"Wine is Sunlight, held together by water" - Galileo Galilei

Have you all seen the website of 1000 awesome things ??  Thanks to my awesome friends, I now own the book of awesomeness. However, sometimes it is much better to come up with your own list. In anticipation of Thanksgiving, I'm going to go through a few of my very own "awesome" things, which happen to also be things I am thankful for.  With no further ado, and in no particular order:

1.  My awesome friends! This week I got not one, but two packages from my friends! The first being delicious Swedish chocolate and candy from Theresa, and the second being a book from Jenny (which I had happened to leave at her beach house this summer...ooops!)  It is very exciting to get mail.


2.  Delicious wine, such as this one, which I am drinking right now!

Do you see the cheetah on the bottle? There are also Cheetah spots on the cork which were a fun surprise!


3. Adorable children selling delicious baked goods of sugary awesomeness outside of grocery stores.  Today there was a gymnastic team outside of King Soopers selling cookies and other yumminess in preparation for their state competition. This of course reminded me of my sister Kacin, and all her gymnastics events when we were growing up, so I obviously was obliged to buy some peanut butter cookies. They came in packs of 4... this is what is left:

4. Grocery stores with idiotic names like King Soopers. I couldn't make that crap up. My mentors/bosses like to call it "King Stupid's" which it is. Especially at the one I went to today which was OVERRUN with idiots blocking the aisles. The gymnastic kids' cookies totally made it worth while though.



5. Golfing! This was my 4th time out golfing in Colorado Springs. There is a gorgeous course here that has amazing views of the mountains. It is unseasonably warm here, which makes for wonderful golfing weather. I'm steadily improving. Considering that I'm playing on these old wood irons, I have to say I'm doing quite well! In fact, yesterday I made a 40 foot putt! Watch out Tiger.


6. Daylight Savings.  Isn't it wonderful to sleep in?


7.  Expensive cheese. Have I mentioned how much I love cheese? Today I made the mistake of going to "King Stupid's" without eating much lunch. Which meant that I bought A LOT of cheese, and not only your typical boring mozzarella type cheese (which I did end up getting some of as well, to make some cheesy chili). Of course I had to get the expensive cheese! Have you heard of Manchego? It's a delicious spanish cheese that happens to go quite well with red wine like Sebeka. They didn't have any Manchego, so instead I bought this other Spanish cheese: Canto de Mantalban.  Apparently it's very similar to Manchego, except it is a combo of sheep, goat, and cow milk.  It's actually quite delicious, but not as sharp as Manchego.  I am still deciding which I like better. Here is my ridiculous collection of cheese:

8. Cooking. It's very therapeutic to chop things into tiny little pieces. It's also quite exciting to take one recipe (Erin's "Blanco Chili") and turn it into something else. It's base is the same - white beans such as white kidney beans, navy beans, and garbanzos. I added to the recipe some habanero sauce, red peppers, tomatillos, and used paprika instead of cumin. I'm also adding Havarti cheese and mozzarella, where as the original calls for white cheddar. Oh and a touch of red wine, just because. Final product:

Delicious Habanero Sauce!

9. SEASON SKI PASS!  Yesterday I bought my ski pass that gets me unlimited access to Breckenridge, Keystone, and A-Basin, as well as 10 days at Vail and Beaver Creek. I can't wait to use it! Sadly, the resorts that are open only have a couple runs open. I'm getting antsy to use my fancy new season pass!!


10. People thinking that I have a southern accent.  When I "Fake" the accent, all my colleagues and patients at work think that it's adorable.  Occasionally if I am stressed out or annoyed it will actually be a real southern accent, but not as intense as one would expect from a girl from NC/GA.  I have one patient from Texas who actually has an accent, and it feels like home. I would have never thought that I would miss the southern drawl.


There are a lot of other things that are awesome which I am thankful for, but I believe that is all I will leave "ya'll" with tonight.

Hope you all have enjoyed your weekend and are still adjusting to the time change, so you can enjoy an extra hour of sleep tomorrow... which, of course... is AWESOME!