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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Make Your Vote Count Twice!

This is the first time in my short voting history where I have felt excited that my vote might actually count for something. For a moderate-liberal who usually votes democrat, living in a "red state" usually means that my vote gets thrown aside and forgotten about. And by the time the democratic primaries have made it to Texas, the candidate has already been chosen.

For the first time, I am seeing potential presidential candidates in TV commercials, visiting Texas, and even debating in my town, at my alma mater! Yes, I'm sure this will get old after awhile, but it's nice to finally be considered.


I have never voted in a primary and when I found out that Texas has a "two-step" process, that confused me even more. For those of you in the same boat as I am, check out the below information:

If you want to make sure your vote really counts (in effect, counts twice) for your candidate of choice, you do in fact need to do two things.

What to do:
  1. Cast your vote in the usual way, either by Early Voting or on March 4th
  2. At 7:15 PM on March 4th, after the primaries close, head (back) to your polling place. There, you sign a form that indicates your support for your candidate of choice. You can leave then, or you can stick around and help appoint delegates to the State Senate seat convention.
Special note for Austinites: Our State Senate district, represented by Kirk Watson, is the most powerful Democratic district in the state of Texas; we get eight additional delegates in the caucus portion. That's why it's extra-special important that if you feel very, very strongly about your candidate of choice, you need to get your arse to the caucus, stat. You don't have to for your primary vote to count, but if you want more than just party insiders to do the voting at the caucus, go!

For a more lengthy explanation of the delegate choosing process, go here.



Happy Birthday!


Happy Birthday Patrick! Hopefully, I'll be able to surprise you with a real one someday. I love you!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Lunar Eclipse



I remember sitting on the porch at the Blanton Dormitory my freshman year watching the lunar eclipse with Patrick and some other friends. I was so amazed at the brightness and richness of color that the moon cast off.

Just after 9 pm CST tonight, the moon, the earth and the sun will line up so perfectly that the full moon will turn a gorgeous shade of orangey-red for the last total lunar eclipse until 2010. So, if your somewhere it is not cloudy (unlike Austin), enjoy the view! It's an amazing experience. I'm sad that we won't be able to drag Patrick's telescope out to see it this time.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Funny Valentine


Candied Sweet Potatoes, Asparagus, and Strawberry Chipotle Pork Tenderloin

Our Valentine's evening consisted of a beautifully put together dinner, Shiraz-Syrah from Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and deciding to plop down in front of our TV so that we didn't miss Lost. Perfect evening!

Winos - Part 2

This is all about our second day trip through the Hill Country Wine Trail.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Dry Comal Creek Vineyards – Patrick got the Red Flight and I got the White/Sweet Flight so that we could try 6 of their wines in addition to the sample of the Black Spanish we had. We couldn’t decide on what exactly we wanted to bring home with us, so we got a bottle of the Shiraz/Syrah and the Dry Comal Red. The Dry Comal Red is supposed to be a dual use wine – it goes great with barbecue or spicy foods as well as chocolate, so we can’t wait to put it to the test!

Comfort Cellars We had started a little late on Sunday and after pulling up into the parking lot, we decided that we would rather just keep moving on to the other vineyards. We didn’t feel too adventurous about trying their Jalapeno Wine.

Singing Water Vineyards This was quite a drive, but the scenery was totally worth it. This place focused on merlot the most, which isn’t usually a wine we reach for. But their Sweet Lupe (named for their dog) was wonderful and had a fruity sweetness to it that I’ve never tasted in a merlot before. We learned that MT-TH on the wine barrels mean “Medium Toast with Toasted Heads” which references how long the oak barrels have been toasted and whether the top/bottom are toasted as well.

Sister Creek Vineyards – At Sister Creek, we bought our only white wine of the weekend, the Muscat Reserve. Lightly sparkling, well balanced and I can’t wait to try it with Patrick’s cheesecake.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Winos

We headed out to the Hill Country Wine Lovers Trail which is an annual event for the two weekends around Valentine's Day. We drove from winery to winery tasting flights of wine samples and ended up with bottles to fill our new wine fridge.

