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Chronicles of Lori’s Slim Down Journey – Days 5-7

Two days ago I got up and took Elmer for a 20-minute walk.  We did 2 of the neighborhood hills.  Then I went to play bridge.  There were no edible temptations at the tables so that was good.  Luree the hostess, had out fresh cantaloupe, grapes, and pretzels.  Mid morning I took some fruit.  I heated up a Trader Joes beef and barley soup box for lunch.  I said no to the cake for dessert but I did take a bowl of the strawberries and raspberries.  I was very proud of myself.  At work I brought ½ cucumber cut up and a dozen small carrots.  I had that for my mid afternoon snack.  For dinner I had a ham sandwich on an Orowheat light bun.  I had some of my trail mix, especially the dried fruits and almonds.  On the way home from work I stopped off at Blush frozen yogurt shop and picked up Larry and I small sizes for dessert.  No toppings.  This was good, as I hadn’t had my milk portion for the day.  

Yesterday I just couldn’t get out of bed early enough to do my exercising.  I had cold cereal with banana for breakfast and a Fiber One bar for a snack.  For lunch I had a piece of chicken and an orange.  Dinner was a potluck at our bocce ball championship tournament.  I brought an orzo salad with spinach, pine nuts, tomatoes, Gorgonzola cheese, basil and roasted garlic-lemon vinaigrette.  The main dish there was pasta with a meat sauce.  I was pretty good.  I started out with two slices of baguette with Brie spread (probably shouldn’t have done that).  Then I took a little bit of the pasta and sauce, my salad, no garlic bread and some fresh fruit.  I shared a ½ beer with Larry.  Then the dessert came out and I lost my willpower.  Three cakes were there!  I had a little piece of each cake.  I feel a bit guilty, but also happy that I got to enjoy the cake but not go crazy like I could have.  We won the first game 10-5, lost the second game 10-5 and then lost the last game 10-9 in the dark!

Today Larry and I took Elmer for a ½ hour walk.  For lunch we went to a new Thai restaurant in town.  I had their papaya salad.  No great temptations today.  We will be having hot dogs tonight with some friends.  I will be serving corn on the cob and salad with the meal.  I plan not to have a bun with my dog.  We will be eating late enough to not have the urge to have dessert.  I did have an apple for my afternoon snack and was still very hungry.  So I had some trail mix and I’m trying to get my 6 cups of water down.  Having a little bit of trouble with that today.

I give myself a “B” for the three days.

I’m going to have a challenging weekend with going out to dinner tomorrow night and then going to an event on Saturday night.  But I will be staying active as we are going to be harvesting about 2-3 acres of grapes for Brandon to make the wine from this season.  I will keep you informed.

Chronicles of Lori’s Slim Down Journey – Day 6

Wow!  My challenge started off with a bang.  On day 2 I was all set to go for a walk in the morning before my long day of sitting, melting candles, for my Mom’s booth at the Lafayette Art and Wine Festival.  But just as I got my sneakers on my Mom called in a panic.  She only had one melting box, she needed two, and that she couldn’t get through to Tap Plastics on the phone, could I please go and order the plastics she needs to put a box together and bring them up to her a.s.a.p.  There went my walk, right out the window.  So, Larry and I went there, ordered the plastics and while we waited shared a bagel and cream cheese from the local bagel shop next door.  The bagel also wasn’t on the agenda.  We finally got to Lafayette and then found out the the employee at Tap Plastics cut 4 out of 5 sheets the wrong size!  We made due with two of the pieces and went on with the day.  Sarah who was also working with us went to get lunch and ended up bringing back food from Panda Express.  Yum!  So an hour later I found myself at Panda Express ordering lunch for Mom and I.  I got the black pepper chicken and some lo mien noodles.  All was good except that I ate the whole order!  The only good thing about that was that the temptation to go to Cold Stone Creamery, which we were sitting right in front of all day, was removed.  UNTIL… a Cold Stone Creamery employee came out with samples of ice cream cake!  I couldn’t resist!  It was the middle of the day, it was hot and I was starting to get hungry.  The good thing was that it was a small portion, but I did eat the whole thing!

We came home and Larry had made us a fantastic cold flank steak salad with a side dish of a cold potato salad made in a French style with no mayonnaise, but balsamic vinegar, olive oil, herbs, green beans, and a few tomatoes.  Everything was delicious, light and cool.  It was the perfect ending to not such a perfect day.

I feel that I survived the day ok.  I give myself a “B-”.

