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Our own little wine tasting

Sunday night we had Bob and Beautiful Wife over for a quick dinner that ended up being like a mini wine tasting. We started with the aforementioned Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc with some apple slices, cheese & crackers, and dill pickles (pickles and white wine, interesting combination).

We then moved on to try some Raspberry Blanc from everyone's favorite (only) local winery, Flag Hill with our artichokes. The Raspberry Blanc is pretty sweet -- barely tastes like alcohol -- but not bad; just not real interesting. For dinner we had a tossed salad (with avocado, just like Mom used to make), German potato salad, and steaks on The George, with a Bordeaux (1998 Haut-Médoc from Château La Lagune) I had given Bob a while back when I thought anything French must be great. I guess I lucked out because it was pretty good.

For dessert we finished the remnants of the Mondavi Moscato d’Oro from Saturday night, with fresh mixed berries on sponge cake with a special topping Bob makes he calls "fresh whipped cream". (All I know is it involves the mixer from the bottom drawer in our kitchen that we never use.)

Wines for Summer

CBS News Sunday Morning had a nice segment with Bob's favorite wine columnists Dottie Gaiter and John Brecher of the Wall Street Journal. They suggested some favorite value wines for summer:

Yellow Tail Shiraz and George DuBoeuf Beaujolais-Villages were suggested as reds that are a little lighter than most and are good served chilled -- and good with hamburgers and hot dogs. For vintage they said "the younger the better." I have to say the Yellow Tail label always catches my eye in the store and I have wondered if it is any good. NH status: Both should be widely available in State Liquor stores and supermarkets.

Next they suggested some whites: Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc Private Bin 2002 and Rancho Zabaco Sonoma Country Pinot Gris 2001 Reserve. They suggested these as light and refreshing but with something a little unique. Pinot Gris is "the hot new thing this summer," and described as tasting "like a bowl of fruit". The Villa Maria also happened to show up as a best value on Wine Spectator's most recent list of top picks. I tried it Sunday evening and it was very good. NH status: Both should be available in some State Liquor stores. The Villa Maria seems more widely stocked (I found it in Dover).

The last two wines were Gran Feudo 2001 Rosé Wine Navarra and a sparkling wine I believe called Freshenet but I could not quite see the label (even with the TiVo's amazing powers of blip-back, pause and slow-mo). Both they unapologetically suggested as great for hot summer days. NH status: Head for the border. I could not find either listed on the State Liquor store online inventory web site.

Indian Native American Night

Saturday night we had Kreblog, Lnotes (Mrs. Kreblog), Heidi of Everyday News and Mr. Everyday News. Since one of the bunch is a vegetarian (I'll let you guess. Hint: the McGriddle is not available with vegiham) I thought it would be better to order out from Taste of India rather than make a lame attempt at vegan food. Plus, despite the best efforts of our little window AC unit, the apartment gets damn hot when you cram in 6 people, 3 cats, and turn on the stove. (Did I mention the new house has central AC!!!!)

Luckily, the vegetarian is no teetotaler [?] and plenty of martinis were imbibed all around, taking full advantage of my repertoire of lollipop martini recipes that I mostly lifted from PF Changs. I screwed up the Blood Orange martini not for reasons that Heidi implies, but because mid-recipe I had to open a new bottle of vodka and lost track of how many shots had already gone in the shaker... which I am certainly culpable of doing even when sober.

With dinner we had a 2001 Bolla Valpolicella red wine that had been suggested to Heidi as going well with spicy foods. It was a nicely spicy wine which I enjoyed, but I think it would be better paired with a spicy steak rather than the hot-spice of Indian food. We'll have plenty of opportunity to test this theory since we have almost 2 liters on-hand now! After dinner, some of us walked over to Dover Delite for ice cream, and then finished off the night with a glass of the light and refreshing 1998 Robert Mondavi Moscato d'Oro which is becoming one of my favorite dessert wines.

