Where the Sidewalk Begins ...

Out for a few days

I got a call on Friday evening, asking me to come to Florida to help a friend decide whether or not to buy a wine shop. Who am I to argue with a free trip to Florida to talk about my favorite hobby?
I'll be gone Tuesday - Thursday.
Kevin is flying to Miami, and home again, on Wednesday.
Sadly, we're missing most of Restaurant Week in Cincinnati, so I'm hoping it'll come around again this Spring.

I bought a pair of Sennheiser collapsible noise-cancelling headphones since it looks like I'll be travelling a lot for conferences in the next 6-8 months. I've never paid that much for headphones in my life. So far, they seem pretty nifty. I did have to buy a special adapter for my iPhone, which is poor design on Apple's part. When you have $170 headphones, you'd think they'd fit a new-fangled iPod. Anyway, I can use these to watch video and vodcasts on my iPhone during the flight, as well as watch movies on the PSP during the flight. Nope, when travelling, the small screen doens't bother me. Just the plane engines. Hopefully these headphones will eliminate that.

In the meantime, here are some photos from the Ohio vineyards we visited this weekend - Kinkead Ridge, Harmony Hill, and Lakeside. I'm always enthralled by the natural beauty of grapes hanging on the vine. I can't recommend the vinifera at Kinkead Ridge highly enough. Those folks are on their way to Wine Spectator cult stardom I think. Their wine is that good. Harmony Hill makes some great wine using French-American hybrids and their winery is an absolute blast to visit.

Enjoy!

We won!

You know that Top Blog in Cincinnati thing? Well, we won. I can't believe it. So now I'm the proud owner of an iPhone. I hope to fully review the phone in the next few days. It's so completely different from any SmartPhone or Smart Mobile Gadget I've ever had. There's a definite learning curve, but I'm not complaining. I still keep taking it out of my purse and going "wow. It's a phone, and it's mine."

I'm one of Cincy's Top 10 Blogs!

This is fairly exciting. My Wine Education is officially one of Cincinnati's Top 10 Blogs. Yay!
Here's the press release (Note that only the Top 2 get iPhones. I haven't a chance in hell.):

Chamber and CincyTechUSA name region's Top 10 Blogs

When it comes to determining the best blogs in Cincinnati USA, the clear consensus among the judges: A Top 10 list is not nearly enough.

The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber and the region's high tech initiative -- CincyTechUSA -- received 154 nominations for 62 unique blog entries in Cincinnati USA's Best Blog Competition over the past seven days on Cincinnati.com in a quest to name the best blog authored in Cincinnati USA and the best blog authored by a Chamber member.

"We were amazed by the quality, the passion and the diversity of the blogs nominated," said Bob Coy, president of CincyTechUSA. "Sadly, too many top-quality blogs can't be squeezed into one Top 10 list. And determining the final two winners -- who will receive iPhones -- will require yet another round of judging before we can make a tough, tough decision and our announcement of the winners on Aug. 2."

According to Coy, the judges favored blogs created by a single author over blogs written or produced by a collaboration or an organization. "We felt it only fair to judge individual bloggers rather than pit a solitary blogger against an entire organization with much greater resources," Coy said. "Even still, it was incredibly difficult to arrive at a short list. It's quite evident we have a vibrant and growing blogging community in Cincinnati USA."

Because the nomination process was hosted and promoted by Cincinnati.com, bloggers who are employed by Cincinnati.com, The Cincinnati Enquirer, CiN Weekly and The Cincinnati Post could not be considered.

The top winners in the two respective categories will be announced Thursday, Aug. 2, at the conclusion of a Web 2.0 Bootcamp in the Chamber's Learning Center, Suite 300 of the Carew Tower, 441 Vine St.. They will receive the hottest Internet gadget going: Apple iPhones. AT&T service is not included. Pete Blackshaw -- chief marketing officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics and a national authority on blogging, podcasts and online video -- will present "Consumer Generated Media: Blogs and Streaming Video," a comprehensive workshop that will cover the latest wave of Internet business models, and how companies can leverage these cost-effective tools to promote their products. Only four seats remain for the Aug. 2 presentation and can be reserved by calling 513.579.3111. Cost is $175 for Chamber members; $300 for nonmembers.

