New Years Eve - Welcome 2009

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Originally uploaded by FuzzyKryton

Once again, we had some friends over for New Years Eve. Why go out and deal with how is out for the evening! We would much rather have a nice evening at home with friends! This year, in addition to the usual gang (Beth, Chad and Dan), Bill (a co-worker) and his wife Sarah joined us, and then Nicole (another co-worker) also stopped by for a while.

It was definitely an interesting evening! There was no shortage of food, as I once again, went overboard on the food! BBQ Meatballs, homemade chicken strips with various dipping sauces, the usual chips, dips and cracker, plus a HUGE variety of John's homemade chocolates!

With the chocolates, it was really hard to say which ones were the biggest hit... Bill and Sarah loved the chocolate coated coffee beans, but Beth and Chad... not so much! On the other hand there was only 1 of the s'mores left (marshmallows dipped in chocolate and then rolled in graham cracker crumbs), a larger amount of turtles were gone, I think ALL of the homemade peanut better Twix were gone as well as about half of the dipped potato chips! Needless to say, there was not a shortage of chocolate!

There was also not a shortage of beverage... one would think that we drink all the time with the variety of alcohol in our cupboard. We just have varying tastes and have started a grand collection of flavors. Some bottles we bought just to try a specific drink and then it sat there. So we were on a mission to maybe have some of those almost empty bottles become empty. As a way to make it easier to decide what to drink. John pulled everything out of the cupboard and turned the counter into a bar - it was a well stocked bar! I never realized just how much was up in the cupboard until it was all taken down! I think we need to use what we have before we buy anymore!!

The entertainment for the evening once again centered around Wii... upstairs it was a variety of games including Raving Rabbids, Redneck Jamboree, Bowling and more. The basement however had been turned into a rock concert as RockBand got a great workout!

Beth and Nicole had their own laughs playing pinball and pool. At first Beth was very confused as to why the 8 ball was white instead of black. That was, until I told her that was the set of pool balls that glowed under the black light. So that brought a whole new dimension to the game! Nicole even brought out the "Yooper Cue" - made out of a long stick with all the bark shaved off! Straightness was not high on the detail list when this cue was made - controlling your shot is a bit difficult!

Of course the highlight of the evening was the countdown to midnight... I was just really glad that I did not pass out the noise makers until right before midnight! From 11:53 until at least 12:05, it was a constant stream of noise from the party horns! I don't think the cats came out of hiding until morning!

The only drawback to having a NYE party at your house is the clean-up that you get to wake up to in the morning! What a great way to start off the new year... cleaning and dishes. But of course, we had to have fun with that! John pulled out the ice shot glasses that he had made for the occasion and figured that they would make a great subject for some photo's... Yeah, I know, big surprise there... John taking pictures of weird things! But I have to admit, they turned out really cool!

Surprisingly enough, even with all the food that we had the night before, there was not a lot of leftovers!

To see a full presentation of the photo's from the evening, go here

Girlfriends and Wine

Last night Beth and I got together for a little "Girl's Night Out" It was the Meet-up Group Wine Tasting evening at the Captain's Walk Winery downtown. It was an awesome evening with some great laughs. We both realized that we do not get together as often as we should! In fact, with how often we get together anymore, you would think that we like miles apart, but in reality, she only lives about a mile from me!

The Captain's Walk is a true gem! The history of the building can be seen in every room the staff at the winery is always eager to share this great history. One of the really cool things about this winery is that they have a glass floor in the center of the tasting room so that you can see the HUGE barrels of wine "resting" in the cellar. While we were, one of the staff was down in the cellar topping off the barrels, so that there was no air left in the top. While he was down there, he stole a sample from one of the barrels and brought it up for our group to try. They poured some of that Merlot for each of us as well as some of the same Merlot that had already been bottled. What a difference! The bottled sample was definitely much smoother and the over all taste was soooo different! If you every go somewhere and have the opportunity to sample wine straight out of the barrel like this, go for it! If really gives you a different perspective on how the taste of wine can chance with processing!


