Chianti Classico

For about 15 years now, I've had pretty severe migraines (I have a variety of triggers - certain cheeses, some types of liquor, chocolate, stress, hormones ...).

Over the past year or so, my body has obviously changed, as I can now have some of the trigger foods that used to have a harsh effect on me (for example, I can now eat chocolate!!!) ... but on the downside, my body has decided that it doesn't like for me to have ANY alcohol.

I used to be able to drink vodka without suffering from a migraine in the hours following - but not any more. Nope, I can't even have my "safe drink" any more. It doesn't matter what alcohol I have - and it doesn't matter if I have one drink or ten - the next day, I am a complete write-off (major migraine pain, vomiting, etc).

However! There appears to be one drink that my body is deciding to allow me to have, without the consequences. It's a red wine, believe it or not ...

I only happened to try it because Angie & Wayne bought a bottle of it for Dan & I when we got back from Italy. We drank it - and I didn't get a migraine! So I've been experimenting a little - a couple weekends ago I started the night with two vodka drinks - and then moved onto the Ruffino. Not good - the next day my head was in trouble - but not as severe as if I had only had vodka to drink. So last weekend I did another test - ONLY drank the Ruffino (absolutely no other alcohol) ... and I woke up the following morning in tip-top shape! I was SO excited, you have no idea.

The only downside to this is that it's not a cheap wine. $30 a bottle. Eep. But I figure I'll pay it, if I can drink and not have to suffer the next day. :)

Woo hoo!

PS: Did I mention that it tastes great too?!

Festive Fall Gathering

Last weekend Dan & I went to a "Festive Fall Gathering" at Kimberly's place. She doesn't ever really have gatherings/parties, cuz' her apartment is really small. But she's been itching to have one, so that's what she did ...

Dan managed to drink WAY too much that night ... yep, by the time we got home around 3:30am, he wasn't doing so well. All I have to say about that is, "yuck". Drinking three 750ml bottles of La Fin du Monde (translation: end of the world) on an empty stomach was not one of the best choices Dan made that night ...

I was a bit leery about the party cuz' I really only knew Kimberly and Cheli, but it ended up being a really fun night. I'm not one of those brave souls who can converse with strangers really well - but I have to admit, I did just fine. :)

Here are some pics.

Erin & Kimberly

Kimberly & Cheli

Dan on the walk home, over the Granville Street bridge, at about 3am. Too drunk!

Yuck

Last Friday I was washing a wine glass when it decided to shatter (with my hand inside). It bled quite a lot; when it finally stopped I put a band aid on it and didn't look at it until the next day. When I did finally take a look, it appeared that it wasn't too bad (well, maybe a little deep, but not as bad as I thought it would be).

So the band aid came off and it seemed to be healing quite quickly.

But then, just yesterday, the area all around the cut started bruising. I think that's kind of strange, considering the cut happened 5 days earlier.

Hmmmm.

They came from nothing to change everything

Well, Dan had a nice birthday last week. We did end up going to see The Corpse Bride - it was really great! We both liked it a lot. Now I want to be a corpse bride for Halloween! :)

To celebrate his birthday a little more, we also had some peeps over at our place on Saturday night. I guess there were about 15 of us ... some of our friends were pretty mellow (two sick ones, two burnt-out ones) but the rest of us were good to go, so we partied it up til' about 4:30am. It was a fun night!

Needless to say, Dan and I didn't feel like doing a whole lot the following day. We ended up going by Angie, Wayne & Sophie's for birthday cake and presents - then rented a DVD and headed home, and right onto the couch. We finally saw Lords of Dogtown - what an EXCELLENT movie!! I was blown away by the casting - they cast the perfect kids for the movie - they were totally believeable as the younger versions of the Z-boys! Awesome movie, I totally recommend it to anyone who was ever into skating (I also highly recommend the 2001 documentary Dogtown & Z-Boys - if you're going to watch both, watch the documentary first).