The Top 10 Best Blogs In Cincinnati USA As Named By The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber And CincyTechUSA

"Building Cincinnati," blogger Kevin LeMaster, coverage of Cincinnati development news, http://buildingcincinnati.blogspot.com

"Cincinnati Blog," blogger Brian Griffin, political and progressive news and opinion in Cincinnati, http://cincinnati.blogspot.com/

"DesignCincinnati," blogger Drew Steinbrecher, design and architecture highlights around the region, http://www.drew-o-rama.com/designcincinnati

"Fort's Cancer Sux", blogger Melissa McLaughlin, Melissa's (Fort's) inspiring journal of her quest to beat stage-four breast cancer, http://fortscancersux.blogspot.com

"Freckle Photo," blogger Melissa Speelman, outstanding photo journal by a local art teacher documenting her family, friends, and classroom activities, http://www.frecklephoto.com

"Each Note Secure," blogger Joe Long, WOXY.com staffer who has his finger directly on the pulse of the music world in Cincinnati USA and beyond, http://www.eachnotesecure.com

"Lance McAlister," blogger Lance McAlister, arguably the premier overall sports blog in Cincinnati USA and the No. 1 fan site of Pittsburgh-bound lightning bolt Valerie Abati, http://1530homer.com/pages/lancesBlog.html

"My Wine Education," blogger Michelle Lentz, very tasty site about the local and worldwide wine scene, http://www.wine-girl.net

"Patent Baristas," blogger Stephen Albainy-Jenie, provides pertinent information about intellectual property topics, http://patentbaristas.com

"Strategic Public Relations," blogger Kevin Dugan, insights on the latest in PR developments and issues locally and globally, http://prblog.typepad.com

Question of the Day

I posed this on Twitter as well, because I am in search of ideas, as opposed to quotes. Something to help me with the general direction of the article, since the direction has changed completely. (Grumble, grumble)

So, devoted readers, as members of a Coveted Demographic, why is bourbon sexy?
Why would you want to learn more about it - even, perhaps, visit some distilleries for a day?

Feel free to comment below or shoot an email.

Thanks!

WBW #35: At my blog!

Hooray! My wine blog is hosting the 35th edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday. WBW is a rather fascinating experiment in virtual tasting. One person is the "host" and chooses a theme. Anyone (with or without a blog) tastes a wine that fits the theme. The hosts collects the URLS and then does a giant post with everyone's comments and links. Everyone gets a boost in hit count for the day of the giant post and the host gets a large boost across the board.

This month the theme is Wines from Spain under $10. There are some great ones out there. You don't have to be a wine blogger, or even a blogger, to participate. Just drink the right type of wine, write a review, post it on any of your blogs, and email me the url at the Special Email Address: Spanish.WBW@gmail.com. If you're without a blog, then just email me the review. It's that easy!

I hope some of you non-wine-bloggers (Gabby, Chuck, not to name names or anything) participate just for the fun of it. The due date for everyone's submissions is Wednesday, July 11.

Cheers!

Hidden Gem

We had dinner with Kate and Ben the other night at a hidden gem in Cincinnati called The Napa Grille. It was a blast - I love it when you can take your time through a dinner with no rushing or pressure. You can read the review here. And next time you're in Cincinnati but want a little taste of California, try the Napa Grille.

When Wine Bloggers Meet

Wine Bloggers,
originally uploaded by writegirl.

Kevin & I had dinner with several wine bloggers after the wine festival the other day. It's always fun when bloggers meet.

Wine & Technology

So in an effort to build some credibility as a wine person in this city, I've taken the advice of a columnist at the Dayton Daily News and began posting local wine events each Friday over on the Wine blog. Now, here's the thing. It's getting to be quite an unwieldy list, as there are tons of things going on. There's got to be an easier way than me just cutting and pasting from the previous week's blog entry and making the list even longer each week. We were originally thinking some sort of database, but I don't know if that is going to happen. What it is, it should export to HTML. I can't put it in Word or another Office product because of all the ridiculous coding MS products add.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!

Heist!

Wine heist, to be more specific, but definitely a cool heist (as far as crime can be cool ...).

We're in Chicago for a funeral, so a moratorium on posting for a few days.

Corrections and Changes

Just a couple of things:

First off, I'm no longer hosting Wine Blogging Wednesday. At least, not this month. It turns out that there was a lost list and miscommunication and some general craziness. All this led to the realization that I'm hosting in February 2008, sooner if someone drops out.

Next, the BUNNY IS BACK! So far, he seems to be quite happy and functioning like a normal rabbit. It's all good. You can, in fact, email the bunny!

