Blind Wine Tasting

Our supper club had a "blind" wine tasting party Friday night. Everyone brought two bottles of Cabernet. One bottle was covered in a brown paper bag and numbered. The other bottle went into the winner's pot. Everyone tasted and rated the wine and the winner went home with five bottles of wine. Out of 9 people, 4 are CPAs.....so you can imagine how seriously they took adding up the points to see who won. The winner was Educated Guess (Watson and Helene).

BARI

Last night Oliver took me to Bari to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. If you live in Memphis and haven't been to Bari Ristorate you need to go. It is in mid-town on Cooper right by the Play House on the Square. The owner's grandparents still live in Bari, Italy; which is on the coast so the restaurant has a huge emphasize on seafood. A lot of the reciepes are family reciepes. Our waiter was great and helped us pick out what to order. You order true Italian style and have a many small courses. Here is what we got:

Formaggio: Pecorino Affienato--Rubbed with honey and wrapped in hay
Antipasti e Primi: Spicy Salami and Roasted Red Bell Pepper
Pasta Course: Cavatelli con Pesce di Mare- (Oliver) and Spaghetti alla Carbonara (Julia)
-The spaghetti alla carbonara was good but Oliver's was much better--he out ordered me on this course.
Main Course: Polpette (Oliver) and I had the fish of the day which was a grilled red fish
Dessert: Tiramisu--house made lady fingers soaked in espresso, layered with zabaglione and mascarpone topped with whipped cream and cocoa powder--THE BEST!

TWO YEARS

Oliver and I have been married two years today. I am thankful for each and every day. I hardly remember the ceremony at all. We tried to watch the video last year on our anniversary but turned it off after about 5 minutes. I remember a little bit more of the reception....Oliver definitely smeared cake all over my face. We are going to Bari tonight to celebrate!

Caroline and Ally bonded yesterday.....mainly over cheese it's. Ally used to be so scared of children but she LOVES Caroline. Lisa called me last night and said that during Caroline's prayers she prayed for Ally and Oliver. My reaction: What about me?

This weekend I went to Jackson to see Sis. We went to the Farmer's Market Saturday morning. Sis had a characture made with Ryan. Besides May and I leaving in the middle of a tornado on Friday, we had a great time.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Watching my little garden grow this summer I have been reminded of the old nursery rhyme, "Mary Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow..." Well, this year my garden is off to a MUCH better start than last summer. Last summer my garden was a hole in the backyard and got almost NO sun. I started getting tomatoes in September. This year it had some help from Oliver's grandfather, Dee, and some good ole delta earth. Dee replanted my garden in tubs of dirt and manure from Greenwood.

Swim Time

Oliver and I took his cousins, Mackenzie and Campbell, to the Greenwood Country Club for a swim on Saturday. They are so cute and I hope our children are as sweet and beautiful as they are. Do you like the "Super Star" poses? On Sunday, Edi and I took Olivia for her first swim at Net's pool. Sadly, I have NO pictures to show. Edi got some cute ones so when I get one I'll post it!

Rooster Update

Watson found a rooster in his yard on Monday night. Ole Miss was playing baseball and WON. Result? Rooster is now a good luck charm and named Rebel. Watson and Helene have NO idea how a rooster ended up in their yard. They have several theories: it's a joke (Watson), Helene "planted" a pet in their yard b/c Waston won't get her one (Waston), it's a lost pet (Helene), or it's wandered over from a cock fighting ring (Helene's mother). Helene emails their neighborhood group to see if anyone is missing a pet. She practically gets death threats for thinking about calling Animal Control. Watson goes to work on Tuesday and tells everyone there is a *****rooster in his yard. Then Watson receives the following email from Rebel:

From: John Smith [roosterharris@gmail.com]
Sent: 06/03/2009 02:44 PM EST
To: Watson Harris

Watson,

Its hot as hell out here and it looks like it might rain. You need to hook me up with a coop that has air conditioning before too long because I am here for the long haul. Also, it would be good if you could stop by the store on your way home and pick me up a 6 pack of Busch Light. Make it bottles because the cans usually screw up my beak. I'm planning to have some friends over tonight if thats cool with you.

The Rooster

Last night, Oliver and I went to pick Helene up for the Osiris Party. Helene showed us the rooster and we took this picture. I could not look at Oliver the whole way to meet everyone b/c I didn't want to laugh and ruin the joke. After everyone got to the party and had a drink, James told his rooster story. I wish I had a picture of Helene's face b/c it was similar to a person's face who has just won the lottery.

Roosters

Written by our friend....who remains anonymous--a true story that took place Sunday night.

Otis is a very sociable yet thunderous rooster that lived at our house a total of three hours, until he was relocated by the covert operation dubbed (Operation Gamecock). He would have found permanent residence at our home but my wife threatened me with divorce and eventually abstinence….the last of the two was the inevitable deal breaker for my relationship with Otis.

With no kids or pets, Operation Gamecock was going to transpire on either Harbert Ave or Holmes Street. Long story short, I would rather deal with the wrath of Helene and Watson and quite frankly the rest of Memphis than to be on the bad side of May T Walker. So Oliver and I dropped Otis off in Helene and Watson’s back yard late Sunday night.

Then there was another rooster…… I purchased two of them. You see, the Mexican that was peddling the roosters at the trade days insisted on not separating the two brother roosters. One of which was Otis and the other Andy. Andy I thought got devoured by Forrest in the back yard. But, I found this not to be the case yesterday morning at 3:30 a.m. when Andy lets us know that he was still alive and kicking somewhere close to our house. Andy is still on the loose and we can not find him.

Rossville & Painting

My New Years Resolution was, "I will not wish for the weekends on Monday...starting in August" So I have a few more months to wish the week away. And on Monday mornings it is very tempting. Our weekends are so much more fun than Oliver going to work all day and me studying for the Bar all day. I mean you can't really take pictures and write about that! James and Lisa told us about the Rossville Auction in Rossville, TN. We went with them on Friday night and really racked up. We got a drop leaf table, 2 x 3 oriental rug, four chairs and some wooden bowls. We also got some REALLY UGLY vases. Lisa and James got this huge leather 3-chair sofa thing that is from a Mason Lodge in Chicago.....it is really cool and will look amazing in their den. We ate dinner at the Wolf River Dinner--the atmosphere reminded me of Old Taylor but the catfish was better.

On Saturday we went to Columbus for a friend's wedding. We stayed with Oliver's aunt and uncle who are literally some of my favorite people. Oliver has four aunts on his dad's side and everytime I am around any of them them I think, "I want to be more like Aunt [Karen, Cindy, Beth, or Kim." They are four of the most cheerful, fun women I know. Everyone of them enjoys every minute of life (probably even Monday mornings). Sunday morning Aunt Karen gave me an "art" lesson and I came home with an awesome painting of three angels. Karen really painted the whole thing but I got to help a little. I am going to Michaels today to buy some paint and canvases. Hopefully, this will last longer and be more successful than the sewing spirt.