Today was a good day. Of course, the “today” I’m referring to is not the “today” you are reading this. I did not get up at 5:00 a.m. and write this blog. Besides, even if I did get up at 5:00 a.m. and write this blog, how would I know that today was a good day? Unless, of course, the first thing I did was checked lottery tickets and I won. I guess that would qualify as a good day. But I’m way off course. Time to get back on track. The “today” I’m talking about was actually last Wednesday, when I wrote this. Let me ramble. Ooops, I mean explain.

Before I explain, let me try to set your expectations. Not that they are not low enough, having read this blog before, but absolutely nothing extraordinary happened last Wednesday. Nope . . . in just about every way it was an average day in suburban America. And yet, in its own way, it was absolutely enjoyable.

I’m going to skip most of the early parts of the day (me waking up, me complaining about having to wake up, me going to work, me complaining about having to go to work, me driving home, me complaining about traffic driving home) and get right to the “exciting” part. When I got home from work, I was feeling motivated. The previous Monday, I had “worked out” for the first time in ages. We won’t mention what the workout consisted of, because I don’t want you to think less of me than you already do, but it was enough that over the previous two days, I had felt the “affects” of having worked out for the first time in ages. Determined not to have sat through two days of pain for nothing, I announced to my daughters that I was going to “work out” again. One of them, “inspired” by my “energy”, joined with me in the “work out”. It wasn’t much, but we did it and felt a small sense of accomplishment for having gotten it done.

Having accomplished my primary goal (that I had thought of on the drive home), I now set my sights on goal #2 – cutting the grass. Given the expectations for rain per the weather apps, I didn’t think I was going to be able to, but the weather had cleared up so I plugged in the battery on my new electric mower and away I went. 50 minutes later, goal #2 was achieved and checked off. Riveting stuff, I know.

Having accomplished so much in so little time, I was able to now sit down and relax a bit and catch up with my daughters on their days. With my daughters having recently graduated and now being back home, we currently have a full house while they have a break before continuing the next steps in their journeys. When I graduated college, I had a short period of time where I was living at home with my parents before my job led me to move out. Years later, I remember my father talking about how much he enjoyed that time and I am keeping that in mind while we have this full house. I know it won’t last forever – nor is it meant to – but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it while it lasts.

After catching up on our days, my daughters proceeded to make dinner for the night (a wonderful cherry tomato/feta pasta that I paired with a wonderful Chenin Blanc – more on that later). A nice additional benefit of having everyone at home. To top off this enjoyable, nothing-happening day, we all (Mrs. Chump had joined as this point) sat out on the porch discussing where we were going to watch Arsenal play in the Champions League final on the upcoming Saturday. As I was sipping on another glass of wine, the thunderstorm that was supposed to arrive earlier in the afternoon finally arrived. I can’t think of many more enjoyable things in life than sitting on a porch, listening to a thunderstorm and the rain it brings falling all around you. It was the perfect ending to an amazingly average day.

And maybe that is what I liked about it so much. Nothing extraordinary, but finding pleasure in the small accomplishments, simple conversations, company and rain storms. Big days are certainly exciting, but here is hoping you find joy in the everyday activities that happen, well . . . everyday.

As I mentioned earlier, with the fabulous dinner our daughters made, we shared a bottle of Chenin Blanc. Chenin Blanc is most famous for coming out of the Loire Valley in France (Vouvray to be specific) or, as I recently learned about 5 minutes ago when I googled where is Chenin Blanc most famous from, South Africa. And so I am proud to present this week’s Wine of the Week, from Washington’s Walla Walla Valley, L’Ecole’s 2025 Chenin Blanc. That is right – I eschewed the worldly standards to bring you a wine from a theoretically lesser-known wine region. However, please take my advice and do not sleep on the wines of Walla Walla. Besides being fun to say, this region is producing excellent wines which are continuing to grow in acclaim. In this case, Chenin Blanc is a bright, crisp wine with high acidity (that helped cut through the tomato and feta). On the nose, you will get Granny Smith Apples and Honeysuckle before transitioning to the palette with flavors of stone fruits and tangerines. It will leave your mouth watering as a nice acidic wine should do. Lovers of Sauvignon Blanc and Albarino will love this wine. And while I am not reviewing all of their wines this week, I have yet to find a wine I do not like from L’Ecole, one of the oldest producers in Walla Walla, who make not only excellent wine, but affordable as well. If you haven’t, you should definitely check out their wines. Cheers!

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