Rash, Rain, Rant. Repeat.

And that pretty much sums up the way last week went for me.

Here's a brief rundown of the annoying week (notice I didn't say bad.  Just annoying.)

1. Husband brings home new bottle of wine to try out.  New wine causes the entire left side of my face to break out into a very red, very unattractive itchy rash.  Thinking maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked to me, asked my husband if he could notice it.  I believe his reaction was something like "Whoa--what happened to your face!"  
   
2. Bad reaction to wine leads to scrapping this week's "Cheap Wine with Pretty Labels" post.
3. Itchy, inflamed face and rain much of the week lead me to remain housebound.
4. Remaining housebound was boring.
5. Boring led to a massive cleaning out of the laundry room and basement, many trips to recycle, trips to Goodwill and a lot of questions about why we own half of this stuff.
6. Rain most of the week also led to the cancellation of both my weekly leaf photos and the hike I had hoped to take.

This week started off better.  Tried enchiladas for the first time (okay, where have they been all my life?),  baked a delicious, homemade apple crisp, went to 2 football games without getting rained on, and I am still 4-0 in the family football pool.  The rash has finally cleared up, and I enjoyed a nice glass of Red Stripe in lieu of wine.  

Oh, and my basement?  Much, much cleaner.

89 Fake Spanish Dollars.

If you happen to have some extra fake Spanish money burning a hole in your pocket....

I just love the clever idea my son's teacher had to teach the kids how to count in Spanish last week.  She asked each child to bring in an item that they would be willing to donate to a class auction.  Something small that another child would be willing to bid on.  My son scoured the house and finally settled on three very old, unopened McDonald's Happy Meal toys.  Each child was then presented with 100 (fake) Spanish dollars to bid on the auction items.

My son had his eye on a mood ring but was outbid.  He was, however, the proud winner of a mysterious beaded ornament (I think that's what it is anyways) and the lovely fall treasure pictured above.  Somewhat surprised by the items he chose, but he had a great time counting in Spanish and competing in the auction process.  And he still had 11 fake dollars to spare at the end of the day.

I would have loved a game like this when I was growing up.  And more importantly, I'm always happy when a teacher can find a creative, exciting way for the kids to learn.

 

Whatever Happened to Supertramp?

"It's raining again..."

All week long, rain, rain, rain.  Cold and rainy and dreary.  I searched today for Peter, Paul and Mary's "Rain, Rain Go Away" on YouTube and came up blank (wouldn't you have liked to hear that song today?).  I did, however, stumble across another awesome song I had completely forgotten about.

I used to love Supertramp as a kid.  "Breakfast in America" was one of my most played cassettes.  I remember blaring "Goodbye Stranger" while my sister and I played Barbies.  We'd pretend Ken was singing the song as he was ditching Barbie.  For some reason Ken was always riding away on horseback during the chorus and one of us always got to pretend Barbie was crying. Looking back, I don't know if we were reenacting a western movie or just wanted to get some use of that horse.  But we would play that song and reenact this scene over and over.

As a mom now, I'm thinking my sister and I were some pretty freaky kids.  Not 100% sure I would have let my kids play with us.

Sorry, I really went off on an old person tangent today.  It's raining.  And I want to know where Supertramp went.  Ignore the crazy Barbie stuff.

Drunk Bees Ruined Everything.

See this spot?

Picture if you will, a beautiful little apple tree planted here.  That's what my secret plan was for this spot next spring.  I had all these fairy tale visions about going out and picking fresh apples off a tree growing in my own backyard.  I could picture the house smelling like homemade apple pie, making fresh apple butter, or just picking an apple off the tree for a backyard snack.

Sounds nice, doesn't it?

