Something to Wine About

A couple of weeks ago I read an article which suggested that a glass of red wine a day was a good regimen for diabetics. It surprised me by saying the tannins are very helpful. I did some more research, and found this to be true from several non-wine industry sources. Tonight I decided to give it a try.

Now before you go all "oh ho!" and "yeah, right!" at me, let me 'splain something:
I hate red wine. I dislike wine in general, along with almost anything else which has a significant amount of alcohol in it. I think I am mildly allergic to wine - very often when I have tried some, the hinges of my jaw will ache for an hour or two. Past research has told me that some sulfur compound used in many wineries may cause this. I should look it up again. Sulfite. I am also an alcohol lightweight. One glass of wine in half an hour can put me to sleep. Two in an hour certainly will, if I last that long.

I make no moral judgment here. It's mostly genetics, I think, coupled with the fact that my parents only broke out the wine for religious ceremonies and the hard stuff when we had bad colds. My dad would sometimes have a sip of wishniak or slivovitz because he liked the taste, but it was expensive and he did not enjoy getting drunk. I've only been drunk once, and it was not the most fun night of my life.

Back to the story. On my way home from work and some other shopping, I went to BevMo to see what they had in a nice Burgundy. Nothing. Nada. Apparently nobody makes burgundy anymore. Shiraz, Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet, red table wine, but no Burgundy.It was quite daunting trying to find something there, they were having a "buy one, get the next for 5 cents" sale, but you had to buy two of the same wine. After navigating a maze of display boxes, I found the racks at the back. The giant signs on the displays has educated me that some clown named Wilfred Wong has rated a lot of red wines, and when the rating is >80 BevMo puts it on the price tag.

Once upon a time when I first moved to the Bay Area I would drive to Napa Valley this time of year and take a bunch of winery tours. Back then the wine was free. I may hate drinking wine, but I love the smell of the concentrated grape juice in the cellars. It was fun to take small tastes and listen to the experts talk about things like nose and fruity and their many other imaginary friends. One of those trips, a brand new winery had opened, St. Jean. They had the best tour, which included a modest picnic lunch, and the place was a gorgeous mansion with a huge lawn open to the public. I bought a bottle of their fumé blanc, which I was able to tolerate, and it also made a great chicken marinade. So when I decided on a Cabernet at BevMo, I looked for St. Jean. The 2008 was rated 86 points, which was nice, and the price was a reasonable $13.99. As I was reaching for it, I saw next to it Chateau Ste Michelle, which sounded familiar. It was rated 93 points, the highest I had seen so far, and was on sale for $9.99. Zing! Looking at the label I saw why it was familiar -the wine from Washington State's Columbia Valley, but the Chateau itself is in Woodinville, near a bike trail I used to ride when I worked at Microsoft. 

While I was at it, I also picked up a bottle of something called Vigilance, which had a rating of 92 and was on sale for $11.99, $6 off regular.

I had the wine, I needed cheese. BevMo is across the parking lot from The Milk Pail, and they happened to have my favorite Lingot d'argental cheese in stock.

Dinner was once again part of the "defrost or die" project, one of three ziplock pouches of home made beef stew from so long ago I forgot I had them. Good choice for red wine, I think.

So, I had about 1/3 of a glass of Ste. Michelle with dinner, sipping it a little at a time. The stuff had so much tannin in it you could probably used the inside of my mouth as a wallet. It did not sting like red wines I've tried in the past, it felt like pouring alcoholic velvet on my tongue. The fanciful label says its complexity and suppleness comes from aging in small oak barrels, and yes, it did taste a bit like wood. After dinner I had the rest of the glass with slices of this amazing cheese, which took away most of the wine's aftertaste.

It was not as bad as taking medicine. I think I will try to keep this up for the next week, and see if there is any improvement in my Hgl levels and sleeping.

Finally Thursday

I've reset my alarms and lights-on device from 7:30 back to 7 am, so it did not surprise me that I was surprised when the alarm went off. Pumpkin was surprised too, he was stretched out alongside my leg and made his classic "mmmmrrrrrr?" sound, which usually means "just shut up already". He also uses it when I talk back to the TV.

