Just A Few Tangents - Dinner Plus Drinks #95

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Guys, what day is it?

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What day is it?

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Simona doesn't want to say anything. It's Simona's birthday and she's here live in the studio. Simona, can you say hello?

SPEAKER_00 0:10

No, our guest is being shy. Can you say bye-bye? Good. Good job.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Well, for those of you listening, I'm sorry that she didn't get to say hi. But it's a time to celebrate, not just because it's Simona's birthday, but we have some other news as well.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Guys, yeah, but as she left the room, guess what happened? Bye-bye. Bye-bye, Daddy. Well, it's Smona's birthday, so happy birthday. She is two.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

We have to celebrate.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Hooray. Yeah, we have lots to celebrate. So when the drink of choice, oh let me move my water. Uh so when we had to pick out our drink, what'd we pick, Nick? Champagna.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

And like this is a big occasion, so we pick the real stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, this is Nick's favorite, right? I think we've got a bottle on the shelf behind me. Oh, yeah. An empty bottle. Yes, the one behind me is fancier than this. So you want to tell him why we're celebrating? I feel like Nick has been not able to sleep because of this.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Very exciting. Our new Wine 201 podcast launched. Hooray! We've talked about it like a little here and there. A little, yeah. We've teased it. You know, cheers. Cheers to us. Cheers to the podcast. Cheers to us. We've worked very hard on this, both of us. Uh you won't find it in this podcast feed. You have to go search for Wine201 Podcast. It's a totally separate feed. Yep. Go download it, give us a review.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Because we re-released the whole series. So it's um this is season one and we released this.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

It's like a Netflix series.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah. I like um Nick has been explaining that way, uh, it that way in some emails and whatnot. And it's like, it's a Netflix series that you can binge, which is totally right. Like, I'm a podcast binger, so I would just listen to all of them. Um, so you can do that if you want.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Wine to one podcast. You know, we guys, we guys, we guys right here, uses, we really like wine, and we have fun uh learning more about it in non-threatening ways.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

We don't we try to not be pretentious wine nerds, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Bridget has a good of I want to know just enough to sound smart at a dinner party. That's right. And so our goal was to have a way to put out content about wine, something we both really enjoy, and make it just a little bit more than what you already know. So that's what wine 201 is.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

And I will say, I'll be completely honest, going into it, I was like, I don't know if we can balance this um like wine nerd facts about regions and whatnot that I don't necessarily care about. But we were able to interview some really amazing people, and they made it so fun because you can tell in the interviews how passionate they are about the wine and their wineries, and so you're gonna have to listen to see who we interviewed.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Season one is all about Bordeaux grapefridals, red ones. So grapes like Cabernet, Merlot, Malbeck, things that you love. And each episode, there's eight episodes, an intro, uh wrap it up thing, and then six in between talking about each grape specifically with really great interviews.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

So give it a listen. We'd really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

And if you like uh what we're doing, if you're in the area and want to take a trip, we're doing a launch party. Sure are. It's called the Wine 201 Taste and Talk.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

And it's like speed dating style, so it's a little bit of a fun, different um like food and wine event.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

40 bucks per ticket, and you get to go to Simple Cafe at 7 o'clock on the 29th. Uh, bring your friends.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

It's a great date night. It's a Friday night date night.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

You know, have a little bit of the wines, uh, one bottle from each of the wineries we interviewed with some cool little uh treats. So, like maybe eat some snacks ahead of time. It's meant to be a light meal. So if you eat after dinner, cool. If you want to do it as a light dinner and then maybe dessert afterwards, cool. But uh, we're gonna talk, you get to hang out, meet us. It should be a really fun time.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

And you'll meet Chef Young at Simple, who's pairing the foods with the wines. Um, so yeah, it's gonna be great. Uh you can ask us questions if you'd like. If you know, we're little celebrities. You can come be starstruck. Nick will give you an autograph. I'm just kidding, we are not celebrities.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

I will autograph whatever you'd like me to autograph. If that if that's something that you would like, I would happily do that for you.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yes, well, thank you. Uh, we appreciate your support ahead of time.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Stalker photos using the mega telephoto lens.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

We're cool with that. Paparazzi, we're here for that.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

But today we opened your fave. We opened Paul Roger Rose uh champagne. It's not the Rose champagne. They have a very good rose champagne. Oh, do they? Yeah, this is just the brut. Uh, or as they call it the white label. Oh. As I've said before, favorite champagne of Sir Winston Churchill and Nick Thorpick.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

And the same people, basically.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

I just want to tell everybody it's so good.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

It is good.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

It's better than American sparkling wine, it's better than kava, and it sure as hell is better than prosecco. Okay, well, baggers can't be choosers. It's also like, you know, four times the price. Right. But so prosecco is fine, Nick. If you this is not the level of detail we get into wine 201, but I just want to say it's so I love it because the bubbles are so crisp, but yet so full. It has green apple and brioche and like floral notes to it. I just love you smell the wine, you're like, mmm, this smells like happiness. Flowers and baked bread.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

You do not have to listen to the channel.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

And it's just like yeasty and delicious, and oh, it's all the good things in life.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

God, I just would never describe it as yeasty. But I'm learning still, so that's fair. Okay, so how was your week besides these really exciting events? Well, it's been, it's been it's been just a lot of work. It's been a lot of work. Who needs sleep anyway?

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Like I gotta see a new James Bond movie.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Right, which was a mistake because who had a spare two hours and 40 minutes in their week?

