I might be old, but dammit, I ROCK!

Yes, I just completed the solo guitar tour on Rock Band, and even though I was only playing on medium, it feels pretty freaking awesome. My wife (goddess!) sprung for an Xbox 360, and my mother-in-law (what a sweetie) sent me Rock Band, and I've basically been playing three hours a night since the goodies arrived.

We had a bunch of folks over Saturday evening to rock out, and lo, the rock was out in force. A buddy of mine gave me a drum throne to make the experience even better. Liz also scored some great wine to share with us (mmm, vintage Grand Cru Champagne....) and cooked an amazing meal (mmm, beef tenderloin; mmm, Guinness chocolate cake) that all enjoyed. Meanwhile, our daughter (angel!) slept through it all (miracle!).

I'm looking forward to getting folks together again soon (regularly?), but for now, this little rock star needs his beauty sleep.

I've uploaded the photos from our trip to New York. After my day of hacking in the hotel (during which we had a great rain storm), I met up with Liz and two of her classmates after their exam for beer and munchies at Luna Park. It was humid as hell, but I had the best grilled cheese sandwich ever, and discovered that, for being somewhat mass-market, Stella Artois is an acceptable beer. Sadly, our delivery Chinese experience later than night was pretty poor (after waiting two and a half hours, they delivered it to the wrong location), and the Cavs just couldn't manage to get any traction against the spurs, so the late evening kind of fell apart.

The next day we went to Bliss for massages (nice) and then bopped up to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, mostly so I could take pictures. We wandered a bit at FAO Schwartz, where we encountered some awesome LEGO sculptures. After lunch at BLT Steak (too expensive, but delicious), I got all spontaneous and we took a carriage ride through part of Central Park. A pre-dinner visit to Vino (an awesome Italian wine shop) resulted in a fun conversation and a few more bottles to add to the cellar. Unfortunately, our meal at I Trulli was fairly uneven: while all of Liz's dishes were pretty decent, two of mine (a duck prosciutto appetizer and Piedmontese hanger steak) were serious misfires, and I found myself reluctantly slipping into the feeling of being an "Iron Chef" judge on a bad day. The service and pacing weren't jiving either. The wine, however, was quite nice--if only the rest of the experience had lived up to it! Alas.

My overall dissatisfaction with NYC was further reinforced by our discovery that, once you go through security at LaGuardia, you don't have any meal options that include protein. If you happen to be traveling with a pregnant woman at lunch time, this is, politely, less than good. As an added bonus, the TSA folks gave Liz a bunch of crap about going through the security line a second time after leaving to get something edible. Luckily, the cats were happy to see us when we got home. And really, that's what matters.

After Liz and I cooked breakfast I and accomplished a car-packing miracle (I knew all those years of Tetris would come in handy!), we found ourselves running a bit early for our first appointment in Prosser, and finding that we were on a strip of wineries, we stopped at the place next door on a whim--Willow Crest Winery, home of very young winemaker Victor Palencia, Mexican immigrant and graduate of Walla Walla's enology program. Victor started studying winemaking at 17, and eventually received special dispensation from the state to allow him to taste the results of his labors; however, until that time he was forced to rely entirely on his sense of smell, and that effort has really honed his skills at an unusually early age, and he's producing surprisingly good wines that bely their modest price points. I especially enjoyed his Chateauneuf-du-Pape style "XIII," his celebration of finally turning 21. He's well on his way to being a formidable talent--my head spins to imagine what he'll be producing in ten years.

Next up was an appointment at Thurstone Wolfe, about which I ended up with very mixed feelings. We lunched at the patio there, then I ran around to get some photos of topiaries in a field, the under-construction Winemaker's Loft (a sort of winery tasting room strip mall), and an abandoned LEGO. Then it was back into the car for the drive back to Seattle.

We did a bit of running around, visiting Luna Park to pick up some coffee, and West Seattle Cellars to ship some of the week's bounty back home. Then it was back to Jenny and Mike's to have an impromptu dinner party and wine tasting to help us clear out all the bottles we'd brought back from Hedges. As the evening wound down, not even Jaden the cat could keep Mike and I from catching up, finally turning in around five AM once the wine was gone and the morning birds were chirping... The results speak for themselves.

