It's Wine-Thirty!

Want to have fun? Try Kareoke!

O.k., my life lately revolves around my full time job, helping DH look for a job and bartending (not necessarily in that order).  What am I have the most fun doing?  Bartending!

Saturday night was Kareoke night at the Amherst VFW.   This is held every other Saturday night during the school year.   I was barback for Julie, the bar manager and I had THE BEST TIME!  Not only did I get to sing along while the kids (yes, most of them are 20 years younger than I!) sing to the kareoke, but I got to talk to them too.  They are a great bunch of college students.  They work hard during the week, and party hard on the weekends.  And they can sing too! 

The Amherst July 4th Parade Committee is hosting a Halloween party on Saturday, November 1st at the VFW from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., with Greg Reil providing the Kareoke.  We are hoping that not only will we have the regular supporters of the parade helping us to raise funds for next year's parade, but that the students will join us too.  I will be there in costume (just not sure what I'm going as yet).

I'm including some pictures I've taken around the valley in the past few weeks.  Autumn has come to Massachusetts!

 

View of the Holyoke Range from Route 66.

 

The changing leaves at the town hall in Pelham

 

Reflections of Fall in Pelham

24K Nightmare

Forgive my lack of memory, but someone asked how do you make a 24K Nightmare?

Don't say I didn't warn you.  It is lethal.   ;-)

1/2 oz. Goldschlager cinnamon liqueur

1/2 oz. Jagermeister herb liqueur

1/2 oz. peppermint schnapps

1/2 oz. Bacardi 151 or other overproof rum

Combine ingredients.  Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice and pour into a shot glass.  Stir, drink - and shake.   

More on the vacation

One of the things we do on vacation is share the cooking responsibilities.  My brother Luke, my oldest brother Greg and I each pick 2 nights to cook.  In year's past, we've made it a cooking contest to see who could make the best meal, and you weren't allowed to repeat anything you had cooked in previous years.  This year I decided I wasn't going to make myself crazy, and stuck with easier meals, like making Minnesota Wild Rice Casserole.  I did make up for the easier meal by having some gourmet cheeses like Leyden with Cumin, a rosemary Manchego, and a goose live pate as appetizers. 

I lucked out due to having additional family members come down on Thursday night, we had enough leftovers so that I didn't have to cook on Friday night.  Not that I would have minded, because I was going to make Taco Pie, but hey, any day you can spend on the beach past 6 p.m. is a good day!

The kids eating leftover lasagna on Friday night.

Standing on the dunes looking south to Avalon.  Due to the way the sand has been depositing along the south Jersey shore for thousands of years, Avalon actually sticks out into the ocean 1 mile farther than Sea Isle.  Avalon likes to say it is "Cooler by a Mile".

This is a mandevilla which we passed each day on our way to the beach.

If you look closely at this photo, you'll see what looks like white blocks floating out in the ocean.  It is actually Atlantic City 20 miles to the northeast of us.  At night, the sight is even more spectacular as the buildings are all lit up and the Borgota has what they call waterfall effects which makes the building change colors all the time.

I love photographing the sandpipers!  I need a better camera so that I can get close ups on them.

Megan, Zack, Boo and Calvin on the lifeguard stand.

Springer's Ice Cream in Stone Harbor.  Possibly the best ice cream I've ever tasted!

The family waiting in line at Springers on Friday night.  Usually I go down to Springer's several times during the week with the rest of my family, but this year, because I was an early bird each morning waking up at 5 a.m., the 10 p.m. trips to get ice cream were too late for me, so I stayed home with Calvin and Dale.  We made it for Friday night, which was a lot of fun (and only a 20 minute wait to get inside to order our cones!).

On the way back to my uncle's house from the shore on Saturday morning, we stopped at Bellview Winery in Landisville, NJ.   I have to say that this is my favorite winery in the northeast.  Their Niagara wine tastes just like fresh concord grapes.  The Raspberry wine smells and tastes just like you are eating fresh ripe red raspberries so it is perfect in the middle of winter when you need reminding that there is something besides snow and cold weather.  ;-)   So of course I brought home 2 Raspberry wines, 2 Niagaras and 1 of Nana's Wine, which is a light, crisp white wine.

I even tried their after-dinner Port this time, and found it was very good too.  I didn't buy any because I plan to head back down to NJ in November and when I do, I'm going back down to the winery where I will buy some of the port and some of their Cabernet Franc which will go perfectly with my spaghetti.