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Yeah, not two hours and 40 effing minutes. Yeah, no one has that kind of thing. And then, you know, you add in the trailers, which, you know, I know why we still call them trailers, historical things, but it's like, come on, this is too long. I sound like Jerry Seinfeld there. Come on! Uh, it was too much. We had a lot of work to do. Yeah. Uh, we have Simtoberfest this weekend. Gotta get ready for that. Yeah. We're having separate parties for both of our families because we try to, you know, uh kids' birthdays are a lot of work. You know, keep everybody at times that are convenient for everybody. So we have three different parties.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

And three parties? Yeah. Jesus. And uh there's only two, man. Pay attention later. We're talking about second birthday parties.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy. But yeah, it's a lot of work, you know. I haven't been able to do the Peloton uh as much as I wanted this week.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

I haven't I haven't run once this week, which will be great for the race I have.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

I'm like, that's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Yeah, except I haven't run literally one time this week.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

And some Toberfest is the day before, and I'm really depending on you to help kill that keg. Well, those beer, that beer is carbs. Yes, it'll, you know, some people eat pasta the night beforehand, some people drink Oktoberfest beer.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

I think you can do it, Bridget. Thank you so much. I have faith in you. I really appreciate it. I was talking to a mom last night after soccer, um, a newer friend of mine, and I just love her so much. And we're, you know, we're still in that area of like feeling out each other. And I said something about wine, and she's like, Oh, good, you drink wine. And I was like, Oh, yes, I do. She's like, I feel like we're in this space of people like really judging the daily glass of wine. Nick and I think have talked about this a little, but like, I feel like people are kind of starting to judge though, like after my kids are in bed, glass of wine. And I'm like, yeah, man. So we discovered me and this friend that we both do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

I uh I've been doing a lot of research on social media for for you know the wine 201 social media. Oh, you should follow us on social media. We're putting out fun stuff there. Uh wine 201 Instagram, wine 201 Facebook. Uh, but I've been researching a lot of stuff. Thank you. Um, I've been researching a lot of stuff, and so like looking at some more influencer stuff, looking at like inspirational mom crap. Um and a lot of, well, because you know, it's good. I'm not a mom, so it doesn't speak to me.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Billion dollar industry, multi-billion.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Multi-billion, multi-billions. But yeah, there was there was a lot of the like pushback on that of like, yeah, hey moms, it doesn't make you cool that you want to have a glass of wine after it makes you an alcoholic. No, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

I I'm like, do you remember what you were doing when you were in the weeds with like a two-year-old and a five-year-old? Anyway, I realized it was a weird transition. Where I was going with this was that mom, not only did we discover we both love wine on a weekday, but she was like, How do you have time to run? And I was like, Oh, this week I didn't. So I'm like, it just depends. So anyway, that's that's that. Uh this week's been crazy, but it's been good.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

And in defense of wine, it's fun. Like defense of wine. It's a sensory experience. You know, we spend all this time, another billion-dollar industry, our kids, and sensory experiences. We do all of these sensory toys for them, all these things. But for adults, we're not going digging in rice bins. What we can do is open a bottle of wine and you can look at it, smell it, taste it, dull the pain of life a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Okay. We did talk about, you know, I said to her, I'm like, there is joy to be had in like a good glass of wine and conversation over food, which is like how this podcast was developed. So anyway, I digress.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

There's also joy to be found in that shot tequila, just to take the edge off.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

No, can't do it. Makes me want to throw up talking about it. Okay, I have a really important follow-up that I need to say. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

So we're The Curder Burger today.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

We are recording. Did you get one? Um, no, on National Cheese Curd Day, okay? So I was driving over here, it's Friday, National Cheesecurd Day, and I think two weeks ago, maybe, maybe it was last week, we talked about Culver's doing this Curder burger for real. Like it was an April Fool's joke and now they're doing it for real. Well, I heard on the radio it was a Milwaukee station, but like they're like, oh, Culver's thinks it might be sold out of the Curder Burger before the lunch rush, even. I'm like, oh, that's crazy. So my husband called, he's on his lunch break. He's like, yeah, I considered getting it. And then he described what the burger was. I think I thought the burger was just like a burger patty with like some cheese curds on top. No, it's a it's a whole patty of a cheese curd. That is excessive. No, it's not. Like the this is the most Wisconsin thing. Not only is there is there ranch on it? I don't care. It is so like I said, the most Wisconsin thing. I think it should be ranch on it. Well, the most Wisconsin thing is that it's an entire patty made of cheese.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Maybe some deep fried mashed potatoes with it too.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

It's the No, it's the wrong ratio of crunchy to cheese, first of all. Um, secondly, there are lines. So I went on a deep dive in social media of like Curder burgers, and there are lines like around the block for these. So I need to know. I know we always ask for your feedback, but if you had a Curter burger, I need to know. Because the things I've been reading are like, oh, it's really good, but it's a lot of food and it's very indulgent. It's a little much. And I think people are trying to be nice, but they're like, it's a little much.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

So I need to know split it, you know. Maybe that's the way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

I don't even know if I can handle a bite. Think of how much cheese is in that cheese curd patty.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah, it's an appropriate amount of cheese.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Oh, it's excessive cheese.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

