Wine around the world

By some miracle, I went to sleep last night before 5am and woke up at precisely noon today.  I look at this as progress.  Skordo looks at this as necessary.  If anything, I need to adjust this sleep schedule for him.  The things we do for animals.

For years, I have been plagued by nightmares and night terrors.  I have been known to scream bloody murder while I am sound asleep.  Many neighbors have complained of this before.  For this, I apologize.  In addition to the standard of talking in my sleep and occasional wandering (yes, I walk around), my nightmares are incredibly horrid, vivid, and frequent.  I will generally have one every night and often wake up sitting straight up, gasping to catch an extra breath.  Many times, I will not remember these visions.  On occasion I will, and they are just strange.  Absolutely strange.

I have been meaning to consult someone to locate the main cause of my nightmares.  I have had these nightmares for the majority of my life, but they have become progressively worse over the past two years.  My doctor initially thought that I was suffering from alcohol withdrawals.  Yes, at the time (a year ago), this made sense.  It has now been over a year and a half and well, they’re still there.

In an effort of honesty, these nightmares do not bother me that much.  I tend to wake up from them, remind myself that nothing is real, and continue on with my day.  Truth be told, there is nothing realistic about being stranded off a barge with towering metal bridges crashing around me.  Enlighten me.  Please.

I’m sure there is some reasonable validity surrounding my nightmares.  I’m sure some red flags are raised around me for this, but truly, I am not bothered.  It’s rather bizarre.  I almost find a strange sense of belonging in them.  Yes, I take sleeping pills on a moderately consistent basis.  I have been a slave to them off and on for a few years.  The nightmares have been around since long before I discovered sleep in a bottle.  They have just leveled at this point.  I really cannot pinpoint it at all.  I am just a bit baffled.

The rubber duckie reminds me of one of my best friends, Marmar...Miss her.

I know, a normal post title. Lame? Maybe, but it took something amazing to convince me to do so. Artomatic is a local DC art show that’s in its 10th year and showcasing the work of over 1600 visual & performing artists. Needless to say, this is nine floors of awesome.

I first heard of Artomatic via twitter since a couple of people I follow(ed) actually have displays in the show. I’ve been excited about getting down to see it and I was blown away by the entire thing. I headed straight for Lady Glock’s display to admire her photography. It wasn’t long before I was able to hook up with her and hang out for awhile. She’s a cool cat and a lot of fun to harass/talk to.

From there I decided to venture around as much of the space as I could before they closed (at 1AM no less). Since I only had an hour I didn’t get a chance to study too much, though I was caught several times by many works that were simply amazing. I’ll most definitely be heading back in the coming weeks to take more time exploring all of the unique, interesting, and at times hysterical work.

Me? A geek for liking this?...neeeevveeerrrr...

While many of you might not be huge on seeing art, I think this is a worthwhile trip for anyone to make. There is every type of art imaginable in this show, including a huge peeps diorama collection! How crazy is that? There’s just enough of a variety to entertain anyone at some point and make the trip worth it for everyone.

Oh, and did I mention there’s a Hard Time Cafe & Bar? Yeah, and art show with alcohol. How badass is that?

For kicks, here’s a few artist’s websites that had work I loved:

Lady Glock
Candace Keegan
Matt Dunn

Com que ja comença per fi a fer caloreta, ahir vaig tenir la brillant idea d’acompanyar el sopar amb una sangria. No n’havia fet mai, però sort que sempre puc recorrer a Sant Google.
Després de veure varies receptes, i fer-me una idea general, aquesta és la meva recepta personalitzada:

- Una botella de vi negre (jo vaig agafar del mercadona, 0,80€)
- Un got petit (rotllo got de nocilla) de suc de taronja
- 1 llimona
- 4 cullerades soperes de sucre.
- 1 poma

Només tenia una gerra de litro, així que no vaig tirar tot el vi per si no quedava lloc per la resta d’ingredients. Vaig deixar un cul de tres dits.
Després ve les 4 cullerades soperes de sucre. Tampoc cal passar-nos, 4 cullerades normals, eh? Tirant a rases, llises. Es remena tot.
Després ve el got de suc de taronja, i la llimona. Com que no tinc exprimidor, l’exprimeixo tot el que puc amb les mans (i amb l’ajuda d’una forquilla). Es remena.
Vaig agafar una poma i vaig fer-ne uns 6-8 talls. Del que quedava de la llimona també vaig aprofitar 3-4 talls. I tatxàn!! Ja ta.
Una sangría, que he batejat com a punyetera. Si algú fa la meva recepta ja sabrà perquè, tot i que és fàcil adivinar-ho.

A conversation from this evening…

Me: This is weird. I’ve never had an anniversary before.
John: Yes, honey. That’s why it’s called a FIRST anniversary.

D’oh!

That’s right. Today is our first wedding anniversary! I can’t believe it’s already been a year. I’m so thankful for my thoughtful, loving husband and the covenant of marriage that we entered into before God a year ago today.

:o)

Dancing by the groom's cake after we smashed cake in each other's face

We have had a great day today. We slept in (woohoo!) and went to the Kaffeehaus for brunch, which was actually just lunch today because it was so late.