We really had a wonderful time down in Sea Isle this year and we already have the house booked for next year.  I can hardly wait!   

Not again.....

Just another reminder that things can change in an instant.

DH called me this morning to let me know that he had been laid off today, his first day back at work after vacation.   The company let another middle management person go last Friday too.  So now I have an unemployed husband (again).   

I keep trying to look at the bright side that we went through this 2 years ago (yes, almost to the day!), but that now I know the ropes of dealing with the unemployment office.  And, hopefully something will turn up quickly.

Please send us some positive energy/thoughts/prayers that we can get through this as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

Back home and well rested

I'm finally home from my vacation to the NJ shore.

I had planned to blog while there, but the house we rent has encrypted wireless and the owner was out of town on business so we had to suffer through dial up.  With the cost of dial up, I kept my internet usage to as little as possible, which meant no blogging.  But I have lots of photos to share which I'll do over the next few days!

The first drink of vacation (a Washington Apple).

My brother Luke enjoying his WA.

My SIL Debbie and Luke enjoying the first cocktails of the week.

I'm hamming it up for the camera.  Isn't that a pretty sunset behind me?

This sign says "I HATE Steve Singer!".  At first I thought someone was spending a whole lot of money to trash someone, but my brother explained that this guy is a jeweler who undercuts the competition, and this is his way of advertising himself.  I also noticed that we only saw this sign being towed on Sunday, and that Steve Singer doesn't advertise during the week.  Whereas the local bars like the Ocean Drive and The La Costa advertise their bands and drink specials all week long.

This is Boo and my brother's partner Joe.  I didn't know Joe very well until this past week, but I got to know him better and found out that he is such a great guy.  I was very happy that he was finally able to join us this year on vacation.

Part of our trip was spent visiting some of the vineyards in South Jersey.  On Monday,  Luke, Joe and I went to Natali Vineyards first, sampling 4 wines.  I purchased two bottles of their Court House Blush which is a rose wine.

Our second stop on Monday was to Turdo Vineyards down near the bottom of Cape May.  This picture to the left is of their tasting room.  I can honestly say that they have some amazing wines, including a full bodied Merlot and a Rubino (Ruby Port) which is to die for.  I have tried Port before and not liked it.  The Turdo's make theirs using grappa and it is heavenly!  I liked it so much that I went back 2 days later with Joe and bought a second bottle of it because I couldn't stand the thought of only having one bottle until I go back next summer.   

See that large bush to the left of the door?  That is a rosemary plant! 

The Turdo vineyards.

They also had at least 5 fig trees.  Too bad the figs weren't ripe when we were there.

Beach roses next to the path down to the beach.

Calvin next to the sand castle that he and my husband built.

Isnt' that calming to look at? 

Our weather on vacation was the best we've ever had in 20 years of renting down in Sea Isle.  We didn't have one rainy or cloudy day, the water warmed up while we were there, and I've come back very, very tan. 

I wish I were still there!

More tomorrow.

How's this for a cuteness factor?!

Milo asleep with Nathaniel's stuffed cat Lo on the left and Calvin's stuffed Boston Terrier Pablo on the right.

And they continue to bloom

Summer can be as slow or as busy as you want.

Right now, I'm hitting a slow time, so I have time to stop and look at the hibiscus growing in my front yard. 

The first one that bloomed 2 weeks ago was as big as a dinner plate; the ones after that are closer in size to a dessert plate.

And of course, we have Trina with her "What are you looking at?" expression (to steal Larry Kelley's phrase). 

Alternative L.I. Iced Tea Anyone?

Lots of people like Long Island Iced Teas.  Only they don't always have all the types of alcohol on hand in order to make them or it is considered too complicated a drink to make.  So I'm going to give you a lazy girls LI Iced Tea.

Lazy Girl LI Iced Tea

1 part Myer's Dark Rum

2 parts tonic water

1 lime wedge.

Yes, that's it!  Mix it and enjoy! 

My Saturday

My Saturday afternoon sky

Coneflowers with bumblebees

Wood waiting to be split

One of my daylillies - see how big it is?

Saturday Sky?

Does anyone do Saturday Sky anymore?  Here is mine at 7:01 this morning.

Sun peaking through the fog.