This is from someone by the way, I eat cheese for dessert. Like generally, I have cheese, but generally my dessert is so I think we've talked, I don't really eat much during the day. It's bad. Uh I have a weird screwed up cicadian rhythm that you know I come alive at night, much like Shakira, and uh, you know, her hips don't like Shakira. But anyway, uh for my dessert, you know, I try to moderate my dinner, and then I can have a couple slices of various cheeses. I try to do two or three cheeses every night, a couple crackers, have some you know, Ranchi's gouda, some uh one of Ranchi's cheddars, and then usually some type of soft cheese as well with it.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

I just like I don't know what to say to you. I I like to have a brownie. I find my my cheese and my wine or my beer or my liquor. Well, usually you so okay. Okay, here's how Nick eats me wine. I'm like hardcore judge Nick. Are you ready for it?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

I'm already judging you pretty hard.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

So my table down here where I'm playing my video games is a step stool that we had for Simona, and I just use that because it's easy and convenient. Do you need me to buy you an end table? She would just run into it at this stage of her life. So fair. So generally I have the three cheeses, some Ritz crackers, a glass of water, some Ritz crackers, a mini Coca-Cola Zero, and then my alcoholic beverage of choice. Wow. That is a lot. Well, because the so the Coca-Cola is like the refreshing, like, ah, and it's a mini because I don't need that much, but it's just the like does Coke Zero mean it has no sugar. Yep, no sugar, no calories. Uh the water is to hydrate.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

And then and then the alcoholic beverage is because it tastes good, damn it.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

And the cheese is your dessert. Yeah. Okay. That's fine.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

A cheese course could be dessert too.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

It is. I mean, it can be. It's not, but it could be. Anyway, we like cheese. I don't like it melted on a burger that much, okay?

SPEAKER_02 12:59

I it has to be good cheese. I hated cheeseburgers because I think Okay, here's another joke.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

I like shitty cheese. I like shitty American cheese in my burger. Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

So there's this game I call cheese roulette, which is uh We are going off topic. When we slice cheese or or meat, you're gonna have a little end cut and we just kind of put that in a place where somebody needs a quick little snack, you can grab it. Now, these white cheeses, you're like, I don't know what that is. Kind of looks like Swiss, kind of looks like Munster, maybe. I don't know. I'll grab it. And we have a white American cheese, which by the way, I think is the weird, we gotta call it something else. White America. I'd like a white America. Yeah, that's terrible. Woof.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Accepting uh recommendations for new names.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

The last two times I've played cheese roulette.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

That's what you've gotten?

SPEAKER_02 13:43

White American cheese, and I take a bite of it, I'm like, um, my I just want to throw it out of my mouth and just I my kids call that they call it papa cheese because we don't like keep slices of craft American cheese at our house.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Nor should you, but my parents do, and like I grew up with that, and I'm fine. Uh, but my dad always makes them well, I think it started with grilled cheese. I don't know. He gives them just slices of Kraft American cheese and they call them papa. So my they call it papa cheese.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

So it's papa cheese. So I haven't listened to this week's Amuse Boosh yet, but I'm interested because I'm a 90s kid and you're calling out us 90s kids. No, it's good. I'm also a 90s kid. I mean I know you're you're called out to us. I should have said you're calling out to us of come listen. It felt like your new story is about 90 kids, so I want to know what this is.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Well, I did I made it a bit.ly on purpose. So this is just related to it.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Oh, that's a smart way to do this, Bridget.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yeah, I mean you could click on it still, but I just figured I'd hate it. So um the Amose Boosh was like, hey, Halloween's coming. It's already on my brain about costumes. So I shared with you like the most creative best Halloween costumes, and I don't care if you're telling me I did something wrong. They're the best Halloween costumes, and they're you'll only appreciate them if you're a 90s kid like me. So um check out Amose Boosh and listen in on what those are. I will say, honorable mention was not my costume, but some one of my friends did um Raiders, what is it called? Raider, uh what was that game show?

unknown 15:04

Raider.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yes, that's coming. Um that's the movie. No, no, no, yeah. Raider, uh The Tomb is it? They rebooted it. I gotta watch it. They did? Yes. I was gonna, I was gonna use that.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

What was that show called? Um, whatever that show is. My friends were the teams from that. Raider. Anyway, um, so I found this news article that also, I don't know if this is 90s kids.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Legends of the Hidden Temple.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Legends of the Hidden Temple. There we go. So you could be Legends of the Templar. I watching that show, I was like, oh man, I couldn't have done any of that crap. That's a solid costume idea. But if you want even better ones, listen to a moose boosh. Okay. So I found an article, you guys, about maybe my favorite treat as a child. So let's talk about shitty American cheese. What about those little Debbie Christmas tree cakes? They are like Shannon and I, my twin sister and I, will hoard them because they like I feel like they're a limited production these days. Yes. But the best part is the tip, just the tip, of course. So this ice cream. Um, they are coming out with an ice cream, you guys. Um, it's Christmas tree cake ice cream. Uh, it's the first time Little Debbie has turned one of their desserts into an ice cream, I believe is what it is.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

This sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Exclusively at Walmart locations across the nation. It'll be $2.50 per pint. But I am fascinated. So it's going to be a rich vanilla flavor, loaded with decadent golden cake chunks, swirled with the green sprinkles and red icing.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

This sounds better than the snack thing, because like I always froze it because it gets the cream gets like a little like oh, see, the weird part to me is the waxy frosting. Oh, I like the waxy frosting because it's a little textural. So this sounds great. And like it when you freeze it, it gets cruncher. So you get some great idea. Some texture.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