SherlockHBunny@nabaztag.com

To prevent rabbit spam, the email address must belong to a registered user (with or without a bunny) on Nabaztag.com. Also, the bunny can only read/play the subject line. If you attach an MP3, however, Sherlock will play it (the first 40 seconds at least). So go register and feel free to email the bunny!

Passionate Spain

I'd like to invite all my non-wine-drinking friends, as well as my wine-drinking friends who don't usually participate, to join me in the upcoming Wine Blogging Wednesday. WBW is a neat event. Each month, the organizer selects one blog to "host" a theme. This month, I'm the host and the theme is Spanish wines under $10. You don't even need a blog. Just drink a bottle of Spanish wine by March 14, blog about it and send me your permalink or just email your thoughts, and I'll put you in a giant summary around March 17. Then you can read about everyone else's experiences. To learn more about this month's WBW, visit my wine blog. I consider it an honor to host this month, and I hope you all join us!

CORRECTION, 2/12/07: There was a crazy misunderstanding and I'm apparently scheduled for February/March 2008. Yep, the organizer and I were quite confused. Anyway, no hosting for me until 2008, unless someone else drops out.

Wineries in Niagara

As I mentioned, we visited several wineries in the Niagara wine region on this last trip. If you're curious, I detailed the wineries, as well as our purchases, over in the Wine Blog. Enjoy!

Periodic Wine Blog Update 6/6

In the last week or so, the following posts went up on the Wine Blog:
(all will open in new tab/window)

• Flights of Fancy (wine flights at Bin 36 Chicago)
• Numbers and Happy Faces (reposted on this blog as well)
• Marilyn in my Life (similar to a post on this blog, but focusing on the release of Marilyn Merlot)
• More Virtual Cellars: Winelog.net
• Memorial Day (Taste of Cincinnati)
• It's Paris All Over Again (results of the Judgement of Paris re-creation tasting)

Numbers and Happy Faces (repost)

This is reposted from my Wine Blog.

*************************************

I've never gotten along well with numbers. Whether it is balancing my bank account or just doing basic math, numbers are not my thing. Maybe that is why I have never liked the numerical rating scales for wine. Wine elicits strong emotions from me, or none at all.
Wine is emotional. For that reason, I have always used a sliding scale of happy face to sad face. You can find these on all my wine notes, dating back several years. Simplistic as it is, it better describes my emotions and how I feel about the wine than any number could.
So, when I try a wine and share it via the blog, I'm also going to start rating it with my sliding scale of happy faces. (I suppose it's very similar to the sliding pain scale they ask you to identify with in the hospital, just more pleasant.) Take a look and once you get past your initial laughter, tell me that it doesn't make perfect sense to you.

 

Periodic Wine Blog Update

As promised, a quick update on what's been happening on my wine blog, in case you're interested:

• Texting for wine suggestions
• Tasting notes on a Spanish-style California Wine  - Tempranillo
• Reviews of several online wine databases/cellars/communities, including Cellar Tracker, WineFetch, Logabottle, and Cork'd
• Biltmore Estate Winery experience and tastings
• Wine Blogging Wednesday/Is My Blog Burning wine & food pairing
• Environmentally friendly wine rack

3 Cases Later

Once a quarter there's a "wine tasting" here in Cincinnati held by a social club. We usually go to about 2 per year. I really can't handle more than that.

I would say between 200 and 400 people show up at these things. Sometimes it is hard to tell because the location ends up being a lot smaller than the amount of people. You pay $10 to get in, which goes to a charity, and you bring 3 bottles of a specific varietal. Two of your bottles are wrapped and put in numbered buckets. One of your bottles goes into the case prizes.

You carry around a piece of paper where you're supposed to rate each wine you try on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (good). At the top, you list the numbers of the best and worst wines you tried.

These events are usually gigantic social events where people drink giant pours and get pretty darned drunk. The age range is usually in the mid 20s to mid 30s. The wine is mostly intolerable. Word of the event must have spread though, because last night was different. In addition to all of the usual, there was a slightly older crowd in attendance, which meant slightly better wine, more attention paid to the size of the pours and the ratings sheet.

WBW #21 Announced!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #21 has been announced, and guess what? It's not on a Wednesday. May's event combines Wine Blogging Wednesday with Is My Blog Burning?. Is my Blog Burning? is another monthly web event, except for foodies. I suppose it was inevitable that the two come together.
This event will require my husband Kevin and I to work closely together. He is the one, after all, who does the cooking around here (for the most part). Perhaps we'll do a small multi-course meal with a wine/entree combo followed by a dessert/wine combo. I can definitely take care of the latter and I can already picture him thumbing happily through his Wine Spectator Guide to Food & Wine Pairings trying to find a perfect combination for dinner that night.
Oh - what night you ask? Wine Blogging Wednesday is on Friday, May 19. The wrap-up is hosted this month by the guy who started WBW, Lenn Thompson over at LennDevours. Cook up some grub and grab some wine!

