It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

For something like five years now there has been a tradition in my household. It started out with my best friend and I carving pumpkins, watching cheesy scary movies (Are there any other kind?) and eating pizza. Something for the two of us to do while the husbands were out to sea. Cheesy scary movies are great for Halloween.

I call this one Witch's Brew. Pretty obvious I know, but it seemed appropriate this year for some reason. For some reason this year I had a hard time coming up with a pattern. Normally my problem is trying to figure out which pattern to use. This one seems to pop though. I like it. Patterns are reasonably easy to find now too. This year I toned it down though. I only carved one pumpkin. Where as I normally carve two or three. Oh well there's always next year.

Once the hubby was home for my favorite holiday he got included. Now the grand tradition is to watch 'The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' while carving your pumpkin. And of course the night is not complete without pizza. We don't have cheap Billy's pizza here, but Roma's does the job almost as well. Of course I never know when or if they'll air this Peanuts classic so I have it on DVD to view whenever we deem it time to carve pumpkins. Normally mere days before Halloween. Many a time in the past the cartoon was aired early and our pumpkins started to turn to mush. Yuck!

The hubby has a theme that he's stuck with for a number of years. Hey if it ain't broke, don't fix it. A pirate ship. This one's the Black Pearl. Nicely done. He always finishes before me. His gut and cut method is a bit better for some reason. Which ticks me off a bit because I've been doing this just a bit longer. Oh well!

Winery Tours

Yesterday the hubby and I went to the Charlottesville area to check out the fall foliage and visit a few wineries. It was a lovely day and we thought a day out and about would be nice. Which it was.

The drought kept the leaves from reaching a truly vibrant color. The leaves still looked lovely though. And the views were lovely. Have I mentioned how much I love fall? There's a different smell in the air and it's wonderful. Sadly it started raining and we had to cut things short. We managed to get some pictures, but I have yet to download them from the camera.

We were able to go to four wineries yesterday. When we do wineries we normally do three or four in a day.

The first winery that we went to was Prince Michel. A winery that I had been wanting to go to for quite some time. And not just because of the name. I don't have an ego I swear! I've heard many good things about it. It's a lovely place. Large and spacious. Quite beautiful actually. You can tell they spent time and money into setting up the place. And the gift shop is quite nice as well. They have a self guided tour that is very well set up and quite descriptive. It's a very good layout. The tasting is complimentary and we tried sixteen wines. The pour-er was pretty knowledgeable and very friendly. Sadly they need to spend a bit of money on developing their wines. Most of them had an alcohol taste to them. We did leave with a Shiraz and a Dry Rose.

My mission this year has been to find some dry roses to do a comparison on. I need to do that comparison soon. The wine fridge is way too full. The hubby expressly told me we weren't getting any wine on this trip, but when they don't charge you for a tasting you feel bad if you don't buy something.

Our next stop was First Colony Winery. A bit out of the way and the driveway was a bit rough, even in the truck, but I think it was worth it. Lovely view, but a bit rough looking. A lot of do-it-yourself work, but I don't hold that against them. Again the wine tastings were complimentary and we tried ten. You could try some of their reserves for a fee, which is refunded with purchases and we decided to try two. Well I did, the hubby was only interested in one. We both tried the Tannat and I tried their 1607, which is a dessert wine. The hubby was immediately turned off by the mention of 9.5% residual sugar. We really aren't sweet wine drinkers, but the description intrigued me. It's fortified with brandy and really doesn't taste sweet. I had to fight to get the glass back when I let the hubby try it. Our pour-er was very knowledgeable and friendly. We left there with a 2005 Rose, made completely with 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, Claret 2006 and of course the 1607, which we'll be saving for the Christmas season. Will definitely be going back there.

We then drove on to Kluge Estate Winery. It's set in a lovely area and the wine shop itself is neat and orderly. There was a tasting fee, but that doesn't bother me. We tried six wines. But it was done in a very unique way. Each wine was poured into a sampler glass, almost like a triangular beaker, and then described. You were then sent off to sip your six wines and encouraged to buy from their deli. Smart marketing on their part, but they pour way too much wine if you're just there to do a tasting. Which is what the hubby and I were there for. Our pour-er was very knowledgeable. She even asked us to pass along a hello to her sister-in-law at our next stop. We did sit outside and discuss the wines. The vineyard dog, Basil, decided that we needed a greeting and I got wet dog hair all on my jeans. Their sparkling wine is nice. Yes they do that in their tasting and they do the methode champenoise. They have other sparkling wines that I'm really interested in checking out. They also had a New World Red that we found interesting and a Rose that was so so. We left without any wines. At the prices they were asking I really didn't feel that bad.