Things were great until someone totally embarassed themselves by dancing around on our very expensive antique coffee table wearing a lampshade and slurring their words. Really some people just have no class. Revelation of the night: One husband is not allowed to read his wife's blog and does not know the URL (which we discovered after he kept repeating stories we all had already read).

Chalie's Angels FU

Friday night we saw what the ticket stub referred to as "Charlie's Angels FU" down in Methuen Mass. It was not a movie that was on the top of any of our pick lists, but it seemed to be the best choice of what was playing. My reaction to the movie: Wow. Not wow it's great. Wow, it left me drained and a little befuddled. I felt like the part of my brain that processes action was severely overstimulated. This is definitely a movie for ADD kids raised on video games. It's one "full throttle" action sequence after another, full of Matrixesque stunts that they don't even pretend could be possible, every gag joke and pun they could think of, lots of cameos, and plenty of good ole' T&A. Or mostly A. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.) For me, Bernie Mac was the best part of the movie.

Soliciting feedback: Appliance colors

We're getting maple cabinets with a natural finish (natural as in no stain, not organically grown trees). What goes best with those: Black or bisque appliances? [Update: We chose black. We asked, but Mint and Avacado were not available, stainless steel was too expensive, and since black got the only other vote....]

Better in mind and out of touch than out of mind altogether

In response to the latest entry entitled "Out of touch" over at Everyday News (can't link directly to it since the archives are broken again): I just surfed the round of blogs of people i know to 'catch-up' with them, which in a way is sort of pathetic... [I] find myself 'maintaining' friendships through cyperspace. is that messed up or what? I don't think so. Heck, it's one of the main reasons I started one myself: I'd go to lunch with Kreblog and feel like I was all caught up on his life, and realized that it was disproportionate since he had no idea what I had been up to.

I appreciate blogs for this. Most of us just wouldn't have time otherwise. Better we keep in touch somehow, and I think it makes the occasions when we can get together face-to-face all the more meaningful since we don't have to catch-up. The status of my friendships reflects this: I keep in contact with zero people from high school, one person from college (and sporadically at that), no one from job #1 at Ctron -- but with the former-Ctron-IT-blogophiles, I'm doing pretty well after two years.

House options: soliciting feedback

Gas clothes dryer or clothes electric dryer? We're getting a gas stove, and have the option for a convection oven: Yes or No? I really have no idea how a convection oven differs from a regular oven.

House Hunting Update

Well after two solid Saturdays (plus some Sundays) of house hunting, with about 15 houses visited, we are this close to being officially done. We signed a purchase and sale agreement earlier today. I say only this close because technically we still have a 5-day backout period per the contract, but as far as we are concerned, we're done.

We decided to go for a new development in Stratham. The lot sizes are small, and there are only five pre-designed floorplans to choose from, but it fits with our requirements (as previously mentioned) pretty well. The house should be done in November -- that's the artist's conception you see above.

We went today for what we thought would be a quick lunch meeting to sign the contract, but turned into a four hour which-looks-better-this-or-that session as we picked out the base options that the sales rep needed to start the process: house/door/shutter colors, kitchen cabinets, counter tops, tile... I know, this is the fun part, but I have a low tolerance for it. When in doubt I say, "Just do it like the model house." At least we know a professional designer picked out those colors.

The rest of this week we get to go through the fun relationship strengthening exercise of picking out all the little customizations and upgrades. Hard wood floor where? What type of carpet? Extra lights where? And then we get the final price. And then we start crossing things off the list.

Free WiFi in downtown Portsmouth

Note to co-workers: I have relocate my cube. I can now be found in the third booth back at Starbucks: Market Square has Wi-fi. Amazing coincidence: Yesterday my boss mentioned that he and some others were kicking around ideas for some sort of PR thing to showcase my company's video over DSL technology, and they had thought about talking to the state and BayRing (a local service provider who uses our DSL equipment) about co-sponsoring a live streaming web cam on the Little Bay Bridge. I said, "You know what would be really cool? Put a few free wireless access points in downtown. That would get us some good buzz." He liked the idea and we were seriously considering looking into it. Maybe we can co-sponsor some additional WAPs -- one near each of my regular downtown lunch places.

