Halloween decorations among friends?  They nicely wrapped the present for us, so we had something really nice looking to give our friend.

We put in an appearance at the party, enjoying a little coffee and short visit with our friend, then went on to New Hartford, where we wanted to catch Florence Foster Jenkins, starring one of my favorites, Meryl Streep.  We got there early so stopped in at Uno Pizzeria and Grill (Steven thought it was “Grille” not “Grill”, but I checked on Facebook and it’s “Grill”) for a drink.  We were so pleased by the service and ambience that we came back for snacks after the movie.

The movie, by the way, is WONDERFUL.  Meryl Streep is such a goddess. Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg are quite delightful as well.  I don’t usually do good movie reviews (preferring to stick with the cheesy variety), but I may reconsider the policy.

I believe that bring us up to the present moment.  We are back home, enjoying a little more wine and deciding between sitting on the deck and popping a movie into the DVD.  Or looking for a true crime show on cable television.  After all, anything can happen on Scattered Saturday (“Saturdayye”?).

 

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Wine, Cheese, Music and History

Posted on July 21, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

The history, cheese and wine I alluded to in yesterday’s post (if you missed it, don’t worry about it; it wasn’t such a much) was at a wine and cheese tasting at the Historic Russian Church and One-Room Schoolhouse in Poland, NY.  We drove out there after Steven was finished at work.

Full disclosure:  I felt a little guilty for not going to see a couple of friends in a play at Players of Utica, but we were not sure we could get there on time, given Steven’s work and our lousy record of driving in Utica.  It would not matter if we were late for the wine and cheese tasting, and we are so much more comfortable driving the scenic rural roads.

It was a pleasant drive with views of farmland and mountains.  We had to ask directions at a convenience store, but that was OK with me, because I needed a cold beverage and had forgotten to bring a bottle of water from home (that’s not a run-on sentence).  I was surprised at how far out of the way the place was.  At last we were parked and walking over to the tables underneath shady trees.

A lady was playing the harp at the table where we paid our admission.  I told her it sounded lovely.  I believe it was Peggy Spencer Behrendt, who writes “Tales from Shawangunk” in Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  Shawangunk Nature Preserve had a table set up with pictures and information.  I made a small donation and picked up a bookmark.  For a larger donation I could have gotten a book or CD.

We sampled some tasty cheeses from Three Village Cheese and some yummy wine from Prospect Falls Winery.  We later purchased some of each.  Then we went into the One Room Schoolhouse to eat a couple of desserts and hear some music. Dean Batstone played acoustic guitar and sang original songs.  Before each song he would tell a little about how he came to write it.

“Most of my stories are mostly true,” he said.

Later we went into the church.  Volunteers were on hand to tell about its history and restoration.  I even got to pull the rope and make the church bell ring.

Steven picked up the Russia Civic Association newsletter.  I see they have a Facebook page.  I’ll have to seek it out so that I can attend other events at the church and schoolhouse, now that we know where they are.

 

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NOW I’ll Pour the Wine!

Posted on May 28, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Oh, thank Heaven it’s Lame Post Friday and Wine O’clock.  If only it was also Steve-fifteen, my life would be perfect.  Full disclosure:  I have not yet poured myself a glass of wine.  That’s next.  First I need to make a blog post.

I have been experiencing great resistance to writing lately (yes, I know, some people call that laziness; they could be right but I am not up to arguing semantics today).  Twice this week I’ve brought plays to work to read, to avoid staring at a blank page in my notebook.  I really have to stop doing that.   I mean, sometimes it’s fine.  I read the play on breaks, I put the play away and work. Sometimes not so much.

When I was reading Leading Ladies I made rather a spectacle of myself by laughing out loud as I read.  That did not bother me nearly as much as when I read Wrong Turn at Lungfish and started to cry.  I sat at the break table with the tears streaming down my face.  Finally I got up and went to the usual refuge for crying, the ladies room.  I went into the back and sobbed.  That would not have been so bad, except the guy was in there cleaning at the time.  How embarrassing.

Nothing particularly embarrassing happened with the plays I read this week.  The problem was, though, they were so good I could not put them down.  Well, one must put down reading materials and return to work.  Those are the rules.  This is why I stopped bringing books to work (no, not the crying thing; I rarely cry over what I read).

I have managed to write at least a little bit on my banana play each day.  I hope to write even more this weekend, among other activities planned.  One thing I have definitely planned is to write some non-lame blog posts.  However, those plans are for the future.  For today, this is what you get.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

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Wine-ding Down on Saturday

Posted on April 24, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I thought of this title as we were driving away from the liquor store.  And you see it has multiple levels of meaning because I am often kind of a dingbat.

