Wine Tour

As I mentioned in a previous post, Dave and I had a trip planned for this week. It was a gift to celebrate Dave turning the big 30, and we went out to Seneca Lake for wine touring!

Before I get into the wine, the trip did not go as well as I had hoped. The inn was not exactly what I thought it would be. The inn keepers were very nice, but it was just plain weird to be in someone else's home while they were there. The ONLY saving grace is that we were the only people staying there. The other downside is that the place smelled REALLY musty. We most likely won't be going to a B&B eve again, but we LOVED wine country!

Day One: We left out house around 10 am to bring the dogs to my parent's home. We decided to hit the Waterloo Outlets on the way for some bargain shopping. Dave did really well, and I did not buy anything! Looking back, I am relieved because my new computer and the trip tapped out most of my savings. Next we headed to Fox Run. It was the only winery on the list that we had heard of so we decided it would be worth a stop. We had never wine tasted before so we felt a bit odd. One really nice part of going in the off season was that the wine people had time to talk with us. We got quite an education! After that, we headed to the inn.  We were disappointed with our accommodations, so we headed into Watkins Glen for some Chinese food. It was an actual sit down place, and the food was really good.  After that, we just went back to the inn to relax.

Day Two: We began the day with a nice breakfast at the inn! The smell either went away or we got used to it, but Day Two was better. We were still pretty sure that we were going to leave a day early, but we were open to staying. We set out at 11 am for more wineries. We hit Fulkerson, Lakewood, and Castel Grisch. Oddly enough, the girl whose family owns Castel Grisch went to Oneonta with me! Not that we knew each other back then, but it was a kinda neat coincidence.  After that, we went back to the inn for some lunch. While we were there, we got word from Dave's parents that a huge snow storm was on it's way for that evening into the next day. When we heard that, we decided to just call it a day and head back. We did enjoy two more wineries on our way home, Glenora and Belhurst. Speaking of Belhurst, I fully intend to stay THERE next time we are in the area! It was an amazing castle that was right on the water. Simply breathtaking.  We drove to New Hartford and spend the evening, all of the next day, and the next morning with Dave's parents. While it was not as great as I hoped, we definitely want to go back in the summer with some friends.

Birthday Party!

On Sunday we hosted a joint birthday party for Dave and Jess. Everyone came up to our house, and we had a great time.

T-3 Days

until vacation! While I am having a good week at school, I am so excited for our vacation. We have some fun things planned--a big family birthday party, lunch with my BFF, lunch with another couple, and a trip of our own!

My Funny Valentine

Love my gift!! A portion of the proceeds benefit Esty Project Embrace, for a seller who is battling ovarian cancer. Who doesn't love love?

B-day & V-day

My handsome husband turned 30 this past week, and I wanted to make his Big 3-0 extra special.  On his birthday morning, I surprised him with a small trip! I will blog more about this after it is done, but he was happy.  It is funny because the night before his birthday, he mentioned that we hadn't gone away for a night in a long time. I just agreed, but acted disinterested so that he wouldn't surprise ME by booking something!

Last night we went out to celebrate his birthday and Valentine's Day at our favorite restaurant: Bloomer's! My descriptions of our meal won't do it justice, but alas...We started out with wine, Dave had a Malbec and I had a Pinot Noir.  For appetizers, I had a spinach salad with strawberries, pecans, and goat cheese while Dave had a parsnip and apple light cream soup.  For dinner, Dave went with his usual fillet Mignon with a demi-glaze and I enjoyed veal Oscar.  The crab meat on my veal was by far the best I have ever had. We LOVE the food there, and wish it wasn't so expensive! We passed on dessert because we were too full, but we are already looking forward to the next dinner we will enjoy there!

"Seems to be a defect..."

After spending over an hour assembling and re-assembling our nursery shelf, it resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Now I am pretty adept at putting things together (ahem and Dave is not), so I called my even handier pal Beth to ask her advice. She offered wood glue or a return to the store.  Of course, I bought it online and dreaded the return shipping fees.  I called the customer service, and after explaining it all, she said, "Seems to be a defect..." GREAT! So they are giving us a full refund, plus they are paying the return shipping! Score! Of course, we are still lacking a shelf.

Counter pieces

You may remember that I was so excited when I found cute, but girly prints for the nursery...

Well, I recently found and ordered 2 boy prints!

All's Quiet on the Winter Front

Not much is going on here that is worth reporting, BUT the next few weeks will be exciting. No, not baby-exciting (that we know of!) but Dave turns 30 on Thursday. On the off chance that he will read this, I will hold off posting the birthday activities as some of them are surprises.

We had a snow day on Wednesday and we got about 8 inches of snow. It was a perfectly productive day for me.  I think I may have mentioned in a previous entry that I am teaching 6 classes this year. I actually really enjoy instructing an extra period instead of having a study hall. I love working with my students, and the extra 40 minutes of class time is pretty great. The downside is all the extra grading! Most week nights I put in between 30 and 90 minutes of grading at home, but with the tutoring gig I picked up I feel overwhelmed with paper work! The snow day was great because we all knew it was coming so I brought a ton of work home with me. I didn't get all of it done, but enough so that I can relax a bit this weekend.


I also made some headway in our nursery! I finally ordered a book shelf. Dave laughed at how I agonized over the decision, but the room is so small and the space I want to put it is funny.  The one I originally found at Ikea was the style I was looking for, but a bit too short. And also not really functional. :-(

The one I ended up getting is from Amazon, $69 plus free shipping.  It is an Oxford 36" 3-shelf book case. I am excited for it to arrive so I can take the books out of the boxes! Plus, it will help make the room look less like a mess and more like a nursery.