Forget the new house honey, we're moving back to the family farm

That handsome fellow is my great-great-great-grandfather John Endicott Leach (1830-1908). If you click on the photo, it shows the photographer's studio in the corner along with the city: Somersworth, NH. Here I am thinking I'd moved away from home, and yet I discover that my great-great-great-grandfather settled in Dover, and my great-grandfather Harold Osborn Harris (1893-1977) was born in Somersworth. Now it's kind of sad to think that I'm moving out of Dover.

I'm just starting to find out about this side of the family, thanks to a relative who's put together a genealogy web site. I had the good fortune to know two sets of great-grandparents, but I never knew much about my maternal grandfather's side of the family. I've heard there was some sort of rift, because my grandfather was Irish Catholic and married a Protestant girl. Amazing to imagine nowadays... a generation later, his grandchildren have married into Jewish and Hindu faiths. If my single cousins can find a Buddhist and a Muslim to marry we should have all the major faiths represented. We can hold a regular inter-faith council at the family get-together every Christmas Holiday season.

It's wine made by elves right?

Here's a tip: This week's Wine Spectator "Wine of the Week" can actually be found in the NH Liquor Store: FOPPIANO Petite Sirah Paso Robles 2001 (90 points, $15) Bursting with rugged blueberry, black and white pepper, black cherry and earthy flavors, supported by formidable tannins that display some brawn, with everything folding nicely into the spicy, concentrated finish. A new Paso Robles bottling, and an excellent value, from this old-time Sonoma vintner. Best from 2004 through 2012. Here's a quick link to check the stock level at your closest NH state store.

Fun Wine Fact: The Petite Sirah grape and Syrah (aka Shiraz) grape, while both used for wine, are totally unrelated to each other. I just recently learned that myself after reading this article on Petite Sirah. A few days after reading the article, I was in a specialty wine shop in Mass where they were doing a little tasting for customers. One of the wines they were serving was a Petite Sirah, and the wine "expert" was explaining to the assembled patrons that it was called Petite Syrah because the grapes were picked when they were smaller than normal. Well, he certainly looked like an expert, and he acted like one. He probably normally only deals with French wines...

Guess who their angel investor is?

From my NetworkWorld email news flash: Ex-Cabletron crew gains new funding for start-up: Not every ex-Cabletron employee can go on to become governor of a small New England state. Some have founded a start-up called Pannaway Technologies, which is all about convergence for carriers. Sounds like these guys are going to be a competitor of my company. For all my fellow 'tron alums, be sure to check out the Leadership page and you'll see some familiar faces.

I'm famous (again)

I've been playing with this MostVisited plugin for Movable Type which scans your web access logs and puts together a list of your top 10 most visited blog entries. Right now I've got my list on the left side under "Other Links". I'm not sure I am going to keep it -- it scans your entire access_log every time you rebuild, which is not very smart. Maybe I'll work on some improvements.

Anyway, it got me curious about the Mission: Impossible IT entry -- why is it 3rd with over 100 hits? Well look at that, I -- or actually my nomme de blog XYZ -- was on Network World's Compendium web site back in April and never knew it. Hey Network World, how about turning on TrackBack pings, eh? With this plus my previous appearance, I am almost like a regular contributor to Network World.

New road in Newington: Shattuck Way

New road in Newington to ease Woodbury Avenue congestion. Have you checked it out? It's pretty nice. It runs roughly parallel to Woodbury Ave, starting at the TGI Friday's intersection, and continuing north until it merges with River Road, which terminates at the on-ramp for Exit 4 (just before the Little Bay Bridge northbound on the Spaulding Turnpike). Even better, here's a map I marked up.