I have had a busy Saturday.  I left the house shortly after eight this morning and stopped by a new place called Belly Busters to purchase a dozen donuts.  I’ll write a whole blog post about them later.  It is, of course, a good idea for the director to bring donuts to the theatre on a Saturday morning when people are helping with the set.  I arrived before anyone else and ate a donut.

Then I fixed a costume that needed a stitch or two and carried a bunch of costumes we decided not to use back up to costume storage.  Upstairs I looked for one more piece an actor had requested and wondered if there wasn’t more good stuff I hadn’t seen yet.  Friday I had found a hitherto unopened (by me) box labeled “specialty stuff” or something like that.  It had two felt hats such as I had been going to attempt to make.  Yes!  Score!

When people showed up, we went to Ilion TruValue Hardware to purchase more paint, put another coat of paint on the walls, polished all the wood on the furniture, went to a certain big box store for necessary fabric for set and costumes, and, yes, visited and talked about all kinds of fun stuff.  The only real reason to be involved in anything is to hang out with the other people involved (oh, I may get arguments about that; when will I learn not to make such global statements).  The extremely talented young man who is painting the garden mural which is, unfortunately, only vaguely seen by the audience, showed up and worked some more on that.  It looks awesome!  Before I left another nice man had shown up to hang the black fabric from the ceiling to the top of the walls which makes the set look so much more finished.

Really, I have gotten so much help on my show.  I am quite grateful to all involved. I must try to find some way of showing my appreciation besides mentioning them in a blog which I am afraid only a few of them read.

Back home, I did what I have not had a chance to do in recent weekends and took a nap.  You see, after yesterday’s bad headache I was afraid of getting another one so took some of the migraine medication the doctor prescribed.  It makes one a little dopey (even more so than usual) (so you don’t need to make unkind and rather obvious jokes about it) (you know who you are).

When Steven got home I was having coffee.  Ahhh.  We went out to Sorrento’s in Ilion, NY for a late lunch/early dinner, enjoying a glass of Pinot Grigio with the food.  On the way home we went by Valley Wine and Liquor, where they were tasting some Italian wines (so that’s two more places that deserve a full blog post).  We got a couple of bottles, including some champagne so we can mimose tomorrow, if we are so inclined.

So this is my Scattered Saturday post.  Steven is having a little doze on the love seat, but I will wake him up so I can read him this before I post it, then I think we will watch one of the VCR tapes I purchased at a rummage sale recently (perhaps you read my blog post on it).  Happy Saturday, everybody!

 

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Whine, then Run, then Wine

Posted on March 18, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

As I was leaving work this afternoon, I said to my friend, “When I get home, should I go running or have a beer?”

“Go running,” she said.

I usually take the stairs down, but I got on the elevator with her to argue the point.  “Or I could have a glass of wine,”  I suggested.

“Go running,” she said.

“That sounds good,” a guy said.

“The run or the beer?” I said.

“The glass of wine,” he said.

“I’m going to take his advice,”  I told my friend.  “He is obviously much better at giving advice than you are.”

When I got home, I put on my running clothes and went running.  I thought that after I ran a beer or a glass of wine would be a fitting reward.  I thought of the headline as I was running.  In fact, I have been whining all day.  Don’t judge.

It was not a long run but it was also not a bad run. The temperature was warm with a pleasant breeze, perfect for my pace.  A few drops of rain fell while I was out there, but I did not let it deter me.  The sun came back out as I walked my cool-down. I can’t say my body particularly enjoyed the run, but as usual I was glad I had gone.

As you can see, I am not writing a full-blown Running Commentary post.  The fact is, I’m still not feeling 100 percent, and I have one more chore to take care of before I’m done for the day.  Hope to see you all on Lame Post Friday.

I still haven’t gotten my glass of wine yet.

 

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Was it the Wine?

Posted on February 22, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

So there I was, having a completely Wrist to Forehead Sunday, when Steven came home, poured me a glass of wine, and suddenly everything looked a little bit better.  Was it the wine or the husband?  I try not to look too closely into these things (it was the husband).

I am typing rapidly (TRYING to think rapidly, but let’s not ask for miracles) so that we can move on to the movie watching portion of the afternoon.  We plan to watch Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.  We watched a different version of that one some time ago, and I wrote part of a blog post about it. I thought I could complete the blog post with a compare/contrast kind of thing (preview of coming attractions) for Movie Matinee Monday.

