Jill: News You Can Use

In addition to resurrecting this blog as a whole, I wanted to add some ongoing/recurring posts (like the soon-to-be-also-resurrected Music Monday posts). So today I present the first installment of News You Can Use, a regular news roundup of what we consider critical pieces of newsworthy information. You're welcome.

• To be honest, most of us around here, with the exception of Stephanie, don't really pay much attention to "pairing" our wines and cheeses.  We know that wine is delicious and so is cheese. That's good enough for us.  However, for you more enlightened wine & cheese folks out there, here are some Tips for Pairing Wine & Cheese.

• As teachers, we know first-hand the struggle of drinking on a budget. For you red wine lovers out there, this article on Decent Bottles for $10 or Less should be helpful.

• Cautionary tale of the day: Wine Makes Roads Slippery  

•  Our group texts are going to get a whole lot better: Cheese Emojis are Coming 

Jill: Functional Fashion

I got some random catalog in the mail today and just as I was tossing it into the recycling bin, I saw an ad on the back cover for these:

What's so special about these pretty, feminine stilettos, you ask?  Turns out they are not simply fashionable.  They are also super functional:

My Christmas shopping is complete.

Jill: Catching Up--The Wine Report

It seems I have a little catching up to do around here now that school's out and I'm settling into a summer routine with the kids.  So without further ado, I present Catch Up Post #1.

Apparently we here at the club have an awesome knack of scheduling races to coincide with drinking events.  I know, I know, this would seem obvious from our love of all things wine, but in all honesty, we have scheduled our races and then found out about the drinking opportunities later.

Example #1:  We ran our first club race, the Jingle Bell 5K, on Stephanie's birthday weekend. Turns out she planned a wine and cheese girls party to celebrate the evening of race day.  Run, wine and cheese.  Perfect.

Example #2:  We all signed up for our 2nd race as a club, the Shamrock Shuffle, without knowing that it was being held the same weekend as the Cincinnati International Wine Festival. Seriously, I'm not making this up.  The stars are aligned for us when it comes to running and drinking.  I imagine those stars look something like this:

In addition to the traditional race reports, I will now be posting wine reports as well.  It just seems fair.

Cincinnati International Wine Festival Report

Several hours after finishing the Shamrock Shuffle my still-recovering-from-the-death-flu hubby and I met up with Steph and her betrothed and headed down to the Wine Festival.  You should know that the Cincinnati International Wine Festival is not just a place to try a billion great wines.  It is also a huge charity fundraiser that benefits over 30 different organizations.  That's right, folks, there's nothing we like better than running and drinking for a cause.

Here we are with our commemorative glasses still empty and shiny. It will be the last time until we walk back out.

Despite the look on Steph's face, this is PRE-drinking

We then bravely entered the convention center and joined the throngs of charity-loving wine guzzlers.  And when I say "throng" I really mean a very, very large crowd.  I know this picture from the Wine Fest's website isn't the best, but it should give you an idea just how many people love charity around here.

All of the aisles were that jam packed

To be honest, as much as we enjoy wine, the size of this event is overwhelming.  There's simply too many booths and vendors to be able to try everything, so we needed a strategy to help us pick.  Did we look for award winners?  Nah. Too easy.  Did we choose based on the history or reputation of the winery?  Nope.  That would require way too much reading and we only had 3 hours.  Did we choose based on grape type and variety?  Heck no.  All wines are equal in our eyes.  Finally, we settled on a highly trusted method for choosing our tastings.  With a few exceptions, we stuck to vendors that had to meet at least one of our two criteria:  either a really fun winery name or a really fun bottle label.  Yeah, we are super high class.  After making that decision, the rest of the night pretty much went as planned:

Let's not forget, though, that where there is wine, there is also CHEESE!  Yay!

I get a little misty eyed remembering that table

A little square bowl of heaven

And if cheese wasn't enough, there was also an amazing selection of mini desserts.  First, how awesome is anything that is mini?  And second, most of them were chocolate.  Rock on wine fest, rock on.

