Another wine geek moment

On Monday, I went to a wine tasting with a few people from work. We ended up on my roof deck, drinking two bottles of wine and enjoying the views. That turned into dinner, more wine, a convertible ride, and various shenanigans. I'm usually pretty good at not crossing the line into fully drunk--I'll sometimes push right up against it, but it's rare that I'm drunk. Well, by the time we finished dinner, I was good and drunk.

In a fun, giggly way of course, and then I promptly went to bed. The hangover on Tuesday was worth it. And the wine was delicious.

The rest of the week has been fairly uneventful. A lot of work. I booked my ticket to Virginia for September, for my high school reunion and best friend's wedding, complete with an overnight connection in Boston so that I can see my friends there too. I saw my first geoduck demonstration, and I have to say that is the most phallic thing I have ever seen. Above some actual phalluses, even.

Also, check out the Seattle Times' review of Bar Sajor. I work there!

An ode to the Charlies of the world

My mom's dog had to be put down this weekend.

He was a golden retriever, only seven years old, but with a mysterious case of advanced kidney failure. He was the second Charlie--the first Charlie was a golden retriever/lab mix belonging to my sister many years ago. When he died, my mom decided she liked him so much she would get herself another Charlie, only this time, he would be a full-blooded golden retriever. With papers and everything. Thus Charlie (the Second) is the only pet my family has ever paid for.

He was a good dog--he loved everyone, even loved the cats. I'd like to have a dog of my own, one day, and the two Charlies are why. Happy, gregarious, loving dogs who make it a point to be kind to cats and smaller dogs. I don't have enough space, or a yard, for such a big dog, which is why I've never gotten one. But thinking back, my family has always had good luck with dogs. The myriad stray cats over the years were a mixed lot--some good, some bad, one epileptic. Our dogs, however, were a steadfast bunch of mutts.

I'll miss Charlie, and even though I haven't lived at home for twenty years, in a small way he felt like he was my dog a little bit too. I hugged my cats a little closer.

A wine geek moment

I don't normally feel like I know something about wine--I mean, I do, some, but I'm still learning the wine list at work and so usually I defer to the sommelier when someone has a wine question. However, I got to stump the sommelier this weekend.

When I got to Seattle, I got on the mailing list for Garagiste. They import small-batch wines, available to those on the email list. Typically I'll get 1-2 emails a day from them, with new wines for sale. I've bought a couple of things, here and there. The first of the orders arrived this weekend, so I made an appointment to go pick it up.

Oh. My. God.

The warehouse--which is utterly nondescript and in a weird part of town--also had a retail showroom. Meaning I could browse the shelves and buy more wine. And it was the most eclectic, most heart-warming wine collection I've seen in a while. Half the stuff on the shelves was stuff I recognized from the Craigie on Main wine list, stuff I thought I'd left behind forever because most of it doesn't get imported to the West Coast.

Naturally I had to buy some. I stopped myself at two bottles, because otherwise it could have gotten ridiculous, but I may have to go back next weekend and get some more.

One of the bottles I got was Susucaru 2. I won't go into the details, you can look that up for yourself if you're interested, but it's a funky, hard-to-find rose from Sicily. It's completely unfiltered, no sulfites or preservatives added, and it's incredibly lean. Super-acidic, lots of gunk floating it it, made from native Sicilian grapes no one's ever heard of.

I took it into work to crack open after service, and the sommelier and I had a good time geeking out over the bottle. It started off almost all acid, but the fruit opened up nicely after a few minutes and by the end of the bottle I found myself wanting more. The warehouse had more wines by that same producer (red wines); I want to go back and try those next week.

Two days off

I spent my two days off getting caught up--cooking a bunch of food for the week ahead, finishing some scripts, finishing a library book, watching a movie or two, calling people, etc. I'm now officially all caught up, and the week begins again. Another swirl of work, followed by two days of everything else.

But I hope to pay off another debt this week, and to begin planning our road trip in July. On the next nice Monday, we'll day trip to Rainier. It's nice to have little things to look forward to; sometimes during the week it's impossible to think about anything but how tired/hungry/sore I am. I don't mind the schedule, though. I mean, what else am I going to do? It's worth it to pay off those little debts, to start making progress against all the red numbers that have been piling up over the last year.

