A Wine Tasting and a Beautiful Vineyard

In mid-October, my group of friends from high school and I gathered in Nashville for our annual (well, supposed to be annual) girls weekend.  Our friend Annemarie has a townhouse there, and Nashville was equal travelling for those of us in Georgia and the one of us in St. Louis, so it seemed like a good choice for girls' weekend.  We weren't sure what exactly we would do for the weekend, but luckily Annemarie had some activities planned for us.

On Saturday, we headed out to Arrington Vineyards.  Arrington is owned by Kix Brooks, one of the members from Brooks and Dunn.  It is clearly not a huge vineyard, but it was the perfect size for what we wanted to do.

The vineyard was mostly just a large field for picnicking, the grapes, and one building for wine tasting.

We didn't bring any picnicking stuff, so we put our name in for a (FREE!) wine tasting, bought some bottles of wine for while we waited, and set ourselves up at a picnic table for some afternoon wine sampling.

Two bottles of wine later, it was time for our tasting.  We each got to select three wines to sample.  I think Vanessa and I liked the snacks almost as much as we liked the wines!

We had a great time at the vineyards.  Arrington was GORGEOUS, and the wine was quite delicious!

Letters to Germany

One of the challenges that I was most looking forward to was getting a penpal.  My friend Tamara requested to be my penpal, but I was really looking to meet someone new as a penpal.  That being said, I compromised and got two penpals: Tamara and a new person.

I had looked on-line for how to find snail mail penpals, but most of the websites seemed to be more of a dating site than a site to meet a penpal.  Then I found www.globalpenfriends.com.  I posted a quick profile of myself and what I was looking for, and then pretty much forgot I had done so.

A few days later, I received a message from a woman in Germany.  Her name is Kathi, she's about my age, and lives in the town of Kellmunz.  I received my first letter from her a few weeks ago.

It turns out we have quite a bit in common.  She's 31 and has been married to her husband for a few years.  They have dogs but no kids, and her husband works for the army over there.  She enjoys walking the dogs, cooking, and listening to music.  She works as a police officer right now but is going to school to get an education degree.

I wrote her back before I left for Iowa.  She and her husband are on vacation in Italy right now (how cool would it be to live in Europe and be able to easily visit all those different countries?), so my letter should be waiting for her when she gets back.  She said she would send a letter from Italy, so I promised to send a postcard from Iowa.  Haha, totally not the same, but it's the best I can do.

I think not only have I completed one of my goals, but I'm pretty sure my 10 year old self would be thrilled by the fact that I have a penpal in another country.

A Night at the Roller Derby

Ok, can I just say I had very low expectations for the roller derby?  I was picturing a dimly-lit arena (a la the skating rink I went to in elementary school), trashy fans, and not much entertainment?  Dang, was I ever wrong.

We started out the night at Agua Linda.  Beth, Laura, Christina, and I met there for an elderly peron's dinner, and enjoyed some delicious Mexican food and a peach daquiri.

From there,  Laura, Christina, and I headed to Athens Arena, home of the Classic City Roller Girls (or the Bad News B's).  I was surprised to find out the arena is only about 3 miles from my house.  The website had said pre-ordering for tickets had ended and that some home meets sell out, but we got there about 30 minutes before it started and had no trouble getting in.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the crowd was not trashy, but rather completely, stereotypically Athens (a little hipster, some hippie grandmas, some completely normal-looking people).  We even found Waldo!

The bout (I learned roller derby is played in bouts, not matches, rounds, or meets) started right at 7 after a short explanation of the rules from Brent Muffburger and the announcer who looked like Ron Burgundy.  They demonstrated the rules in slow motion, but it didn't really make sense until the bout started for real.

We knew we were finally beginning to understand the rules when we were able to cheer at the appropriate times.

