(Bob Gregg, 10:15 pm)
My wife was in the middle of a quick saute of shrimp with leftover pesto sauce, and she needed a white wine to add to the mix, pronto. I grabbed the first remotely accessible thing, which was a Vin de Savoie, a wine from the Savoie region of France, just south of Alsace. (more >>)
(Bob Gregg, 9:10 pm)
Have you ever had a bottle of inexpensive wine you just forgot about? Like, for a really long time? Usually your plonk just turns into plonk, but occasionally, good karma will grant you a boon. (more >>)
(Bob Gregg, 11:36 am)
I rub my wife’s feet. A lot. This makes her very happy. Which makes me very happy. Many of my friends don’t do this. I don’t know why. It’s so simple.
Last night while rubbing my beloved’s feet, I asked, rhetorically, is there anything more important to a happy marriage than the foot rub? She thought for just a beat, and replied serenely, “the back scratch.” Eminently reasonable. “That’s all?” “That’s it.”
A few moments later I asked, “Does it have anything to do with the shoe thing?” “Yes, totally related.” Silence. “Why?” One beat later, she purred, “Because we must have pretty shoes. Bur pretty shoes make our feet sore. Can’t help it. Must have pretty shoes…”
This was as secret wisdom emanating from Olympus itself! We humans often utter Truth under the influence of various… influences. Know then, Men, these two things about the foot rub: a) it renders a blissful state upon the woman so that she can utter Pure Truth, to your benefit; and b) it mitigates the pain of the Pretty Shoes, which in turn grants much marital peace and bliss. Go forth and practice this wisdom, then, for it will bring you great joy.
(Bob Gregg, 8:00 am)
Is it already time for Wine Blogging Wednesday? It seems like just yesterday I was writing up our trip to Quebec for the last WBW. I admit it: this one snuck up on me. This month’s challenge was more, er, challenging than the last one - Portuguese table wines! And not just any Portuguese table wines either (as if that wasn’t enough): there are rules! Given my lapse in memory, I wouldn’t have been able to participate at all, if it wasn’t for a terrific local wine haunt. (more >>)
(Bob Gregg, 7:48 pm)
Last night we had a couple of Sonnet’s friends over who were not wine drinkers. One drinks wine a bit, but only really drinks reds. We were having some barbecue pork chops, and it was pretty hot, so I pulled out a bottle of Mark West Pinot Noir 2005. Typical cheap Pinot - light body, a little cherry taste, not much more. (more >>)
(Bob Gregg, 11:30 pm)
Although this has been posted all over the place, I’m going to post it here too. Randy Pausch is a professor of Computer Science (among other things) at Carnegie Mellon University, which is where I did my graduate work. The professor is now dying of pancreatic cancer, and will leave behind a wife and three young children. Before he left the university for good, he gave one final lecture, where he talked about achieving your childhood dreams. The actual lecture is about an hour and twenty minutes, and well worth the time invested - right up to the last second of the speech. Funny and moving. It made me proud, very proud, to be a CMU graduate.
In addition, Dr. Pausch is the founder of the Alice software project. According to the web site, Alice is an “innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation that tells a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web.” But it’s more than that. It’s nothing less than the ultimate fulfillment of what started with Logo back in the 1960’s and 70’s - it teaches kids how to program computers, without realizing they’re learning it. Picture an application programming environment with full graphics, allowing users to “script” 3D actors, objects, video, with drag and drop tools that literally prevent you from ever making a syntax error. And you can instantly see the results of your work, as virtual worlds come to life and move around with the touch of a key. How far we’ve come from turtle graphics!
Apparently Alice is already being used on a significant percent of college campuses to teach undergraduates about programming. What an astounding legacy to leave to the world. Thank you, Professor Pausch. I wish I had had the chance to get to know you when I was at CMU.
(Bob Gregg, 8:15 pm)
Tonight’s dinner was a melange of Chinese goodies, including some mild winter melon soup, roasted duck, and homemade pork dumplings with spicy sauce, among others. In lieu of trying to match all that (daunting, but possible), I opted to open a bottle of after dinner, just for sipping - moderately better than a dessert, I suppose. Because it’s practically Indian summer right now (going up to 90 this weekend!), I tried to figure out something light, though I wanted a red, and preferably something that I hadn’t had before. What I wound up going with was called Marzemino. (more >>)
(Bob Gregg, 10:50 pm)
My wife and I went shopping at the Trader Joe’s in Fairfax last night, and I did what I always do - walk the aisles of cheap wine. Not that cheap wine is a bad thing, in Trader Joe’s case. (more >>)
(Bob Gregg, 4:45 pm)
We had our friends Joel and Eunjae over this evening, and had a great time. Joel knows his music, and always shows up wherever he goes with an iPod chock full of 80’s songs. We plugged that sucker into our local sound system (the front input of my TV, as it turns out), and it was party time. Joel also brought a great wine which was the hit of the evening, and taught me something new. (more >>)
(Bob Gregg, 10:19 pm)
Tonight we opened a bottle of Rosa Del Golfo “Scaliere” 2004. This wine is classified as a Salento Rosso, which is an Italian IGT designation. Sometimes the IGT wines can be better than DOC or DOCG wines, just like sometimes a Vin de Pays wine can be a smash. Going outside of the “big” appellation systems can give a great wine maker the freedom to do something special. Sometimes those wines can even be great bargains. No guarantees though. (more >>)