And if you have been following along the whole way, then you already know the rest.

Thursday began in earnest on Red Mountain in the vineyard at Hightower, hawk circling overhead, Murray the dog by our feet. Kelly Hightower poured and talked us through the tasting. We met Brent Goedhart there, working on a Syrah for his upcoming Goedhart Family Wines project; he recommended that we stop at Hedges while we were in the area (his wife is the assistant winemaker), so we got directions from Kelly and headed off to what became the surprise hit of the week.

We tasted the lineup at Hedges, with Cristophe Hedges as our guide. We toured the library, then were invited to stick around for lunch with the winemaker, vineyard manager, and pretty much everyone else who was on hand--lovely folks all, and we had a delightful conversation and quite enjoyed our time with them. As we were getting ready to leave the beautiful estate, Cristophe, to our amazement, packed up everything we'd tasted and insisted that we take it with us. We found it best to smile and say thank you.

We stopped briefly at Chandler Reach, which sadly did not wow us (admittedly we were all feeling a bit spoiled by this point).

We rested for a while back at the Cañon de Sol guest house, then while Jenny and Liz made dinner, it was my job to start a campfire as phase one of Operation S'more. Now, I've tended a few fires before and consider myself pretty good at their general operation, care, and feeding, but I've never had to start one of the things from scratch before. So, after encountering some ironic and appropriate kindling, I blossomed with manly pride when I achieved a nice, sustained flame. Liz came to marvel over my studliness, and set me to gathering up suitable sticks for marshmallow toasting. Dinner wrapped up as the sun set over the hills, and as night settled in, we wound down with marshmallows and dark chocolate s'mores, and decided to call the day a success.

Wednesday began in Walla Walla with a rainy visit to Abeja. Then it was time to head west, back toward Yakima Valley. We sojourned at Woodward Canyon along the way, lunched at a Mexican joint in Pasco (food okay, bathroom frightening), and zoomed past the Horse Heaven Hills on our way to an appointment at Apex with new winemaker Jean-Claude, with whom we had a tremendously fun and interesting conversation as we tasted through their lineup. We paused briefly in Prosser, indulging in a visit to Chukar Cherries, then wrapped up our wine journey with a tasting at Cañon de Sol with winemaker Victor Cruz.

After the tasting, we settled in at the Cañon de Sol guest house, made plans for groceries and dinner, and set out on our evening errands. Though we made the mistake of shopping while hungry, I at least had the presence of mind to realize that, in the company of two women, and with the all the capabilities of producing a campfire readily at hand back at the guest house, picking up goodies to make s'mores was a must. Following an amazing sunset, we rushed into Kennewick to look for restaurants that Victor had recommended. Unfortunately pretty much anything reputable had closed, but discovered that "The Pub" fit all of our criteria (open, people there, kitchen serving food) and so we tucked into burgers and beers to finish off the day.

Thanks to aquamindy's help editing the massive heap of photos from the rest of our week in Washington, the logjam of photos is starting to clear up. This next batch (from here to here) covers our Tuesday in Walla Walla.

After a delicious breakfast, we had a little time to kill before our first appointment, so we did some sightseeing in downtown Walla Walla. Our first wine stop of the day was at K, where we met Pumpkin Killer, got a sneak peak at Kung Fu Girl, tasted their Viognier and Syrah, and briefly encountered winemaker Charles Shaw en route to the dentist. We next popped down the road to College Cellars at the Walla Walla Community College's Center for Enology and Viticulture, where Stan Clarke gave us a tour of their facility and took us up to the teaching vineyards, then headed back to the college for a taste of Syrah. We lunched in the garden at Leonetti and received a private tour of the tasting room, winery, and cellar. (Plus I had a great chance to make a new LJ icon for myself thanks to a mirror in the cellar.)

Next was Basel Cellars, which had some nice views and friendly dogs but which really didn't meet with our palettes. Our taste buds were happier a short distance away at Pepper Bridge, where we tasted a number of happy things, and I made friends with an awesome sculpture. (Also, did you know that Hogue made Garfield wine? Me neither!)