After visiting all these places, it's really neat to go into Whole Foods, HEB, or Central Market and see a wine we tasted out on the trail. "Hey, we've been there!"

Here's the first installment of the reviews by day:

Day 1 - Saturday, February 9, 2008
Fredericksburg Winery – It was the first place we went and weren’t too sure what to expect. They had a Dry Pinot Noir and a Sweet Merlot which kind of confused us. We bought the Christmas Trail mulled wine that is served warm. Later, when we went to other places, wineries would kind joke about this winery… “they’re kind of ‘out there’…”

Grape Creek Vineyards – After trying all eleven of their wines, we brought home a bottle of the Black Label Bellissimo which was really brought out by the salsa they paired with it. Beautiful place, but so busy with all the tours. And I'm not sure if it was the crowd or the wine, but I started getting pretty warm at their Black Label bar.

Torre di Pietra Vineyards This was one of our favorite places on Saturday. Very busy due to the tour buses and limos that people had rented, but they had a wide range of wines to choose from and we only got to sample about half of them. We bought a bottle of Red Flirt and would have loved to have gotten a bottle of their Tango Port, but chose not to this early into the trail. We sat outside and enjoyed a couple of sandwiches we brought and played with the friendly vineyard kitty that roamed around.

Becker Vineyards They had so much to choose from but the Zinfindel was by far our favorite here. Beautiful grounds with a lavender field, a tiny cottage, and band on the porch fiddling away.

Woodrose Winery – After a long day of driving and wine tasting, it was nice to sit down here and be served wine restaurant-style instead of standing at a bar. They had a small blues band playing on the deck outside and when we walked out, they were playing our song: At Last by Etta James. There were a couple of wines we liked here but ended up buying the Rosé of Sangiovese for something a little different to add to our growing collection.




Monday, February 11, 2008

Bird Watching


The Kitties love watching Planet Earth on the new TV!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Because I Win

Patrick and I have a bit of a competitive streak in our marriage. He likes to win. I like to win. But he really does not like to lose....especially to me. He beats me all the time at trivia games and I don't like it, but I can understand that he stores a lot of useless data in that head of his. Trivial Pursuit, no contest, he gets the full pie before I get two in. Scene It? He guesses "On Golden Pond" before any letters are filled in during the hangman portion. He even beat me at the Friends Scene It game that he got me for Valentine's last year.

There really are only a few things that I have found that I can beat him at consistently: air hockey, miniature golf, and Pente. Pente is a game Patrick used to play as a kid and I finally found the game and got it for him for Christmas. We've played a number of times, and he's won a lot of them, but I have to say, I can kick his ass at Pente.

The way to win is to either a) get 5 stones in a row: horizontally, vertically or diagonally or b) collect 5 pairs of your opponents stones.

I had the amber stones, Patrick had the green. Not only did I get 5 in a row, I got 6!! That's how good I am.



And if you can't tell in the picture above, here's a better view:



I've asked him a couple times since I won that game, if he wants to play again but he always seems to change the subject.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Plates

Here's your chance to vote for the new standard issue Texas License Plate. Voting is from February 4th - 11th.

My Thoughts on the Designs:
  • My Texas - An updated version of the current plates. Looks ok.
  • Lone Star Texas - Looks so cheesy - kind of like a Nascar hat.
  • New Texas - Not a huge fan of the "composite skyline". Texas is BIG and everything is spread out!
  • Natural Texas - As much as I like all things "Natural", this just looks muddled.
  • Traditional Texas - Simple and to the point. I think this might be my favorite.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Locks

Today, I got out my ruler and measured the length of my hair from my chin. 8 inches. Two more inches to go to meet the minimum of 10 inches for Locks of Love. I might want to go longer, but it just depends on how long I can actually stand dealing with long hair. I feel like I've been growing my hair out forever, when in reality, it's only been a conscious decision for the past year or so. A couple of my friends have done it (Amy & Brent) which has inspired me go for the long wait. And even though my hair is not thick by any means and would need another 50 ponytails to make a wig, well, hopefully it will help at least one child.

I'll post pictures of before and after when the cutting day finally comes!