The Zoo over Ambuscade Street

*sniffs* That's the sweet, sweet smell of spending $80K of somebody else's money. Before, might I add, all the technical difficulties have been worked out, because Fu-Master is his usual charming self.

Pity I was only buying sniffers (FDDI ones at that) and nothing really fun. Of course, this could be fun, if I ever get all the freaking pieces together at the same time...

Now, I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying not to pass out, because I'm still feeling Really Icky. Boss Man has scheduled a meeting for 4PM (I had planned to leave at three, since I got in at six), which means that if I go, I won't be leaving work until almost 6PM. I know the man, he's incapable of having meetings that last for less than two hours - usually, it's closer to three. Maybe if I ( this is gross ) he'll end it early...

Erik has court on the Friday we're supposed to go down to Roanoke, the brat. Not only that, but it's JRD, which always takes forever, and it's a nasty case that's going to take even longer. Brat brat brat. We won't get to leave until much later in the day than I had hoped.

I wanted to take our sweet time driving across the state, stopping at a dozen or so wineries on the way, with a nice long break for a picnic lunch somewhere. If we don't leave our house until after 2PM, this doesn't work out too well. There are three wineries in and around Roanoke that I want to try to make it to (Peaks of Otter Winery, in addition to having the Best Name Ever, has fruit wine by the billions), and two on the way that wouldn't take too long to stop at. I'm thinking a separate trip to Charlotesville to hit the eleven wineries (no, not exaggerating) around there, and another trip down Rt 29 and up 58 (probably a camping three-day weekend) to hit most of the fifteen wineries along that route. That pretty much clears out central and western Virginia, discounting the two wineries waaaaaaay out in the tip. Then, perhaps, a trip north on Skyline Drive to I-81, adding nine more to the list. That would be...pretty much all the wineries in the Shenandoah, Central, and Southwestern regions of Virginia.

That leaves me with the Eastern region, which is pretty much home turf (I can catch the ones farther south on my next trip to Virginia Beach), and the Northern region. I've already got two of those - Smokehouse and Sharp Rock, and the other nine south or just around I-66 would make a nice day trip. The ones farther north than that? I dunno...Maybe I can talk my mom into doing the Loudon trail with me. That's another six, and we could do some of the others on the way back home. Oh, and the two in Falmouth are pretty much local, too.

I somehow doubt that I'm going to succeed in visiting every winery in Virginia (this year...), but I'm going to try. In all my vast and limitless free time, of course. July has no Faires, so I'll be bored - that sounds good.

[EDIT] How the hell am I supposed to visit every winery in Virginia when they keep opening so damn many new ones!?! Twelve new ones this year? Eighteen next year? Especially impressive, considering the fact that in 1979 there were only six wineries in Virginia. Now, I think there's close to 100.

[EDIT2] Cutest wine label ever. I must have a bottle, even if it sucks (by my standards, which are probably not the standards of the rest of the world). Foxes >> everything. Except maybe racoons.

I...am an idiot. I mean, I know I'm a good bit more lacking in common sense than most people, but this takes the cake. I've been absurdly sick all week, and I wrote it off to the heat and humidity over the weekend. But sleep and large quantities of fluid didn't help, and besides that, I made sure I stayed plenty hydrated (who hikes in Arizona in August without difficulty? That's right, biyatch!)

(Aside from Erik: "When she's a fucking retard, she's your dog.")

So - after three days, we can rule out dehydration and heat exhaustion. What, then, was making me so unpleasantly ill so very badly? Duh - I haven't had my happydroogs in over two weeks. Usually, two days without turns me into a Hell Demon of Stabbity Destruction, which is probably why nobody noticed. Erik picks up on it before I do. No freaking wonder I feel so lousy!

Fixing that tomorrow, oh yea.

We got our huge box from these guys today. Huge box. Kicks much ass. Awesome resealable (and reusable, for when we get our own stuff going) bottles. We chilled and opened the standard Mountain Honey Wine, which is fairly decent. Not quite as good as Smokehouse's mead, a bit drier, but it grows on you. I'm Way Excited about the fruit meads, because I'm goofy like that. There's nothing like a good fruit wine, if you're me and insane about sweet wines.

Yea, I'll be starting up a batch once I get some supplies, and the Faire finished up. So getting this book soon. Ok, so I lied about having enough books to last me for the next year. And about having enough hobbies. Why not add costuming, mead making, and bee-keeping to the list? At least I'm rarely bored...