Vinophile

It's been forever since last post. I still haven't even thrown up the 07 birthday pics. Bonobo beatdown-sigh. One day-when I have DSL or Wi-Fi. Loading images on dial-up sucks ass.

Over the past few years, I'm happy to report that I've become somewhat of a vinophile (and a cheesephile, chocophile, and lots of other thigh-expanding, blood-pressure raising philum). Over this last weekend, I made a second excursion to Healdsburg (more on the first in a bit). I was off US reds after Europe, discovering the joys of various Spanish and French reds. However, I've returned to exploring Northern CA wines, beyond what I thought was the end all-be all of a few select cabernets from 1997 ot 2000.

This last trip included:
Jordan (known for their cabs, the chard was tasty and the 1999 library cab fantastic)
StoneStreet (eh-no purchase here)
White Oak (to purchase their pure butter 2005 Russian River Chardonnay) Got the cab to accompany our dinner of bison burgers. Wine was ok, but not that notable.
Lancaster Estate (purpose of this trip being for their 2004 Cabernet release party)
Alexander Valley (Decent and cheap rose and syrah)
Hanna (decent-refreshing savinon blanc in a hot tub)
FieldStone (um, "blessing of the grapes" party with mullets and old ladies gumming chocolate cake. Poured 8 tastes, so if anything, solidified the buzz for the steep hill ride home)
Belverdere (cute boys tasting, but the dude pouring never shut his yap and made broad, and incorrect statements like "blue cheese never pairs with anything but reds." Liked the Sangeovese-light and refreshing-more like a deep rose)
"____" Forgot the name of this one-a historic distillery. People were everywhere. The wine wasn't very good-some of the worst on the trip, but they had free pretzels and various dips-hence the crowds.
Gary Farrell (one of my new favs along with Lancaster. Every wine was good and the setting beautiful. Favs included the Chardonnay and Pinots).
Attempted to go to Chalk Hill and Twomey, but they were closed).

The last trip included:
Unti (great sangeovese and fab Grenache. Petite Syrah was the deepest, beautiful purple)
Mazzuco (nice solid cab paired well with burgers. Bought the Matrix which was a bordeaux/malbec blend)
Maurtison (not too memorable)
Wilson (Touch of Merlot-like a rose-tasted better after hard riding. One of the few Zins I really liked-their Old Vine-paired awesome with ho made goulash)
La Crema (awesome rose and decent Pinot Gris-tasted better after the ride)
Rosenblum (actually bought a dessert wine-tastes like liquid chocolate. Nice syrah from santa barbara)
Lancaster Estate (yes, I joined the club and not just for the cave/world domination room) The Nicole wine is fucking awesome. The deepest red that in my opinion can be paired even with the lightest fish. 1999 Library cab was also great.
White Oak (as noted above-awesome buttery chard)
Cakebread (disappointing to say the least. As standard, their cab was solid-excellent, but all others, especially the whites were way acidic)

In general, some of my favorite wines of all time (as of now) include:
1997 Jordan Cabernet
2000 Cakebread Cabernet
2003 Muga Reserva Rioja
2005 Gary Farrell Chardonnay-Cresta Ridge
2005 Gary Farrell Pinot Noir-Bein Nacido
2004 Gary Farrell Pinot Noir-Starr Ridge
2003 Lancaster Estate "Nicole"
1999 and 2004 Lancaster Cabernet
2005 White Oak Russian River Chardonnay

Many Argentinian Malbec Reservas and Sicilian Neros. Gosh-there are so many more, but I know them more by label.

Anyhoo-wine...is...good!

Gone to soon

Jesus Christ! Google has become Big Brother. The insanity of trying to log into this damn service, bah!

Anyway, I apologize to my loyal readership for the delayed absence due to technical difficulties. I have some catching up to do and birthday pics to post, but let mention a most recent episode of life evolution.

As of the end of July, I will be departing my beloved project after three plus years. It's been REALLY difficult in many ways. I love this project and have weathered so many egos, obstacles and human waste (literally). I thought I could outlast the new guy, through the re-occuring nightmares and endless cash forked over in therapy time. While I know it's for the best career, and health-wise, both mentally and physically, it's still hard to let go. It's really difficult for me to believe that a person can be so transparently fucked up, but with employees quitting left and right, funders bailing and politicos getting pissed all due to one ass-wipe (or as I like to call him, fuck face) I am starting to realize that well, some people just are. Or, this one person is. I have the perfect remedy, just 30 minutes of pure nut-kicking should make it all better, well...for me at least.