Cottonwood trees, and our third anniversary

I think I'm allergic to cottonwood trees.

They're a new phenomenon to me--there aren't any on the East Coast and there certainly weren't any in San Diego. When they bloom (which is now), they send out piles of cottonwood fluff; like dandelion fluff, only smaller, featherier, and more pernicious. It creates snow drift-looking embankments, and can't be swept up. It's like exploding a feather pillow all over the countryside. And apparently I'm allergic to it, because now I have a deep hacking cough that won't go away that can't be attributed to anything else.

But, on the plus side, we had an awesome anniversary dinner at my work the other night. It's been three years! Four states in three years of marriage: wonder how many we'll rack up this year?

I traded a co-worker for the night off and brought in two bottles of very nice wine--nearly the very last of all the wine we hauled cross-country with us. We had an amazing dinner, like regular people. Then I worked a double the next day. Good times.

Last night, a rich hedge fund guy came in for dinner and brought five bottles of very old, very rare Burgundy to drink with friends. When they finally left, they left about a quarter of each bottle behind. The wine director estimated that those five bottles were probably worth about $15,000; so, given the amount left behind, and the amount of each that I drank, I probably consumed somewhere between $700 and $1000 worth of rare wine last night. It made up for having to work a double on my anniversary.

Also, today marks one year of hubby's unemployment. We're doing surprisingly well, considering. I'm starting to pay off some (small) debts, and hubby has some job prospects on the horizon.

My sister is moving

It's been too long since I've posted, I know. I keep meaning to, and then surprise! something else takes priority.

Last week was a long one--three doubles back-to-back. I did nothing but work and sleep. By the time my day off rolled around, I was exhausted. But that will be my life from now on: three doubles back-to-back, every week. Work = money. Fortunately my new shoes are all broken in now, and I've been making a point to pamper myself at every opportunity. (Note: pampering myself these days means sitting down and applying ice to some part of my body.)

Other news: my sister is moving, from Mississippi to North Carolina. She'll have had three weeks to do it, from the time they learned they were moving to the time they need to be there. Her husband got a new job. I remember how difficult it was when we moved from San Diego to Boston in three weeks; granted, they're moving a shorter distance, but they have two very small children and an entire household. I don't envy her right now. I wish I lived closer, I'd help out somehow. At the very least watch the kids while they pack. The bad news is that I'll lose my free New Orleans-area housing; the good news is that they'll be about two hours away from my parents, so now a trip to Virginia means I can kill all birds with one stone.

DH's freelance work is going well; by the first part of June we should have an idea of whether it might go full-time. I paid off a (small) debt last week; it was small, but it felt very good to once again be in a position to pay things off. I was reminded last night that this time last year, we were in the middle of DH's company collapse. On May 15, paychecks never showed up. On May 24, everyone was summarily fired. It's been a long year since then, but we've managed to stay financially afloat (indeed, even a little bit ahead of the curve), and we're living in a city we like much better. So we've managed to wrest some good from a very bad situation.

New shoes

As part of my take-better-care-of-myself-and-not-look-like-such-a-schlub-all-the-time campaign, I got myself a new pair of Danskos. They're top of the line restaurant worker shoes, and my previous pair had started to die. (Eventually the cushioning on the inside starts to break down, and then your back starts hurting. That's how you know it's time for a new pair.) I got so excited about new Danskos that I also bought some fancy arch-supporting socks.

However, the first night in them was a nightmare. I could have been wearing heels all night for all the good they did me. They were stiff, tight, boxy, and made everything hurt more.

BUT.

I discovered a great new trick for breaking in tight leather shoes.

Put a Ziploc bag of water in the toe of the shoe. Put the shoes in the freezer overnight. The water will freeze and expand, and force the toe box to stretch.

I tried this with my new shoes, and last night they were perfect.

Also? When you have tired, swollen feet, slipping them into a pair of ice-cold shoes is pretty awesome.