Our last stop was Jefferson Vineyards. Another winery I had been looking forward too. The tasting room sign was almost hidden. The Tasting Room was in disorder and the pour-er acted like it was a hassle to pour for us. It was not crowded in there either. There were two other couples there being served by a woman and the whole time I was there they were bad mouthing Linden. I was surprised that she didn't say anything to try and defend the winery just agreed with them. He also bad mouthed Pearmund. Of course they only seemed to like sweet wines. Ugh! I did pass along the greeting from Kluge, because my momma raised me right. We paid our tasting fee and it felt like we had to fight to get any information on the wines that were poured for us. The young man just wanted us to read the notes while he chatted with one of his co-workers. The wines weren't very memorable and we left with nothing. Needless to say I was very disappointed when I left. Not a winery that I'll be returning to.

Most Virginia wineries will recommend other wineries to you and will try to say something nice about them. At the winery I work at we always recommend other wineries, especially if the person is doing a day of wineries. First Colony did and so did Kluge. In fact so did Prince Michel. The only place that didn't was Jefferson, which was just too busy chatting amongst themselves to give a damn.

Other than our last stop we had a nice day.

The Grape Stomp

The winery I work at had a harvest celebration on October 13th. There were vendors selling art and crafts. There were even alpacas. They are the cousin of llamas. This leads to the first picture you see. And yes Abby, Noah, JD and Colten, your aunt did pet them. Quite soft, which I guess you would expect. But the noise they make is strange. They do this odd little humming thing. Like a worried hum or the noise you would make in the morning as you're trudging down the hall trying to wake up. The white one is Sir Edward. You can only see the rear end of the brown one and I think his name was something like Masterpiece or something like that. There was also a black one, who was quite camera shy named BT. Don't know what it stood for.

But I digress. We did do tastings. We are a winery after all. Plus we also did a grape stomp. Something we normally don't do. We normally press our grapes in a more modern way. Yes for those two or three of you that actually read this we did the I Love Lucy thing. Well I didn't. I was working. A few brave souls did though and I snapped pictures with my camera phone. I'm told it's better when there's two or more stomping. I guess the adage 'the more the merrier' is true in stomping. Not that I'm going to try it any time soon. I've also been told it was very cold and squishy. Maybe on a warmer day.

This is a picture of some friends of mine. Sarah and Jameson. You know I notice that as I grow older the number of Sarah's in my life is exponentially increasing. I bet I could do a research paper on this one. Hmm... No I don't think the world's ready for that. Much to frightening.

This of course brought to mind the song 'The Monster Mash'by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett. I'm sure everyone's heard it. Most radio stations play it close to Halloween. It's delighful. Of course I had to put my own unique spin on it. I don't own the rights to this and it's just done in fun. So please no anger flung this way. And I realize it's not as good as the original. It's just a bit of silliness. What can I say? Please refer to my blog title.

The Grape Stomp remixed Maniacal Michelle

I was working in the winery late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For the events planner from the pavilion began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise

She did the stomp
She did the grape stomp
The grape stomp
It was a vineyard smash
She did the stomp
It caught on in a flash
She did the stomp
She did the grape stomp

From the laboratory in the warehouse to the east
To the pavilion where the vampires feast
The ghouls all came from their humble abodes
To get a shot of Virginia Gold

They did the stomp
They did the grape stomp
The grape stomp
It was a vineyard smash
They did the stomp
It caught on in a flash
They did the stomp
They did the grape stomp

The GWWs were having fun
The party had just begun
The guests included Wolf Man
Dracula and his son

The scene was rockin', all were digging the sounds
Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds
The coffin-bangers were about to arrive
With their vocal group, "The Crypt-Kicker Five"

They played the stomp
They played the grape stomp
The grape stomp
It was a vineyard smash
They played the stomp
It caught on in a flash
They played the stomp
They played the grape stomp

Out from his office, Doug's voice did ring
Seems he was troubled by just one thing
He opened the door and shook his fist
And said, "Whatever happened to my Sangiovese squish?"

It's now the stomp
It's now the grape stomp
The grape stomp
And it's a vineyard smash
It's now the stomp
It's caught on in a flash
It's now the stomp
It's now the grape stomp

Now everything's cool, Doug's a part of the band
And my grape stomp is the hit of the land
For you, the living, this stomp was meant too
When you get to my door, tell them Michelle sent you

Then you can stomp
Then you can grape stomp
The grape stomp
And do my vineyard smash
Then you can stomp
You'll catch on in a flash
Then you can stomp
Then you can grape stomp

Favorite Time of Year

October is here! Which of course means fall is here. This is my favorite time of year. Why you might ask? Well for one, and possibly the most important, Jim and I started dating in October 16 years ago. It seems like only yesterday. Another fact is the change in the weather and the leaves changing color. And one of the best reasons is Halloween is in this month. My most favorite holiday! And that's all I've got to say about that.

Oh yeah one last thing. Leave the Christmas crap where it is until after Thanksgiving! I don't want to see it next to Halloween stuff. For God's sake that's just wrong!