On most weekday mornings I rise and race to beat Atlanta’s traffic onto the road. Today, after sleeping on the couch (makes making the bed that much easier 🙂 ) and with no plans in place for the evening I’ve decided to make some coffee, relax around the house (writing this blog is cathartic therefore quite relaxing for me) and take a slow roll into work. I’ll get to work when I get there and I’ll leave when my daily penance is up. I’ve just received word from REI that the socks I ordered from their outlet store have arrived, so perhaps I’ll drop in and get them on my way in.
Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.
I am not interested so much in what I do with my hands or words as what I do with my feelings. I want to live from the inside out, not from the outside in.
To all who have helped me — Thanks.
I Can’t Believe It’s Still Sweater Weather
About six weeks ago I contemplated when it would be time to put my sweaters away for the “Summer.” Today I am wearing one. I am not a big fan of this seasonal shift shit that has been occurring. April is not sweater-wearing season in Georgia; it’s time for not having to think about if I need an “extra layer” and for women to start wearing skirts again (my blog, my desires).
White Whine
I’ve got a small collection of wine in my cellar which should be consumed (read “Summer ’08: The Summer of Red”). I am a patient man and realize that I should be backfilling my stock so that in a few year’s time I will be equally blessed with a collection of wine. My dilemma is that I have been out of the game for a while (Barb, Lisa, remember the “Good Long-Ago Days” of wine tastings?) and don’t know what I should be purchasing. Money is of course and object, but thanks to an extended dry spell (of dating, not drinking) it is far less of an issue than it was back then.
Help me out.
I prefer reds.
Suggest regions.
Suggest vineyards.
Alert me to “good” years, and which vintages to avoid.
I’ll assume that online delivery to a Georgia address is still verboten, but I plan to travel.
Help me, pleeeeeaaaaase!
ITP Flickr Pics
My Flip Video video camera arrived. I finally had time to take it out of the box, but not enough time to make a video for today however.
It appears to be a very simplistic camera, which is perfect for my video needs.
I’m Going To Shoot People
No not that way, although I admit there are some people who spring to mind immediately when I think of shooting people.
Yesterday I signed up for another photography class to be held at Showcase, this one will be “People One.” After a few days of struggling again with my photography I’ve reminded myself of two things
- I need to shoot a lot more
- I need education to help me out
I’ve signed up for six weeks of Tuesday night (6:15-8:00) classes, which conveniently works out as a “low exercise” day on my Twisted Ankle training.
“Have We Not Yet Reached The Merger?”
Spoilers!
Survivor: (Dwindling) Fans v. Favorites returned last night in what seemed like a short eternity (I know, that’s an oxymoron but it seemed appropriate). It had been such a long since I thought about Survivor that my first thought was “Have we not yet reached the merger?” and of course we had not.
We return to find that Cirie is still on the show (argh!) and that people have gotten so thin that I am once again contemplating signing up for “Survivor: AARP” so that I can shed the fifteen pounds of flab that still inhabit my body. I know that I have never, nor will I ever, look like Leif Garrett Erik because I am old, but the thought still bounces around in my head occasionally.
It’s time for the annual “pizza and beer” reward challenge, but those clever Survivor producers throw a wrench into the works by making this a combined Reward/Elimination Challenge. The producers also seemed to have difficulty finding a major American pizza delivery service which both delivers to deserted islands and is willing to fork over large amounts of cash for in-your-face product placement because when the pies arrive the boxes just say “pizza.” Poor Ozzy and some FanGirl whose name I’ve yet to learn don’t get to play in this reindeer game and therefore will not fatten up any. However, they do get immunity from elimination which I would assume is more valuable at this point than a slice of cold ‘za. Ozzy also has bigger fish to fry as he finds out that he’s got someone on his “false Immunity Idol” hook just waiting to be reeled in.
