What a day!  Seriously. . .it actually started last night when our good friend, Scott covered us on a great wine and shared a little light into his world by blogging for us while we helped celebrate the 50th Anniversary of St. Louis Catholic School in Waco.  It’s ALWAYS nice to have folks that ‘have your back!’  Thanks, Scott!!

Today, well it was a GREAT day because we had the opportunity to meet up with Daughter #1 in Bryan, Texas to deliver—drum roll, please—her SENIOR ring!!  Now, for those of you who may be just starting to follow us, we are actually 24 year old, young professionals. . .and Daughter #1 is–well, NO–we can’t go down that path!  Hard to imagine that the little bundle of love that came into our lives a little over 22 years ago is preparing to graduate from college.  If you have grown children, you already understand.  If you have young children, cherish EVERY moment with them because life will come at you fast, and you’ll forget to love, appreciate, value and cherish their lives within yours!

All of that GOOD STUFF was followed up by a phenomenal dinner hosted by Catholic Charities at the Austin Renaissance Hotel tonight.  Former Notre Dame football coach, Lou Holtz was the speaker, and he didn’t disappoint.  As a side note, Jean was helping with the Sponsor Reception, so Brian sat in the lobby and watched The Masters (along with about 75 other guys – including Holtz who stepped out just for a moment from the reception to catch a piece of the action), and really enjoyed getting to meet and talk with John and Zack from San Jose, California who were in town with Apple.  It’s a great reminder that technology is a huge part of the Central Texas economy, and Austin is a great place to bring Californians that have NEVER been here!!!  We enjoyed the golf tournament together until Brian got up, excused himself and went to find Jean. . .only to come back later and see Coach Holtz in his chair.  Brian went over to Zack and John and said, that the current company was WAY better than the previous–to which they replied, wow, that Brian is pretty cool, he sent Coach Holtz over to visit with us!!!  Ah, ya gotta love it!

If there is one thing that Coach said tonight that really stuck out–it’s that our attitude (and WE determine what that attitude is going to be) defines how we take on what’s in front of us.  If we decide it’s going to be a ‘suck’ day–guess what?  It IS!  If we decide that it’s going to be a GREAT day–guess what?  It IS!  Our attitude defines who we are and what we are to become.  Some of the best players that Coach Holtz has ever been around still thank him for the simplest of lessons.  WE decide our attitude, and our attitude can make the difference between a good day, a bad day and a GREAT day!

We decided that we needed to bring out a wine that had a positive attitude written all over it. . .Happy Face Chardonnay, from Oreana Wines was a ‘value purchase’ at Trader Joe’s, and we’ve been holding onto it for a few months just waiting for the ‘right’ opportunity to add it to our list.  At $6 a bottle, we had low to no expectations of this wine, and thank goodness, we weren’t disappointed!  Yeah, there’s a reason that they sell it for $6–as in, not worth much more than that!  In fact, we kind of think that we were ripped off–it should have been three or four dollars less!  The wine had no discernible qualities that created a stir in our tasting.  There was a lemony-grass taste on the front of the palate, but beyond that–not much.  Still, we remained positive that the wine had several redeeming qualities. . .The acidity was good and it was no oak monster so those were the plusses.  Overall, it was an easy-drinking, simple wine but had an artificial sweet character to it, sugary as opposed to fruity.  A quick visit to the Oreana website found NO mention of this wine–hmmmm, perhaps a family member that isn’t really part of the family?  Regardless, it wasn’t what we had hoped for in light of a terrific speech by Coach Holtz.  We kept our attitudes positive and decided that because we’re such red wine lovers that perhaps we were just being too harsh on it.

Regardless, we agree that the RIGHT attitude makes all the difference in how you see the world and in how people see you.  We had a GREAT day—did some driving—visited one of the loves of our lives and got the chance to hear a legend.  THAT’s a pretty good day!  AND, we finished it with wine–what  a deal!

Please remember to enjoy your favorite wine responsibly and recycle whenever possible.