Wine Festival Sunday

Today, my favorite vineyard in New Mexico (I love how we live so close to the border--it's only a 30 minute drive away!) called La Vina Winery had it's annual spring Blues & Jazz Festival. My friends from work (all whom I've mentioned before and all of whom are Family Readiness Support Assistants in the Bulldog Brigade) decided to go and it was great. The weather was perfect--not too hot and certainly not too windy (like last year's).

Melissa somehow always manages to get out of pictures by taking them, so she's not in this picture. But from left to right: Traci, Melissa's daughter Lillie, Me, Maddie and her daughter Madisen. What are we chomping on? Oh yes, chocolate covered strawberries! So yeah, what does a pregnant chick do at a wine festival? She EATS! And the festival always has the best food! Check out these booths!

These are the most delicious chocolate covered cherries ever. And what's better than eating them on a skewer? Heaven!

I think I had just about every food on sale. In addition to the chocolate covered strawberries, the turkey legs, honey roasted pecans, and the grilled asadero quesadillas (freshly made tortillas, by the way, with grilled peppers) shown here...we had elephant ears and get this...chile apples (like a candied apple, but covered in chili pepper). Delicious. I probably could have squeezed a funnel cake in, but I had to exercise some control :)

Another reason I go is for the cool collector's glasses that you get when you pay for your ticket. I have about half a dozen from last year's festivals. Even though my friends got to do all the tasting, I was able to stock up on my favorite sweet wines.

But what an enjoyable day! Thanks to Melissa, Maddie and Traci for such a great time.

The next festival is in October and I am sooooooo there. Who's with me?

Winding Down on a Sunday Afternoon

What a day. I'd gotten off to a late start after taking Lucy out for a walk and catching up on some other people's blogs. It was just too nice a day to stay in, so after taking a shower and getting dressed, I headed out.

First stop, pedicure. I have been itching to get my feet done, mainly for the baby shower. And since I don't foresee any other day in the week to do it, I figured I'd go today. Nope, these are not my feet. My feet aren't very pretty in general, but I will say that I got my toes painted fire engine red. Yeow! I like it.

While I was sitting down in the massage chair at the nail parlor, my lil' bug was kicking like crazy. Since I was starving, I figured she must've been to. So I headed down to Pei Wei Asian Diner. I'd always been curious to try the place and figured it was the perfect time. Did anyone else know that this place is run by PF Chang's? I sure didn't. It was written on the door to this restaurant and since I LOVE PF Chang's I knew this was going to be a hit with me already. I was more ecstatic when I found out that they serve the same Chicken Lettuce Wraps that PF Chang's does. Oh, I totally ordered some. That and some pad thai. Everything was delicious. I was so stuffed from the lettuce wraps that I ended up boxing up most of the pad thai. Guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow? The only thing that sucked was eating alone. I usually surround myself with good friends, but sometimes I just want to be by myself, but it doesn't make eating at restaurants any fun. I suppose I could have done take out, but after waiting in line, I thought my stomach was going to eat itself. Or the baby (ooh, how gross). But it was especially an excruciatingly lonely experience because there were all kinds of couples around me kissing and making googly eyes. I miss having my somebody with me wherever I go.

Next stop, Michaels. It's just next door to Pei Wei's and I still needed some things to get the baby shower decorations done. I swear, I must have been in there for almost an hour. You kinda get lost in there with all the cute scrapbooking stuff and $1 deals. I also ended up spending just under $100 for stuff. Uh oh, but it's all for a good cause right? And Malu told me to have fun with it. And speaking of Malu, he'd called me [extremely] early this morning. Finally! He was out "visiting with the locals" for the past few days and finally had a chance to break away. It was so nice to hear his voice and to know that he is safe and well.

Final stop, Walmart. I had to get some food for Lucy, or as I tell to Lucy--"Lucy food". She understands that. When I say that and pull all the bags out of the car she jumps up and down and starts sniffing wildly. Aw, the simple things that bring me joy.

Now all this stuff has made this pregnant lady extremely tired. But somehow, I have to muster the energy to take Lucy for a walk, vacuum and sorta tidy up this house, and get started on some of these decorations. Yikes! Maybe a nap would do me some good. Yes, I'm taking a nap.

Stay tuned...I'm going to blog about my 22nd week here later on.