We were able to sample all of the different wines that they make right there at the Captain's Walk, as well as a few wines from their sister winery, The Von Stehiel Winery in Algoma (where we just were on Saturday for the Wine Festival!). I think there were only a few that I did not care for, and these were mostly the very dry ones. A little dry is sometimes ok, but when you get the to far dry end of the spectrum, it is just not for me!


I also HAD to buy a bottle of their Maiden Voyage wine (pictured above). Not only is it an awesome wine, but the came in the super cool, limited edition bottle that looked like a big pirate ship! TOO COOL!! Right away I thought about our freinds with Bounding Main Maiden Voyage was the name of their first album! I think I need to send them a bottle of this wine!

This group is always fun to get together with! I think every time we go out and do something , there are new faces! Where will our next adventure be? Wherever the flavors take us!

Another Monday... Gotta Love 'em

Why does the weekend never seem to last long enough? But at least this was a fun one! Maybe that's why it went by so quickly!

Friday night we went with the Cub Scouts to the Gambler's Game. I don't' mind the events like this because the parents usually stick around (unlike the other pack events where parents come, drop the kids off and leave. Meaning that those of us parents that do stay are usually trying to keep at least some sort of order!). Even though the Gamblers lost the game, we all still had a lot of fun! One of the dad's was selected to take part in the 3rd period Trivia Contest. If he answer just ONE questions correctly, he would be invited back in March for the finals. The question that he ended up with was "In the 1991 NMU played the Championship Game against which Boston School?" I KNEW the correct answer because I remember breaking my toes watching that game at my Uncle's house! I yelled up to him that the answer was D - Boston University. But apparently hecould not hear me over everyone else that was yelling that it was A - Boston College. So he went with A. Oh well. At least he did win a $10 gift certificate for Marty's Boston Crab Restaurant!

Saturday by lunchtime, the snow started falling. We were forecasted to get 4-8 inches of snow by midnight Saturday and a total of 8-10 by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around. It was nice light, fully snow that was falling so shoveling it in the afternoon was not too bad - 10 minutes and the entire driveway was done! By evening, we had some nice accumulation, but that did not stop us from going out for the evening. We had plans to go with Chad and Beth out to dinner and then to Slap Happy at Comedy City. Driving there was oh so fun! Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive! None of the roads were plowed until we were about 2 miles from the Club! Due to the snow, we opted to have dinner at the restaurant kitty-corner from the comedy club. None of us had even been there before, but we will definitely go back again! There was basically no one else in the place (go figure - the weather was bad and no one was out to eat!)! The Martini's were super (drink special of the night) and the food was good too. Great company makes any meal even better. I forgot how much I enjoy getting together with Chad and Beth. We had some great fun just hanging out like we use to do all the time!

After dinner we tromped through the piles of snow to head across the street... there was not a lot of people at the club! Granted we ended up getting there before the early Improv show even started, so people were still arriving. By the time the show started, the theater was almost full - not sure how busy the Improv show was, but Everyone made it to see Slap Happy! Another great show! Now, this was actually the 2nd time that I was seeing the show. I went Thanksgiving weekend with the rest of the family - John ended up getting sick so he didn't go with us. I told him that I would pay to see the show again! So we did! Just as good the 2nd time! We have never been disappointed with any of the stage shows there. (they write all of their own shows). We stuck around for the "late show" - they were having a Miller and Mike Show afterwards (Miller and Mike are Professional Clowns that use to work with Ringling Brothers!) So we stuck around for that too... definitely worth the time and $$!!! John and Darrin have seen some of there shows before but I never had. They are great! Ever seen anyone blow bubble by dipping their hands (wearing rubber gloves) into a bucket of bubble solution, then blowing through their fingers etc? Yup, it works!

We drove home laughing so hard that it kinda made you forget about the wintery weather that we were dealing with! At least by that time it had stopped snowing and the plows were able to catch up! The only roads that were not plowed was the backroads going to our house!

Sunday was another quiet day around the house - got some Christmas cards done, most of the rest of the holiday decorating and some baking done. Never did get to the grocery store... guess I better to that today!