One thing I think is cool about this road is that you can see a lone farm, stuck like an oasis of pre-industrial Newington, in the midst of the powerplants. I had noticed in the past that there was no development along that stretch of Woodbury Ave across from the Fox Run Mall -- only a dirt driveway accompanied by old telephone poles. I had wondered what the place out there looked like. Well now I know. The new road bisects the driveway, revealing the rows of big old elms flanking the long dirt road out to the old farmhouse and barn. Is this the Rollings Farm the above article makes reference? I wonder how much longer they can hold out?

Movable Type Plugins

Now here's the most useful plug-in ever. OK, I know, pretty simple stuff.

There is some really great stuff over at mt-plugins.org. On this blog I am using: SmartyPants which makes posts pretty by turning "quotes" into "smart quotes", double-hypens into an em-dash, and three periods into an ellipses; and MTAmazon which has a set of tags to pull book info (including images) using Amazon.com's Web Services.

BookQueue looks very interesting. (It even gives the CueCat a use.) I had actually thought of creating something like that myself so I would not have to update my book list by hand, but hey if someone else beat me to it, great!

How Do I Love TiVo? Let Me Count the Ways...

Well I finally did it. I broke down and bought a new TiVo. Well new to us. It's actually a factory "renewed" TiVo with a one year warranty. A real steal at $249. This upgrades us from an original 30-hour unit to a new 80-hour "Series 2" TiVo with all the latest fixins: streaming music and photos from the PC, multi-room viewing, and remote web-based scheduling. We love our TiVo. I even peeled the Apple decal off my car and replaced it with the TiVo decal (Apple decals were so 90s anyway). We never watch live TV anymore -- only what is recorded on the TiVo. And I swear we are more efficient TV-watchers because of it. "Does it automatically skip the commercials!?" everyone always eagerly asks. Not automatically, but skipping commercials is not even really the point: It's so much more than that. Think of it: You never have to be home at a certain time to see TV again. Trust me, if you are even thinking about TiVo, just go get one. It's worth it.

This story seems to have the privacy alarmists up in arms: TiVo to Sell Reports on Users' TV Viewing Habits. I even heard a spot on NPR's Marketplace about it. It really perplexes me: I'm worried about medical insurers or the government invading my privacy and using it against me, but we're up in arms that NBC will know I like Friends? Frankly, I would like the networks to know more about what I watch; then maybe they wouldn't cancel the programs I like and keep rolling out lame reality shows. Really, privacy from advertisers is not something that concerns me in the least. They don't care about my individual habits, only demographics. Maybe someday they'll do targeted advertising. Would that be so bad? I'd like TV ads as targeted as Amazon.com's homepage recommendations. Show me another computer commercial rather than a bra ad (well, unless it's a Victoria's Secret ad). At least the Yahoo article reports an important fact that many of the alarmists articles fail to mention: TiVo allows its users to decline the monitoring of their viewing habits, but... most do not.

Tales of an Evil Empire

Recently at lunch I overheard a Starbuck's manager training a couple new employees for the new store they are opening in Kittery. I was amazed at the snippet I heard (and not just because of the "all the the drinks you can drink while working" perk). Warning, rant ahead. Click below to read more...

The manager went on at length about social responsibility aspects of the company. He encouraged each employee to get involved in a local charity, and said Starbuck's will help support their employees' causes with product donations, matching time, even grants, as long as the employee is also heavily involved. Personally, he read for the blind every week. He also went into detail about some extra steps they will be going through to fully recycle their waste, since the city does not offer it (or something like that), and about how they will be saving coffee grinds to donate to someone for something (what are coffee grinds good for? composting?). That struck me as very smart: Not only does the company give to charities, but they incentivize their employees to get involved with charities as well, which is probably much more valuable than a couple million here and there.