I've never done that.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

I'm a big textural eater. It's why I like Asian food, for instance. They're very good with textures.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Okay, I'm gonna freeze these. That's a solid idea. Yeah. So I'm just saying there's only five in a box, and like I could crush that easily. So Shannon and I collect these cakes. If you see them, little Debbie Christmas tree cakes, they were now, they're now gonna have an ice cream. Hooray for the 90s kids.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

So my news story is actually from last year. I thought it recently happened the way I saw it shot shared, but I said, Oh my gosh, I need to tell Bridget this. The headline is a 64-year-old man accidentally injected himself from a fighter jet. Come on. So here's the deal: a surprise company to an airbase caused a 64-year-old French man so much stress that he flung himself from a fighter jet in mid-air, grabbing the ejector button in a panic and tumbling through the skies above France before landing in a field. So, anyway, this guy worked in like a um defense manufacturer, and he was retiring because you know French people get to retire at a young age, socialist. How nice. And so his coworkers thought, you know, it would be a really great surprise retirement gift for you.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Going in the thing in the time.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Yes, we'll hook you up with a ride in the backseat of a Raphael fighter jet. This is like an F-16, right? Yep. Yep, yep. Tell him. They made him go in for like a flight physical without telling him why. And the doctor's like, yeah, you should be fine. You have a slight height more slight heart murmur, but if you don't pull more in three G's, you won't die. Oh my god. The fighter pilot pulled 3.5 G's on the takeoff, and as the guy's going up, he goes, Oh shit, pulls the ejector seat handle and pieces out. Okay. It should have caused no, he was just fine. I mean, I'm sure his pants died, but it should have caused the pilot to eject too, because these things are designed that, like, you know, if if if one person needs to lead, probably both people need to leave. Oh my god. Uh luckily the pilot didn't eject, so he was able to hand it and claw in the scene and then run away from the thing as fast as he possibly could. Okay, okay. So uh anyway. Poor guy. You know, Bridget, I don't know. I feel bad for him. He was wearing a watch that could measure his heart rate, and investigators noticed his heart was in full tachycardia before the way with the heart rate ranging from 136 to 142 pizza.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

I'm sorry, that's tachycardia? Yes. Okay, yeah. I'm not gonna go into it. I have tracked, I have tracked my heart rate on my Apple Watch before when I had a bit of a heart issue because of a medication. So anyway, um, yeah. Okay, I'm now tracking my heart rate, of course. Don't worry, not in tachycardia.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

You know, and you know what they call people of his generation that go up in fighter jets? What? Sonic boomers. Oh wow, Nick, we're gonna take a quick break.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

All right, we were just chatting about our friend in the ejector seat while we were gone. But we're back now.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

I mean, I love when like the blue angels come to town and all the local media does the rides and they're like, I won't pass out. Yes and the jet the fighter jet pilot's like prove it. And then they all pass out. Damn, that sounds horrible. I will say I would not challenge a fighter jet pilot ego ever. Like they have a bigger ego than you, they've done more training than you, they're more fit than you. Just don't be proud.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

I also just think the general people don't understand like the atmosphere, um, high in air and low below water. And I can say from scuba diving and um skydiving, like I have a general understanding, but doing both of those things, whoa, I it taught me so much more.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Like it's like when you take a bag of chips to to Colorado and it blows up in your face.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

One time I opened a water bottle on the plane that I had brought on and filled, and it was like I flipped the straw, you know, and it went pew and shot water, no joke, onto someone across the aisle, two rows behind me, and they were not having it. When I was like, I'm so sorry. Like, I how did I know that was gonna happen? It was funny. Okay. Anyway, some things we're loving. Get ready to judge me, or maybe not. I hope that you actually agree with me. So I love to shop at Goodwill. I buy so much of all of my clothing there. Um I recently found uh this like awesome jacket from HM, new with tags on it, like barely touched, beautiful. But I haven't washed it yet because I cannot figure out how to wash it because of all those damn symbols on the tag. Okay. Oh yeah. I am a full grown ass woman, and I still don't know what all of those symbols on the tag means. I need it to say hand wash only, dry clean only.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Maybe you should have taken some more, you know, consumer ed uh.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

What home app more like woman in the kitchen classes? No thanks.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Yeah, woman.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

So I bought myself like like a forward thinking woman, one of those launds there's like all over Etsy, Amazon, wherever, laundry charts that are. It's just like a poster to hang in your laundry room that shows what all the symbols mean and it is life-changing.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

That is smart.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yes, because do you know what all those symbols mean?

SPEAKER_02 22:08

No, but I only buy dry fit clothes and with your previous product recommendation of the laundry balls. Yes. Doing great.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

It's much better. You're right. So anyway, laundry chart. We're gonna I'll link a couple for Metsy because you know, small, smart chart.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

I think you should do a full-on blog post about laundry-related product recommendations because you're coming up with some really, really good ones.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Which so Tyler and I This is what adults are about. I don't mind laundry, and Tyler doesn't mind dishes as much. And so we try and split it that way. So I do find myself doing a lot of laundry. But anyway, I I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and I just whined about some laundry issue earlier today, so I gotta figure out a solution to that one, and then I'll recommend it as a product.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

I think the more laundry recommendations for you, the better.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

This is exciting adult life from Nick and Bridget.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Man, to new listeners, we have some ads running right now that uh promised you this. So welcome. We appreciate it. Uh tacking on to the fact that it's Simona's birthday, and she was too shy to say anything. It may have been because she was about ready to go to nap. Uh but she got the coolest gift from me. This was a very clearly, this is from me. I'm not even putting your mom's name on it. I don't care. I'm not putting Santa's name on it. I'm not, this is from your dad.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Dad.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

