Mom Stuff

So I've had a few fun things going on that I wanted to mention. So for you fans of stories about this kids...feel free to skip over this.

Almost two weeks ago, I went to the Bloomington Fine Art's Taste of Chocolate. I'm pretty sure I've been to 4 or 5 of them now. They have small portions of chocolate from about 15 "Chocolatiers" that you taste and the vote for your favorite. They also have official judges that vote on the best. Now, normally I don't complain about chocolate in any form. But for the second year, one company (I forget who it was....I just don't want to remember them) made raspberry balsamic vinaigrette chocolate and tomato basil chocolate. Holy cow. Yes, they named them correct because you could taste it very distinctly. But why? They didn't win people's choice awards nor the judges...so why bring it back two years in a row? My favorite was a hot chocolate brought in by the Napa Valley Grill. It was SOOOOO good. And it was light enough that you could drink the little cup they gave you and still eat more chocolate. That one was my vote. I know it didn't win, but the other ones that were there did do pretty well as well.

Second (and almost more important than the chocolate) is the silent auction. It doesn't take long to sample the chocolates, and that's good because the auction ends at 4:00. There are probably close to 400 items to bid on. Maybe more. I didn't count. I won 4. The kids got some musical instruments, I got some gift cards to Snuffy's malt shoppe, Bubba Gumps, and the family now has 20 passes to the local YMCA so we can all go swimming together. A very good haul I'd say. It is something I look forward to every year.

Then, last Sunday, I went with some of my mom friends to play Bingo. It has been TOO long since I did that. A lot of my da-BOINK's were so dried out, and one of my favorite pink ones had a crack in it, so I had to throw it out. That made me sad. But then I won a game. $50 even. So I was much happier. And it made me want to go back. But golfing will be at least kicking off, if not starting next month, and I can't WAIT. It is hard to believe sitting here in the midst of a late March snowstorm. YUCK. And this was just after yesterday, Trevor was finally able to see his outdoor Nascar track all dried out (aka our basketball court).