Makes me cold just looking.

There was a heavy frost this morning. Since we haven't gotten hardly any snow yet this year, I was eager to take a few pictures.

Third Time's the Charm

This is the third time I will link to the Fantasy Survivor Game Website and I'm really hoping more people are going to play this time (ahem!) It's really easy, it's lots of fun, Cori and John and I always enjoy it, unless by some unusual circumstances I win and then I gloat. You answer questions every week before the show about what is going to happen on the show, and no, Mike, you don't HAVE to watch the show to play, but it might prove helpful if you want to score any points at all.

Our team name is The Mooney's and our password is tabasco (shh!, don't tell anybody our password.)

My picks are already in. =)

Delish!

Bought the new Rachael Ray magazine today. Can't hardly put it down. From the last issue I made the Individual Beef Wellingtons, Macaroni and Cheese with Chiles, Linguine with Rach's Cupboard Red Clam Sauce, and the Souffleed Cheese Grits. So many good recipes! For more Rachael info (Joe asked last night, "who is Rachael Ray?") go here.

My new favorite magazine

Rhone Ranger

I poured wine this morning at the St. Louis Food and Wine Experience and met one of my "heroes." His name is Randall Graham. He is a phenomenal winemaker, always on the cutting edge, sometimes over the edge. He is very intriguing, and creative, and eccentric. He is definently a purist. My friend, Ron, got a job with him right out of college and Ron was being polite when he said there was a lot of turnover at the winery. I met him once at Fresno. We invited him to our program to speak and do a tasting. He was so arrogant, and I was so disappointed. I remember asking him his opinion on Missouri wines and he gave some snide remark, and I was crushed. I thought he'd be into them, since they are so different than California wines. I knew he giving a presentation today, but I decided not to go, because nothing turns me off more than someone who is conceited. I like the idea of him more than I really like him.

When he showed up at my booth this morning, I gave him my best star struck smile (see February 2005 when I met the mayor.) I told him I am a huge fan, and he shook my hand very intensely. He tried three out of my four wines, and he gave me what mom would call "constructive criticism." One of the other Missouri winemakers came over, introduced himself, and tried to steal Randall away from me, but I gave the intruder a dirty look, and was happy when Randall didn't budge. He ended the visit saying he really liked the LaRose Rose, which has never been a flagship wine, but I think it might be my new favorite. =) He headed away from my table in the opposite direction of the guy who tried to wisk him away.

This is my cousin, Natalie, who is getting married in March in Palm Springs, and her fiance, John.

You Know You're An Adult When...

you choose to have oatmeal for breakfast.

Learn to Not Say "um."

Friday morning I went to a Toastmasters meeting as a guest. It was good, the members were very welcoming. It felt a little like that stereotypical self help class though. I guess officially it is a self help class. I felt the urge to stand up and introduce myself and say, "Hi, I'm Elaine. I have been a terrible public speaker for almost 10 years now."

I originally heard of Toastmasters from a friend. We had a disagreement, and I ended up getting mad. After a couple days I told her I felt like I wasn't the best at communicating on the spot, and wished I could have explained to her how I saw things, instead of getting mad and frustrated. We didn't say anything ugly, we just disagreed, and there should be a way to communicate that without coming away with hard feelings. She said she felt similarly and had done a little bit of research on Toastmasters and suggested maybe we should join together. Pretty good idea on her part.

It's hard to picture myself as a bad public speaker. From this blog, it's obvious I don't have a hard time sharing, and that I can compose sentences and use correct English. In gradeschool and high school I participated in plays and skits. All that was rehearsed though, and usually someone else wrote it. At Mizzou I took a public speaking class and I don't remember feeling nervous at all. At Fresno, though, I put on a Missouri Wine Tasting, and was nervous as all get out for that. Luckily a little wine helped my nerves. Since then, it has seemed to escalate. I sit on the Missouri Wine and Grape Advisory Board, and there are times in the meeting I would like to say something, but I get nervous. I think in school everyone was on a level playing field, and in the real world some people are more experienced, or successful or intimidating. I had to give a small talk at the Ste. Genevieve Chamber of Commerce, and I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest. Somewhere I lost some of that young fearlessness.