After a brief pause, we headed back into town, passed two guys playing guitar, snapped a souvenir photo of Onion World for butterandjelly, and met Dean and Verdie Morrison for a private tasting at Morrison Lane. After dinner, we fired up the fireplace and Jenny and I stayed up chatting and finished the leftover Viognier from the night before.

I've started to upload photos of our trip to Washington. This first round (from here to here) is from Sunday, April 29: our tour and tasting at Chateau Ste. Michelle, a spiffy-looking peacock showing off, some just-before-sunset shots of the Seattle skyline, and dinner at Beàto with wolffire and gr0m1t.

I hope to be able to keep up a decent pace with the editing and uploading so that I don't drag out the vacation posts forever, but it's all dependent on the amount of time and mental energy I have (as I tend to tag rather execessively). I think I'll be trying to do about a day's worth at a time, unless there's a day that's utterly overwhelming with good shots.

More to follow!

I am not allowed to stay up drinking with gr0m1t.

aquamindy and I are now safely back in Seattle after a week of zooming around Walla Walla and Yakima Valley wineries. Have had an excellent time, tasted many wines, and taken many, many photos. Unfortunately have not had time to process any of it, blog any of it, etc. so all of that will have to wait a bit.

We're having an impromptu dinner party with wolffire and gr0m1t and some of their friends in an attempt to kill off an unexpected windfall of wine -- we ended up with almost a case of free wine after a tasting! Should be fun.

Need to call dendacien and sort out what's going on tomorrow before we leave.

Sounds like people are here... Gotta go be social!

After a long, long Friday night of staying up burning CDs for the rental car, and a long, long Saturday of airplanes, airports and power naps, we arrived in safely in Seattle and found our way to wolffire and gr0m1t's (very lovely) house without incident. After a bit of catching up we walked to nearby Circa, a West Seattle alehouse with supremely tasty food; I'm very satisfied with my choice of a Boundary Bay Blonde and the halibut tacos, a nigh-religious experience after a day of airplane food.

Today we have an appointment at Chateau Ste. Michelle and a bit of sightseeing planned, and then dinner at Beàto. In the morning, we head off to the other side of the state to start the wine visits in earnest. We're very happy to have made a better rental car selection than on our Napa trip (do not drive a Ford Taurus on windy, windy roads, kids); the comfy seats should be a nice bonus as we drive all over creation this week.

More later -- must eat breakfast and get going.

...1982 Chateauneuf du Pape.

(My wife is soooo awesome...)

Thanks to my wife for spotting this particularly amusing reminder of why I love Google News:

Had a lovely weekend.

Gorgeous day yesterday, perfect for taking care of some last-minute errands and running down to West Point Market with Karla to pick up groceries for Liz's birthday dinner.

Did some errands with Liz today (frame shop, Radio Shack, etc.), enjoyed helping set up her Tivoli iPod radio gizmo, played some Wii (the Rayman: Raving Rabbids game is quite recommended from our house), and did some maintenance on her laptop.

Bad news: my mother-in-law's dog passed away this morning. :-( He was a good friend, and will be missed.

Super-nummy birthday dinner for Liz tonight with Karla. We did a trio of cheeses--Ewephoria, Mimolette, and Brie--with provencale wafers, bosc pears, pink lady apples, and an olive medly and nicely matched to a cremant d'Loire; main course of prime rib (sooo pink and tender) matched with a roasted mix of carrots, parsnips, and potatoes, and perfectly paired with Katherine Kennedy Lateral (a luscious Bordeaux-style blend). Followed it all up with chocolate raspberry parfaits from Michael Angelo's. Yummy!

We'll spend the rest of the evening chilling out and enjoying some quiet time together, making plans for 2007 and getting ready for the adventures ahead.

Cheers!

