The Bliz Blitz

Bill stole my thunder.

Here's the actual exchange we just had...

Bill:  "Honey, what are you going to write about on the blog?"

Liz:  "Well, I was going to write about our road trip to Tri-Cities."

Bill:  "Oh...I already wrote about that.  Nah nah nah nah!!"

Bill gets mauled by a bear. Serves him right.

Just kidding.  In Bill's defense, I have been bugging him about 'contributing' to our blog.  So he did.  Hence, all I have to tell you about is our car ride and the wine we tasted.  And as usual, some gratuitous pet pictures (awww!).

As you already know, we drove 2 1/2 hours to south-central Washington to fulfill the dreams of one of my crazier relatives (love you!).  We have been told that the area is one of many wine regions in Washington, so we decided to relive a little of our honeymoon in Napa by going wine tasting while we were there.

We drove to an area known as Red Mountain and stopped at half a dozen wineries.  The tasting room types varied from warehouse to modern museum, to french chateau with millionaire-scale landscaping.  Most of the wines in the area are reds, but we did find one that specialized in whites (my preference).  None of them compared to what we tasted in Napa (we have been spoiled!).  We did have some good Cabernet Sauvignon at a winery, which, perchance, happened to have the cutest winery dog.  Argus, a standard poodle, was the sentinel of this tasting room, looking for handouts of bread and free love.  Then he followed us outside, watched while we tried to take some pictures of the valley, and promptly urinated on the vines.  Classy.

Argus' Winery

It was so nice to get out of Pullman for a day.  Both of us have been going a little stir crazy in this one-horse town.  We regularly take turns pining for the day that we live in a place we are thrilled to call home.  Until then, we always have Spudnuts.

And now for some gratuitous fuzzy friend pictures...

They're sharing the sunbeam...are they finally friends?

Beaner thinks Maverick's bed belongs to him, and frequently kicks Mav out of it!

 I will leave you with this final thought:

"Drink wine, and you will sleep well. Sleep, and you will not sin. Avoid sin, and you will be saved. Ergo, drink wine and be saved."
Medieval German saying

SPUDNUTS.

No, it's not a derogatory name you call your little brother. It's a dough nut made from potato flour, and to experience this unique fare Liz and I traveled 160 miles to the Tri-Cities, located in south-central Washington.

It was not unlike any small-town cafe you've walked into, except for perhaps the shiny, steel-trimmed booths that line the wood-paneled walls all around you; the long booth seats are covered with shiny red plasticky skins that cackle at you whenever you sit, shift or slide out to allow someone else in your party to sit, shift or slide out.

The name of this joint?

SPUDNUT SHOP.

Outside the Spudnut shop

Creative.

You'll notice three kinds of people who throng to the Spudnut Temple. There are the "regulars", barking out their orders sans menu; they seem to have their "spot" in the Temple ... you should really think twice (at least twice) about sitting in their sacred "spot". I suspect that would evoke severe agitation, resulting in the spudnut worshiper needing an extra 30 minutes of chain-smoking with an extra cuppa joe just to quell their perturbation.

Then there are the "regulars" who bring their friends to show off their unparalleled universe.

"Look at the retro red shiny plasticky booths that cackle at you when you move! See? Did you hear it!?"

"Look over there! An old letterman's jacket from Washington State University mounted on the wall! I bet you don't have one of those at your watering hole!"

Point of Interest

Fascinating.

And there's the folks like us, traveling 2.5 hours to visit at the bequest of a relative (Hint: not a blood relative of mine) who was probably up too late one night watching the Travel Channel and -- can you believe it?! -- there's a dough nut shop that makes dough nuts out of ... POTATOES!  Sheer craziness!!

You wouldn't know by smell or sight it was anything special: there were glazed spudnuts, cinnamon roll spudnuts, spudnuts with sprinkles, spudnuts without sprinkles. I couldn't distinguish the taste between these and traditional doughnuts, but Liz tells me there is one.

They actually were pretty tasty, but I don't think I'd become a spudnut nut like the regulars seemed to be. In the spirit of Norm Peterson from "Cheers":

"Women: Can't live with 'em, pass the spudnuts."

Last week I (Liz) neutered a shelter kitten at WSU, who subsequently stole both of our hearts.  After a 4-day trial period with the other furry kids, he became the newest member of our family.

Without further ado...meet Beaner.

NewMember 020

Look at that elvish face!  How could anyone resist that handsome peach-and-white coloring? 

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Beaner has the perfect personality to survive in our house.  He's cuddly sweet with Bill and me, playful and unafraid of Goose, and courageous with Maverick while avoiding his huge schnozz.

Goose has finally accepted Beaner as a new playmate, although he likes to assert that he's the boss by hissing and walking away right in the middle of play time.  He's such a priss.  :)

Maverick is gentle and curious with the kitten.  Beaner thinks it's funny to play with Maverick's tail (just like Goose used to do), then run around between his tree-trunk legs and freak him out.

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The name "Beaner" was Bill's creation.  The area that we live in is mostly farmland, growing wheat, barley, and different types of beans and lentils.  Every year they have a lentil festival in August, and the mascot is "Mr. Bean".  We always found that comical.  The name will always remind us of living here, and it fits his personality perfectly. 

Welcome to our blog!  I know we just sent out an update with a fancy new newsletter...forgive us for changing things up on you!  We are trying to find the best way to streamline our updates and photos so that we can easily keep our loved ones up to speed.  We have liked the idea of a blog for some time, but just finally got around to it. 

With the help of our blog, we will be able to provide you with entertainment via photos, videos, and witty prose.  :)  Please let us know what you think!