Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
celebrations, jake

jacob’s birthday, part 2

Well, we made it through Jacob’s first birthday party where his friends were invited. It wasn’t too bad, but I wouldn’t want to do that on a regular basis. Good thing birthdays only happen once a year. Brian was in charge of the kids so that worked out well for me, anyway.

And I totally hit the jackpot with one of Jake’s gifts. He’s been into Legos lately. Meaning: he will play with them for hours on end. This is the only toy thus far that has caused that reaction. A few months ago, he was checking out the Lego site and he found this set that he really liked (it was a police station complete with cars, helicopters, etc.), so I bought it for his birthday. He was pretty excited when he opened it. And, after all the guests left, he sat down in the family room and assembled it for four hours. Yes, four hours! I think we’re onto something here.

celebrations

jacob’s birthday, part 1

Jacob’s been wanting to go back to Big Dogz since the last time we went there. Since Brian and I have a long list of restaurants we want to go to and this wasn’t one of them, I told him we’d go there for his birthday. So, we went there today. He wanted to go for two reasons: one, he wanted to play a hunting video game they had there (but he hadn’t taken any of his money and we didn’t have any change the last time) and two, they served his dinner in a dog bowl (he’s been talking about it ever since). Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have his dinner in a dog bowl this time, but it was enjoyed nonetheless. I reminded him to take some quarters, so he got to play the video game (one out of two–it’s better than nothing).

Jacob’s birthday is actually tomorrow, so we spent the rest of the evening getting ready for his party (cleaning, cutting grass, straightening up). We still have a bit of work to do, but it’s going to have to wait until tomorrow morning because I am beat. I have been working like a woman possessed all week. As you might recall, a few weeks ago, I was enjoying doing my yardwork/gardening at a leisurely pace. Well, the pace picked up and all of a sudden, I gave myself a deadline to have a bunch of the work done before his party, so I’ve spent some long days working outside this past week. I guess the good news is I can pick up my leisurely pace again tomorrow after the party as we have no other large events planned at this time.

music

educated horses

We’ve been listening to the new Rob Zombie for a few weeks now. I have to say, it’s probably my favorite album from him in years. It has a lot of catchy songs on it. Of course, this means that I’ll probably tire of it quickly, but for now I’m really enjoying it. I’m not the only one–Jake loves a bunch of the songs on it as well. He will make requests for certain songs when we’re riding around in the car.

I was really hoping to catch his spring tour which was with Lacuna Coil, but it didn’t come anywhere near us. But, I see that he’s touring with Anthrax this summer. It’s not as good of a bill, but I’d still go. And, depending on the venue, this would probably be a good show for Jake to go to. I don’t know what this tour’s supposed to be like, but when we saw him on OzzFest a few year’s back, he was pretty entertaining.

food & drink

bottled

Last night, we bottled two batches of wine. One was called Trio Blanca (which is comprised of Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Blanc) and the other was a Petite Sirah Zinfandel. Both tasted pretty good last night, but they’ll be even better with a little aging on the racks. I’m actually sort of behind on my wine-making this year. These have been ready to bottle for a few weeks now. Plus, I have 3 more kits just waiting to be made. I guess it’ll get done eventually. I’m probably going to make a 6th batch of wine this summer because I like doing things two batches at a time (it saves me a little effort plus it’s always nice to put 50+ bottles of wine on the racks at once).

So, by drinking wine last night, I guess we were bucking the Cinco de Mayo trend. We’ll have to make up for it this evening by having Margaritas.