Once it got going, it turned out that roller derby is awesome!  It was fast-paced, engaging, violent enough, and with just enough help from the announcers.  Going into the half, the Charlotte B-Dazzlers were up by over 30 points (due to all but one of our players being in the penalty box). As if roller derby itself isn't awesome, the half time show was a BAGPIPE AND DRUM BAND!   Now, I may be a nerd, but this made me really happy.  Really, there is nothing better than a bagpipe and drum band at the halftime show of a roller derby bout.

After half time, the Bad News B's got their act together and pretty much reversed the score.  We finished it out with a great victory over Charlotte.

After the show, I even got to meet some of the bagpipers!

Laura, Christina, and I had a great time at the roller derby.  We've already picked out our roller derby names, Laura and Christina are going to roller derby boot camp so they can join the team, and we're already planning on going back for the final bout on September 29.  Anyone care to join us??

Meet Christina (I forgot her roller derby name!), L.A. Dodge Her, and Anne-archy

A Night at the Racetrack

A couple Saturdays ago, my friend Laura, her husband Josh, and I went to the Winder Barrow Speedway.  Technically, this isn't on my list of 50 Adventures.  But given that I've never gone, and it seemed like an adventure, I'm going to count it anyway.

If you're unfamiliar with Winder, it's kind of a mix of old-school rednecks and traditional suburbanites.  Well, the racetrack is not really a mix of anything, it's pretty much just straight old-school redneck.  I think the ratio of trucks WITH Rebel flags to the trucks without Rebel flags was somewhere around 3:1.

We got there a little before the races started and found a spot to park the truck (without Rebel flag) up on the hill overlooking the track.  There were seats in what turned out to be a more family-friendly area, but we figured we'd tailgate from the back of Josh's truck.

Once the races started, we got to see how truly country Winder can be.  First off, the track is a dirt track, so  no NASCAR style racing here.  Second, the racers are all local people (nothing against people from Winder in general, I do teach there!), so the level of cars were quite unique.  Some had duct-taped their numbers onto the side of the car, hoods flying off, no windows.  Granted, some were pretty nice considering the race, but overall, especially in the lower-level races, the cars were pretty awesome.

The big races were the ones with the nicer cars, and those were actually a little more legit.  No duct-taped numbers, Mater the tow truck didn't get called out every 3 laps (seriously, it looked like Mater), and the cars were really flying.

Surprisingly, we actually had a really good time. We're already planning our return trip!

Parade of Nations Progressive Dinner

For the Olympic opening ceremonies, several of us decided to have a progressive dinner, where each stop would be themed around a different country.  We figured we only had time for three stops if we were going to make it to Laura's in time for the opening ceremonies.  We also figured drinks shouldn't be its own stop since we had to drive from house to house, so that simplified things a little bit.  We ultimately decided on Christina's house for drinks and appetizers, my house for a main course, and then Laura A.'s house for dessert and actually watching the show.  Laura P. contributed to a side item for the main course, since we didn't actually stop at her house.  Check out the pictures of our fun dinner below!  Also, make sure to notice the kickass homemade Olympic shirts (hand-created by Laura P.).

We started off the evening with Greek appetizers at Christina's house

The bruschetta was delicious!

I could have eaten this whole bowl of feta dip by myself

It was even better with a glass of homemade Sangria

Laura and Christina

Since Laura and I didn't have husbands that could join in the fun, we wore matching shirts (not sure how those  things are related....but just go with it)

On to my house for tacos.  I wanted to do something a little more ethnic, but this was a group of picky eaters and I didn't want to make a new recipe if 5 other people have to suffer through it

My beautifully set dining room table

At the table

Milo wanted to join in the fun

On to Laura's house for French crepes.  Laura wins the award for best  cultural souvenirs

Some more France accessories

All the crepe fillings

Getting the last of the crepe fillings ready

Cooking crepes

The finished product

Filling crepes with deliciousness such as Nutella, peanut butter, butterscotch, strawberries, and bananas

The Pricketts work together to make the most delicious crepes

Enjoying crepe #1

Enjoying crepe #2

And then we actually watched the Olympics, and the Queen looked THIS happy!