Claret: Our Wine Education

I keep thinking I should post more wine reviews, considering how much we drink. So I'll try to get better. This wine was an education for us in many ways. First off, it was our first Claret (but definitely not our last). Second, it was an education in sediment.
2002 Claret
A to Z Winery, Oregon
$18.00, local wine store
When I first unscrewed the cap, there was a strong and pleasant scent of dark chocolate and cherries. Yum. Later, after the wine had been open for a couple of hours, we also detected a peppery scent overtaking the chocolate.

WBW #20: Off the Beaten Path Whites

Wine Blogging Wednesday #20 has arrived. This month's theme is Off the Beaten Path Whites (i.e., anything but Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauv Blanc, and no blends). I was able to shop at home this time around, as we had a nice Cline Viognier just waiting to be opened.

We're not very familiar with Viognier and based on my notes, this was our first. We picked it up at the Cline winery last July, as it was perfect during our tasting on that warm July day.

Wine: Cline Viognier, 2004, Sonoma County

If you want to know how it tastes, you really need to click the link to read more. ;-)

Wine Porn

No, seriously.

Technorati Tag: wine porn

WBW #20 Announced

Wine Blogging Wednesday #20 has been announced for Wednesday, April 12. The beverage of choice: Any white that is not one of the big 3 (sauv blanc, chardonnay, reisling) or a blend. For us, the choice is easy. We've got several bottles of Pinot Gris sitting around, as well as a nice Cline Viognier we picked up last summer at the winery. I don't even have to hit a wine store for this - I can just shop at home. The point of this exercise, obviously, is to expand your horizons beyond the standard big 3 whites.

On another note, the Cincinnati Int'l Wine Festival Grand Tasting is this upcoming weekend. We're joining our friends Gabrielle & Jason this year. If you have any interest and you're in the area, the Wine Fest is a great time. Classy too.

UPDATE, 4/13/06:  WBW#20 is gone now, but the review lives on here.

Technorati Tags: wine blogging wednesday, WBW, WBW20, Cincinnati Wine Festival, Wine Festival

Wine Blogging Wednesday Round-Up, #19

The Wine Blogging Wednesday Round-up has been posted over at WINExpressions.com. Over 30 different Rhone-style wines were tried. If you're interested in trying one, here's a great place to start.

Technorati Tags: Wine Blogging Wednesday, Wine, WBW, WBW 19

WBW #19: When in Rhone

So here we are - Wine Blogging Wednesday. I'm still a little nervous, this being my first time all. We stuck with France because we tend to drink heavily Aussie and California/Washington wines. France is still new to us.

Vintage: 2003
Type: Red
Producer: Domaine La Remejeanne
Varietal: Grenache Blend
Designation: Les Arbousiers
Country: France
Region: Rhone/Southern Rhone
Appellation: Cotes du Rhone

If you want to know how it tastes, you really need to click the link to read more. 

Pre-WBW #19

There's a thing out there on the web called Wine Blogging Wednesday. This is the 19th monthly blogging session, but my first. I'm a little nervous.
This month's theme (hosted over at WINExpression.com) is When in Rhone:

This month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday theme “When in Rhone” aims to help us become acquainted with these varietals that are being used all over the world. Winemakers have decided to �?do as the Rhonins do’ and transport and clone the varietals in rich soils from Australia and New Zealand to the warm central coast of California, and the vines are adapting quite nicely. Consumers are becoming aware of the high caliber wines crafted from these distinct grapes in areas other than the Rhone. Events like the Rhone Rangers, and Hospice du Rhone are continuing to gain recognition and popularity as they showcase the latest efforts by the winemakers focusing on these varietals.

So tomorrow I"ll be writing about a wine from the Cotes du Rhone appellation. Kevin and I are drinking it tonite.

Technorati Tags: Wine Blogging Wednesday, Wine, WBW, WBW 19

Short Ends

Thank you for becoming my MySpace friends. The social networking thing fascinates me - the chain of people ... 6 degrees of separation will soon become too many I think. It's amazing the people I just found on MySpace with just a few clicks. High school, college, kids I've taught dance to, awesome women I've lost touch with ... all out there on MySpace with a click or two. And all connected in one way or another.
The MySpace tools? Still primitive.

