a99kitten's Musings

I blog about a WHOLE LOT of stuff :)

Wheee!!! My Gators won!!!! Great game! And I got a football fix :) And having 3 TVs on in the house to make sure I don’t miss anything while doing chores is NOT an overkill :)

So I’ve just finished setting my Fantasy team (although will make a check Sunday AM as well), made my Survivor pick and made all my pool picks. I did all of this early because…dundundun….I will not be home to watch football tomorrow…ARGH!!!!! I will be able to catch Fox pre-game stuff and maybe 45 minutes or so of the morning games but made plans for an event on Sunday (while thinking it was on a Saturday – doh!) Plus we have to leave the house early due to our local Pumpkin Festival taking place this weekend and the 2 ways in and out of our little coast side hamlet become clogged with insane tourists looking for pumpkins, crafts, pumpkin-themed food and photo ops for their kids. They do have live bands all day long too.

Don’t get me wrong – I love the festival actually. It is quite fun once you brave the drive. But man…the traffic is actually mind-boggling. If you are coming over the hill from the peninsula or south bay, you are looking at a 2 hour sit in your car on 92 at the peak (12-2) to get into downtown to park. For pumpkins. And ponies. And arts & crafts. Yikes. But a lot of pumpkin-themed food which is quite good…

Anyway – due to this, locals usually either bike,  stay ensconced in their homes with provisions procured on the Friday before the festival, or they leave and are over the hill by 10:30-11:00am AT THE LATEST before the masses really clog the place up. And no coming back home until after 6:00pm (festival ends at 5pm on both Sat and Sun.)

BUT – on Sunday we are going to a very fun sounding event! The Champagne Tent Event at K&L Wine. And it benefits Pets N’Need – YAY! Here is a sample of what we will be tasting:

2003 Louis Roederer Vintage Brut Rosé Champagne
Fleury “Carte Rouge” from Magnum
Pascal Lallement Reserve (being shown in the USA for the first time)
1998 Pommery Brut ‘Cuvee Louise’ Champagne
Ariston Aspasie Cepages d’Antan Champagne (being shown in the USA for the first time)
Gosset Grand Reserve
Phillippe Gonet 3210 (being shown in the USA for the first time)
2002 Taittinger Millesime
Bruno Michel 2002 Vintage (being shown in the USA for the first time)
2000 Moet & Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Brut
Ruinart Blanc de Blanc
Baron Fuente 1996 Vintage (being shown in the USA for the first time)
1998 La Grand Dame
Bonville Belles Voyes
Charles Heidsieck Brut 2000
2000 Cazals (being shown in the USA for the first time)
Tarlant Cuvee Louis
Krug Grand Cuvee

With producers direct from Champagne, France here (yes, I will be polite about the whole champagne/sparkling wine thing…unless they are snooty first:) ) Here is what sold me on the event (besides the above list)…

“We hope that you will join us in welcoming eight great producers from Champagne along with representatives from ten other houses at this exciting event. We will taste well over 40 different Champagnes (including eight for the first time in the USA) at what we promise will be the Champagne event of the year. Joining us from Champagne will be Paul Vincent and Caroline Ariston of Champagne Aspasie, Bruno Lemoine of Fleury and Pascal Lallement, Chantal Gonet of Champagne Philippe Gonet, Bruno Michel of Champagne Bruno Michel, Eric De Brisis of Champagne Baron Fuente, Olivier Bonville of Champagne Franck Bonville, Delphine Cazals of Champagne Claude Cazals and Melanie Tarlant of Champagne Tarlant. Representatives of Krug, Pommery, Gosset, Feuillatte, Ruinart, Veuve-Clicquot, Moet & Chandon, Roederer, Charles Heidsieck and Taittinger will also be on hand to pour their Champagne (many of which are rarely poured at events!) and answer your questions. A portion of ticket sales will benefit Pets N’Need. The event will also feature a silent auction with 100% of the proceeds going directly to this worthwhile charity.

I’m going to try another slow-cooking chicken dish for Sunday as well.  I’ll start it before I leave so I do not have to cook when I get home and can watch the night game! I’ll see how I like it and post the recipe tomorrow night or Monday if I like it :) Will also depend how sleepy I am after bubbly tasting all day ;-)

I am quite excited for it. Very, very sad to miss my football and RedZone Channel though. But I should make it home for most of the night game. All but 2 of my FF players are in the 10:00am games so oh well…what are you going to do :) If I’m losing that badly – I’ll know early to drink more bubbly :)