A Wine Weekend! & misc. activities

Friday:
We L-O-V-E wine! Yummy, yummy wine! We used our complimentary tickets for the International Wine Show we volunteered to work for. There were about 500 different wines to taste and there were yummy appetizer-type foods to sample and it was a good time. Quite possibly, I did taste a few too many wines and spit out a too few wines resulting in a bit of wine-induced tipsiness but Saturday's headache was worth it. Ok, so what were my favorite wines of the night? Well, I really enjoyed the Quintessa Wine which, I think, is produced from Rutherford Vineyard grapes. It's no wonder I enjoyed this wine considering it retails for about $140/bottle. I guess I have expensive taste (heehee). I also liked the Duckhorn Merlot - they had two kinds and both were great. The Three Palm Merlot was a lot bigger wine, more complex with a lot of varied flavors but their regular Merlot was good too. If I were to buy the Three Palm Merlot I would qualify it as a stand-alone wine, you know, the kind you drink with only crackers and mild cheese for snacks. I think it's too big of a wine to eat with a meal and the food would detract from the flavors in the wine. Anyway, there were lots of other great wines at the show. Mark Davidson (Australia) had a pretty good white blend that is only $9/bottle and would be fabulous chilled and sipped on a patio with friends on a hot summer evening. Overall, the evening was really enjoyable and I'm so worth our volunteered time on Saturday night!
Saturday:
I had my last yoga class of the semester on Saturday. I'm taking yoga for the summer semester, too, but it doesn't begin until after Memorial Day. I am going to try to make time to do yoga between now and then so I don't lose too much ground. I feel like I've really been able to stretch my body and calm my mind through my yoga classes. It's a great way for me to add variety to my work-out, too! On Saturday night we volunteered at the Wine Show and all we had to do was set-up & clean-up for the various seminars they hosted educating people about types of wines. The seminars included tastings and seemed to be very popular considering people lined up ahead of time to be sure they got a seat (it was first come, first serve, first 60 people). We learned a lot just by standing off to the side listening to the Master Sommeliers discuss the wines. We learned about Italian wines, California Zinfindels, and Ports. We also met some interesting people who were also volunteering. I'm pretty sure we're planning to volunteer for the Food Show in November, too. It was fun! After the Wine Show wrapped up we visited our friend's (Dizi) bar (it's a regular place for us now) and hung out. I'm very sad when we go there these days, though, because Dizi promised he would always have my Mike's Hard Lime in the cooler for me to drink but since they ran out of the initial order they've decided not to order it anymore. Now my options are Mike's Hard Berry (YUCK!) or Smirnoff Ice (yuck, yuck!). So, I made a stand against their Mike's Hard Lime discrimination and I only drank Ginger Ale. Take that Dizi's bar! ha!
Sunday:
L and I had plans to go shopping on Sunday. First, we went to the fabric store to see if we could find fabric to cover the chair seats for my recently acquired patio set. Check! I found totally awesome fabric that's, like, all retro and mod and funky and fun and cool. I'll try to remember to take a picture and post it - you'll dig it. Second, we went to Macy's where I finally found the matching pants to the suit jacket I bought way back in February! I went to Macy's specifically to find these pants and really believed it was not a realistic goal and then I was pleasantly surprised! I had a 20% off coupon plus they were clearanced so they were super cheap, too! Third, we went to Trader Joe's and I stocked up on some items I don't very often use but want to have around for various recipes - like coconut milk for coconut rice or fancy TJ's salsa for when Paul Newman isn't floating our boat. I even used some coconut milk for dinner last night and Urban Cowboy and I enjoyed my first attempt at coconut rice. It was pretty good. I would change a few things next time but lesson learned. After our shopping excursion I came home and went straight to work on re-finishing my recently acquired vintage wrought-iron patio set. I managed to get all four chairs painted (from light yellow - think banana but lighter and not like butter yellow) to Hunt Club Green. Next, the table. I started removing the old chair seat covers and discovered fun fabric layers. First layer was 70's harvest gold/rust/orange floral, second layer was early 70's (maybe very late 60's) yellow/orange floral, and the third layer was mid-60's (maybe early 60's or even late 50's) teal/black/blue floral. I'm keeping the third layer just for kicks and I'll just recover over it. It's a fun bit of history on a chair, you know. Ok, so here's something gross for you to know about Sunday...I was spray painting the chairs and I must of breathed a lot of paint in because later when I looked in the mirror I realized I had green paint ringing the inside of my nostrils! EW! That can't be too good for me either, because if it's in my nose isn't also in my lungs? EW!