I lost a second post on Cellar Tracker yesterday. Basically I discovered a "spirits" category, where our Bourbon, Brandy, and Kevin's Scotch now happily reside. I also discovered the abillity to download the entire cellar & reports into a "live" Excel spreadsheet. It's pretty cool to be able to access the cellar at any point in time, whether locally on on the web. I'm probably more excited about the tool than I am our wine.

Suffering from work-related avoidance issues again. The good news? The client liked the course outlines I put together. Now I have to put together the courses ...

One last thing before I'm off to the Land of Work - my sister emailed me today. She is doing a group project for Freshman English on Structural Criticism (which apparently sucks the fun out of literature). She needed help understanding it and ideas for a presentation. I sent her to Wikipedia and suggested she do a multimedia presentation comparing/contrasting scenes in West Side Story and Romeo + Juliet (the Wikipedia example) and throwing in some of those stupid formulas (I don't like this theory at all) as well. I also told her to verify that her prof will let her use Wikipedia as one of her sources. Anyway, if anyone else has ideas for resources or presentation ideas, leave them in the comments. I imagine this project is sort of scaring her.

Cellar Tracker

Kevin and I have started to acquire a rather unwieldy wine collection. There are wines everywhere! Upstairs, downstairs, in boxes ... OK, so we need a second wine refrigerator - possibly one that will hold whites and reds. We have over 80 bottles. I realize that by real world standards that's small, but still I'm impressed. I had no idea. A good number of those are aging, with the furthest Drink By date being 2016, so they'll be sitting in the wine fridge for a while.
My tasting notes are all crazy too. I keep them in a Tasting Notebook, complete with wine label. But there's really no rhyme or reason to the notebook either, and no simple way to find out what we drank and if we liked it.
Enter Cellar Tracker. I had originally tried to create an Access database, but that didn't work out very well. I didn't find Access user friendly and I didn't have the time to learn more about it. But Cellar Tracker does the same thing - it organizes our wine. It lists everything we have cellared, plus tasting notes for everything we have consumed. It has most wines already entered - I just have to enter in the purchase location/cost and any personal notes I might have before (or after) drinking.

The Napa Grille

Last night Kevin took me out for a very tasty Valentine's Day dinner. We went to a new restaurant called The Napa Grille. It's in the Hyde Park Regency, where J's Seafood was once located.
They have an extensive wine selection, and you can even order flights of wine. We tried a flight of Pinot Noirs (California, Oregon, and Burgundy) and a flight of Napa Valley Whites. Of the flights, I was particularly taken by the St. Clement Chardonnay (2004) and the Trefethen Gewurtzraminer (2004). We also had a Cakebread  Sauv. Blanc, but it just didn't resonate like the other two.  The Pinot Noir that really jumped out was the Willamette Valley Hangtime (2004). I ordered a glass of it to go with my meal. Kevin had a New Zealand Matua Sauv. Blanc (2005) with his meal, recommended by the waiter, that was also really good.
Dessert was heavenly. A trio of creme brulee, and a decadent flourless chocolate cake. For me, always, the entreee is just a way of getting to dessert. I rarely enjoy my entrees, but I always enjoy my dessert. Really, I just need the dessert and wine and I could skip the entree entirely.
The entrees were excellent, even if I did prefer

It's okay to smell that wine

Did you know that the reason the waiter presents one person at your table with a pour of wine, before continuing to pour both glasses, is that you are supposed to verify the wine is not bad? Okay - your average Joe doesn't know that. Until about a year ago, I didn't know that either. (If you did, you are apparently not your Average Joe.) I always thought it was to see if you approved of the wine, if it smelled good and/or swirled good.
Not so much.
That "pre-pour," as I call it, is your chance to see if the wine is "corked." A corked wine suffers from TCA, or cork taint, which basically leads to wine gone bad. TCA is why you'll see more and more wineries, particularly the upstarts, using fake corks or even screwcaps. (We bought an excellent Chardonnay at Plumpjack last summer, and they gave us a choice: screwcap or cork. We chose screwcap.)
Anyway, it looks like technology is on the way to make that pre-pour easier on those of us without the sensitive nose required to sense TCA.

Electronic nose vapor sensors are printed arrays of transistors that can detect ambient chemicals and odors and then alert a consumer if the internal contents of a medicine bottle or bottle of wine have changed. Thus, if acetic acid has begun to build, sensors will send a signal that the wine is going sour before you inadvertently give it the thumbs up at tasting.