Can you drink 28 glasses of wine in 3 hours?

You wouldn’t even believe this if I told you.  What if I told you that between 9:30 and 12:00 this morning I drank 28 glasses of wine?  Well, if I had really drank everything I wouldn’t be alive to write this.  Today Larry and I had the fantastic opportunity to go and taste 28 samples of wines from the Russian River Valley, Sonoma County.  We were invited to a “media tasting” sponsored by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers. There were 24 of us media types and a panel of 6.  The panel was moderated by Geoff Kruth, Master Sommellier and Wine Director at the Farmhouse Inn and Restaurant.  The rest of the panel included John Holdredge of Holdredge Wines, Pete Opatz, viticulturalist to Picket Fence Vineyards, Dan Kosta of Kosta Browne Winery, Tom Dehlinger of Dehlinger Winery and the host, Peter Merriam of Merriam Vineyards.  Everything took place at Merriam Vineyards which is on the Windsor/Healdsburg border north of Santa Rosa.  Upon entering the room for the first flight we were greeted with 9 glasses filled with Pinot Noir from different wineries in the Russian River Valley.

Flight 1 – The first flight was Russian River Pinot Noir – Single Vineyard – 2007 – The price of the bottle and my grade of the wine
Balletto Vineyards – Burnside Vineyard – $34.00 B
Coterie Cellars – Saralee Vineyard – $38.00  B-
C Donatiello Winery – Maddie’s Vineyards – $62.00 A-
Dutton Goldfield Winery – Freestone Hill Vineyard – $58.00 B+
Forchini Vineyard and Winery – River Terrace Vineyard – $32.00 B
Freeman Vineyard & Winery – Keefer Ranch – $46.00 B-
Russian Hill Estate Winery – Tara Vineyard – $46.00 B+
Sequana Vineyard – Dutton Ranch – $40.00 B
Suacci Carciere Wines – Suacci Vineyard – $48.00 C+

Flight 2 – The second flight was Russian River Pinot Noir – Blends – 2007 – The price of the bottle and my grade of the wine
Chasseru Wines – $40.00 B
Hook & Ladder Winery – $25.00 B+  **
Hop Kiln Winery, Generations – $40.00 B
J. Lynn Wines – $19.99 B  **
Joseph Swan Vineyards, Cuvee de Trois – $28.00 C
Kenwood Vineyards – $18.00 B-  **
Moshin Vineyards – $36.00 B
Olsen Ogden Wines – $42.00 B+
River Road Vineyards – $27.00 B 
Terlato Family Vineyards – $60.00 B+
Willams Salyem, Westside Road Neighbors – $67.00 B-

Flight 3 – The thrid flight was Russian River Bordeaux’s.  The winery, vineyard, varietal, year, price and my grade of the wine
Acorn Winery – Alegria Vineyard – Cabernet Franc, 2006 – $32.00 B **
Dehlinger Winery – Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 – $50.00 B
Ledson Winery & Vineyards – Merlot, 2005 – $44.00 B-
Longboard Vineyards – Merlot, 2007 – 24.00 B+  **
Merriam Vineyards – Miktos Red Wine, 2005 – $50.00 B-
Selby Vineyards – Azvedo Ranch – Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 – $40.00 B-
Suncy Winery – Hedin Vineyard – Merlot, 2006 – $30.00 C
Windsor Oaks Vineyards – Chalk Hill – Malbec, 2007 – $35.00 B  **

After the third flight we were treated to an awesome lunch at the winery.  During lunch we mingled, and talked about each other business etc.  We also drank more wine!  We had 2006 Merriam Merlot and 2007 Picket Fence Pinot Noir.  Here was the menu:

Arugula & endive salad, avocado, Manchego cheese, caramelized almonds, lemon-truffle vinaigrette
Salad of baby beets, feta cheese, orange & horseradish vinaigrette

Rotisserie pork loin, pomegranate glaze, roasted red grape & farro salad

Wild mushroom & goat cheese spaetzle

Mini Chocolate cakes, caramel mousse mini chocolate chunk & banana bread pudding

                  Peter Merriam, Merriam Vineyards

All I can say is WOW!  Luckily they gave each of us a cup to spit the wine into and a bottle of water at each flight to replenish liquids.  So in reality I probably drank about 1 glass of wine.  But it sounded a lot more impressive saying 28 glasses.  Our day did not end there.  We went on to two more wineries, then out to dinner.  That is another blog for another day.