And it is Gunnar Sorus. Sure. So for everybody that uh, you know, isn't aware of my mental challenges supporting Arsenal, waking up at five in the morning to watch them. It's true. All of the things they they should be better, just dealing with anything that could go wrong would go wrong. We're the most self-destructive team in the world. It's a mental disease, but I can't help myself, nor can the millions of other Arsenal fans. We are called gunners. And in the late 90s, they had a contest to design a mascot because English sports was starting to Americanize a little bit, money was coming in, American owners were like, you know what, we need cheerleaders. That didn't go well. You know what we need? A mascot. Oh, yeah, let's get a mascot. And so they had a contest that let kids vote on the mascot.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Guess what won? A giant green dinosaur called Gunnarsaurus. So anyway, I got this. They have a big stuffed Gunnersaurus for sale. It's, I don't know, like two feet tall. The size of Simona? Yeah, it's it's kind of big. And she doesn't really have any stuffed animals because we're like, eh, I don't want to put anything in the crib where she'd suffer because she already puts a blankets over her head and we're like, bless you. She's gonna kill herself with the suffocation thing or at least sweat to death. I don't know. Anyway, so we uh this is her first real nice stuffed animal. It's a full-blown big green dinosaur wearing an arsenal kit. You should get it.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Which means uniform.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

I'm so happy. She loves the thing, she's taking it everywhere in the four hours that she's had it. She showed Bridget.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

She did. She walked up to me with it right before we started recording.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

And I'm just so, so proud. Uh parents, make your kids support the same sports teams you do. Oh if it's a disease. That's wrong, everybody. You should share it with your kids. Nick is just glistening over here, you guys, just glowing and happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. She's gonna be an Arsenal fan for life. I'm gonna have someone to share my misery. Maybe your daughter just wants a damn stuffed animal because she's two. I think she's gonna be an Arsenal fan for life.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Okay, I'm gonna buy her a stuffed animal. Don't hate me.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Gonna be great.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Guys, we're gonna be right back with some more fun.

unknown 25:47

We're back.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Did you miss us? Did you think you'd go a whole episode without me singing? You're wrong. I'm singing. All right. So, in honor of Simona's birthday, and again, we record on Friday. Her party is tomorrow. We will be here. Nick and I have talked about like bounce houses being the real winner at birthday parties because it keeps the kids entertained. We've talked about like splurging on a cotton candy machine. So, like, okay, we get a little crazy with our kids' birthdays.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

It's okay. Celebrate life. What else are you doing in your world? Like, the world sucks. Celebrate that you're alive.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Get a bounce house. But really, we're doing it so the kids can play in the bounce house while we enjoy a beer. Okay. Anyway, it led me to believe that perhaps there are ridiculous celebrities that spend many, many thousands of dollars on their kids' birthday parties, and I need to know all about them. I love this. So I found an article. Nick, if you want to open it up, you can join me because I could only get part way through this last night, and I was like, I can't. This is so ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

So 16 most expensive celebrities kid birthday party slideshow. Starts with Surrey Cruz.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Yes, to be clear, I did specifically look for two-year-old birthday parties, but you know. Um, yes, Surrey Cruz's second birthday party was a mere $100,000. But then I say, okay, what does one spend $100,000 on? Well, $45,000 of that were on catering by Wolfgang Puck.

unknown 27:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Well, let's talk about, okay, so you could see how you could do that. Spend $100,000? $17,000 on fresh flowers. Why do you need that many fresh flowers for a two-year-old's birthday party? Why do you need $45,000 worth of catering? Well, and the cake cost five grand. Okay, I can also. I can imagine spending $230 on cupcakes.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Yeah, that the cupcakes didn't surprise me because this is Los Angeles, right? Of course. So, you know, I I understand that. Uh-huh. There also was 100, or I'm sorry, there was also 1,000 butterflies. Oh, yeah, that's a little weird. I mean, okay, cool, cool. Professional actors to dress up as the blah, blah, blah. This is great. Well, your two-year-old is definitely not gonna remember this part. Nope. So we talk about this a lot. And you might give her nightmares about butterflies all over the place. I mean, who and then it this this part of the article, do you like this? It ends with who needs a stuffed animal as a birthday gift when you can play with the real thing at your birthday party. Because she had giraffes and elephants and other things. Oh, sure. Yeah, it goes right along with the butterfly theme. Really, what I want to know is what was the theme? There's no theme here. Okay, it's not a very organized hundred thousand dollar party.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Can we talk about Usher and Tamika's Aladdin themed extravaganza? Okay, this one I'm on I'm on board with. Okay, I love Aladdin. You just you just destroyed Tomcat for for no theme. Well, Usher, Usher, Usher has uh for his second son Navaid Usher. Is that how you say that? That makes sense. Navaid Raymond, magic carpet seating, camel rides, face painting, henna tattoos. I mean, face painting, henna tattoos, that's easy.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

How old was this birthday party? Two, two. Two, sure, yeah, two.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

