Wine and consequences

Well, I am not much of a drinker (except when I am). I tend not to drink except socially, and because I don't have much of a social life, that kind of takes care of itself. Also, unless I have just had an exceptionally hearty meal, I can't usually have more than two drinks before I get stupid.
However, I have had occasion to drink for two Saturdays in a row, and I now realize that I must be getting old, because I don't recover like I used to. Last Saturday, Danny and I went to a faculty wine tasting at my P.I.'s house. Everyone brought a < $11 bottle of red wine in a brown paper bag, and we had to evaluate the wines and see whether we could figure out which was the $50 "ringer." The kids got to play Wii sports, so they were delighted to be there. (Sam especially liked Wii boxing until Joseph knocked him out.) There were 12 wines, and even just tasting @ 2 tbsp of each one, I still couldn't get through half of them. Here's the final scores, if you are looking for some cheap red wine:
I wasn't particularly drunk at the wine tasting, but the next day, I had SUCH A BAD HANGOVER. I never get hung over, but my head was pounding until 2 in the afternoon. When I finally got around to getting out of the house, I had to run the dog for 5 miles before I finally felt normal again.

Wow! Red wine is especially great for your heart if you are a rabbit! (Until they kill you to dissect out your aorta)


This weekend, we had a potluck for the Saki lab at our place. I think that I am finally getting a handle on the midwestern thing. At our other two parties, there was this pause after everyone had been there for a little while, which I now realize was supposed to be when board games were brought out. We actually did not own any board games (although we have @50 D&D dice), so Joseph and I went out and bought games: the new version of Cranium and Twister (Joseph picked it out because they play it in preschool).

I made texturized vegetable protein white chili (our lab has a few vegetarians), brown rice, various munchies and chocolate birthday cake (three birthdays in the lab this month).

I also made up a new recipe for white sangria with green apples, blood oranges and kumquats. It turned out really well, and the fruit (which had marinated overnight) was fiendishly delicious and lethal.


Last week at Saki 's house, Sam beat him at Wii boxing, so Saki challenged Sam to a round of Twister, and Sam won again. We played Cranium late into the night and had a great time. Sam played with us, and he did REALLY WELL. He is a freaking genius or something. He remembers random facts about how many ribs humans have, as well as various other bits of book learnin.' He is also very good at interpreting charades--he actually won the final point and caused our family team to win the game.
I was only mildly buzzed last night but this morning I woke up with an EVEN WORSE HANGOVER. (Not even the slice of birthday cake that I ate for breakfast helped). I am forced to conclude that I am getting old, and not even a Tylenol and a glass of water before going to bed will save me.