| Wow, they could have used V-8! |
If rainy days and Mondays always seem to get you down you are pretty much in double jeopardy this morning in the MIDDLEwest. I love the rain. My brother was smart enough to plan his trip here to the mainland pretty well. He is on a plane now on his way back to sunny Hawaii.
It was a pretty good weekend. Friday night Cha Cha and I went out with MADYM for dinner at Acquaviva Winery. We got sucked into the wine-tasting before dinner and I really only liked one out of the five. Dinner was nice but I ordered a spicy bloody mary with blue cheese olives - you may ask then why where is a but? The olives were great and the bloody mary was great but when I went to order the next one I was told that they were out of bloody mary mix. So, my one bloody mary depleted your entire supply at 7:00PM on a Friday night? Ask the chef for some pasta red sauce or shrimp cocktail sauce or how about doctoring-up some tomato juice or even catsup or catchup or ketchup? It's Bar-tending 101 for "bloody" hell. I changed to margaritas but she still brought me the blue cheese olives. That was really nice but I wish she would have brought them on the side rather than floating them in my margaritas. Maybe I need to come with a garnish "salad" for margaritas like they have for bloody marys. Saturday Cha Cha and I went down to Champaign watch the University of Illinois football team win their fourth game of the season (now 4-0). The real reason we went was to see our niece. Great weather and just a few sprinkles. Then yesterday Cha Cha went to a bridal shower for our flower girl - that makes me feel old - and I went up to my uncle's house in Rockford to spend the day with he and my cousin and their families along with my mom, dad and brother. For the most part we just ate, drank, watched football and some NASCAR but there was a lot of visiting which was very nice (except for the NASCAR part...don't those drivers know how to make right turns?) I also learned that Danika Patrick is from the area (Roscoe). I had no idea.
It looks like my fantasy football team may be 3 - 0 unless Fred Davis of The Redskins goes-off for over 24 points tonight. This seems to be the year of the tight end so I guess it's possible. Oh yeah, University of Illinois can't have their mascot Chief Illiniwek but our nation's capital can have a team called The Redskins. There's something wrong with that. From what I saw of The Chief the idea was actually paying tribute to the Illini Indians. Redskins is pretty much a derogatory racist term. Supposedly the term originally meant a human scalp. When trappers and hunters would bring in different hides to be sold they would say "bear skin" or "wolf skin" or "rabbit skin" or "scalp" if it was human. The christian women of the time were offended by the term "scalp" (probably because Scalp and Shoulders wasn't invented yet) so they changed the name to "redskin" because of the bloody mess that the scalps left. It is brutal or racist one way or another but when their logo has a picture of a native American on it that pretty much removes the idea, for me, that it is for the human scalp.
| "must be busy in there!" |
I just thought about something that really frosted my cookies about dinner Friday night that I had forgotten about. Our car needs new brakes so they are rubbing a bit. As we drove up to Acquaviva Winery I saw that since we had been there last the parking had become all valet parking. I asked the guy if I had a choice and explained the brake situation and he said, "no, it's complimentary." Price wasn't the issue! If price was an issue I wouldn't be coming to this particular restaurant now would I? I just am worried about the brakes. When we got inside I think I discovered the reason for the valet parking. The place was not as crowded as it had appeared from the parking lot. I had noticed the last several times when I passed the place it looked extremely busy...the parking lot was always full. That's because the valets are parking all the cars closer to the road creating an appearance of being a lot busier than they actually are. When we left we went out to get our cars and MADYM's car was parked right across from the entrance. They actually pulled it out and had to back it up farther from the entrance to get the car to her. The car was close to the exit but they had to bring it back. The service was not as good as it had been the last couple of times I had been there either. It seems that they are having trouble filling the joint and Chef Ramsay would have many easy remedies for them - as do I apparently. The food was good but I am not sure that Maple Park, IL is the place for a winery with valet parking that only has enough bloody mary mix for one bloody mary per night. Get there early while supplies last!
Thanks, as always, for spending time here today. Try to stay dry and cheerful today. Or moist and nasty if you prefer...whatever floats your boat - just batten down the hatches. TTTT...MITM (moist - out)
tell 'em how it is Roz!
No comments:
Post a Comment