It doesn't give any costs.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Oh, come on. I need to know the costs. Oh, don't worry, I found a higher one. The Beckham's $187,000 birthday playhouse. That one, yeah, that one was a gift. And it was mostly like it was like a basically a house they gave their six-year-old. So, like, that wasn't the party, but you know what was the party? Who do you think had the most expensive one on this list? I believe. Beyonce and Jay-Z. Okay, that's not surprising. Okay, how much did they spend on a jungle island party? No, they didn't. $200,000. And how old was the kid? One first birthday party, $200,000. No, it says it's for her second birthday. No, if they spent $200,000 on her first birthday.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Oh, yeah, you're right. It was the first birthday. This is a poorly written article.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Yeah, it is. I was like, oh, I see how that's confusing. Well, so whatever. They rented a wildlife park and botanical garden called Jungle Island in Miami, Florida, which come on, it's Florida. Thought it'd be cheaper than that. So it says if they spent $200,000 on her first birthday, you can only imagine what they dropped.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

You guys were like $400 all in on the bounce house, the hot pretzels. The hot pretzels, the keg, the keg, the brats.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Yeah. Oh no, you're right. So the jungle is.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

You're gonna have a Kringle too, I think. Whoa, $400,000. Spoiler alert $8. We thought, like, you know, so like the pretzels, the Kringle. I love Kringle. And then we thought going along with the theme, like Kringle would fit right in for somebody that wants something sweeter, like, you know, children. Like me. Bridget and all the kids. Bridget's gonna make uh something new. Yeah. She's gonna take the top ring off the Kringle, put the pretzel in between layers of the Kringle and have a pretz Kringle.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

A Pringle? Whoa! A Kritzel. Copyright.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Whoa! I mean, we did invent uh Thanksgiving Pop Tarts. I know. I can't wait. Can we just publish some? So maybe we can invite Kritzel and be like, hey everybody. You know you want something a little fruity and sweet, but you also want savory and chewy.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Mmm, savory and chewy.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Let's combine a soft pretzel and a Kringle.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

You guys, we keep teasing this Thanksgiving Pop Tart, but it was like maybe the best creation we've come up with. Um, I just need to clarify, you're right. The jungle party was for the second birthday. The first birthday was a princess-themed party, which you know I could do for $50. Just kidding. We'll call it $400, okay? Um, they spent uh $95,000 on the finest pink and white roses. $95,000 on roses. And the cake was over $2,000, but toys and gifts for their guests cost so favors, guys. Party favors, $30,000. Okay. I'm just gonna leave it there. So you better have freaking $30,000 favors tomorrow, Nick.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

There are no favors. There's a bounce house.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Also, that's better. This I recently saw a thing that was like, can we all just agree that like a bag full of crap from the dollar store, we don't need it.

unknown 32:10

Nope.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

Thank you. We uh so speaking of great creations, maybe even better than the Thanksgiving Pop Dart. At the end of last episode, if you remember, we tried three different Oktoberfest beers, found a new favorite for Bridget. Well, we did a little, you know, mixology with them and improved it even more.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Yes, that's true. Nick just dumped them all in a cup. I was like, no, this is a bad idea, but it was actually a delicious idea.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Because we liked the uh um uh whatchamacallit uh from Minnesota, uh from New Olm uh shoal shells. We like that one the most, but uh because it's a little bit lighter style, very crispy refreshing, adding just a little bit of the maplewood to give it a little bit more body and a little bit of the third space to give it just a little bit more hops.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

It's like when I was young and I used to go to Taco Bell and mix all the sodas in one cup.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

I would say like 70% shells and then 15% of the other two. That's about where we were at.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Because the shells was delish. Um, okay, I'm gonna wrap up our little birthday party adventure here because a couple that I normally that I might normally judge, uh, Brad Pitt and Angela Jolie, they really kept their budget tight for this birthday party. They only spent $20,000. I mean, like $20,000. What a budget.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Well, for Pax's seventh birthday, they spent seven grand on a luxury river cruise on the Seine. I mean, that sounds fun.

unknown 33:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

I seven I can get on board.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

You know, when you're making tens of millions of dollars, it's probably less as a percent of income than what I'm spending on Simona.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Yeah, exactly. It's like a hundred bucks to us. So what a culture celebrities. But this $20,000 was another princess theme party, and I just can't get past it. Like, you can do a princess theme party, guys. Like, literally, I'll do it. Give me $20,000 and I'll throw a party for it. But can you hire the actual actress that played the actual But you see, um, many of them are animated, so I think the two the two-year-old's gonna know.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Maybe you could do a Lara Croft tomb raider thing and get like one of the Lara Crofts to show up. Like her mom?

SPEAKER_00 34:13

That would be hot. Okay. So tomorrow's birthday party for Samona, I don't think is gonna be $100,000. I do think is going to be fun and enjoyable.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

But it's gonna be just as much fun as that $100,000 one.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

I just had to talk about the privilege of celebrities telling us we don't treat them fairly. Like, this is why.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Well, you know, you often accuse me of a little bit of privilege with my insane cooking and and how stupid I sometimes say, like, I don't know, it was easy to cook. I made it because really smooth transition. Just like real easy. But Bridget, this week I want to tell you, I really did easy. I did like the semi-homemade thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

But did you make the sauce? No, I didn't. Okay, good. That's all I needed.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

So, this is this is what I did a super easy thing that was super yummy. And after I got done, took me 10 minutes, a legit 10 minutes. I said to myself, I need to go start an outline for the podcast and brag to Bridget that I made like actual, real simple, easy food that anybody could make.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

I always love the first one of us that gets an idea for the podcast and starts the outline based on whatever ridiculous thing. So this was so easy. Okay, so easy. Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