Had a nice visit with my parents this week; their arrival was delayed from Friday until Sunday thanks to the weather in Denver, which allowed us a couple of extra days to get things in order. They're back in Mountain Time now, driving from Phoenix to Durango. Highlights include:

• A couple of excellent feasts for Christmas Eve and Day. Liz really knows her way around the kitchen.
• Learned that Mom really likes white Burgundy. A lot.
• Lunch at Melt was a huge hit.
• My mother-in-law knitted me a Jayne hat!! It keeps my noggin surprisingly, delightfully warm.
• Liz and my parents and my mother-in-law and I pitched in on a shiny new Mac as a combination Christmas/birthday present. It's job will be to help both my aging iMac and still-spry-but-time-consuming Linux box retire to gentler pastures. So far it's doing this quite admirably.
• Liz surprised the hell out of me by hiding a Wii in one of the Mac boxes. The look on my face was apparently priceless.
• Liz kicks my butt at most of Wii Sports, but I can totally take my dad at Wii Baseball. :-D

...

As a nice bonus, Webfaction rolled out WebDav support, so I can shift all of our iCal sharing off to that and have one less reason to keep a machine running all day here at home. Yay!

Dear reality,

Sod off. We've quite enjoyed ignoring you this weekend.

Friday: Infinity, bubbles, cheese, and "Galactica".

Saturday: Sleep, wine tasting, the tasting menu at Nemo.

Sunday: Stayed in bed all day, sleeping, watching movies, sleeping, catching up on Cerebus and Flight, leftover Indian food in our PJ's, snuggling by the fire and listening to this week's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me".

Hardly glamorous, but perfect in its own way, and exactly what we needed.

Liz and I took a well-deserved three-day weekend trip to Ann Arbor to celebrate our anniversary a little early. It's hard to believe that six years of marriage have gone rocketing by so quickly!

Friday night we enjoyed a good wander around downtown Ann Arbor, discovered, to the peril of my credit cards, the Vault of Midnight, got a head start on our Christmas shopping, and met up with Kevin Dangoor and Mark Ramm at the Arbor Brewing Company, where a good time was had by all.

Saturday, after a spot of brunch and shopping (and discovering the hypnotic terror that is "Powerpuff Girls Z"), the main attraction began: a series of RSC shows featuring Patrick Stewart. First up was Julius Caesar, not featuring Patrick Stewart, but instead featuring buckets of blood, dogs of war, signs and portents, and all similar manner of treacherous goodness. We paused for a jaunt over to Vinology for dinner, followed by a quick bit of dessert at La Dolce Vita, then it was back to the theatre for Antony and Cleopatra, where I had a bit of a chuckle over Patrick Stewart's wig--I don't think I've ever seen him have that much hair before, unless you count the space-mullet he sported in Dune. This morning, we brunched again, then took in the third and final round, The Tempest, which had been done up as a rather cinematic affair in a barren land north of the Arctic circle, somewhere between King Kong and Neil Gaiman.

As expected, Patrick Stewart was thoroughly at home on the stage, and did not disappoint, in energy, in subtlety, in getting just the right nuance. And though he chewed a bit of scenery, he should be commended for making sure that his fellow players get chances to shine in their own right. We were especially impressed with Cleopatra, whose performance utterly defied words as it cascaded from girlish delight to bitter jealousy and rage, into despair, and finally, tragic, dignified resolve. Bravo!

And, just like that, the time has gone and now we're home again, making preparations to do battle with the week ahead. Oh, yes, there are still tickets available for some shows, if you find yourself of a mind to go. Even if your seats aren't the greatest, you won't regret it.

Still no time to dig through the San Francisco/Napa/Alexander Valley/Sonoma/wedding photos to find the good stuff, as work and other extra-curriculars continue to absorb all available free time. Hopefully I'll be able to get to some of that this weekend.

Today's victory: got the green light from The Powers That Be for the topic I was thinking of for a PyCon presentation. Now I just have to find the time to blast out the proposal and outline; this weekend looks like it might be a candidate. My original plan was to take care of all of that while out in California, but various crises kept me from submitting my idea to TPTB until just this week. I probably needed the complete vacation anyway.

Today's comfort: just back from a wine dinner at Grady's featuring wines from the Rousillon region. Liz (not my Liz, but the lady who runs the shop) amazed us with one perfect pairing after another. Hooray!