All this renewed my amazed befuddlement at people's virulent animosity for Starbucks. It is often ranked somewhere between McDonald's and Osama/Saddam/Chirac/Bush (pick your political pariah) in the list of evils of this world. Their sins seem to be: (1) not local; (2) many locations; (3) making a profit. I just don't get it. They offer a superior product, treat employees well (named one of Fortune's best places to work), and try to be socially responsible (support local and national charities, community involvement, environmentally conscious, promote economic fair-trade down the supplier chain). I mean really, go look at their social responsibility page and think about what your employer is doing. What's so bad here? Isn't Starbuck's an example of a public corporation trying to do the right thing -- even in the face of "maximizing shareholder value"? Shouldn't they be lauded and held up as an example rather than vilified as an evil coffee hegemony?

The number one complaint I hear is that Starbuck's puts the local shops out of business. First, even if it's true, I don't believe it is a valid reason: Sorry, but I am a free market purist on this; I don't believe in protecting the local shop because it's local. They should compete. Second, even if it's true, we're not talking Wal-Mart here: Starbuck's is not coming in and undercutting the locals with impossibly low prices. They charge a healthy premium price. Third, I'm not sure it's true that Starbuck's puts the local shops out of business. This Wall Street Journal article [Despite Starbucks Jitters, Most Coffeehouses Thrive] asserts that Starbuck's actually helps the locals: In fact, sales at the 10-year-old [local] coffeehouse have grown stronger since Starbucks arrived. With reluctance, [the owner], concedes that that might not be a coincidence. "Starbucks helped our business, but I don't want to give them any credit for it," he says. Empirical evidence in the Portsmouth market would seem to support this. All this adds up to a simple fact: If you go out of business in the face of Starbucks, you probably had bad coffee and/or service.

Lastly, there is the hypocrisy of which many are guilty. Detractors of Starbuck's and other national chains bemoan the "homogenization of America", but when you are out of town, visiting someplace you don't know, just making a quick stop off the highway, do you head for Joe's Local Diner or McDonalds? McDonalds. (Or, actually, Wendy's if it's available.) The food may not be the best, but at least you know what you're going to get. How about coffee? You may check out the small local shop if you have some spare time and it looks charming, but if you just need a quick cup in a hurry: Starbucks. The truth is, we love the homogenization of America, just not in our own hometown.

Salam goes legit

Well sort of... Salam Pax now writes a biweekly (that's "fortnightly" if you are British) column for The Guardian called the Baghdad Blogger. Catchy, eh? To me, the article reads pretty much like his blog, maybe a little better edited. At least now the updates will be on a regular basis.

I heard a little bit about this on NPR (PRI's The World). They interviewed the editor from The Guardian who found and hired Salam. The editor said he was already getting inundated with offers from people for book deals, etc, to pass on to Salam. Soon Salam will be on the talk shows. Well there's at least one thing we've brought to Iraq: Hope of attaining the modern American Dream -- a quick rise to media fame, hopefully accompanied by some serious cash. Let's hope he gets a good agent to manage this for all its worth.

Salam Veritas

This article, linked from Salam's blog, is pretty funny. It's like something out of a movie... a real Keyser Soze epiphany: Salam Pax Is Real - How do I know Baghdad's famous blogger exists? He worked for me. Baghdad was hectic when two blogging friends e-mailed me to suggest that I track down "Salam Pax." I had no idea who or what they were talking about. I could have handed over the job of sorting out this Salam Pax thing to my interpreter--he was a clever and funny Iraqi who never failed to provide what I needed, whether it was interviews or pizza--but I let it pass. I thought I had better things to do. ...

The day after I returned to New York ... I clicked over to [Salam's] blog. His latest post mentioned an afternoon he spent at the Hamra Hotel pool, reading a borrowed copy of The New Yorker. I laughed out loud. He then mentioned an escapade in which he helped deliver 24 pizzas to American soldiers. I howled. Salam Pax, the most famous and most mysterious blogger in the world, was my interpreter.

