New Brew

Well, it was deer season again this weekend, the last time until November. We always have fellow hunters come stay with us for the weekend, and there are 3 prerequisites for the weekend.

1. I make a full breakfast either Saturday or Sunday morning, consisting of biscuits and gravy, bacon, hash browns, toast, ad eggs to order.

2. Saturday night, we make reservations to go to our favorite steak place for the best filet you've ever laid your lips on.

3. Coffee. Must have COFFEE. The hunters are big coffee drinkers, for obvious reason when you are parked in the timber for hours on end in the dead of winter.

So, what happens? Saturday morning, at 5:15, I brew a pot of coffee. At 7:00, I go to brew a second pot....no go. Water? Check. Coffee? Check. Power light on? Check. No brew.

Well, we just can't have that. Since the women in the group hunt less and less every year, particularly in January, when its (as my husband refers to it) as cold as a well-digger's ass. So, it was a good excuse to go shopping.

We packed Little Man up, plugged in the dvd player and headed north to Springfield. Nope, a trip to the local Walmart just won't do, honey, their coffee makers are all junk. :) We stopped at Target first, went straight to the kitchen appliances. Has anyone else noticed that you can hardly find a coffee maker that uses the cone filters? I really prefer them...you need much less coffee for each pot, and since I like the pricey stuff, the less I use, the better. I eventually had to settle for the basket filter variety, but it was on sale from $41.79 to $30, so it was a good deal. My only complaint thus far is that the water level gauge is so far back on the right side, its not easily visible unless you turn the pot. But, other than that, she seems like a good investment!

Then we moved on to the clearance clothes. Why? Why not? I need some new clothes. As it turned out, they had just put out no less than ten racks, packed full of freshly marked down clearance. I picked up a half dozen tops for myself, and several maternity tops for my sister. Couldn't believe the deals. All told, with the coffee pot, new filters, 6 tops for me and five for her, I spent $95 and change. Can't beat that.

Moving right along, we hopped over to Circuit City. They are closing down and their liquidation sale started Saturday. I picked up a new bluetooth headset for my phone for $25 down from $50. Yippee! Now, if I could just get the darn thing to connect to my phone....hmmm....where did I put the instructions?

And finally, Saturdays are always "tasting" days at my favorite liquor store. They always sample a couple of wines in the afternoon, and this weekend was their "cold weather drink" tasting. So, we were also graced with a Cognac, and a Tawny Port. On top of that, the rep from a local winery that I like (actually very close to my house) was there sampling their newest varietals, including an unoaked Chardonel (I tend to like anything that is unoaked) and an Ice Wine! I ended up with a bottle of the Chardonel, one of the Ice Wine, and a bottle of the port, which I was very surprisingly impressed with! At only $13.99 a bottle, it was an extraordinarily good deal for a decent port. Anyone want to come share them with me this weekend? Or maybe some crab legs? The game plan for this Friday night includes an all you can eat crab leg buffet and an 80's band...