Work tells me that I get to fly to DC for a day next week. What exactly I'm along for isn't terribly clear yet, and I unfortunately probably won't be able to skip out for sushi at Kaz (*cry*), but it should add a little novelty to the week. The trick will be waking up early enough to catch a 7:30 AM flight--ugh!

Just a quick post for now... We are back safely from San Francisco. Thankfully, the house is still standing--no exploding water heaters, no massive wake of feline destruction, nothing. I suppose it's a good thing we got in when we did, as the news now tells us a plane got diverted to Cleveland as a result of some security scare. That would have fouled our return to kitties but good.

The remainder of our time in wine country was simply marvelous, and filled with a delightful lack of televisions, internet, and cell phone coverage. High points include our romantic lodgings atop the oceanside cliffs of Albion, tour at Handley, visit to the indulgent "Bubble Room" at J, and utterly perfect dinner at The Girl and the Fig in Sonoma. I suspect that I'll get around to writing about it a little bit sometime soon (which probably means I'll never get to it, based on my track record).

Don and Kai are married (for a whole day now). Hooray for them, and about time too! I ended up standing in for a replacement groomsman, which was a pretty good time overall. I got taken to my first football game (with 72,516 in attendance), enjoyed hanging out with Don and his friends, and generally did my best to keep Don from either jumping off of or passing out and falling down the cliffside behind the wedding site. Ah, good times. :-) Anyway, we wish the two of them heaps of all that good marriage stuff, blah blah blah. Not that they need my additional blessing, as they are about as perfect together as any two crazy kids could be, but I figure good mojo is always welcome.

Lots of photos were taken. Coming soon: maybe I'll find the time to sort and upload some. Stranger things have happened!

Too much new stuff on the Tivo this week: Galactica, Dr. Who, Lost, Eureka, Studio 60, The Office, Robot Chicken, etc. etc. I think I need a vacation day to catch up with everything... :-P

After a Monday night of drinking high-end sake and feasting on exquisitely delicious sushi with my high school buddy Josh, we hauled our sleepy behinds up to Napa for the kick-off of the week's wine country adventures.

We spent pretty much all day Tuesday at Tres Sabores, getting a tour by way of working for the winemaker, Julie Johnson. Liz and I punched down the caps on some 2006 Petite Syrah, took some samples of Zin grapes from the vineyard, and ran the samples over to a local lab for testing. After a lunch of burritos from La Luna (perfectly paired with Julie's 2004 Zin), it was back to work again: Liz punched down, then went out into the vineyard with Julie to do some pre-harvest maintenance, while I repaired some dodgy splices in the wiring for the shop's speakers and got the radio going again, all while standing on a series of ladders and entertaining a charming six-year-old girl whose father was up for the afternoon to work on his Cab. We've apparently been adopted by the various dogs and cats who romp about the grounds--two of the kittens even tried to sleep with us for a while last night. The sheep and guinea hens, however, remain a bit standoffish. Julie very generously treated us to dinner at the bar of a nearby restaurant, and then we slept the sleep of the righteously tired.

Today the weather is grey and misty. There is harvesting this morning (actually already completed) and preparations for crush are underway. Once that's completed (or at least going) it'll be time to hit the road and drive up north to Albion.

I have been fairly photo-crazy up here, so expect some updates once I get a chance to edit and see what came out well.

This is another half-day post as about a quarter of the photos we shot for the week were taken on this fifth day (Thursday) in Germany.

Our day begins in Worms, with a visit to the Martin Luther monument (the largest in Germany), a return trip to the Dom (quite worthwhile, I think), and a stop at the morning market. We then hit the road and head for the Pfalz, driving through Bad Dürkheim to Deidesheim to tour the cellar and taste wine at Weingut Basserman-Jordan. We lunch at the favorite restaurant of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, where a sudden and much-needed rain soaks us as we're finishing up; then it's back on the Autobahn as we head north to the lower Mosel...

If you're following along on the map, this block of photos covers items ten and eleven on the itinerary.