February Goals Revisited

February was a pretty uneventful month for me, and I am certainly not complaining.

• Deep Clean the Bathrooms, including clean out the bathroom cabinets- finished Feb. 12
• Organize File Cabinet Finished Feb. 20
• Finish reading "The Poisonwood Bible"- finished Feb. 6
• File taxes- finished Feb. 9
• Donate stuff that has been cleaned out. picked up on Feb. 10

I also managed to...

• clean out the kitchen cabinets finished Feb. 11
• buy a new car Feb. 19
• join the iPhone cult Feb. 26

I wasn't trying to make this a super expensive month, but things just kept breaking. My former car was a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am. Phoebe was a great car, and I loved her dearly, but she was getting very expensive to keep on the road. The hubs drives a Toyota Corolla, so it became important to us that I have something a little larger than his car. We were looking at some SUVs,  but I just couldn't fathom only getting 19 mpg out of them. We then looked at a 2009 Chevrolet HHR. When they (and the PT Cruiser) first came out, my friends and I called them dwarf hearses. I could not believe was I even entertaining the idea of getting one of these atrocious things. But the inside was pristine. Low mileage. Lots of flexibility and storage space. We were sold. And, to be honest with you, the style has certainly grown on me. My friend said it looks more like an old fashioned gangster-mobile than a dwarf hearse. I figure that sounds like a better name anyway.

Prior to this month, my philosophy with cell phones has always been "find the coolest free phone possible." Now that Verizon has the iPhone, and consequently got rid of their "New Every Two" deal, I started to seriously contemplate my options. I could see where a decent phone could be a nice investment. I also balked at spending $200 on a cell phone. The ear piece on my little Samsung Alias was quickly dying. (Side note: The hubs had that phone for a year before I had it for a year and 4 months. Not a bad life for a phone.) By Friday afternoon, it was no more. Saturday morning we set out on a mission. I was eligible for an upgrade, the hubs on the other hand, was not eligible for another 2 months unless he ordered it online from Verizon. We came home with an iPhone 4, and I must say, thus far, I am very satisfied. While I was open to other smartphones, this one won out as we have 2 macs at home, and it's been so convenient to sync my calendars, contacts, photos and all sorts of things between the phone and computer.

So what does March hold for me? Let's see...

March Goals

• Finish Apollo's Angels
• Wash all curtains
• Clean Silver Coffee Service
• Clean off Back Deck
• Put Up stuff in the attic

King Shag Sauvignon Blanc

Wine: King Shag Sauvignon Blanc
Store: Trader Joe's
Price: $5.99

During the summer, my parents go "shagging on the beach." Luckily, they are  not referring to the Austin Powers version of shagging, but rather to the east coast, beach  dance style derivative from swing. Nonetheless, it makes my  sister and I giggle when they say it.

This bottle of wine always makes me think of them. It's a nice bottle, but a bit on the acidic side and certainly a dry-er wine. It didn't really satisfy me on this cold winter evening, but I can see where this would add some extra flavor to grilled meals during the summer. I definitely want to try it again, but it didn't super excite me right now.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Robertson Winery Natural Sweet Red

Photo courtesy of Robertson Winery

Wine: Robertson Winery Natural Sweet Red
Price: $4.99 (I think...I need to make better records of this.)
Store: Trader Joe's

"The Natural Sweet Range is made in its very own unique way by blending varietals to showcase fruity and fresh, floral flavours.This process leads to wine packed with natural sweet flavours that are low in alcohol and very quaffable. Serve well chilled." ~http://www.robertsonwinery.co.za/rwrnatsweet.htm

For Superbowl Weekend (i.e. Steeler weekend in this house), we're visiting the in-laws. Now I am not a football fan, but the hubs family is from outside of Pittsburgh, so they are excited (and nervous) for today's big event. I could care less, and the antagonist in me almost want to root for the Packers. If I cared a little more about football, I might actually do that, but I just don't care enough.

As I have mentioned before, mother and sister in law are fans of the sweet wines. We were strolling the aisle of Trader Joe's the other evening, looking for a "Kool Aid" wine, and this was recommended to us. It's sweet and fruity-almost has hints of blackberry in it-but it's not intolerable either. With some sweet wines, it's all I can do to choke down a glass, but this is unoffensive. It's not something that I would seek out on my, and I'm sure I won't purchase it to have in our house, but it's something I can tolerate when around non-wine drinkers.