Tag Archives: wine

I’m a bubblehead, it’s true.

Yesterday was a day filled with shopping. And not for shoes. Even moving into a corporate apartment, that is furnished, we still needed a lot of things.

I arranged my trip so I could leave right from breakfast, drive up to where we had been staying in the hotel and the Whole Foods was located, make a big circle and get home as soon as possible.

I wanted to shop at the Kroger closer to our new place but, because I had time to kill before a  9 a.m. opening, I went to the Kroger by Whole Foods – 20 minutes away from where we are living.

I bought a ton of stuff, you know how it is when you’re first moving in. I was happily waiting in line for the one cashier when a very friendly lady suggested that I come down and do the self check-out and she would help me.

I told her I was new in town and that this was my first visit to Kroger. She was right there with me, showing me how to do the check-out.

Eventually, I had too many things and started taking them out of the bagging area and putting them into the cart. This made the self check-out hooker freak out. “Please place the items back in the bagging area”.

Ummm. No. There isn’t any room.

“Well,” the nice self-help lady said, “you need to put them up on top.” Where there was clearly not enough room for the quantity of groceries I had. Oy.

I got everything scanned, bagged, and then I paid and went home.

When I got ready to make salad for dinner last night, I noticed that I had no salad dressing when I had purchased two. I also couldn’t find the olive oil. I had opted for a bigger, more expensive bottle. Ack!

I called the store. They hadn’t found these items in the self check-out but told me I could come and they would replace them. I did that this morning. It wasn’t on my way, it was 20 minutes from home.

When I got home, I started thinking about dinner. I thought I would put one of the English roasts I had purchased into the new crock pot I bought. I looked in the freezer.

No roasts.

I looked in the fridge.

No roasts.

Dang it.

I called the store and explained my situation. She said I could come and get my money back. I told her never mind. I was willing to let it go but please don’t ask me to use the self check-out ever again.

Until I decided the pork loin would be a nice thing to have for dinner.

I looked in the freezer.

It wasn’t there.

I looked in the fridge.

Not there either. Oy.

I called the store back. She told me I could come and replace the meat.

So off I went, 20 minutes one way, to get to the Kroger in another part of town.

When I got there, the girl at the Customer Service desk told me to go grab the meat to replace the ones I didn’t get home yesterday which I did.

After she was done, I told her that I really appreciated them doing this but that when someone has as many things as I did, they really shouldn’t try the self check-out. I explained to her briefly how I thought I had left them and she said, yes, the nice self-help lady had found the meat and put it back on the shelf.

Okay, well that made me feel marginally better that I wasn’t taking all that stuff twice and paying for it once.

I felt like a complete bubblehead for not being able to manage the self check-out.

In the future, I’m going to leave grocery check-out to the professionals.

Now, I’m going to have a glass of wine.

PS – I still need wine glasses.

Knowing me, knowing you

For the five years I directed the Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant, I drove five Mrs. Oklahomas to the Mrs. International Pageant in Chicago.

Given how much “stuff” you need to compete for a week and the fact that Chicago is a pretty easy drive, it seemed to make a lot of sense. I always joked with the girls that the twelve (give or take) hour road trip with me was the prize they were looking forward to the most.

What I found was that this uninterrupted time with each other helped us to form a bond that would carry us through the year of her reign and beyond.

So I’m not sure why it is that I’m always so blown away when I receive a gift from one of these amazing gals that is just so right on the money.

We had a dinner last week to introduce the girls to Kristin, who is the new director for the pageant.

I wasn’t expecting any presents other than another opportunity to spend time with “my girls”, but Autumn, Mrs. Oklahoma International 2011, came bearing gifts.

First, there was a canvas wine bag with the saying, “So much wine, so little time!”

If you’ve been following me around twitter, facebook or in real life, you’ll know that I’m trying all kinds of new wines to try and get my fill since there is no alcohol allowed in Saudi.

Inside the wine bag, is a bottle of Middle Sister Rebel Red wine.