If they can succeed at making these cheaply, they'll have a very successful little product on their hands.

Vinography
C/Net

3 Thieves Cab Sauv: Cowboy Up!

I've decided that I'm going to post our tasting notes for some of the wines we taste. We already record our tasting notes in a notebook, and I'm trying to learn Access to create my database of our tasting notes (needless to say, Access is not intuitive to the dbase-clueless like myself).
I'm starting out these Tasting Notes with a fun Cabernet Sauvignon for under $10. Usually we drink in the $15 - $50 price ranges, but I read about this and was intrigued.

Three Thieves 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon - California. Bottled in Oakville (Napa). $9.99 - purchased at the local Cork and Bottle.

Read on for our "review."

Perfect Birthday Weekend

I had this great post composed and then something went wonky, and I lost it. Since my hand now hurts, I'm just going to sum it up -
The Art Institute of Chicago is incredible. I love Toulose-Lautrec and some of his work is there. Among others, we also saw this, this, this, and this, all of which are just incredible.
We shopped in the museum store and Kevin purchased for me (part of the birthday) a small replica of Degas' The Little Dancer. I used to have a replica of the sculpture, and then it shattered, and hadn't ever been replaced. Now it has been and lives in our living room. He picked up a pretty cool Toulouse-Lautrec tie for himself and we even bought some Christmas cards for next year.
We checked in at the Palmer House Hilton where they gave us a gorgeous corner room on the Hhonors floor (plus double points and miles!) and sent up a mocchachino, chocolates, and champagne for my birthday. (Always join those hotel membership programs ...).
We had dinner at Bin 36, at the House of Blues Hotel. We had three flights (yep, flights) of wine, 1 flight of cheese, 1/2 a gourmet pizza each, chocolate fondue for 2 (with homemade marshmallows) and Merryvale Antigua for our dessert wine. Dinner was amazing. We joined the Bin 36 club, which gives us a discount whenever we return. We ate in the Tavern (not the uber-fancy Cellar, although we had access to the menu) and had a leisurely 3-hour dinner with no rush. I highly recommend the place for both the wine & cheese selection and for the fun attitude (Live well. Drink wine. Have fun.). We purchased some wine and some Wine Knowledge flash cards in their shop.
Sunday we spent all day exploring the sales at Marshall-Field's. (My birthday falls on the best weekend of the year for sales!) We finally got back home at 10:30 last night, where I found a package from Kara containing the Fraggle Rock DVDs. YAY!!!
It really was a perfect birthday weekend!

Drinking our way around the World

Around the World Showcase that is. I'm attending a conference that's actually in Disney World the first week of November. Kevin is flying down that Tuesday. Now, here are all the good parts:

• We're staying on Disney Property at the Coronado Springs Resort, where the conference is held. Disney is all about conferences and gave a fantastic rate on the room! I paid more last year and we stayed in Downtown Disney! This is so much better! (Did you know that wake-up calls are made by none other than Mickey Mouse?!!)
• The conference itself, Learning 2005, is sponsored by the Masie Center. It's an incredible conference with no exhibition hall, interactive sessions focused on peer discussion instead of presentations, wikis, blogs, eLearning, social networking ... it just sounds amazing. Anyone who is in education - be it corporate or academic - should really think about attending. And through October 15, registration is only $1095. I'm rarely excited about conferences - they make me sleepy. This one, however, I'm incredibly excited about. Oh, and just to make it better - Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, The Tipping Point) is going to be one of the speakers. Woohoo!
• The conference has bought out Disney MGM for that Tuesday night. It will just be us conference attendees (only 1115 right now) and our families. Wow! (I'll get the spouse admission for Kevin, which is discounted.)
• Wednesday, after the conference, Kevin & I are renting a car for the day to drive out to Tampa (only around a 90 minute drive or so) to see Pam and her new baby (Pam will be induced tomorrow morning).
• I'm buying 3-day Park Hopper passes for Kevin & I to use on Thurs, Fri, and Sat. These are at a super steep discount because Disney wants conference attendees to visit the parks. (There are caveats - they must be used by 12/30/05 and they are only valid for 10-days after the first use.) We're spending the three days in Animal Kingdom and, primarily, Epcot.
• Here's the best news of all, and the reason Kevin & I will be broke, well-educated, and drunk the entire time we spend in Epcot: The 2005 Epcot International Wine & Food Festival. Yep - right when we're there! It's amazing - there are all these extra booths full of wine, beer, and food. There are seminars on Wine and Wine Tasting. It's insane. We're drinking our way around the world. Oh, and the champagne bar opens at 9 am. We'll be lucky if we make it to Animal Kingdom.