Kiss My Thistle

Our final layover at the Hotel Thistle by London/Heathrow airport really didn't live up to the splendor of the rest of the trip, but made up for it in laughs. Been growing weary of buddy's apparent night terrors, we observe our twin beds getting closer and closer at every accommodation.

Nearly falling through the grand canyon of a toilet, I did manage to scrub in the shower, knee-deep in cold water as the smell of burning plastic radiated throughout our room. Starving after our flight, we ate a shitty dinner of nachos, chicken liver, wine (surprised? How else do you think we ate liver?) and salty soup for the us equivalent of $100 at the hotel restaurant, we curled up in the cold of the room and watched a special about obscene tourettes syndrome.

The flight home was delayed a bit, but all in all, went smoothly.

Neither of us came home in a bodybag. The trip was great and I look forward to the next adventure. Maybe a vacation from vacation is in order...something involving a hammock, fruit laden beverage and warm waters.
A couple more random pics (Ahh-yes, the Museum of Chocolate-this little rinky-dink museum was a must!)

Barcelona...It's the Men!

Geeze the men are hot here. Drool...

Sitting in the business center of our hotel in Barcelona, which looks similar to a Miami Vice reject. Our transportation has been flawless with the exception of a pre-meditated, 15 minute strike delay in Paris. Gimped along the Ramblas today after a quick hello-goodbye to Gentle and her mom. Barcelona looks a lot like the downtown district of any major US metropolitan city. The Barri Gotic is interesting with its combination of medieval buildings and modern constructs. There are sooooo many restaurants, it´s hard to know which to go to. Also, Catalonian is NOT like standard Spanish, so our mangled attempts to order even the simplest things is time consuming and shameful in our ignorance. The streets are a bit confusing, but this place is growing on me, especially as I ogle the hot hotel concierges.

Keeping with the Parisian tradition of being drunk by lunchtime, my favorite moment so far this trip was sitting in the Placa de Orwell as we listened to live music and enjoying a jug (yes a jug) of sangria. So bohemian! I'm feeling the socialist love. The food has been fantastic. Everything is coated in olive oil and I've grown a fondness for Spanish wine and exotic tapas.

There is the most AMAZING, beautiful market along the Ramblas with every kind of fresh fruit, spices, fish, meats, etc you could imagine.

Went to the Gaudi's cathedral, which housed a pretty impressive little museum, located about 5 blocks from the hotel. My feet are dying, but it has been worth all the pain.


Gaudi's house was interesting as well.

Paris: It's the Cheese!

And the wine, and the coffee, and the macaroons, and the chocolate....

Paris is fantastic as always-I ate my weight in cheese, wine, chocolate and macaroons, or didn't you gather from the above? All the walking is doing quite a number on the feet, but I gimp along with pleasure to experience the culture and sites.

The Eurostar was a bit of an adventure. We didn't realize that you are assigned exact seats and car numbers, despite that it was printed on the ticket. So, among the bumrush to board, we aimed for the last car and parked our bags in one of the few slots available and our asses in a couple of seats. As we made our stops, we realized that those boarding would require their assigned seats, so we made our way to our designated car, which was, oh yes..at the front-about 20 cars ahead. Tripping over bags and drunken Frenchmen, we ping-ponged our way to the seats, hauling ass back to our baggage storage once arriving in lovely Paris.

Parisian Metro is also quite the adventure. Not the polite, adequate open-door timing of the spotless London tube. Buddy managed to get caught twice in the doors, while I repeatedly hurled my bag and body through the turnstyle before the barricade locked. Bruised legs and bruised ego. And no matter where I stood, I was in the way-along with any and everybody else.

Buddy and I are getting on eachothers nerves a bit, but I suppose that´s to be expected when in constant close quarters with someone for 13 days straight. Our 10+ year friendship has weathered greater challenges, and in the end, we laugh more than anything else.

Haven't really thought at all about work much, which is great. The days before my departure were pretty hellish, aside from the birthday fun. Except now I want a job that enables travel. Everytime, I am inspired by all that is out there to see and get claustrophobic thinking about confining myself to 7x7 SF.

Ladytron was fantastic up in Pigalle, although I think we have permanent lung damage from the amount of smoke inhaled during the show. Not once, but twice did we have the pleasure of witnessing a dude climb onto the shoulders of another, sweaty and barechested as he whipped his shirt above his head like he was riding a bull.