It’s no shocker as we see whatever tribe Ozzy plays for lose yet again. Buh. Bye. Erik… (Hey, has anyone ever thought of voting off Cirie? As I see it she doesn’t add much to “surviving”). But wait!!!! There is talk that Erik might save his hide as he reveals that Ami is one sneaky lesbian tribemate and has been the lynch-pin for plans to vote off Favorites that have gone awry at the last minute. When Ozzy hears this he goes all “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father prepare to die!” and swears to vote off Ami because she is a lesbian and has no desire to sleep with him she has tried to oust the Puppet Master. I’m too wise to fall for the editors’ attempts to fool me, only to find out that they fooled me when Ami gets the boot. To make matters worse, there was no square-on-the-lips girl-kiss between Amanda and Ami (my blog, my desires) as Ami departs. Dangen!
Merger? Did someone say merger?
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – fair, but thankful that it’s Friday and I don’t have hard plans for the weekend
Current Music – Listening to Okkervil River’s “The Stage Names” cd
Website Of The Day – In the market for some new, and completely awesome, t-shirts? Check out the offerings from Lucky Threadz. Just don’t get the “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father prepare to die!” shirt because I already did…
Exercise (b)Log – nothing, that’s bad
Monthly Foot Mileage – 5.5 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car
Monthly Marta Rides – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 4 (4)
April Goals
1) Run no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride Marta no fewer than ten times (five round-trips)
3) Read at least one book
4) Make my bed every day
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Ahh, a relexed morning start — that explains why my daily ITP fix wasn’t ready for my regular 9 a.m. reading! Shame…shame 😉
We too love red wines but are not so devoted as to be able to recommend specific vineyard, regions or vintages. I will admit, however, that lately we have taken a guilty pleasure to wine-in-a-box — particularily the Black Box brand sold at Sam’s. Quite yummy and because it is vacuum sealed doesn’t oxidize as quickly so once open it lasts for a week or two. Any Black Box reps out their can mail me a box or two at 735 Will…
Enjoy your Flip camera — my boss/soon to be ex-boss just bought one for the office. It is indeed as easy to use at it looks — heck even Maggie could probably figure it out.
One last thing — though you sort of pooh-poohed it back on Tuesday, I have to give two big thumbs (or 45-55mph?) to R.E.M.’s latest offering. I’ve been playing it almost non-stop since then — very rockable. Btw, tickets to their June show at Lakewood go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. I can “try” to pick up some extra if anyone we know is interested (any recs on most reliable method of getting tix these days — phone, on-line, Publix?).
Sorry for hijacking your blog again Paulie — maybe I should get one of my own!
My favorite reds of late… HazyBlur was a $65 bottle of wine given to me and was it divine! So if you want one for a special occasion, I’d recommend that one. The rest are somewhere between $15 and $30, mostly in the $20 range. My house red lately has either been the Catena Malbec or the Cline Ancient Vines Mourvedre.
HazyBlur 2003 Shiraz (Barossa Valley)
3 Rings 2005 Shiraz (Barossa Valley)
Red Nectar 2005 Cabernet (Barossa Valley)
Catena 2005 Malbec (Argentina)
Cline 2006 Oakley Five Reds: Merlot, Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Mourvedre (Oakley, California)
Torbreck 2006 Woodcutter’s Shiraz (Barossa Valley)
Steele 2006 Pinot Noir (Santa Barbara County)
Morgan 2006 Twelve Clones Pinot Noir (Santa Lucia Highlands)
Taurino 2000 Riserva (A blend of Negroamaro and Malvasia Rossa) (Salice Salentino, Italy)
Cline 2005 Ancient Vines Mourvedre (Contra Costa County)
Bogle 2004 Phantom (A blend of Old Vine Zinfindel, Petite Sirah and Old Vine Mourvedre) (California)
Brenan – any idea how many million $$ those REM tickets will be? I’m afraid I couldn’t justify the ticket price anymore (and the probably $10 for ticketbastard).
Wine— let’s start going to tastings again!!!!!!!!
