Refusing to spit

A rare photo of Kathy. Today at Vintage Indiana, Military Park, Indy.

Today we took a rare day off and went to our second Vintage Indiana at Military Park in Indianapolis. As usual, Bonnie didn't last long and Kathy could have tasted all day. We signed the age-verification papers for 8 wineries and now can have wine shipped directly to our home from those wineries. Kathy suggested to the owner of one of the wineries that there be a central database accessible by all of the wineries so that if your age was verified at one winery, you were verified for all of them. Each winery would enter their verified customers into the database and then other wineries would only have to consult the database when an order arrived to see if that customer was registered in the database.

Some of our favorite wines from the wineries whose tents we visited were (in no particular order):

Merlot - French Lick

Vignoles - French Lick

Rhubarb - French Lick

Cabernet Sauvignon - Brown County

Plum - Brown County

Riesling - Winzerwald

Gewurtztraminer - Winzerwald

Chambourcin - Oliver

Catawba - Oliver Creekbend

Cabernet Franc - Huber

Late Harvest Vignoles - Butler (We liked every wine we sampled from Butler Winery)

We sampled approximately 30 wines from 8 wineries. Bonnie treated to Lone Star on the way home. We have noticed at Lone Star as well as some other eateries, that the portion sizes have been greatly reduced while the prices have risen. An example is their signature lettuce wedge with blue cheese. We used to share one because it was so large. Now it is about half the size it once was, which is quite a normal portion, but not the huge size to which we were accustomed.

The big news here at the farm is that Barbara and Denny have returned from their travels! They arrived home yesterday, shortly before Bonnie arrived home from work. It is so comforting to see movement down there again, and Kathy has already had a chat with Denny who, as is typical, was already out working hard on his homestead. He has sprayed his fruit trees, mowed his yard, and harvested his veggies. We helped ourselves to a serving of his sugar snap peas while he was away and they were delicious. Bonnie also cut some lettuce and spinach and we had a most delightful salad. We look forward to seeing photos of the new grandbaby and hearing about their trip.

Mike didn't make it out this week but we expect he will be out as soon as he can to extend our driveway among other things.

Rex connected the reverse osmosis to the through-the-door water on our fridge but it didn't taste as good as the RO right at the sink. Kathy is thinking it may need to work out some odors in the tubing??? Rex also adjusted the gas to the stove again and it is much better - no more shooting flames. Kathy made macaroni and cheese and baked it as a test and it turned out just fine. We don't have the broiler adjustment right yet and Rex said he would call Sears for advice. There is too much flame.

Rex hasn't been back to finish the washer and dryer yet but they are usable.

The saga of the microwave continues. We returned the microwave that wouldn't work to Sears. The 90-day warranty had expired because we bought it in November. So even though it had been in the box and not installed for half a year, they would not give us a new one and insisted on fixing it. Bonnie bought a new one anyway and said she would sell the first one once it was fixed. We got the second one home and didn't even have it out of the box when we saw a huge dent in it. A part was missing, and the protective film was off of it. We wondered if this was a returned item that somehow got back in the inventory. So back Bonnie went to Sears and had that microwave replaced, checking inside the box before having it loaded in her car.

Here is something we noticed about Sears. Kathy bought a Craftsman Trimmer/Mower. The salesman told her he had only 1 in stock. When Bonnie bought her microwave that same day, she was told they had only 1 in stock. But when she returned the dented microwave a day later, she was told they could exchange it for her because they still had two in stock. We have decided that Sears trains their salespeople to tell customers that there is only 1 in stock of whatever they are interested in so that, if they are on the fence about a purchase, they will feel like they need to buy it before someone else gets it.

So Kathy has her trimmer/mower but refused to use it on her days off because she might get it dirty (it rained!). Jonathan was over Friday evening and mowed our taller weeds and Kathy will use her new toy along the fence row and along the road and other places Jonathan might not be able to get his mower. The sad news is that a mommy rabbit had a nest in our tall weeds and the nest was mowed. So far Kathy has counted 3 bodies. : (