Riesling slows down after dark and gets rather complacent in her tiredness…

and Leandra likes to take advantage of it.

C’mon, don’t you just want to tickle that pink belly too?

(Definitely have your sound turned way up when you click on the restaurant link, I think Riesling is still recovering.)

Eric had lunch at Papa Mojo’s (I was still in NY) during an interview back in June and he has been wanting to get back ever since. We met our friends for dinner on Monday night and stumbled upon a drink special, $2 pints! The waiter only listed three beers on tap, so I got the amber and Eric settled on the pale ale.

Now in an even better mood, I turned my attention to the menu… po’ boys, bbq, cornbread… mmm. Three of us got the Cochon de Lait (cajun bbq pork) and Eric spent the entire meal guarding his deliciously crispy fries; I managed to snag a few in between bites of my cornbread with tasso cream gravy.

The pork was very nice, grilled with a light smoke flavor, but the spicy dipping sauce is the best part. Equal parts sweet and hot, it complimented the crispy pork perfectly.

Apparently there is all sorts of live music going on during the weekends (with applicable cover charges), and that’s not really our thing, so perhaps we’ll stick with $2 pint nights. Dinner for two with beer was only $25 including tax and tip, tasty and inexpensive!

1. Have your brand new wine fridge deboxed in your driveway and hauled up five steps, through a hallway and into your dining room by two delivery men.
2. Admire said wine fridge until your husband gets home, pour a glass of wine to pass the time.



3. Wait 48 hours until you can plug it in, something about the coolant having to settle. Be slightly annoyed.
4. Spend 20 minutes comparing carpet coaster sizes in Target in order to raise the fridge a quarter of an inch so the door doesn’t scrape the carpeting.
5. Thank God that your husband suggested via text message getting two per foot so you don’t have to go back to Target to buy more.
6. Unpack the extra shelves and discuss how much space is needed between the shelves to optimize sliding feature and visual uniformity.
7. Make a lemonade martini for each of you.
8. Install shelves.
9. Watch husband load the wine fridge using some classification system but as long as you know where the reds are, it doesn’t really matter.
10. Plug in wine fridge. (finally)
11. Follow the instructions to the letter and watch as the display alternately blinks “od” and the current temperature at you.
12. Search google for an explanation for this, come up empty.
13. After several minutes, rejoice that the wine fridge suddenly seems to get the message, stops blinking and starts cooling. Hooray!
14. Eight hours later, enjoy your perfectly chilled bottle of wine. :)

We tried to buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner about three and a half years ago, but it arrived damaged and Amazon had sold out by the time they got our broken vacuum back in the warehouse.

Our crappy one finally died about two weeks ago, so in order to live comfortably in my house until I bought a replacement, I borrowed a friend’s Dyson for a few days.

(Warning: I am going to sound like a commercial here for a moment.)

Holy crap. I could not believe how much dust and hair (and stuff) that thing picked up! Amazing.

Eventually, I had to return their vacuum (darn), so I went online, researched all the different types (I had NO IDEA there were eighty frillion versions of this vacuum) and ordered a factory reconditioned DC15 of my very own.

(Interestingly, I couldn’t find this model brand new, but that’s fine by me since it saved us about $200!)

This time Amazon (and UPS) managed to get it here in one piece.

Riesling gave the box a thorough sniffing and once it was deemed safe, I had it unpacked and assembled in under 10 minutes after a few snaps here and there. Thankfully, the carpet wasn’t nearly as bad as it was that first time and this machine is so easy to use, I won’t mind vacuuming regularly at all. At least, that’s the theory. :)

Thursday afternoon I went with the rest of my lab on a Segway tour of downtown Raleigh with Triangle Segway.

We went up Fayetteville Street to the Raleigh State Capitol.

And past the governors mansion where we saw some of the bricks personalized by the inmates that made them.

And here’s all of us sporting our helmets.

I had a great time – it was my first time on a Segway, but I found it really easy to control. If only they were a bit cheaper….

About two years ago I created an online page that listed as many of the local wine tastings as I could find in my spare time. Two weeks ago, I went ahead and registered a domain name and designed a blog specifically dedicated to the same purpose including regular Twitter updates, wine reviews and wine news.

So if you want to see what we have been drinking lately and what it going on locally in regards to wine, visit triangleVINO.com and/or follow us on Twitter.

A mere two hours before leaving for the airport on Monday, Lynn and I went to DSW in Schaumburg for a little shoe shopping. I came away with three (so cute!) pairs and she got two. Thanks, Dad! :)

Unisa, Ritsa Leather Slide in Camel
The answer to my need for a pair of neutral sandals that I can wear with red and pink (so I don’t have to decide on a shade of red/pink shoes).

Mudd, Hazy Menswear Print Slingback Mary Jane
I just fell in love with these, basically a high-heeled version of this pair that I wear constantly. Will look great with both skirts and jeans.

Anne Klein, Makendra Fabric Logo Slide
They’re orange and comfortable and I love them. The bottoms are going to need to be scuffed first, why do they even make shoes with slick bottoms?

Went to visit my mom on Sunday… it’s been two years ago today since she passed away.

This photo was taken from the couch we were sitting on looking through the hallway into the next crypt. A very beautiful place.

Thanks to Paula Deen’s delicious zucchini bread recipe and my baking skills (hee!), I have converted a few members of my family who “hate zucchini” this weekend.

While Eric and my dad were shifting around and unpacking boxes in the wine cellar, I escaped upstairs for a bit to bake some zucchini bread to convince my dad that he can eat zucchini and it doesn’t have to taste like the vegetable. This is the only way Eric will consume zucchini and even my sister enjoyed it.

Now Lynn can make another loaf with the other zucchini we picked up at the local farm stand. :)

For my birthday dinner this year, Eric came up with a list of places for me to choose from. One of the choices on the list, J. Betski’s, is a German/Polish place and I thought a beer and brat would be a lovely way to spend my birthday. I took one look at the menu and I was sold, it was clear that even though I could get a brat and a beer here, this was more upscale than say, The Flying Saucer *.

Once we found the place (our GPS was a little off), I waffled back and forth between getting a beer and a bottle of wine, but we ultimately went with a lovely Riesling that managed to magically compliment everything we ordered.

To start, Eric had the pierogies filled with walnuts, spinach and bacon and I had the bratwurst with lightly pickled cabbage and whole grain mustard. Both were outstanding, I have never tasted bratwurst that good before (I have also never been to Germany, which needs to be fixed right away). The brat was melt-in-your-mouth delicious and went very nicely with the spicy mustard. For appetizers, the serving sizes were appropriate and well-priced.

For our main courses, Eric was swayed by the description of the double cut smoked pork chop special and I tried the pork schnitzel with potato and dill cucumber salads. My schnitzel was a lovely brown color and once covered in freshly squeezed lemon and lingonberries, a treat. Eric mentioned that his dinner would rank in the top five porks he’s ever had and from the smokiness wafting across the table, I could smell why.

The evening ended with a chilled espresso martini for me and a semi-sweet cherry chocolate cake to split. The cake was very dense and crumbly, with a nice chocolate flavor.

Although the place is a little out of the way for us, I could see us coming back for a parental visit or if we happen to find ourselves in Raleigh.

* I like The Flying Saucer, but wanted to go someplace, well, a little fancier for my birthday.