Thursday, October 28, 2004
Tribbles
Last night I dreamed that I was being buried in a pile of tribbles; I woke up to discover that the cat had crawled on top of me and fallen asleep.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
mmm... beer
An account of last weekend's drinking is in Keith's blog. We went to Schroeder's (240 Front St.) and chowed down on sausages and tasty beer. (I had the Bitburger, which is light and crisp but still carries a lot of flavor.) I didn't have a lot to drink - just enough that at the end of the evening I thought Keith and I would be able to carry Andrew into the house from the car. In the process, I sustained minor injuries. I smashed my right pinky finger on the door, destroying the fingernail. It didn't hurt that much the next day except for when I tried to start typing. So I've been typing with nine fingers all week (with a new appreciation for how much work the right pinky does) while watching the pinky ooze fluids as the nail finishes separating. OK, that was probably way more detail than you wanted to know. But I've learned my lesson: next time we're leaving Andrew in the car to sleep it off.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
V. Sattui
Today's good thing is wine.
Last weekend we went to the 2004 Crush Party at V. Sattui Winery. Apparently during a prior wine-tasting pass through Napa, I bought a case of something at V. Sattui, and became a member of the Cellar Club. This was news to me, but I now have a little plastic card to certify this. (I also recently discovered that the phrase "card-carrying Democrat" really does involve the Democratic Party sending you a card when you donate money. So I now have cards certifying me as a Democrat, conspicuous consumer of V. Sattui wine, and frequent Petco shopper. All I'm missing is the stonecutters membership...)
So what goes on at a wine party? Lots of wine tasting, but there was also a "a doctor doing science" (their words) there to explain how fermentation works and how to measure sugar. In addition to this year's new releases of wine and some classics available for tasting, there were also some "new" wines, which are wines in the very first stages of fermentation (the grapes were picked only a few weeks ago). At this point a wine is mostly grape juice because it hasn't had enough time to turn the sugar into alcohol, but it has all the fruity flavors it will have when it matures. So theoretically you can taste the new wine now and decide if you like the fruity taste, and expect that the barrel will turn into something more closely resembling wine after a few years. You can also buy "wine futures", where you put down the money now and get a bottle of 2007 wine for cheap. I'm not ready to buy wine futures yet, but it's an interesting thought.
I have some halfway-legible notes about what wines I liked:
2002 Carneros Estate Sangiovese: This was a nice tart cabernet sauvignon.
2000 Suzanne's Vineyard Zinfandel: Lots of tannins - pulls the water right out of your mouth. I met Suzanne - she was nice. It has a more fruity taste than most of the other zins. I liked this one better than the 2000, which was lighter and less flavorful.
2001 Duarte Vineyard Zinfandel: This was really tasty and sharp. We bought a bunch of this.
2001 Sattui Family Cabernet: This is the staff favorite. I think it was OK.
2000 Napa Valley Merlots: I have a hard time finding a Merlot to like, because they often just don't taste like much - but this one had a really full berry flavor and was not like most other Merlots I've tried.
2002 Howell Mountain Zinfandel: This was a fantastic zinfandel. It's a little sweet, but really bold and peppery. It is possible I actually howled after tasting this one.
At this point, my notebook has lots of red stains on it, so I think that's the end of the commentary. I'm sure I tasted all the madeiras, at least twice, plus all the muscat and the angelica. I have this feeling that I didn't like the angelica, but that might been because of how much I'd already had to drink.
There was a monster hangover, but the night was tons of fun.
Last weekend we went to the 2004 Crush Party at V. Sattui Winery. Apparently during a prior wine-tasting pass through Napa, I bought a case of something at V. Sattui, and became a member of the Cellar Club. This was news to me, but I now have a little plastic card to certify this. (I also recently discovered that the phrase "card-carrying Democrat" really does involve the Democratic Party sending you a card when you donate money. So I now have cards certifying me as a Democrat, conspicuous consumer of V. Sattui wine, and frequent Petco shopper. All I'm missing is the stonecutters membership...)