I fully admit that I'm a Disney addict. I love Disney. It makes me happy just reading about Disney. In a month, I'll be immersed in Disney Magic for 7 days. I cannot wait!

California Photos

I posted the California photos yesterday. (This is where you'll see that I need to go on a diet.) Just go to the Photo Albums page on our web site and make sure you pay attention to the password once you get there. Most of the photos are of nature and Victorian Houses, but there is an occasional photo of me or Kevin or the occasional one I took of the two of us while holding the camera myself.

California Day 8

Sunday morning. Crazy re-packing and checking out. We had the equivalent of a case of wine to fit in our carry-ons, along with two laptop computers. Our bags were stuffed full thanks to my shopping and Kevin's conference, plus the wine. We filled a wine box with heavy conference materials (books, etc) and took it to FedEx Kinko's to be shipped out on Tuesday. The FedEx team had a hard time understanding that there wasn't wine in the box, but 19 pounds of books (and a couple of gifts).
After Kinko's, we went to the Charles M. Schulz Museum (the Snoopy Museum) in Santa Rosa. I was raised on Peanuts, and loved this place. There were hundreds of original, hand-drawn comic strips, as well as a special Snoopy exhibit and an exhibit on top dogs throughout Comics history. They re-created Schulz's office, and it was interesting to see the great range of books on his shelves.

California Day 7

Saturday we stopped at Safeway and picked up sunscreen and some other items, put the top down, and went on our way. This was supposed to be the day we spent in the other end of the Sonoma Valley, by the actual town of Sonoma, but it really didn't work out that way. (I'm glad we got to those wineries last year.)
We stopped at Ledson again, and joined their wine club. We're scheduled to receive two cases a year. We can slow that down, and I imagine we'll slow it back to 1 case a year, of mixed whites and reds. Now that we've joined Ledson, we'll have to discontinue Gundlach-Bundschu. Gun-Bun, while awesome, is also monthly, which makes it expensive (esp when you add in shipping) and we tend to get behind. On the up side, we have a lot of wine that I've tagged and we are now "cellaring."

California Day 6

Rented a convertible last night and drove out to Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County. I've decided I could easily live in Santa Rosa. It's an adorable city, small enough, with personality, but only 58 miles from San Francisco. Plus, it is so obviously surrounded on all sides by the Mayacamas Mountains and vineyards, with the Russian River Valley stretching out in one direction and Sonoma Valley in the other. Just on the other side of the mountain is Napa - about a 30 minute scenic drive.
Thursday night we ate at a brewpub - Aleworks - in downtown Santa Rosa. We discovered that because Santa Rosa was the home of Charles Schulz, the town has artistic Charlie Browns everywhere! It was wonderful! I took tons of photos of Charlie Browns.
Friday we visited Kenwood and Glen Ellen, but that's as far through the Valley as we got. Let's see, we hit Ledson Wienry (our favorite), Kenwood, Kunde Estate, Valley of the Moon, and B.R. Cohn. We also got sunburnt in the convertible.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Last year we visited the Robert Mondavi Winery (Napa) on the Saturday before July 4th. Mondavi is the King of Napa and responsible for much of modern innovation in vineyard technique in No. California. He was the first to make a vineyard a tourist attraction and set out to prove that California wines bested French wines in every way (okay, I've been doing some research). The winery is beautiful and the photo of Kevin & I that I love so much was taken at Mondavi. However, we were kicked out early. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans was playing a concert at Mondavi that night - in the vineyard!
So this year I looked into it and they're playing on Saturday, July 2. I bought us tickets. It was a splurge, but I'm so excited! The Preservation Hall Jazz Band playing in a vineyard. Wow! At the end of the concert there is a special "July 4th" fireworks display. Yay!

The wines of "Sideways"

This is a neat article on the wines in Sideways and on the movie itself. There was one line in the movie, also mentioned in the article, that stuck with me (movie lines never stick with me):

"We drank a '95 Opus One with smoked salmon and artichokes, but we didn't care!"

I found this funny, because I remember Opus One.  Er, I remember seeing Opus One, driving by it several times, and telling Kevin that we could barely afford to look at the place.  This is one of my photos of Opus One.  Here's another - and check out the car leaving it. The idea that anyone would pair anything but the finest food (certainly not artichokes) with Opus One and not care was funny to me.  As it was meant to be, I guess.

