It's the Freakin' Weekend - baby I'm about to have me some fun

In the words of R. Kelly:

It's the FREAKIN' Weekend, Baby I'm about to have me some fuN!

Finally Friday. This day reminds me not only of this wonderful R. Kelly song, but also Earl Pitts on

94.1 on Friday mornings when they played the song Finally Friday... good times.

This Friday has a happy hour at Olive and Ivy a swanky bar in Scottsdale with my soccer peeps

and hopefully tomorrow I'll be off to Sedona...

YES!

Happy Friday EVERYONE!

WELL... I'm basically FAMOUS

So last night in President Obama's state of the Union address, he noted a single-parent teacher who lost her job and was rehired because of the stimulus package... well, this HAPPENS to be the teacher I coached against tonight. So, of course, because 3TV found out she was coaching against me, they decided to come to the basketball game to film. I'm not on there for long, but look closely at the left hand side of the video. They couldn't put me on there too much or else they'd have to pay!

ENJOY!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

First off, ESPY outgrew his second collar. He seems to be filling out now, not so much growing taller. So, I got him a new collar and guess the brand - Hamilton Brand Dog Collars and Leashes... Way to go Hamilton family!

Here is a picture of the beast with his new collar on after a run we went on yesterday.

In other news, we have our last basketball game today of the regular season. We play the only undefeated team in the league... uh oh. But, we played really well at practice yesterday so keep your fingers crossed.

Last night we went out to Postino's Wine Bar to celebrate my friend Catherine's birthday (which isn't until Saturday, but Jackie is going out of town this weekend). Tuesday, after class, Catherine and I were hungry so we stopped by the local eatery - Hooters of course. After both feeling sick Tuesday night, Wednesday night was a nice reprieve with good food.

Also, I found out that I was nominated (among hundreds of others I'm sure) for the Sue Lehmann award for second year Teach for America corps members nation wide for Excellence in Teaching! I had to be nominated by someone (my Program Director maybe... who knows), so it's pretty exciting to be honored. I have to go through an intense application (again...), but if I win I get $5,000 :) :) :) :) :) Three people get to go on past the first round from Phoenix, so we'll see. If nothing else, just to be nominated is pretty cool!

I'm going to try to take some pictures of my girls playing in our game today, so I will upload those if I get them today! Then, tonight I have a soccer game at 11. Yes, 11pm... ACK. Sooooo late, but luckily tomorrow is Friday so I guess I'll go!

I think I'm going to Sedona this weekend, do a little wine tasting, enjoy the Red Rocks and just get away! It should be pretty fun.

More later, happy Thursday and happy Prep-Period!

Worthy Wines! 3: Chianti

A 2008 Chianti is the choice for this week. It has only been a few days since the last installment of Worthy Wines!, but I did miss a week, so hopefully I am in the process of getting caught up. So, walking through WalMartini (a name that I just made up to make WalMart sound WAY cooler) and saw the wine that always catches my eye. Something about the packaging makes it a MUST HAVE for the week. It is the Bell'agio 2008 Chianti. AND it has a wicker or some other type of wood-feeling material surrounding the bottle. It was a whopping $10.87 at WalMartini (so tack on a few dollars if you're buying it at Safeway - because they do not have sweat-shop workers).



This is an Italian Dry wine, and boy is it dry. In trying to explain it I can only say this... you do not realize you are drinking anything at all until the wine hits the back of your throat. While this may not seem like a good thing, when you're eating Pizza its AWESOME. The wine seemed to make the pizza taste better. Since this was a product of a trip to WalMartini, I also bought the pizza there as well. After 13 minutes in the oven, it was nothing better than a glorified Bagel Bite (if you don't know what that is, then you obviously didn't come over to the Berndt house after soccer practice). That being said, the wine made the cheese taste like Danish cheese and the sauce taste like it came straight out of Italy. While that may be a bit of an exaggeration, the wine actually did bring out the taste of the pizza sauce.

If you're hoping to find the best Chianti out there, this probably isn't it... but if you're looking for a good wine that would look REALLY cool sitting on your table, this IS the wine for you!

DRINK UP and ENJOY!

128 Days... SHIT

So I thought it would be fun to add a "Days until the End of School" countdown.  So, I set it up thinking it would be all exciting and inspiring until I saw the bad news.  I still have 128 days until the end of school... WHHAAAAAAAAAAAA????  How did that happen.  Maybe I should have chunked it up with like "hours until the end of the day," "days until Friday," or "Spring Break" or something more manageable.  Oh well, maybe I'll leave it and will change it's title to "Days to not get Yelled at by 13 year olds," or "Days to Affect STudents' Lives," or something corny like that.  Until I can think of something inspiring, yet funny, to say... I'll leave it be.   I just got so depressed about it thought, it is now deleted... bummer.

In other news, I finished applications for Program Director for Teach for America and Recruitment Director for Teach for America.  Good stuff.  Suns game friday night - boo they lost.  What else...
tomorrow is going to be a day of me playing with ESPY and sleeping in... WHOOOOOOOT!

More Worth Wines to come.  It's 10:45 and I'm eating pizza and about to crack open some Chianti! BOOM!

AMAZING! FIFA World Cup Anthem - Wavin' Flag, K'naan

Worthy Wines! 2: Chenin Blanc

Alright, this week the Worthy Wine is a 2007 Chenin Blanc from Beringer!