On the way there, however, we saw a sign that said “Erdbeeren,” which means strawberries in German. We then saw a bunch of people bent over in a field and realized they must be picking strawberries. We turned around, drove to the field and picked our own strawberries too! They were incredibly cheap and are so delicious. They only cost €1.50, and in the markets, they normally cost about €4.50. (This is compared to about $2 versus $6).

I took the liberty of taking some photos on my iPhone…

the strawberry fields (about 1/3 of a mile from our apt)

Yum!

Our loot!

Lunch was great, as usual. We ordered a little more than we typically do – including a mimosa – and took our time there. We even got to sit in our favorite waitress’ (Anita’s) section. After lunch, we ran some errands at the PX and commissary, because we had some presents to get for Béni, some stuff to get for my office and groceries for the week. It was a fun, relaxing shopping trip!

When we got back, we made our homemade granola and yogurt and took Béni to the dog park. We also worked on some leash training to get him better accustomed to obdience on a leash. He did wonderfully!

After that, it was time for dinner, so we headed to the Brauhaus in Schwetzingen, which is a steak place. We had a so-so wine (the only French wine on the menu…I think our last trip to Paris turned us into French wine snobs) and some delicious steaks as well as wonderful conversation and quality time.

Upon returning home, we watched our wedding ceremony on our wedding DVD along with 2 short movies the videographers put together for us. While we watched, we had excellent refreshments…

Earlier today, John surprised me with an extra anniversary gift (more on those in a post this week) – a bottle of French wine (Bordeaux) from an area (Medoc) we sampled while in Paris. Not only was the bottle special because of this, but he also had the bottle engraved:

I am so blessed to have such a thoughtful husband!

I hope we’re able to keep this bottle our whole lives.

We also enjoyed a small glass of this wine with some cheese we bought in the Netherlands a couple weeks ago. Yay for wine and cheese!

- Sarah

there’s much harassment left
over from the peach eating
sunday weekend
grandma cooked,
she put gravy on the peeled
and a glass of tea sweet like
the Southern air and wildlife,
I ate cobbler, drank the tea
.
everybody got along fine and took
quick moments home with cameras,
developed back then
.
yep, everybody got along
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Raspberries, blackberries, or even peaches or bananas will work in this cool, fruity dessert.

Ingredients

4 cups strawberries, hulled and cut in half
1 cup ice cubes
1/4 cup whole unblanched almonds
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons almond-flavored liqueur, such as Amaretto
2 teaspoons slivered unblanched almonds for garnish

To make

01. Place strawberries in an airtight container or plastic bag and leave in the freezer for 1 1/2 hours.

02. Remove strawberries from freezer.  Place half of the frozen strawberries in the jar of a blender.  Add ice, whole almonds, sugar, milk, and liqueur and as many more strawberries as will fit.  Blend until there is enough room to add more strawberries.  Add remaining strawberries and blend until smooth and spoonable.  Divide among 4 serving dishes.  Garnish with slivered almonds and serve immediately.

While this is technically my gardening blog, from time to time I’ll write about good food too.  Earlier this week I read about Local Yogurt over on the Carpe Durham blog. We were in the same shopping center this weekend at the Wine Authorities and tried it out.  It was a tasty treat on a hot day and yet another positive food establishment in Durham.  Now if only someone would fix the myriad of problems at City Beverage.

Fuck it was so ~*lovely*~ out on Friday, Jessica and I determined it was imperative we find a way to enjoy the weather while  eating for maximum joyousness. So we went to Victory Cafe since neither of us had ever been there, and our food bible BlogTO always writes favorably about it.

We walked past this “mural” on Harbord. Children make shitty artists. I support the tiny Wu Tang fan in his/her quest to reach their full thug potential, but the crazy mouse man beast (is its Afro shaped into ears, or is it a black Mickey Mouse?) was fucking disturbing.

Anyways, we got a prime patio spot at Victory, and promptly ordered foooood.

I got a cheeseburger and Jessica got chili-cheese fries. I don’t know if its just because now, left to my own devices, I am starving, but I swear to God it was the best fucking burger I have ever had. And it came with this tiny container of ranch-like sauce that I kept dipping my fries in because though not visibly obese, I am so fucking fat on the inside.

Janice came by but we were already done eating so we moved on to Green Room so that she could get food and continue the patio adventure.

But not before being intimidated by Honest Ed’s.

Yay Green Room.

So we sat on the patio that no one knew existed until recently, and Janice ordered a sandwich and we got a few drinks. I do not trust the food at Green Room. Just because a place serves food does not mean you should eat it. They have sweet massive plates of $2 fries, and “quesadillas” (really just cheese in a tortilla) that I’m obsessed with, but I’m not venturing beyond that. Its a student pub, they can pull a tap or mix simple drinks and maybe bring you a plate of nachos, but I refuse to anything masquerading as a real meal.

It got pretty fucking gloomy out so we went inside. Our preemptive strike against mother nature allowed us to claim the couches, usually impossible because under normal circumstances no one ever leaves the building before midnight, but the experience was kind of wasted on the fact that there were like, 3 of us. Geoff and Paul came down, then we headed to Lab for $3 Jack night. Evidently $3 gets you a lot of Jack at Lab. Even Geoff, who shortly after I met him, was drinking whiskey and milk or some other abhorrent combination, thought the drinks were fucking strong.

Then Jessica, Geoff and Paul left to go see The Miles play at The Boat, but I was so fucking tired even my love of infectious dance music could not keep me awake.