Wine Clubs

When Kevin & I were in California, we joined the Gundlach-Bundschu winery wine club.  Gun-Bun, as its called, is a lot of fun, and we really like their wines.  Gun-Bun sends us mostly reds.
When we were in CA, we also visited (among others) the Cline Vineyard.  However, it took until New Year's Day for me to get around to faxing in our membership form.  Our first shipment of Cline Wine is due today.  I don't know if we'll get two reds or a red and white.  Should be fun though.  Cline is quite yummy and are the makers of my favorite all-around, low-cost, give-to-people wine: Red Truck.
All the wine clubs subscribe to different rules about shipping.  For instance, Gloria Ferrer can't ship to Ky or Ohio, but others can. I really don't get it.  We asked at each winery we visited and they each had different answers.

Trip Photos are up!

Well, we're back and are still adjusting to the time change, plus the missing day due to the Monday holiday, and finally, I'm in carb withdrawal as I started the South Beach diet. (It's like I'm in drug withdrawal from sugar!  Shakes, nausea, headaches ... ugh!)
Photos will be up soon. For some reason, all my files aren't loading, but I'm working on it. Been working on it all day.

Update: Photos are up!  http://www.kevinandshel.com , select Photo Albums from the menu or go directly to the Napa/San Francisco photo album. As for the South Beach Diet, I've decided to cut back on carbs this week - severely but not completely - and then go completely on the diet next week. Since I didn't seem to be handling the carb withdrawal very well (I caved and had crackers today), I thought I'd ease myself off of carbs instead.

Travels in Wine Country

Hello! I can't post photos today, as my bag o' cables and cords is elsewhere. However, I'll eventually have several hundred photos from this trip online. By the end of the week, probably. I sunburnt my nose something awful on "Clinton Monday" as I was unexpectedly outside (I assumed it would be inside, silly me) and it has blistered and is attempting to heal. In the midst of putting moisturizer on my face to quell the sunburn, I managed to break out like a pre-teen everywhere but my nose, and I currently look something like a red-headed bride of Frankenstein. Very embarrassing. Make-up makes it worse. Ugh! Okay, now that my vanity rant is out of the way ...
Wine country is gorgeous. We sped through Napa in a limo with 2 other couples on Friday.  We visited 5 vineyards - small to large.  We bought 5 bottles of wine.  I was forewarned that V. Sattui wasn't very good, but we found if you ask the right questions you end up tasting not only their awful stuff (and it is truly awful) but their reserve stuff (which isn't awful).  At other vineyards, such as Coppola and Beringer, we went right for the more expensive reserve tastings, as we discovered that you can split the tasting (the pours are very liberal) and you get much more personalized service. Plus, even though we would just pay for one tasting, they'd usually end up giving us two glasses anyway, just because everyone is so nice. I don't think Coppola or Beringer would have been as interesting if we hadn't gone for the reserve. Saturday we started in Napa, at Domaine Chandon, which is beautiful, and then drove to Sonoma where we joined the Gundlach-Bundschu wine club. We fell in love with this vineyard a month or so ago, and were thrilled to visit and tour the wine caves. We like not only the wine, but the attitude. They're just plain fun. They once "held up" the Napa Valley wine train and made the occupants drink Sonoma wine.  I like that attitude!  From there, we drove to Ravenswood, where we had a delicious BBQ lunch (Bobby Flay has visited their BBQ pit) and visited with Milton, the giant winery cat. We tasted there too, but we managed to only buy BBQ sauce.

Hmm .. Wine in a Can?

I thought it was esp sweet that Francis Ford Coppola created a special wine, Sofia, for his daughter's wedding.  But now that she's divorced, the wine is available in a can.  Huh.  And we're visiting this winery in a few weeks.
7/9/04 Update: Well, much to my surprise, I liked this wine in a can.  They can get away with it because it's sparkling wine and quite fruity.  Think of a wine spritzer maybe.  We tried it in the reserve room at Coppola.  It's definitely a chick wine though.

Things to do in Wine Country?

Any suggestions?  We're booked for the Wine Train luncheon on July 4 and on July 2 we'll be tooling around Napa in a limo.  I am interested in seeing Calistoga on that Saturday, with a definite trip to Chandon (Can't help it - I love champagne) and possible Cakebread Cellars, which was recommended by our travel agent.
We have three nights in which to find lovely restaurants and all of each evening with which to find things to do.  Would love to hear suggestions.

Shel