I had tortellini, you know, just like heat and served tortellini. Cheese-filled. Uh, it was uh, yes, cheese-filled. And then I had uh a jar of marinara sauce and a pound of ground beef. I put the ground beef in a skillet, I cooked it, I did season it. Is that okay? A little salt and pepper. I guess.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

And then um I cooked it, I drained it, so that took about 10 minutes. Yeah, these are all fine size. Dumped the ground beef in, put the tortellini in, stirred it all together, warmed it up on medium heat for about three minutes to get the tortellini warm. And so it was actually 15 minutes. So in 15 minutes, we had tortellini, marinara sauce, and ground beef. Okay. Big scoop out of a thing, and I think we put some mozzarella cheese on top.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

This is how I make spaghetti every time I make spaghetti. You just upgraded it with tortellini, which is delicious. I mean, that's a great idea. Let me, let me, let me upgrade you. I probably make the meal you just described a minimum of one time a week. Well, is that not how you grew up eating spaghetti? Like, that's just how we made spaghetti. Yes, but my mom's spaghetti sucks and mine's good. I mean, I love a can of a jar of marinara and some ground beef and noodles. My kids really like angel hair pasta. Oh, fun. Yeah, I don't know. I love tortellini though, so that sounds great. And I know you are judging my jar of marinara.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

No, there's I mean, there's there's a place for it, but it's not at your dinner table. I mean, it's no big deal. I just I like making sauce. It's easy. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

There we are again. There's Nick.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

It's very you just dump in, you get a can of tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, chop up some vegetables, let it cook.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Well, I'm moving past this. And I did a Nick thing and made a ridiculous recipe. Okay, I have been a little on edge because I haven't slept much, and I'm getting a little snarky about feeling like my kids aren't eating vegetables. They like, they have been historically very good at eating vegetables.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Yes, they have been.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

They love broccoli, they love green beans and cucumbers and corn. And so, yeah, I don't know what if we're just like failing because it's lucky if we get dinner on the table every night. But if it's lucky if I make a freaking jar of marinara spaghetti for my children at night. But um, they have not been eating their vegetables. I think I'm struggling with packing Elliot's lunch, and I usually put cucumbers in it, and he won't eat them. And it's driving me crazy. Anyway, so I hit up um, there's a website called Yummy Toddler Food. She has a really good Instagram page and like sneaky ways to feed your children healthy things. And so I pulled up one of her muffin recipes, and I handmade from scratch, grated a carrot, grated a zucchini.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

That's insane.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

I know, and made and these muffins that Elliot thought were good.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

Did you scratch your knuckles when you did it?

SPEAKER_00 38:00

I was terrified of it.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

I always do that.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

I was zesting once and did this down to the bone. And so I'm like terrified of it.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Um very anti-mandolin for that reason.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

This was like one of those cheese graters that stands like. Yeah. So um Elliot helped with it. So Elliot got up at five o'clock one morning this week. And so, like, what is his problem? I know, I know. He slept in today. But so I had like many hours in the morning with him. I was like, We're making muffins, kid. So we did it in the morning before school. Yeah, and it's like um a banana, carrots, zucchini, cinnamon, egg, flour, whatever. And they're like these dense little things, but the kids think, oh, there there is dark chocolate chips in there, like a little bit of semi-sweet chocolate chips because they are children after all, eating a muffin with carrots.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

There's lots of good antioxidants in that semi-dark chocolate.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

So it like mostly isn't bad. You know, like you're using applesauce instead of oil, etc. And so far approved. And so I was really proud of myself for this.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

Okay, is applesauce instead of oil actually a good sub?

SPEAKER_00 38:56

Because do you know how much sugar is in applesauce? I mean, it just depends what you're trying to cut out, I guess. I I just use the oil usually. This recipe is just meant to be healthier, so they like said applesauce. But yes, I pulled a Nick recipe from scratch. That's awesome. 5 a.m. muffins.

unknown 39:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Real Susie. I'm really making myself sound like Susie Homemaker over here. That's good job, Bridget. Not my strong suit normally. Good job.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Look at me. All right. Okay. Time for Kid Corner. I don't know what to talk about. It's birthday time. What's HFM? Uh, Simona has hand, foot, and mouth. Oh, I was like, what? I thought it was some birthday thing. Luckily, we didn't have to like miss any school, but she's got these terrible splotches all over her face that looks like we're terrible parents of unclean children. It is horrible. And like the name, hand foot and mouth. It sounds terrible.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Sounds like a disease. I can say it's horrible because Lucy's had it. Sorry. It it is hard being a parent of a kid with hand football. It's like, I'm not dirty, I promise. Yeah, it's just it's just a disease. My parents are not.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

It's not a disease, it's just a virus. And like knowing full well she had this thing, they're like, oh, does she have strawberry still? I was like, no.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

It looks like it, it's really hard because it just like looks like herpes around your mouth. I don't know. I don't have the herp, but I imagine that's like when I that's the only thing I can think of is all this two-year-old looks like. You know, when you're in high school and like you have like a cold sore or something, it's like you got herpes, or like health class scares you into thinking herpes is gonna give you brace. Whatever. It's hard. I'm sorry for her.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

There's gotta be some happy medium on health class, another tangent. Uh that'd be a good time for this episode. And another tangent. Full of tangents. Um, you know, there's gotta be a happy medium between like the abstinence only, the like do everything, and then like the if you have sex, you will get to hurt.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Die.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

Like, there's gotta be a happy medium somewhere that would be like, hey, look, you know, herpes is you know, it's bad. It's a thing that you know, it's probably not gonna just like take over your entire face, but here's the cost benefit. Just be safe. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, health class with Doug Herrod was like very much here's a picture of some whore the genital pictures shown in health class at Badger High School, where like I was like, blah!