I fixed myself two PB&J sandwiches, added two bananas, an orange and a pickle to the cooler and got onto the freeway at 9, which is the time the commuter lane becomes open to all, so I stayed on the freeway all the way instead of slipping out to the expressway. Got to work at maybe 9:15.

Another day of long-term tests, this time they did not take much time to set up, but had to run for an hour or more. In the gaps I updated my OK Cupid profile. I had minimalized it when I was out of work, just to see if anyone would bite. No one did. So now it's wordy and says a lot about me, and while I was at it I replied to someone whom OKC said was a good match. Reading her profile, it might actually work. I would not be too surprised to get some sort of reply.

One of the things which put that into my head  - way in the back of my head - is when I had lunch a few months ago with my nephew and his fiance at her parents' summer home in Palo Alto, the happy couple said they met on OKC. There is no way they would have met any other way than online. The only thing I see they have in common is cats, and each other. That's probably enough.

So, long boring day at work, but still more fun than most jobs. I got to watch TV a lot.

At lunch time, I went to the new apartment and got a copy of the floor plan  with the approximate room dimensions. More on that later. Went to Fry's to buy a 15" HDTV which was on sale for $70, and was unpleasantly surprised that CA tacked on a $6 recycling fee. I don't recycle electronics, I give them to charity when I am done. It is bogus charging a recycle fee to the buyer - it should be charged at the recycling center, if at all. Also looked for a stand for the Kindle, but Fry's had nothing.

After work Target was my first stop. They had the Kindle stand I wanted, though it was a bit more expensive than expected. Still reasonable. Also found a nose hair trimmer. I wonder if the Kindle has a mirror app.

Next stop was BevMo and Milk Pail,  which I've already posted about.

When I got home I took out the tape measure and measured all the significant furnishings in the apartment, scanned the floor plan for the new place and Photoshopped it to remove the fireplace which is only in top floor units, changed the balcony to a patio and added the gate, and added dimensions in inches to the ones in feet. I put all the measurements into a spreadsheet, and started to plan on where the piano would fit, but was stopped dead by the thought that the reason the piano is where it is in the current apartment is a result of where the wall outlets and cable feed is. I won't know that till Oct. 7, when I get the keys. That's a week from tomorrow. Boo, hiss.

Plans for tomorrow:
Change the litterboxes
Work
Buy more litterbox refills and a hood (one of them cracked - sunlight all summer killed it)
Take some patio stuff to the dumpster

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Niagara Falls

Step by step, inch by inch, moving day approaches. Today's accomplishments: set up change of address with the P.O., called Comcast and verified my service order, changed the litterboxes and hauled them and garbage out to the dumpster. Also hauled two large planters and a bag of bird seed out there. And noticed three other items on the patio which have been in denial. Bought litterbox replacement cartridges for the move + 2 weeks, miscalculation there, I forgot that when I empty the ones I just replaced, that will be the last time the litterboxes will be at the current address. Cats & litterboxes & food & water will be the first things to move, I think.

Looked into changing my banking to the Tech credit union. Opened an account online, but it will take a few days to gel.

Also bought enough food for 8 days. They have been wanting a 5.5 oz can a day each, half in the morning and half at night.

Put the hoods on the litterboxes 'cause they are saying it will rain this week, maybe this weekend. I just hope it is clear on moving day.

The real fun begins tomorrow afternoon. I wanted to start earlier, but excrement occurred, and life happened. More on that in planz.

Work was mostly a non-starter, not having the equipment or software to run the tests which I know how to do and are left in the plan.  Read some new test cases and caught a major typo in one. Started looking online for classes to take which I can put on my performance plan, but so far the ones which would do me some good are not offered any time soon, or are offered in Chicago.

Lunch was a kind of bait and switch. The usual suspects said we were walking across the street to a place I remember was a regular spot for us, but instead of a 5-minute walk these clowns decided to take the new trail, the long way. 20 minutes. And the return was the trail shortcut - 15 minutes. Not fair.

Plans for tomorrow:
9 am p/u pants from alterations place
11:30 Paul Metz memorial (more in a locked post later)
1-ish: johno and Chris' Hawaii-50 birthday party
4-ish: Uhaul for boxes and other moving supplies
5-ish: start packing books, CDs, Videotapes and if I am feeling brave, T-shirts.