Great Bay National Nuclear Wildlife Refuge

All this time I thought the glow was from marital bliss, but I guess it's just some fallout from work: Radioactive waste may still be buried at Pease Tradeport: Air Force officials will be looking into possible radioactive contamination at an old weapons storage facility at Pease International Tradeport... The property in question is... surrounded by barbed wire. It is part of the Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge... [O]fficials have identified these facilities as places where items associated with nuclear weapons production were likely buried. I always found it suspicious that the old ammo dump had brand new shiny razor wire and black SUVs sometimes parked inside. I thought it might be a secret government black-ops project. Thank goodness it's just toxic waste.

Lucky Dog

Cape Cod Times, May 28, Missing pooch located after Yarmouth crash: A black dog, lost [in] a car crash Sunday [May 25], has been found safe and returned home. According to police the black mutt, named Buddy, was found "unharmed but fatigued." He had been missing [3 days] since his owner... lost control of his 1999 Nissan Maxima... and flipped over several times. [The driver], charged with OUI, told officers his dog had been in the car with him, but police were unable to locate it. That evening the dog was found by a resident [...] in South Yarmouth and returned to [the owner], who had been released on bail.

Dinner à chez XYZ

Last night we had a couple friends over for dinner. This was a big event for us, as we are just getting back into the swing of having people for dinner after a several year hiatus (long story why).

We started the night with candy martinis: Blue Raspberry, Sour Apple, Blood Orange, Metropolitan and Espresso martinis were had. For an appetizer we served one of our signatures: steamed artichokes with lemon butter. We ate them all the time growing up so they don't seem that uncommon to me, but most of our guests to date have not had them so its fun to serve something new.

Next we served cold Red Pepper and Tomato Soup, which was a new one I tried from my Williams-Sonoma Soup book. In addition to the obvious ingredients of red pepper and tomatoes, it includes one-half of a chipolte pepper from a can of chipolte peppers in adobo sauce. The one-half added quite a bit of spicy heat to the soup, that didn't hit the tip of your tongue but you really felt it in the back of your throat. I liked the soup OK, but I don't know whether I would have it again. Others seemed to like it better.

For the main course we served Sirloin Steak with Madeira Mushroom sauce, Rice Pilaf and a Ragout of Summer Squash, Zuchini, Sundried Tomato and Garlic. The Madeira sauce (so named because it is made with Madeira wine) recipe is one my brother showed me. It always seems to turn out a little different, since my brother, having gone to cooking school and all, isn't big on giving very specific cooking measures and directions. Lots of directions involve "until it smells right" or "looks right." Nonetheless, I thought it came out pretty well this time.

For wine, our guests brought Justin Vineyards Isosceles 1997. It was a great wine. We thought it had a strong raspberry nose, with black cherry and maybe a little tobacco flavors. With a score of 95, Wine Spectator ranked this wine Number 6 on the Top 10 of 2000, with the following notes: Absolutely delicious, this blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (mostly), Cabernet Franc and Merlot is brimming with ripe and juicy currant, blackcherry, wild berry, plum and anise flavors that are complex, deep and polished. Finishes long and flavorful. Best from 2002 through 2012.

For dessert, we served Chocolate Mousse cake and Double Chocolate Kaluha cake which we had picked up at Fogarty's in South Berwick earlier in the day. Our goal was to have a really chocolate-y dessert to try with the Marco Negri Marsilio 2001 Moscato d'Asti DOCG dessert wine. This was a bubbly, light flavored dessert wine which was great, especially considering it's only $8 a bottle. It was suggested to me by a clerk at Orleans Wine & Spirits when I was on the Cape last weekend. He said it was great with rich chocolate, and was like "a mouthful of freshness" -- he was right. I'll definitely be getting a couple more bottles next time we're there.

Taking notes for future home ownership

Note to self: Graniterants can apparently fix mechnical stuff. Get to know Graniterants better.