So what goes on at a wine party? Lots of wine tasting, but there was also a "a doctor doing science" (their words) there to explain how fermentation works and how to measure sugar. In addition to this year's new releases of wine and some classics available for tasting, there were also some "new" wines, which are wines in the very first stages of fermentation (the grapes were picked only a few weeks ago). At this point a wine is mostly grape juice because it hasn't had enough time to turn the sugar into alcohol, but it has all the fruity flavors it will have when it matures. So theoretically you can taste the new wine now and decide if you like the fruity taste, and expect that the barrel will turn into something more closely resembling wine after a few years. You can also buy "wine futures", where you put down the money now and get a bottle of 2007 wine for cheap. I'm not ready to buy wine futures yet, but it's an interesting thought.
I have some halfway-legible notes about what wines I liked:
2002 Carneros Estate Sangiovese: This was a nice tart cabernet sauvignon.
2000 Suzanne's Vineyard Zinfandel: Lots of tannins - pulls the water right out of your mouth. I met Suzanne - she was nice. It has a more fruity taste than most of the other zins. I liked this one better than the 2000, which was lighter and less flavorful.
2001 Duarte Vineyard Zinfandel: This was really tasty and sharp. We bought a bunch of this.
2001 Sattui Family Cabernet: This is the staff favorite. I think it was OK.
2000 Napa Valley Merlots: I have a hard time finding a Merlot to like, because they often just don't taste like much - but this one had a really full berry flavor and was not like most other Merlots I've tried.
2002 Howell Mountain Zinfandel: This was a fantastic zinfandel. It's a little sweet, but really bold and peppery. It is possible I actually howled after tasting this one.
At this point, my notebook has lots of red stains on it, so I think that's the end of the commentary. I'm sure I tasted all the madeiras, at least twice, plus all the muscat and the angelica. I have this feeling that I didn't like the angelica, but that might been because of how much I'd already had to drink.
There was a monster hangover, but the night was tons of fun.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Softball
Today's good thing is softball. Our season started yesterday, and it looks like this will be a fun season. Our company team plays in the rec league at Twin Creeks with lots of other dot-coms. Actually, we have two teams, because the guys that were really competitive abandoned the rest of us and joined a guys-only league. Booo. :( Anyway, the coed league is pretty casual, so it's OK that I'm really out of practice. But I got a hit in our first game - that's a good omen.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
First Post (again)
Over the summer we kept a blog of our trip to New York. Now that we're back in California, we're starting a new blog. I don't know what we'll write about yet but something will turn up.
I was thinking today that life is pretty good. So my goal for getting this blog started is to think of a new warm-and-fuzzy thing every day and write about it.
Today's good thing is bunny ears. We don't normally watch much TV, and when we do, it's usually with Keith and his tivo. But we wanted to watch the vice presidential debate tonight and he wasn't home, so we had to figure out how to get reception on our little TV (of course we have a TV - how else do you play an xbox?). Andrew picked up some bunny ears on his way home and we discovered that there are still public airwaves. :) It reminded me that analog snow looks really different than digital snow - I think it's prettier. The bunny ears on my parents' TV always needed tinfoil and precise tuning to work, but modern bunny ears apparently work right out of the box. The debate was pretty cool, although I got distracted by the anagram potential of "Dick Cheney". ("Needy Chick"? "Cheeky Din"?) This was my first chance to see John Edwards talk. He seems like a nice guy, and he said stuff that made sense. I like that it wasn't like a boring repetitive stump speech - there was, like, real data and stuff. mmm... data.
I was thinking today that life is pretty good. So my goal for getting this blog started is to think of a new warm-and-fuzzy thing every day and write about it.
Today's good thing is bunny ears. We don't normally watch much TV, and when we do, it's usually with Keith and his tivo. But we wanted to watch the vice presidential debate tonight and he wasn't home, so we had to figure out how to get reception on our little TV (of course we have a TV - how else do you play an xbox?). Andrew picked up some bunny ears on his way home and we discovered that there are still public airwaves. :) It reminded me that analog snow looks really different than digital snow - I think it's prettier. The bunny ears on my parents' TV always needed tinfoil and precise tuning to work, but modern bunny ears apparently work right out of the box. The debate was pretty cool, although I got distracted by the anagram potential of "Dick Cheney". ("Needy Chick"? "Cheeky Din"?) This was my first chance to see John Edwards talk. He seems like a nice guy, and he said stuff that made sense. I like that it wasn't like a boring repetitive stump speech - there was, like, real data and stuff. mmm... data.
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