Knitting 40 shades of green

Random Valentine's Day Post

Valentines is a strange holiday, completely commercial and odd, when I am seeing someone I usually opt to stay in and spend time together...it is one more amateur's night that I try to avoid.  When you are newly dating, or long term married, it is difficult to balance.  Do you do something?  Do you do nothing?  Is a card enough?  How about a sweet email?  And when you are single, it is one more holiday to remind you that our culture values couples over singles...a great time to love yourself.  If you don't, who will?

1. I have roses for Valentine's Day.  They come to me from President Obama (don't tell Michelle).  OK, well, they were left over after a fund raising event and an event planner friend didn't need four bowls of roses and I ended up with one.  But the President paid for them, or his campaign did, or something. Oh quit getting caught up in the details. The President gave me roses,that is my story, and I am sticking to it.
2. If you didn't happen to swing roses from the POTUS, then it is OK to buy yourself some flowers (but skip the roses as they are overpriced this time of year, get your favorite flowers instead).
3. People come in and out of our lives for reasons.  On this holiday centered around love, we often think of those we have loved.  Sometimes you have to let go and give up on people.  This is not because you have stopped caring but they have.  Relationships take two involved people.  Make sure that is still the case. 
4. Chocolate covered strawberries strike the right balance between healthy and decadent.  Make some.  If you don't feel up to the making, then buy them.  The pleasure is well worth it even though they do seem overpriced before you bite into them. 
5. No moment in life is so awful or so wonderful that a bottle of bubbly fails to make it just a wee bit better.  Open it, even if it is a Tuesday.  And while you are at it, get out the crystal and good dishes, you are worth it.
6. I am heading to a knitting retreat this weekend and I haven't even thought about what knitting I will be taking.  I have two pairs of socks that are almost finished and wonder if I should take them or take new projects to save space in my luggage.
7. Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #74: Value Sparkling Wine

I read a few wine blogs irregularly and one of them mentioned this monthly event, Wine Blogging Wednesday.  I thought I would check it out and as I headed over to the site, I found an aggregator for monthly posts on wine centered around a theme.  With the theme for this month very near and dear to my heart "Value Sparkling Wine", how could I not jump in?  For goodness sake, everyone knows of my bubbly love.  To paraphrase Napoleon, ... you deserve it in victory and you need it in defeat. 

 

Due to my own inclination to support local producers, I thought I would review a Virginian sparkling wine. My first inclination was to review one of my local favorites Horton Sparkling Viognier but a glance in the closet showed that I was all out.  A trip to safeway showed they carried quite a few Horton wines but not the sparkling, the wine shop and liquor store didn't help either and with the price point right at $25 maybe I should try something else.  The liquor store turned up a bottle of Barboursville Brut for $16.90.  Their website describes it as

A classic sparkling wine of distinct Northern Italian influence, the non-vintage Barboursville Brut is estate grown Chardonnay (80%) which has avoided malolactic fermentation and any exposure to oak, and Pinot Noir (20%) from some of our oldest vines. The most honored sparkling wine in the region, a staple on leading wine lists, this is the wine which greets not only every visitor to Palladio Restaurant, but also all guests of The Inn at Little Washington. The growing season does not yield a Chardonnay for the extended winery aging or shelf life of a wine in the Champagne style, but lends itself beautifully to the cultivation of young-harvested sparkling wine grapes destined for vinification in the Prosecco style, of primary and secondary fermentation in stainless steel tank, with generous lees-aging for a brilliant, luscious, and flagrantly romantic palate.

The bubbles are fine and cascade through the middle of the glass not the standard lines of bubbles you get in champagne.  The color is light and the nose is appealing.  The wine has an initial tart nice with a nice acidity, the finish brings on fruit (I always feel like I am guessing on this but I think hints of apple and pear).  It leaves me wanting more.

Read more of my adventures in Virginia Wine Country can be accessed through the links on the Virginia Wineries Page

Randomly February

January was busy, my calendar was packed with obligations -- union, work, social.  I put my head down and went in and knocked out what needed to be done and next thing I know, I look up and it is February.  How does that happen?  It doesn't help that I have been just on the edge of being sick for the past month or so.  It may be time to make a doctor's appointment for a throat culture, it has just been too long to feel slightly sick.

1. See that house?  No, not the one on the right, I already live there but the one on the left?  It has gone under forclosure.  Don't feel bad for the previous owner who lost it, he was a slum lord with 40 or so units.  The place he lives in is close to a million dollars.  No, don't feel sorry for him.  The current owner is a German Bank which had the misfortune of buying mortgage backed securites.  They put it on the market but I think the price was high, so I put in a low offer.  I haven't heard anything and it is likely I won't for a while.  Now the reality is someone will likely pay more than I am willing to pay and I won't ever take ownership but I am giving it a try.
2. Dalton M Ghetti is creating some of the most amazing art work ever with pencil graphite.  Click on that link and check it out.
3. I have always been proud to be a Virginian.  This is a wonderful (and beautiful) state that has a fascinating history, but the legislature is starting to scare me.  When did public school teachers become the scape goats for every problem that cash strapped governments are experiencing? 
4. I listen to old radio shows most Sunday nights and I really think that changing the actors for characters is just wrong.  Does that happen in TV shows?  I guess you see it in movies like the Bond series.  Really, if Johnny Dollar isn't played by Bob Bailey it just isn't as good.
5. I am leaving for a knitting retreat in less than two weeks and I haven't even thought about what knitting I will take.  None of my classes require homework and so I will need projects to work on (plus I have the worst connection ever in Milwaukee -- I may have to go downtown for lunch...) I guess I need some easy and some hard projects -- I would like to take something more interesting than just socks.