SPEAKER_00 41:09

There was like one hour of health class that wasn't Doug, it was someone else, and that's who I had. I kind of missed it because everyone talks about Doug's health class. Doug, Dougie, Dougie, Doug. He Dougie Frish.

SPEAKER_02 41:20

Yeah. He he really we had to have two-pocket folders. He had the first like 15 minutes of your health class in high school was a 60-year-old man who is also your football coach explaining you must have a two-pocket folder. With uh holes in them, and explained why you needed this two-pocket folder and what goes where in the two-pocket folder. And uh said two-pocket folder about 20 times. It's so funny. So, anyway, yes, it's a legendary thing. But uh, happy birthday, Simona. Happy birthday. So excited for Some Toberfest. Um it was so we Sarah did a great job with the decor for the morning, took a little inspiration from you with the balloons and the drapers, all her thing, and uh the drapery, what do you call it? What do you the garland? Yes, that. And uh the presents out there, and you know, like she came out and got very excited and hugged Gunnar Sorus right away. And I just want to say Gunnar Saurus, uh-huh. The giant number Much like the tobacco industry, I've hooked you for life, Simona.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

Wow, proud dad right here. So proud dad. Um, my children are entering the phase of wearing costumes whenever and wherever they want and not giving a shit about it. Which I am thrilled about. So again, same mom that I was talking about that was, you know, we both like wine. Um, she was saying, I love that Elliot just doesn't care and he'll wear that and and he's confident about it. And so she was referring to Elliot wore um, like the Target Dollar Spot has these like cheater Halloween costumes, which I just bought because they were three bucks and my kids like to dress up. And it's like a it's like a helmet, it's like a hat, but it looks like a helmet and it just kind of velcro's like at your neck and a cape. And so, like, there's a a unicorn, an astronaut, and a dragon. Oh Elliot loved the dragon, and so it's just this like polyester hood kind of it shows your face and it velcro's here. And he wore it to this like little event we went to, and then all night at soccer, he wore it because it's green and he's played his soccer uniform is green, and he's like, Mom, it's green. I can wear it. I'm like, I don't care, do it, kid. And so he did until I was like Did it make him faster? It made him itchier.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Capes make you faster. It's proven. Why else would so Superman wear one?

SPEAKER_00 43:32

The cape is like coming around, you know, like turning around his neck. And I'm like, Elliot, why don't you take it off? I could see him like itching his head. He was getting like sweaty, and it's this like polyester hood. But um, yeah, the mom was like, Hey, I really appreciate that he just has the confidence to do that. And it made me think, like, I think that if I could wear good mom, Bridget. Well, this is me being like homemaker over here. Last week, Lucy wore uh chose to wear to school because she's really into picking out her own outfits, a like tutu, like a dress she would wear to dance class. And cool. It had like silver stars, it was a uh like leotard with a matching tutu. That was part of it. And um, she wore it to soccer. Also, it was cold out and it was a tank top and she wouldn't put a coat on. And so both in the past week, both of my kids have worn like costumes of some sort to soccer, and cool, like you do you, and it made me think, you know what? The one thing I want my kids to have, if I had to pick one trait, is confidence, I think. I just like made me think about it. Me and that song. So anyway, kids in costumes, let them do it year-round. Who cares?

SPEAKER_02 44:36

I realize it's October, but musical theater, also let them do it because they'll become confident. I didn't do musical theater, but if they want to do it, I can't actually honestly, Bridget, I thought you would have been someone that does did like some type of theater.

SPEAKER_00 44:48

I was in the Wizard of Oz when I was younger. I was a witch and a flower. I danced in some kind of garden, the poppy seed poppy garden or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Yeah, I think.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

I don't know. I was in plays when I was young, but no, didn't stick, man. I wish I was. Now I now I think I'd like it as an adult.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

You know, there are there's adult theater groups.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

I don't have a lot of spare time, but that sounds great. I don't know how the kids are older. Yeah, I'll add it to my retirement plan. You can you can do that. Okay, guys.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Well, uh, wine two one podcast out. Go search for that wherever you're listening to this. Find it, download it, listen to it, rate us five stars, please.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Give us a high five when you see us, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

We we're very proud of it. It was a lot of work. I'm really proud of of what we did. I think we put out a really awesome thing. So I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

We hope you love it too. Yes. Um, that's important. That's that's you know, it'd be very affirming. I think you can see we're a bit slap happy this episode. We've we it's been a long week. It's been a long week. We've worked our butts off this week. So I'm sorry, yes, we're whining about working a lot. Way way. It's been a week, okay? It's America, okay?

SPEAKER_02 45:53

Let us want. If you're not working 90 hours a week, are you even working at all?

SPEAKER_00 45:57

This is basically our therapy. So thanks for hanging in there with us. As always, please stick with us.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

Follow us on social media, Facebook and Instagram. Check out our wine two-on-one lunch party. It is gonna be off the heasy.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

Knew you were gonna go there, and if you weren't, I was going to. Because it's just uh send us a note at hello at dinner plus drinks. Let us know if you tried the Curder Burger. Yes, and please.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

Let us know if you tried the Curder Burger. Happy birthday, Simona. I love you, baby girl. I managed to not cry all episode and go.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

He's gonna go cry now. Happy birthday!