Two days ago, my son came home from school talking about drunk bees and apples.   And it was some scary stuff that made me rethink the whole backyard tree thing.  I've spent some time conducting super scientific google research since our conversation and it turns out to be true.  Bees really do get drunk off of fermented apples (and other fruit).  And drunk bees are mean, aggressive bees.  Mean, aggressive bees that sting and attack for no reason at all.  Probably not a good combination with a yard full of boys playing football.

So.  No apple tree.  Drunk bees ruined everything.

"Sisters, Sisters..

....there were never such devoted sisters,

Never had to have a chaperone, no sir,

I'm there to keep my eye on her.

Caring, sharing...."

Sisters are great.  I ought to know as I am lucky enough to have two of them.  And they are the reason I've chosen this week's "Cheap Wine with a Pretty Label".  I'll get to the review in a minute, but first I can't resist sharing an old family photo of the three of us.

I'm the one on the left.  If I'm not mistaken, my mother made us all those matching dresses for Easter Sunday.

Back to the wine...
I have to give credit to my niece for bringing Middle Sister Wines to my attention, she's always scoping out new labels for me.   But, boy, I really had to search for this one--looked for weeks before finally finding it at Target of all places ($10.99 a bottle, by the way).  It was definitely worth the search.  And I know if you have a sister, you'll get a kick out of the website, the clever wording and awesome wine varieties (Rebel Red, Drama Queen and Mischief Maker to name a few).

I had some crazy times with my middle sister growing up.  And I'm sure we would both agree the day we created a circus in the backyard was our most memorable childhood story.  There are two different versions of this legendary tale in our family, both end with my sister losing a mouthful of teeth, a bloody smile, a standing ovation from the neighborhood kids and an emergency trip to the dentist.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a "Trapeze Artist" variety of this wine, so I settled for the label that would get me in the least amount of trouble with my middle sister.  "Forever Cool", a California Merlot, seemed like a safe choice.

I enjoyed the wine and I truly can't wait to try them all.  Come to think of it, I ought to buy a bottle or two for our younger brother while I'm at it.  Poor guy probably deserves it the most for putting up with the three of us his whole life.

What a Cold and Rainy Day...

...where on earth is the sun hid away?  

That's the song I hear in my head every time it rains like it rained here today.  I spent my early afternoon standing in a torrential downpour watching my sons football games (note to self: research indoor sports).

10,000 Maniacs - New Music - More Music Videos

In any event, I thought it would be nice to post the song on my blog today.  Well, now there's a great way to feel ancient.  Turns out the song I've been playing in my head is 22 years old.  That's right, twenty two.   And there's a lot of questions in my head as I watched the video--the roosters?  Someone please explain that to me, I am definitely missing something.  

 Twenty two years old.  Seriously.  I need to find a new rain song. 

Anyways, did I mention it rained today?

The Igloo in Picture 10.

Here's a fun trip down memory lane. I got tagged yesterday by a fabulous new cyber friend, Victoria at The Moss Garden. I like this tag--it's clever, unique and had me curious about my own results.

The rules? Open your first photo folder, scroll to the 10th photo, post the photo and tell the story behind it. Tag people to do the same.

My 1oth photo went way back to the winter of 2003.

It's a gigantic igloo snow fort I spent the day making with my two older sons. Funny this picture turned up, the boys still talk about building this creation. My youngest son was in the house napping (I noticed the patio door is cracked open so I would be able to hear him when he woke up).

We took a huge toy bucket and filled it with snow as if we were making an oversized sandcastle at the beach. When it was complete, there was no snow left in the backyard and the fort was taller than either of the boys. Speaking of my sons, they were 6, 3 and 7 months old at the time. Just looking at this photo exhausts me.

The remnants of the fort remained well into March before it finally melted away. A nice memory, I was happy to think about the day again.

And I am tagging the following: a niece, a cousin, two bloggers with fantastic photography and a blogger that never ceases to surprise me. I'll let you try to figure out which one is which.

• An Apple A Day
  
• Flickers of Memories
  
• Piles of Rock
  
• Waterstone
• Where Eagles Dare