On http://www.beringer.com this wine sells for $7.00.  Which, for the taste, to me seems like quite a deal!  I cannot exactly remember the cost of the wine, but I FOR SURE know it was below $15.  "How do you know Kristen," you might ask...  As for an answer to that question: I am a cheapskate and do not buy anything that is much over $15.  So, no worries, this wonderful wine is still in the running for Worthy Wines 2.

This Chenin blanc is VERY sweet.  It has an immediate flowery smell and once on the tongue it doesn't disappoint.  The first taste is incredibly fruity.  It tastes like a mix of lemon, peaches and grapefruits mixed into an alcoholic concoction.  If you like your alcohol to taste like juice, this is the wine for you.  If you're not a fan of the sweeter wines, I wouldn't suggest this Chenin Blanc.

Since it is so light, flowery and fruity, I would personally drink this with a piece of cheesecake.  But, since I don't have any cheesecake lying around the house, chicken will have to do.  With a breast of teriyaki chicken and some white rice, this wine pairs nicely.  I would also suggest shrimp or less flavorful seafood for this wine.  

Whether or not this would fancy you in the winter time is up to you.  This wine seems to be the perfect wine to drink after a long day at the beach.  Here's my visual: Leaving the beach, tanned and covered in sand, putting on your towel and walking up to your minibar in the hotel room.  Then, look at that... there's your Beringer Chenin Blanc in your mini bar... WHAT A PERFECT DAY!  Here's an INCORRECT vision:  Coming in off the slopes after freezing your butt off after trying to snowboard for the past three hours and drinking the Chenin Blanc. NOT THE BEST IDEA.  Your drink of choice there should be hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps! 

Hope you enjoy!  Any suggestions of cheap Worthy Wines are ALWAYS welcome!

Worthy Wines! 1: Cabernet Sauvignon

WORTHY WINES! 1: Cabernet Sauvignon

For the first installment of Worthy Wines! I decided to begin with a wine I had around the house (because I haven't gone to the store in quite a while). This was a holiday wine I picked up about two weeks before Christmas. I bought it at Total Wine in Phoenix for $8.99 basically because I liked the name. The name of the wine is YULE LOVE IT. It is a Cabernet Sauvignon called "Comet & Cupid." It is Vinted and Bottled by Eight Tiny Reindeer WInery in Santa Rosa, California.

Most of the wines I will include in this blog will be ones you can find in any local grocery store (when I have time to go to the grocery store).

This wine has a berry smell and a hint of berry as you first taste it. I looked this wine up online to see what else it had to say about the wine. It notes that it finishes with a bit of an Oak taste. While I do not know what Oak tastes like, I will still try and refine my pallette to inform you of the "Idiots Guide to Wine."

If I were to choose what I would eat with this wine, I would pick something cheesy to balance off the sweet taste of the wine. Maybe because I am hungry and am sipping wine, but I believe this Cabernet Sauvignon would pair well with Cheese Ravioli. I have also learned from my research and plenty of first-hand experience, Cabernet Sauvignon usually pairs very well with red meats.

Happy Saturday and Enjoy. p.s. cheer for those Cardinals tomorrow!

And so it begins...

As the New Year begins, I'm sure everyone is thinking about how much better 2010 is going to be than 2009... I mean, it's the beginning of a new decade which will see me turning 30 (ACK). In all honesty, I will have a lot of expectations for 2010 being as though 2009 rocked. My 2009 in Review: I totally jumped on the Cardinals' bandwagon to see them to the Super Bowl, I went to Vegas for the ump-teenth time (actually only the 4th, but I guess that's still a lot in Sin City), cruised the Riviera with my friends (Mexican of course), finished my first year of teaching, SC at Leadership Camp up in Washington, started my 2nd year of teaching, celebrated a wedding in Hawaii, and that seems about it... Putting it that way sounds like I have a lot to live up to in 2010.

Two goals come to mind when thinking of 2010. Spontaneous Stability... oh, and wine. Starting with Spontaneous Stability. First, I think alliterations are a must. I tried to incorporate the wine to have some sort of "S" in it, but I could not think of anything clever. I am going to be spontaneous, taking trips when I choose, visiting random locations when I feel, and doing basically whatever I want whenever I want - hence the Spontaneity. The stability is a bit difficult to describe throughout the whole year, but for now... it basically means I have a job to come home to when I'm done being Spontaneous. While I have a hard time describing the Stability, I can begin to describe the wine portion!

After being inspired to blog about something "meaningful" from Julie & Julia, I decided to combine blogging with something that I really enjoy... WINE. Instead of choosing a different wine every day (which my family urged me not to do so I wouldn't be spending the rest of 2010 in Schick Shadel), I decided to begin a "wine of the week." All of these wines will be found on the lower two shelves (only one $ rather than $$$$$), which means they will range from three buck chuck (formerly two buck chuck before the economic deficit), to the current wine of choice "Yule Love It: Cabernet Sauvignon," entitled "Come & Cupid."

I'll try to refine my wine tastes to help all of those fellow cheap-skate wine enthusiasts. This first week is more of an introduction rather than the beginning of the wine portion of the blog, because of a illness, I was not able to drink as much wine as I had wished during the week.

Look for the next blog for the first installment of Worthy Wines!

Starbucks Love Project- So Cool!