Steven just ordered some food from Carney’s Corners in Herkimer, NY (just to throw in a shout-out to a local business). I suddenly realize how hungry I am, now that I have to wait 20-25 minutes (according to the woman on the phone).  Well, one can’t always have instant gratification.

Additionally, I am working on yet another afghan.  I ran out of pink for the one I was working on so started a new one.  This one will be red, white and blue; and I expect to run out of white.  I really must learn how to make smaller things, so I can use up the odds and ends of yarn one inevitably saves.  I suppose I could do that at any time, since I have purchased numerous books about knitting and crochet. But I don’t think I should do it on Wrist to Forehead Sunday, do you?

 

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But I Think My Attitude is Improving

Posted on January 27, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am sipping my first taste of wine in 2016.  Isn’t that nice?  I had not meant to write a blog post about it.  I went running earlier with the specific thought that I could do a Running Commentary post.  Before making my blog post, however, I ate dinner, read some more of a book (I must NEVER pick up fiction unless I can just sit there and read the whole thing; I become obsessed) and of course dithered (I always say: go with your strengths).  This being Bad Attituesday, I don’t think my writing muscles are going to cooperate.

Regular readers may remember that I have been doing without wine for 30 days.  It started as an experiment to see if it had any effect on my headaches, then it morphed into “Well if I can’t go 30 days without wine, maybe I have a problem,” and then, well,  I just got stubborn.  But I made it 30 days, so I felt a little pleased with myself and thought I deserved a glass of dry red.

I went to Ilion Wine and Spirits after work to get my bottle. This is handily located next to The Medicine Shoppe, where I had to pick up a prescription.  So, you see, I give shout-outs to two local businesses as I sip.  When I walked into the liquor store, I immediately saw some bottles of Chianti on sale.  I had purchased one of these bottles prior to Christmas.  Steven drank the whole thing himself during my dry 30 days (not all at once, of course; he’s no lush either).

First I looked all around to see if there was something I’d like better. I hesitated over a bottle of Barefoot Pinot Noir.  When I was at church two Sundays ago, during the sermon the priest told a story involving Barefoot Pinot Noir.  “That’s a good wine,” I told my sister.  Imagine, me having something in common with a priest.  I decided to stick with the Chianti, but I may go back for some Pinot this weekend.

It is Chianti Superiore made by Banfi of Montalcino, Italy.  It was imported by Banfi Vintners of Old Brookville, NY.  So you see I am being international and buying New York State.  It’s pretty tasty wine, too.

Ilion Wine and Spirits is located at 10 E. Main St., Ilion, NY, phone number 315-894-8142.  The Medicine Shoppe is at 10 Central Ave., phone number 315-894-7283.  Don’t let the different streets fool you; they are just a parking lot away from each other. It is most convenient.

 

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Cooking Without Wine

Posted on January 24, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

The only reason I cooked dinner tonight was so that I could write a blog post about it.  I’m afraid it was not a very inspired dinner, but it was cheaper than sending out (although then I could have given a shout-out to a local business), and it was quite tasty.

Basically, I cooked some sausage and garlic, then added tomato sauce, tomato paste, canned mushrooms, basil, oregano and a VERY few hot pepper flakes.  I put this sauce on Spicy Tomato Linguine from The Pasta Shoppe in Utica, NY.  My favorite sister, Cheryl gave me and Steven the pasta for Christmas.

What makes this recipe different from many of the recipes I write in the blog about is that I did NOT cook with wine.  I did enjoy a wine glass of seltzer with fresh lemon while I cooked.  Yes, I continue to resist the devil on my shoulder I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

WARNING!  I am about to mention my headaches.  If you are sick of reading about them, READ NO FURTHER!

I feel especially happy I did not have any wine yesterday, because I woke up with a horrendous headache this morning.  In spite of the pain, I enjoyed the vague feeling of vindication with this further proof that alcohol in not the source of my headaches. And then I started to feel like I shouldn’t feel so delighted about it.

And now I begin to feel like maybe I shouldn’t be writing so much about it. Am I obsessed with wine?  Ah, wait, no I’m not. I talked about this before.  It’s the Doughnut Effect (I’ll put one of them there links so you can click back and see the blog post where I talked about that).

In any case, my headache has subsided by now.  Dinner is eaten and the leftovers put away (Steven nicely put them away). Time to get in with my Saturday evening.  Hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

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