We got drunk on wine and cheese eveyday. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, with the exception of one day.

Off to Barcelona on Wednesday.

Mind the Gap

Please excuse the time between posts. Blogger.com is fucking with my account and making it difficult to post with ease.

We arrived in London Wednesday as scheduled after a rather pleasant plane ride. Cheers to Ambien! I felt bad for buddy's long shanks cramped in his seat-one of the few times I appreciate my "petite" stature. We did our best to acclimate to the cold and time change right away, forcing ourselves to go out for a pint and stay up until 10pm, setting the clock to rise on time the next morning. Alas, my alarm didn't go off, and we wound up sleeping until 12:30pm, which pretty much screwed up our internal clocks.

We walked all over Covent Gardens, saw Big Ben and walked back to our hotel in Kensington-making random retail walk-through/pitstops along the way to warm up. IT IS FUCKING COLD. Now I realize why people drink so much out here-to numb the pain of the cold. It only took a good 20 minutes of badgering to convince buddy to wear the warm coat.

Off to a torture museum today and eat Ale Pie at one of the apparently chain-based pubs on every corner. Be it the Pig and Whistle, Museum Tavern, The Pillsbury or Red Lion, they all share the exact same menu. The sterling is double the US dollar, putting a slight cramp in my shopping agenda. The power went out in the room for about 4 hours this evening, silencing the endless CNN TV drama about the soldiers in Iran and shitty US music selection. Did I mention that Rick Springfield is no longer top ten? Oh, and it's nice to know that the US isn't the only place with stupid, jackass radio dj's. Being obnoxious comes with the job description.

Off to Paris on Sunday via Eurostar.

Time is a Mental Construct

So, it's February. I miss blogging, but felt I needed to take a step back and evaluate a few things in life. Blog posts were becoming rage-filled tangents or included too much chronicles of drunken antics. I was leading up to a "When the laughter stopped" D True Hollywood Story episode.

I've been taking a course through UCSF's Osher Center for Intergrative Medicine called Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). So far it's been a very interesting process.

On New Years Day I had an epiphany of sorts and found myself truly in the moment. The moments were both very good and very bad, but I knew it was an amazing place to be. The point is not to live for the moment, but truly accept and acknowledge whatever the experience is while it is happening. Anyway-when you are conditioned to react to stress verses respond like me, it is definitely a challenge to change life long habits. I have good days and bad. Sometimes I can incorporate many elements of the practice, sometimes just a few, and sometimes none. I suppose I can just take it moment by moment. Now don't worry-there will be many more rants, raves and recitings of the shenanigans to come, but I like to refocus every so often. I guess it depends on what I'm feeling..in the moment.

New Beginnings 2007

Happy New Year! I am not religious, so as each holiday season comes around, it seems odd to celebrate a holiday that I don't believe in. So, I embrace new years as the holiday of choice, in addittion to birthdays of course, and reason to join family and friends in food stuffing, noisemaking, and booze induced merriment.

Another day, another dollar

Halloween Showdown or Halloween Ho' down

So, another year and another Halloween past. I started this blogg two years ago specifically to commemorate the infamous Halloween party at the Old Mint. I still meet people to this day who say they went to an amazing party there, which was the one we threw of course! Thanks to those goodtimes, the City cracked down on our use of the space. Ahh, now that I've stroked my ego sufficiently, I'll humble myself by posting a sweet humiliating photo of my make-shift Baroness costume.

I figure, I'll never be this skinny again, so why the hell not pimp a black uni-tard and call it a night? It will make for a great story when I'm an old spinster babbling from my rocking chair to whomever will listen sometime in the future. Sadly, the not so distant future.

My party crew consisted of the mad-devil scientist and Decker from Blade Runner fame. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe"-which I shall chronicle in the next paragraph.

We went to the private staff party at the Castro Theater, like last year, and watched the drunk and disorderly attendees parade up and down Castro Street from the safety of our elitist view from the theater marquee. Like so many before me, I suckled the nectar of White Russian liquor from the lactating mock breast of a guy sporting a psudo-cheerleader outfit, while his friend in a green party dress and matching sparkling eyeshadow chatted me up, while a Henry Rollins look-a-like in a skeleton costume pledged his love of the Baroness on his hands and knees. I'll leave that image to your own imagination.

It's too bad some stupid, ass wipes puked out of San Jose had to ruin the already short-lived evening by firing their loaded guns into the crowd. I'm thinking that a party at the Old Mint is in order for next year if possible. TBC...