Already feeling a little nervous about my first speech.

I'm a sucker for pictures with John holding babies. =) Aren't they cute?

Celebrity Status

Solve a household debate. Jerry Rice; "A" or "B" list celebrity?

Confucious Says:

Saturday night John and I went to Pho Grand. The food was way different than I expected. I had eggs rolls, so that is similar to Chinese, but we both ordered soup because there were like 20 different soups on the menu and then we also ordered an entree. When we ordered the waiter said, "um, the soup is very big." Translation, "Holy Shit you have ordered a lot of food." This isn't the first time this has happened to us. In Miami we went to Pollo Tropical and placed our order. When we're faced with new unknown foods we order away. We're very brave like that. The lady behind the counter said, "um, you ordered three different kinds of beans."

In our neck of the city we have quite a few Vietnamese people. They do nails, they own restaurants, they own stores where they fix VCRs and rent Vietnamese videos, and there is a store very close to our house that sells lacquerware, whatever that is. There is one place that I find humorous, it's called Wei Hong Bakery and Barbeque. The next time I am hungry for muffins and ribs at the same time, I'll know where to go.

Ummm...

If the Jack in the Box guy is referred to as "Mr. Box," what do you call his wife?

Java's camouflage ottoman

We had a mildew problem, which made the paint peel off, and some of the wall started coming off. So, we sanded and scraped the old stuff off, then spackled twice, trying to keep the surface textured like the the original. Then we painted twice with this special mildew-resistant-for-5-years paint, and replaced the light. It took longer than I expected.

Anniversary

Today marks one year of this blog. I've had a good time with it so far. I like that this blog is a platform for John and Mike's jokes, just like we are together. I like taking pictures and showing them to you. I counted how many times everyone has been featured in a picture, and decided not to tell you the number because I know John is already annoyed. =) I like this new fandangled way of keeping in touch. I like showing you my personality and LOVE LOVE LOVE your silly comments. =) I also like the fact that there are parts of me that aren't on the blog, stories I didn't share, moments I decided to keep to myself (hard to believe I know.) Most of them I didn't keep to myself, just didn't tell the entire internet.

I hope the blog doesn't start repeating itself. When I write our Christmas letter every year, I start to think we do the same thing evey year at the same time, wine tastings, Cardinals games, Fair St. Louis, etc. I do know this year will differ if only because of Natalie's wedding in March. I would like to learn how to show you videos I've taken from my camera. I asked a girl on another blog, and she explained it using Quicktime, and my videos are saved in a different format. Anyone know how to do this? I'm contemplating starting a winery blog. I could link this blog to it, but not vice versa. I could show what the vines are doing, what the wines are doing, etc. I spent the other day inside a tank, and thought that was an interesting vantage point. Hmm...

Warm Day in January

Monday was my dad's birthday, so we all went to the farm on Sunday to celebrate. It was unseasonably warm, a record high of 71 degrees F. We had a good time; rode Shadow my horse, the guys played football, we went for a walk, and chased the chickens back into their house. An opposum had been eating a chicken a night, so they didn't want to go back into the house, but all's well now that dad caught the opposum.

Go here to view 19 photos of the day. My perverted brother, Matt, will want you to check out the last two photos for sure.

It's not everyday you get to herd chickens.

Really cute picture from Christmas I just HAD to share.

The colors just kept getting better. John saw me pulled over on the side of the road ( I was taking pictures, he thought something was wrong.) He turned around, and came back by the same spot on the highway, but I was gone. What a nice guy, always looking out for me. =)

I tend to like winter sunsets better. Maybe because there are more clouds, to make the colors more interesting, maybe because my drive home in the winter is during sunset.

we're in the middle of a project

A Picture That Doesn't Make Him Look Like John Goodman

Noisemaker

32

Today is John's birthday. We were woken at 5:20 a.m. to tornado sirens. Good Morning! Happy Birthday! The guy over the loud speaker said, "Take shelter immediately." Would be cool if I could arrange it next year to say, "Happy Birthday John." I'll have to look into that.

We're going out to eat tonight at King Louie's. We have never been there, the menu looks tasty.

Happy Birthday to the most important person in the world to me. I love you.