Sherlocks in both Brookhaven and Decatur have FREE tasting every Saturday afternoon, and maybe sometimes 1 night a week. I think many wine stores do that now. I’ve started talking to the wine person at the store I’m at, asking for suggestion of good wine for $10 or less, or $10-$15, or whatever mood I’m in for buying that day. My friend Leslie works for Prestige Wholesalers, so sometimes she tells me what to buy. If you can find a winery that doesn’t distribute in GA, you can get it shipped here. After our trip to CA, I joined 2 clubs, Stryker ad Peju. Peju’s club was too pricy, (about $125-$150 for 3 bottles, but DAMN GOOD wine, so I cancelled that one after a couple shipments). Stryker’s shipment is about $75-$80 for 3 bottles. I’m ready for another trip to NorCal – the Napa to Sonoma 1/2 marathon is in July – you can get exercise and drink wine.
Survivor – I’m with you on Cirie, why don’t they vote her off!
Cline has great wines, I’m with StacyD, and was a fun winery when we were in CA, they had a music festival going on that day. If we wouldn’t have had to get to about 5 more wineries, we would have spent the day there.
StacyD – are you sitting at home reading all your labels? Otherwise, you have WAY too good of a memory.
Or she hasn’t consumed nearly enough. 🙂
Thanks for the suggestions. This may be the greatest day of information that ITP has ever supplied.
Paulie (who has finally made it into the office today)
Barb — face value is $32 (lawn) to $75 (seats)
No way – less that $100 for reserved seats? I’m shocked….
Jimmy Buffett got $136 for his reserved seats. I still can’t go, this bathroom remodel has cost a fortune……… but the tile is basically done, next comes grout, and that means light at the end of the tunnel. Now I have to decide on a granite for the sink countertop.
I refuse to go because it’s at Lakewood. Have I ever blogged about how much I hate Lakewood?
Hey! You cheated! 😉 Do you think I can convice Steve to sleep on the couch? We have two; it could work out….
As far as red wines, my philosophy is, for the most part, “love the one you’re with” — makes me a really easy wine date.
I didn’t cheat, I merely bent the rules… Actually I passed out watching something on tv after watching Survivor.
As the wife I thought that you got to order him to the couch. 😉
There has got to be a good way of remembering a good wine… especially after you have wrung the bottle dry. Any good ideas or systems?
-FP
(and a shout out to my bed making honey!! 3 days straight!!)
In the past I have used the camera on my phone to serve as additional brain cells for the ones I am killing with alcohol.
Now you’ve done it. I signed up for People One, too. You’ve got six weeks of my seeing my sorry ass comin’ up.
Cool! I hadn’t thought of signing up until yesterday otherwise I would have talked to you about it on Tuesday night. Looking forward to seeing and shooting with you more regularly. 🙂
i heard on npr yesterday that GA gov. just approved shipping wine into georgia. hooray!
i’m from washington, and partial to their wineries— fidelitas is my favorite (their 05 cab is ! so good.)
also great: anything from hedges winery and hogue. terra blanca has a pretty great merlot as well.
good luck!
Thanks leenie, that’s awesome news! I’ve had and enjoyed wines from Hedges and Hogue, I will have to give Fidelitas a taste.
What’s wrong with Lakewood — it sure beats the hell out of Chastain where one strains to hear the music above the clanking wine glasses and endless chit chats of season ticket holders?
I hate Chastain more and have vowed never to step foot in either again.
– Lakewood is another Ticketmaster venue.
– I am not impressed with their set-up, the lawn is horrible.
– The stage is too far away from any seat that I would be willing to pay for.
The lawn is great — especially after a rain storm. My favorite Lakewood memory is mud sliding from the back wall alongside topless cuties during Lilith Fair (who cares if they probably didn’t like men! 🙂
I save the empty bottles until I have time to put them into my Google docs list of wines that I liked. So, it was pretty handy. My friend Mitch in Chattanooga is a wine distributor, so when he visits he brings me yummy wine that I wouldn’t have found on my own.
I love the Russian River Valley wines from California, but he’s been turning me on to the Barossa Valley wines from Australia.
Too much wine, too little time…