Long Catch-Up Posting

Wow - this might be a long one....gonna catch up with the Labor Day Weekend fun!

Sat we must have gone to/by at least 7 garage sales. Mostly junk or way over priced. Ended up with one purchase - $2 for a small bag of yarn. Then that afternoon we went to babysit our oldest daughter's 3 boys - ages 6, 4, and 1. We had a blast! Of course, tiring them out, also tired us out! But it was fun....and the best time when we got them ALL to sleep! LOL. Actually the best time was watching them stuff themselves at dinner!

Sunday was the first day of the Harvest Wine Festival. We have gone every year since we moved here - so we started going to it in 1990. Have seen it grow as the number of wineries here have grown - have also seen the cost go up. In the beginning it was nothing to be able to get to all the wineries - but over the years we have learned to pick the ones we really want to go to because we just cant make it to all 40+ in two days. How do we chose? Oh, a combination of their wines and their personalities!

This year the venue has changed. About 1/2 of them will be all in one spot at Robertson Park. And since Sunday is the busiest day we decide NOT to go there on Sunday. The furthermost away spots have 3 or 4 wineries to visit - this time only 1 of them is participating on their own site. But we still go because they have this awesome champagne (excuse me France, sparkling wine) that they sell in splits. I like to keep those in the fridge cause they are such a nice size. So we usually end up stocking up. Went all the way out there to find out "they" had decided not to bottle up for this weekend - the person selling to us was very irritated about this! They had 1 split left so we grabbed it. But she wasn't happy - something to do with a wedding coming up and she didn't know when they planned to bottle for that either! - and I am sure she knows that the splits are good sellers. Anyway - they have really nice wines out there....http://www.chouinard.com/

We went to make 6 or 7 wineries. The day was lovely - not too hot at all. And that evening was our anniversary dinner - and we always go to the same restaurant....http://www.wentevineyards.com/restaurant/. We love the food there and the service and it is close to home (especially if we enjoy their wine too much!). Again, things have changed over the years here - their large menu is down to a small one - and they apparently no longer grow many of their own veggies and herbs (their heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad used to be a killer) and I haven't seen their awesome garlic mashed potatoes on the menu in a long time. The other thing that saddens me is that apparently they no longer produce their own sparkling wine in their limestone caves - but I had a glass of an awesome Spanish champagne!
We shared a plate of olive - and hubby had a Caesar salad which was more than enough for both of us! Then we both had the filet mignon - wow, was it good. The only thing I don't like about fancy restaurants is their decorative idea of serving food on top of each other - I like my meat NEXT to my potatoes - not on top of it....we shared a bottle of wine...and then we split the dessert which was to DIE FOR!! A nectarine/berry upside down cake! I love the service - people always around if you need something but not hovering and trying to escort you out the door within minutes of setting down.

My two complaints about this restaurant - one is several years ago - we decided to have lunch there to celebrate my 50th birthday. We have never gone back there for lunch. The service was SOOOOOO BAD that we did not even stay for dessert - and what is a birthday lunch without dessert??!!! And the food wasn't even that good. My other complaint is dress code - they don't enforce it really and that is such a turn off. I guess they want customer's - but c'mon, this is not a place to come to dinner in raggedy jeans and flip flops (males) or raggedy shorts and flip flops (males again)!!!!!!!!

Monday we started off the day investigating some sales on recliners. Hubby's is just about done for. So we went to LaZ Boy. Spent quite some time in there too cause they have so many to try out and chose. Did we come home with one???? Nope. Guess we haven't been furniture shopping in quite some time. We were very surprised at how expensive the delivery charge is (considering we live about 5 miles from there) AND the fact that if you don't want delivery - you want to pick it up yourself - there is still a charge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And if you buy more than one item, altho the cost goes down, there is still a delivery charge on each item!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So then we went to the wine tasting venue at the Park (www.LVwine.org). Now, we read you can't take food and drinks in - and one winery told us you couldn't even buy wine there and open it (which of course you can do at the wineries). So we decided we would go and grab some lunch there while we were tasting. Thank goodness it was not as hot as in most years - they had 3 tents set up with tables an chairs and even tho we got there only an hour after it started - I think the people got there immediately at opening and planned to sit in those chairs all day. I never did see anyone leave!

So we checked out some of the wine and decided to find the 'food court'. Yeah. All, 7? tents!!!!! I think it was 7 ... 6 - 8 at least. Let's see - two of them were serving sausages....2 of them fried veggies. COME ON people - you are encouraging people to drink wine? And you have very little food to eat????? Most wineries had one food vendor at each site - you had 20 wineries out there and 7 food vendors???? And not allowed to bring in your own food??????????????????

Hardly any arts & crafts vendors either - wonder how much they charge the vendors for this event??? Cause overall there were much less than in previous years.

Anyway. we stayed just over an hour there and went home. I DO NOT think we got our monies worth this year - and it was pricey - $50/ticket for 2 days and that was the advance ticket sale price. I do not think either of us enjoyed $50 worth of tasting. It was quite disappointing...

Now - after the disappointment of the garage sales on Saturday, on Tuesday went to ONE thrift shop and spent $4 - a spring form pan, a 2 cup measuring cup, a Christmas tiny single bread pan, a Christmas votive, and a skein of yarn. Pretty good!

Hubby was released back to work on Wednesday. And on Wednesday he informed his boss he was retiring - last day will be October 2. I asked how he felt about it - and he said all he felt was relief. Now yesterday was meeting days (he missed Tuesday and Wednesdays) where he goes around to the different district meetings.....and so he informed people there and he said it was harder than he expected especially with the people he had worked with for so long. I think bittersweet is the best term.

Yesterday was my first day back to work. I did not sleep well at all Wed night - was up 3 times that night. DO you think I was a bit worried??? Well, my ankle held up very well but I was exhausted! MY co-workers were very patient with me and took good care of me - and it sounds like things really got crazy after I left (am only starting out with 8 hour days). But I got home and had to lay down for 15 minutes before I went to the Farmer's Market and then laid down for a bit after I got back!!!!!!!! Went to bed about 9 PM and read for awhile and boy did I sleep good last night! I work again tomorrow so hopefully I sleep good again tonight!!!!!