New Year's Resolutions: Or how I can not fail!

(Writing my resolutions, bet I can keep mine up more then you can keep yours)

• I resolve to swear more often and use the Z%$#^ word in creative ways at least 3 times a week. (and one of those times will be in front of the baggers at the grocery store, is there anything more fun then making teenagers cringe?)

• I resolve to buy more ice cream. Piling carton upon carton into my super market basket. Especially when skinny minny women and big eyed children are present, so that they may weep with envy at my icy cold gluttony. So they shall turn green with jealousy over my wild ice cream ways. Store clerks will raise an eyebrow, just one, as they ring through my purchases and ask if we're having a party, and I shall pertly answer with just the right amount of acid on my tongue (as in tone not drug) that no, we're not having a party we're having ice cream.

• I resolve to drink more port and solve every one's problems whilst tipping back a few. Is there any issue in the world that couldn't be solved whilst in the hazy glow of a port warmed brain muddle?

• I resolve to buy newly released Nora Roberts books so soon off the store shelves that the covers are still warm from the stock boy's hands.

• I resolve to talk loudly in public about our secret rendezvous with the french embassy and that we have the goods hidden in a cracker box at the grocery store. Just so some house wife can have a little thrill....and possibly some crackers.

• I resolve to learn more words in Spanish because even though I can apply "caliente" to a lot of things it would be cooler if I could say "mucho caliente". Like I would like a mucho caliente new hat, or wow that baby has the cutest mucho caliente dimples I've ever seen. For you Canadians mucho caliente= tres chaud (approximately I think)

• I resolve to reduce the amount of trash we throw out every week to even smaller amounts then last year, so that I can prance my tiny can down to the corner and throw my hands up in a gesture of "TAKE THAT!" attitude as our neighbors put their overflowing trash bins next to ours. Then I will dance a little "ha ha I'm hurting the environment less then you" kind of dance whilst they slink away, possibly even in tears.

• I resolve to watch Talladega Nights at least once a month, or at least this scene which is the BEST movie scene EVER. I dare you to defy me. Saying Grace
  

There's no Storm but I've Found Another Port....

When Sprouts was still Henry's before it became Frazier Farms it sold us our first bottle of Port.
Confused?
So are we, I dunno what to hell to call the store that changes it's name more times then I change my socks!! (and this from the girl who'll switch from stripes to polka dots and back to stripes again, all in one day!)
Ahhhhhhhhh our first bottle of port....Ficklin's ,in case you're curious, and it was DIVINE! Ahhhh I remember it well...vaguely.....
It opened a whole new Port infused world for us...
I really think every one's *first* official alcoholic beverage ought to be a glass of Port. Sweet and potent and just the thing to celebrate being able to do something legally that most y'all were doing way before the legalities of it were even any where near being a reality!
I also think Port is just the thing for all the non-drinkers....short of being a recovered alcoholic who's gonna go on a binge and sink into a deprived mania should you touch the stuff, I really think that a little glass of Port would go down just fine no matter who you are!
Believe it or not there was a time I'd sworn I wouldn't touch a drop of alcohol myself, all based on some very negative things I'd witnessed by other people who misused it. Now that I am older and *all grown up* I realize that every one who drinks isn't a drunk. I learned this fact a little later in life then most but I'm grateful to learning it at all!
A whole world of flavors and experiences have been opened to me since I discovered that alcohol isn't a crutch, it's not an escape...it's a SPICE!!!! It's salt, it's the little extra something that makes food taste triply delicious and a wonderful treat all on it's own! I truly believe that all things in life in moderation, that a person can NOT be ruled by other's people's choices, mistakes and decisions! So imagine my pleasant surprise to discover that alcohol isn't what I observed in OTHER people! It's something I learned, on my own and through my husband, to be a fun splurge, like a roller coaster ride! Of course any one in their RIGHT mind doesn't ride a roller coaster 24 hrs a day! There are those that would say riding a roller coaster even once is insanity....but that doesn't mean there are those of us who can't ride a roller coaster every now and again and enjoy the wild sensations!
However, all that said, if you haven't got your hands on a bottle of Port by now I'm really going to have to insist that you do...it may very well be one of the essential building blocks of life...er...or at least it's a sweet treat worth trying!
Recently I was looking for some Port at our local Frazier Farms previously known as Sprouts and before that Henry's...and what to my wondering eyes did appear but a WHITE PORT! White Port made from white grapes....ohhhhhhhhhhhhh darling why don't you come home with me and be my little love slave! It was like fate, I'd just been reading online about White Port...I hadn't even known such a thing existed before 2 days ago! For something like 11 bucks a bottle it was worth a try......Plus there's this whole "you drool on it you buy it" rule at the store.....
To say it was delicious is like saying a sunset in vivid, eye searing, brain jarring reds is *o.k*.!!!!
It was beyond a pleasant surprise! I love my beautiful red Ficklin ports but this white Krohn Lagrima port was.......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm refreshingly delicious...the port flavors were expected but there was a clear, less syrupy quality to this wine that was a pleasant surprise. Where as the Ficklin ports felt *thicker* on the tongue this Lagrima by Krohn's was crisper but had all the headiness of a port we'd come to expect!
Oh...by the way...did I mention it was half the price of Ficklin Ports we'd bought????
The only thing I'd ever come close to experiencing as *buyer's remorse* is not buying MORE of a delightful new discovery, like this white port by Krohn's. Having finished the one bottle that we'd bought on a lark, I'm kicking my ass sideways that we'd hadn't thought to snatch up the other bottles available for sale! Now we must endure a knuckle biting evening of semi buyer's remorse hoping against hope that a veil of invisibility has covered the remaining bottles of white port at Frazier Farms previously known as Sprouts and before that Henry's.......
The white Port was THAT good. Invite it to be a member of the family and name it Josephine good!
For 11.99 a bottle of Krohn's Lagrima porto will set you on an evening of mellow fruity delights...and if that doesn't appeal to you then perhaps a nice bowl of rusted screws would be more to your liking.

A Small Taste of Heaven!

I'm not sure I understand why Champagne is considered the Queen of celebratory drinks. Not when there's something as beautiful as Tawny Port out there.
A drink that tastes like fairies had to have made it. A drink that's rich and heavy on the tongue and full of so much flavour you can almost taste it from the smell. I'm serious. I'm not exaggerating, my pitiful attempts at describing a glass of Tawny Port by Ficklin doesn't do justice to the actual thing. And so far, for us, it HAS to be Ficklin. Oh you can get half way there with *other* brands..... but that's like comparing sunlight with a light bulb...you just can't. I'm not going to even try and go into one of those flowery and wordy descriptions of the taste of Ficklin's 10 year Tawny Port. Except to say the flavours and feel are of good whiskey and honey.
If I could do my life over I don't think I'd change a thing, except perhaps to add a bottle of Ficklin's Tawny Port to my wedding day. Oh yes, it's that good!
But please, please don't save this for just a so called special occasion. The sunset looked pretty tonight, that's occasion enough. Or maybe you got your favorite sale paper in the mail, your email inbox wasn't full of junk this morning or your favorite tv show is on tonight. Reason enough to open a bottle of heaven! So far we've found bottles of Ficklin Tawny Port that's aged 10 years to run about 20 to 25 bucks. That seems like such a small price to pay for something this good!