I am totally that sister down to the platform shoes! 🙂

Then came the hand painted Queen wine glass.

Of course we all know that I am the Queen. 😉

And last, but certainly not least, came the beautiful Willow Tree sculpture called “Grandmother”.

This just made me cry. Joyfully, of course.

The girls know me and Autumn is no exception. I love it and I love them.

Thank you, Autumn, for your beautiful, heart felt gifts.

xoxo Lauri 🙂

The Moos and Booze Road Trip

So, we’re still here. The question that Nikki and I are asked at least three times a day is, “So when do you leave?” We don’t know. It’s Ramadan in the Muslim world and that particular detail hasn’t been nailed down yet.

Now that all the hard throwing out and packing up work is done, we decided we needed some diversions. So we planned a road trip to Alva, Oklahoma. Why Alva of all places? I have an amazing friend there, Becky McCray.

Becky has cows and a liquor store which seemed like more than a good enough reason to head to Alva, a place where neither of us had been before.

We arrived about lunch time and Becky took us to lunch at The Sandwich Shop in downtown Alva. The sandwiches, all named after people, were amazing! I had the Ralph. Roast beef and swiss cheese on a hogie roll.

Becky pointed out some details of the downtown that indicated how old it was including the horse tie ups that still remain on some of the sidewalks.

Then we went to the booze portion of our trip, Allen’s Retail Liquor Store. Nikki and I each picked out some wine to take home.

Becky thought these would be a perfect choice for me.

And then this one, which I knew would match the shirt I photographed it with. 🙂

And then, Becky took a photo of Nikki and I. Our first! And what a perfect backdrop. 😉

We’d taken enough of Becky’s busy day so she gave us a big circle to drive with things to see along the way.

We first went to the Alabaster Caverns State Park.

I’ve never been on vacation with Nikki before so we had to do the silly head thing.

Then we went down a bunch of steps to start touring the caverns. Spelunking, if you will. 😉

Yeah, Nikki had great caving shoes on but I was the one who slipped. LOL! It is slick in there!

It’s also very cool, around 58 degrees. So after weeks of extra hot weather in Oklahoma, it was great to be in the cave. Even if there were bats in there.

We also saw a spotted salamander. And he just sat there, prettily, while I took his photo.

It was a cool tour in more ways than one. Alabaster Caverns is the largest gypsum cave in the world that is open to the public. All of the other caves are limestone according to our guide, Gail.

At the end of the tour, Gail loaded us into the tram and took us back to the top.

Then we went off in search of the Gloss Mountains. These are kind of like mountains, Oklahoma-style.

Nikki was thinking “Colorado” and wouldn’t believe we had truly found the Gloss Mountains until she saw a sign. 😉

We finished our big loop and ended up back in Alva for dinner at a restaurant that will remain nameless because it was just that bad. Who ever heard of a Mexican restaurant running out of chips? They were out of a lot.

After the disastrous dinner, I decided to check with Becky before making a breakfast decision. She assured me that Cookie’s Bowl and Cafe was good. I poked that into Tam Tam and we couldn’t find it. We drove up and down the street looking for it and still couldn’t find it.

I turned down a side street and decided to come back from a different direction. Nikki said, “What is that building with all the cars?” And then, “No, that’s the bowling alley.”

Lightbulb!

Cookie’s Bowl (as in BOWLING) and Cafe’. LOL!

So, yes, we ate breakfast at the bowling alley.

We probably should have had dinner there as well. They had the most amazing pancakes that were as big as the tabletop.

After fortifying ourselves with the fabu food, we headed for the “moos” part of our trip and to see the star, Bubby.

Becky took us to her farm and the cows were EXTREMELY interested in us when we pulled up. She said it was because they knew she was going to feed them.

We met Bubby!

And fed him.

And fed him.

And fed him some more. 🙂

That other little guy is Jethro. So cute they are!

Then we got our cowgirl bath.

And we headed for home.

Many, many thanks to Becky McCray for showing us a fabu time on the Moos and Booze Roadtrip.  We had so much fun in the wild, wild west. 🙂