I will try to catch up a little for those who are not inclined to use farcebook…

Some catchup below the fold:

I had a lovely Thanksgiving and then went through a brief period of feeling out of touch with the world because my two jobs are resetting my natural clock and daily rhythm to a schedule that few of my friends share. I have learned that some people don’t mind a late night text and phone call, and for that I am grateful as I can talk to people on my drive home from the 2nd job. With both of us working two jobs, Erci and I are seeing less of each other so we’ve made an effort to have a date night now and then. We got to see the recent Muppet movie, and were delighted by the show, the dance numbers, and the appearance of both Jim Parsons and Neil Patrick Harris.

I once again (and pretty much every quarter) am very grateful to Mike Bombich for Carbon Copy Cloner which makes full backups of your Macs easy and you can boot from them. Highly recommended.

I took advantage of some employee discounts and replaced our original Time Capsule with a new one and our D-Link with an Airport Extreme for much faster wireless throughout the house. I am also replacing the Linux with Xen virtual Open Filer machine iSCSI disk share to an old Mac Mini as home media server with Linux NFS shared directly to newer Mac Mini as Media controller and AppleTV units as Media viewers. This is the sort of thing I find fun!

A lot of my personal project time got stolen when I discovered my 120 gallon marine reef aquarium spring a leak! Jeff Lofgren was my hero and helped me move the fish, shrimp, corals, and other living things to a variety of smaller tanks and coolers the day the leak was discovered, and most everything survived (though I did have one of the smaller tanks crash). I am trying to get the leak repaired so I can put the big tank back together again, but have not had time to really progress on it much.

Discovered that Domaine Raspail-Ay 2008 Gigondas is a spectacular wine while having a lovely dinner out with a special friend, highly recommended. I also found out that Fireworx pizza in Leesburg is delicious for those who can do gluten, thanks to co-workers for dragging me there.

ThinkGeek has some pretty spectacular iPad cases with integrated Bluetooth keyboards.

Cassandra and Jeff recommended and lent us “Across the Universe” and we finally watched it Christmas Day and it is both spectacular and moving. I went out and bought my own copies of both the movie and the soundtrack the very next day and have been listening to it ever since… beautiful dance numbers, some very compelling re-arrangements of Beatles music.

I am trying to get several appliances and home repairs done, and we keep running into no one wanting to pick up work, so I guess the economy must be recovering. I am learning that I despise the incompetence that is Sears Appliance Repair, and the fact that they seem to have bought out all the competition. Our Dacor oven has an F1 code alert, which indicates problem with the control panel. Our Viking under-counter fridge has been out for ages with a failed thermostat. We have a small roof leak over our kitchen. All will get fixed eventually, but it’s like pulling teeth to get people to come take our money and fix things.

I successfully replaced a 5th generation iPod classic hard drive and then sold it to a niece for the cost of the replacement parts, very happy that was so easy. Steve and Ashley helped me bring the 120 gallon tank outside and hose it out, and then my hero Jeff Lofgren and Alexandrea Lynch helped bring it back in on New Year’s Eve… Odd mystery, it did not leak when outside, nervous about filling it without having done a repair…

Jill and Eddie hosted the Molecular Mixology blow-out bash to bring in the New Year at their place and Kate, Erci, and I joined many friends there and had a fantastic time being irresponsible… I discovered that coughing after sipping Pyrat rum over a bonfire can be a mini-fireworks show!

Now I am recovering from a fairly nasty ear/throat virus and then infection… Life is always full of surprises.

Valminor Albarino is a crisp, clean, refreshing white – perfect for seafood

Pearmund Viognier is fruity, with a beautiful nose and lovely notes to go with spicy fish, chicken or sausage… yum!

Montes Purple Angel from Chile was a delightful full bodied red surprise; really delicious and with many complex flavors all blending slowly on the tongue…

Ramey Claret packed a delightful punch, full bodied, luscious, and heady

Yum!

Having an Enomatic in Fair Lakes Whole Foods is a real delight.

I would like to thank the academy for a lovely, romantic, quiet night at one of our favorite restaurants, and Erci’s dad for introducing us to fine food and wine, and Erci for 18 lovely years of adventure filled partnership, and the wait staff at Evo for taking great care of us despite a computer glitch and for having such fine assets, and the chef for making such incredibly delicious food, and Toyota for making our 2006 Prius that got us to Evo… … …

Barboursville’s “Octogon VIII” (2005) was fantastic, and their Nebbiolo Reserve (2005) was also spectacular. They also had a whole flight of good whites including a dry Riesling (2007), Sauvignon Blanc (2008), and Reserve Chardonnay (2006).

Mountfair’s “Inauguration” was fantastic. Montfair is down near Charlottesville for those interested in a fantastic local wine.

Philip Carter’s “Falconwood” was really refreshing, I liked it so much I bought five bottles.

James River Cellars had a whole selection of yummy stuff. Their 2008 Saude Creek was very refreshing, the 2007 Gewurztraminer was extraordinary with a sweet Italian Basil nose and hint to it’s flavor. Their 2007 Chambourcin is amazingly port-like in it’s smokey-sweet flavor. Their Hanover White (2007) is a reliable dry white wine we have come to rely on.

Breaux has a fantastic Nebbiolo Ice Wine (2008 dessert wine) and one of the best Viogniers (2007), though Cooper’s was a good Viognier too. We bought Cooper’s Viognier, and hope to visit Breaux soon to buy some of theirs as well.

We got over-heated, and the music was way too loud (though better than years passed). We came home and had grilled burgers, fresh tomatoes, corn on the cobb, and garden salad from our own garden (well, with store bought tomatoes). Yum!

LiveJournal has a funny “adult content” warning on her blog because she once posted some mild language, but this review is G-rated and safe for all readers. Enjoy.

It is a bloody good thing that the winery is only about two miles from our house.

Then we headed out to Gadino Vineyards where dance teachers from The Ballroom Studio taught some basic Salsa and we did the Gadino wine tasting. We liked their “Sunset” blended white wine, that had characteristics of a light Gewurztraminer and their Cabernet Sauvignon and bought a few bottles of each. The drive out and back was gorgeous; it had just rained, and the mountains were shrouded in a blue mist.

On our way back from little Washington, Virginia, we stopped at Blue Ridge Seafood for some lobster, snow crab legs, and gator tail. Very informal and very good eats.

Local Vineyards:

Locations we visited in Japan in 2005:

Many thanks to Johnny for inviting us out to the event. He reports he found a Meteor wine called Firefly that tasted quite good, though we left before we found it to try ourselves. John, you rock!

We brought home:
Vino Curioso Chardontage 2007 (crisp white blend)
Vino Curioso 954 2006 (full bodied red blend)
James River Cellars 2006 Montpelier (surprisingly good blush with dry after notes)
James River Cellars 2006 Hanover White (yummy dry white)
James River Cellars 2006 Chambourcin (fantastic port-like blend, wow)
Wish we’d had time to snag Valhalla’s Cabernet Sauvignon, and Row Ten (white), and Horton’s wines (where we got soaked the first time).

We chased that with a wonderful house warming party in Centreville with friends. Pleasantly tired and mellow.