I assure you…

I assure you we’re open!

Yes, yes, I have been very busy, yet again. Many apologies.  And I am still so far behind in blog-reading.  I need to get back into the groove of reading; I don’t want you all to think I don’t love you anymore!

Last night was awfully fun.  Papa Gino’s, which I guess is a New England chain of pizza restaurants, had a fundraiser for the local elementary school.  So a few of my friends got together and ordered pizza to support the school!  Surprisingly enough, the “Paparoni” pizza was the absolute best.  It’s just an extra-pepperoni, extra-cheese pizza, but there’s just something about it that was to die for.  Yummy!!

I didn’t get home till after 10 o’clock, and by that time I was just bushed.  I think I’m coming down with something, you see, so I’ve been a lot more tired lately.  It doesn’t change how late I go to bed, though!!!

Then this morning we went to one of the local libraries here for storytime.  This particular library is not a public one; this is a subscription library, which is what libraries were for many years.  A person pays a membership fee to use the library and check out books, and that fee helps to support the library.  We took a tour of it during last year’s Newport Winter Festival, and it was pretty neat.  It was the fanciest library I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure.

This library houses its children’s collection in a whole ‘nother building, a beautiful Victorian across the street.  So it was there that we went to storytime today.  The lady who did the reading read three books.  One of them was The Story of Ferdinand, about the gentle bull who was roped into fighting in the bull rings, only to be sent back home again because he was so scared.  It’s always been a favorite childhood story of mine, and Kurt’s read it to Grace several times.

The woman also read a book about Sarah Hale, the woman who lobbied for over 30 years to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.  It was a good book and held the children’s attention, but amazingly enough, we parents learned a bunch as well!  I’d never heard of Sarah Hale before, in all my years of studying about Thanksgiving and the meaning of the holiday while I was in school.  She was really an amazing woman to have persevered so long in a cause that meant so much to her.  It wasn’t her only cause, either.  She lobbied against spanking your children and wearing corsets, just to name a couple.

Thank God we don’t wear corsets anymore.  I’ve seen what they do to your innards.  No, thank you.

This afternoon it was off to a tastings event at the package store on base.  My friend and I try to go every Friday.  For one thing, it’s a good way to try new wines and beers and liquors to see what we like, but it’s also a good thing to do close to home that doesn’t cost anything and lets us get out of the house without the children.  Usually there are maybe three vendors with two to three beverages to try.  Today was the major Thanksgiving event, so there were fifteen vendors there, each with something like five or eight beverages.

That’s a whole lotta alcohol in one place!

We tried most everything too, but we ended up sharing the drinks between the three of us.  Those vendors are liberal pourers, and if we had drunk everything we were poured, we would have gotten amazingly hammered.  But it was all so good!

I found a couple of beers I really like.  I’d already tried the Harpoon Winter Warmer, a winter brew that’s got some spicy notes to it, at a pub here in town that has it on tap.  But today I found another delicious beer by Michelob, their Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale.  It doesn’t even really taste like beer!  It’s got this almost sweet flavor to it, like an after-dinner drink.  I guess that’s because it’s aged in bourbon casks.  Yummy!

I also tried port for the first time, which I really liked.  The vendor was surprised that I liked it, since I had never had it before.  I couldn’t drink a lot of it, but I enjoyed it the sip I had.  I also checked out some cognac.  I think that’s just a bit too strong for me.  I’ll stick to my beer and my gin & tonics, thanks.

And now it’s already 10pm, and I haven’t really done a damn thing.  Bahh.  Oh well.  I guess that’s what the weekend’s for, to catch up on all the things you missed during the week.  Right??