I think I may have eaten these before my first glass of wine

You'd think the night couldn't have gotten any better, right?  Well, let me show you just how wrong you would be.  At the end of the evening as we were headed out, we were lucky enough to spot a booth that was giving out free ice cream mini pints.  Not just any ice cream either.  It was Haagen Dazs.  And that is how you end the perfect evening.

Jill: Thank goodness we had all that wine, cheese, and ice cream to replace those calories we burned running that 5K this morning.  Steph: What 5K?

Jill: Heaven on Earth

It's official.  I may have found my very own slice of heaven here in the 'Nati. For anyone who doesn't know me well, I am an avid hockey fan (go Pens!), and if you've spent any time reading this blog, then you know I'm also a fan of wine.

While I will be adding this to the official Wine & Cheese events page, I thought it deserved a post of its own.  Ladies, may I present...Pucks & Pinot.  That's right.  Some genius at the Cincinnati Cyclones promotions department decided that it would be really awesome to have wine tastings before hockey games. Check out last year's article about the event from Uncorked Cincinnati.

From the website:

Forget tailgating, take part in the ultimate unique pre-game experience. Before select games this season the Cyclones invite you to the All Access Bar & Grill to watch warm-ups and enjoy a tasting of your favorite beverages! Each ticket comes with a commemorative glass, hors d'oeuvres, game ticket, and an experts’ take on that nights sampling   of beverages.

And if hockey + wine wasn't already a dream come true, guess what the hors d'oeuvres are?  Cheese

Jill: 'Tis the Season

Speaking of wine...I found the perfect race for us.  Behold the Wineglass Marathon!

Don't be afraid of the "marathon" part.  They have a half-marathon race, and they used to have a relay.  The best part?  Your registration fee gets you a split of champagne and a wine glass among other things.  The worst part?  It's held on a Sunday (as most marathons are), usually late Sept/early Oct, which isn't exactly great for our work schedules.  Think anyone would notice if we were all gone from work the following Monday? 

Stephanie: Funny ... I couldn't help myself

So I thought it was time to pursue the cheese and wine part of our club, so I found the following that I found hilarious (and it doesn't hurt that several have cats):

I agree wholeheartedly with this one :) If I could live in a block of cheese, I WOULD!!!!!!

I feel like this when I eat cheese because I just can't stop :)

My thoughts on the following...a warm summer day is the perfect time for a nice Rose'
















The following ad made me laugh so hard that I almost peed myself :)

Hope some of these made you smile too. These were just my favorites, but there are a lot more!

Jill: Wine, Cheese, Run, Whine

Congratulations to me for making it out to meet Steph for our run this morning. Last night's events made for a rough morning, and I was secretly hoping that Steph would reschedule for Sunday due to her migraine. But, alas, she was a trooper, so I dragged my exhausted butt out of bed.

A quick recap of all the things that tried to derail this particular run:

First, the baby had to get her first set of shots on Friday. She got two, one in each leg, the poor dear. She spent much of the day sleeping but when awake, she was sore and miserable. This threw off her eating schedule so I found myself up at 3:30 (that's a.m. people) feeding her on and off until the sun was up.

Second, my husband and I were lucky enough to have a night out. We attended a great party. Here's why it was so great:

Cheese



More Cheese



Wine and Even More Cheese




The wine was going down way too easy, and I totally wish I could have had a few more glasses. But I had that baby to feed and that run to get up for. That's when I understood the real horror: this running club is now PREVENTING me from drinking more wine! WHAT?! How can that be? How can things have gone so wrong?

Never fear, I do have a plan to counteract this unforeseen side effect. The website will be undergoing some design changes in the near future including the addition of several stand alone pages. One of those pages will be dedicated to a running schedule/calendar. Now, however, I see that there is a need for another calendar devoted solely to our wine and cheese type of outings. While the running and the whining has been great, don't forget that life is all about maintaining balance.

HC: Reasons to Wine

After a particular difficult run today filled with scorched lungs I decided to concentrate on a more positive aspect of our group. WINE. I am sure we could think of a thousand reasons to drink but for now these will work just fine.