Stainless or Barrels

To many of us to drink a glass of wine is sheer pleasure. Countless articles and books have been written on pairing food and wine (red with red foods, white with light foods). The experience of wine tasting is also about visiting wineries. As many of you know the cow and I believe wine tasting is a form of entertainment. On a beautiful or dreary day you can drive through lush landscapes and enjoy the bounty of any state. I have photographed many grapevines and tasting rooms in my day but recently found myself lamenting what happens to the grapes after they are plucked from the vine.

The question then becomes stainless or barrels, technology or tradition, objective or subjective, control variables or creative energy. As you can see from the pictures stainless is prevailing when it comes to producing wines. The stainless vats are used for multiple tasks where some would argue that the solo use of the barrel is to AGE a wine.

I am a fan of every varietial of wine: nebbiolo, mourvedre, sangiovese, zinfindel, chardonnay, voignier, pinot gris, barbera, marsanne, cabernet franc, soave, semillion, chianti, rose, primitivo, prosecco,etc. From now on when buying and drinking a wine I will be more diligent in my investigation of the methods used in creating such a pleasurable event.

Big Trucks!

As I mentioned before, I am going to try to focus my blogging. This feature is "Big Trucks." I do not understand the thought process behind the Big Truck Purchase. I picture them sitting at home with a check list that reads:
1) My Big Truck must guzzle gasoline.
2) My Big Truck must scare people when I tailgate.
3) My Big Truck must be shiny - I would never think of using my Big Truck for WORK or Off-road fun.
4) My Big Truck must be HIGH off the ground.

I know that the first picture is dark but this behemoth was parked on a VERY busy street and it has the chassis of a MAC truck. Who drives this thing? The second picture just caught my eye because of the "POWER" Plate. You can't have POWER if you are driving a Hybrid?

NEON!

NEON SIGNS! They are ubiquitos and everywhere. How many people really notice them and study their intricate details?
The first pic is for "Gina's" it was in a non-descript window in the NW area of Portland. I did not notice what type of business it was but I happened to like the sign.
The second pic is above a grundgy bar on Hawthorne. The sign rather reminds me of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. I find that odd because I have only been to Vegas once and we stayed at the Stratosphere.
The third pic is my favorite. If I had video on my camera you would be able to see that the colors scroll. If you look closely you can see that it says Mt. Tabor within the color scroll. I am assuming at some point this was a live theater and then a movie theater but now the cow tells me it is where the "punk" bands play.

Wine anyone?

The weekend led us back to the Oregon Wine Country. ElS and GoS were in town and we all piled in the wagon to cruise through the Willamette Valley. It was a crisp beautiful day (els/gos kept saying "it's cold") and you can tell by the pictures how blue the sky can be.
We actually sat outside and enjoyed the wine and the day.

A Tribute to "The Cow"

The cow is always there for me when I need a ballon held.
The cow is there with me when I want to walk in the street.
The cow is there to laugh at all of my silly jokes.
The cow looks at me with his big brown eyes and I ask myself - "Wow, how did I catch such a great cow?"

ARROW

The arrow points to a bar. Notice there is absolutely NO signage! Just the arrow. I would have taken a picture of the inside but the damn place was closed.
The poetry garden is about 3 blocks from HoY. It is a writing studio and the person places poetry in the garden on wooden stakes. I took a picture of the "rose petal" poem because it was lovely and after reading it I could feel rose petals falling against my face. It made me smile.
The cow then stumbled upon Mt.Tabor Wine Store. They do wine flights every friday night. We had already had a couple of cocktails so we opted for a 2-ounce pour of some French Red, quite yummy and lots of people to look at with crazy labels hanging in the the toilet. When we left we decided that Sushi sounded good and got bloto at Mio Sushi on Hawthorne. Today we were shopping for more house stuff and I took the cow to a Target with an escalator for the shopping cart. He was quite impressed and suggested that I take a photo. The last pic is for elS. These are the bike racks in front of Powell on Burnside. Each one of the racks has a quote from a book about a bike or biking.

Work-Four letter word

Most of you have been doggin me about my lack of posting lately and I just want to tell you that WORK is getting in the way of my fun. I have been enjoying my walks to and from work but some of the tasks that have been handed to me are not working with my personality. For example, I am not a number cruncher. I do not find it interesting to sit in front of a computer looking at data and trying to decipher what all the acronyms in the tiny little columns stand for. Unfortunately, that is precisely what I have been asked to do the last two days. I am analyzing the 9th grade Reading Lexiles for the bottom quartile of students at Cleveland High School and then I am to create and implement a plan to increase test scores for the lower quartile students. By the way, those of you who are looking at these words trying to see the meaning - don't bother -the only people that care about the lexile of the lower quartile are those that get funding from our Great President who came up with the "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" Policy. By the way - at any school you will hear it referred to as the NCLB because educators do not like to hear those words uttered in the hallways.
No pictures because that would mean someone would have to be in the room with me to take a picture of me analyzing data- this is a lonely job.

Angry Fairy

When the world is getting you down just remember there is a fairy out there waiting to grant your every awful wish. AKA - Angry Fairy for hire!

Magic

Voila! It is like magic. First the T.V. is hidden behind the fireplace and then when we want to watch WestWing it flies out from the side like magic. Then T.V. watching is over - it disappears back in its proper place.
I think the best part about this set up is the window allows light to stream in again. Prior the large armoire was blocking the rays of the sun.
Those of you who are saying, "man, that is a small T.V. " You are absolutely right, but sometimes smaller is better.

Disneyland for Drunks!

The Edgefield "Poor Farm" is the Disneyland for Drunks. It was built in 1911, served for many years as the Multnomah County Poor Farm. "Residents operated a self-sufficient environment, raising hogs, poultry, growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, operating a dairy, cannery and meat packing plant as well as working in the laundry, kitchen and hospital.
In 1947, it was renamed the Multnomah County Home and Farm and in the late fifties the farm operation was eliminated. In 1962, the facility was renamed Edgefield Manor and for the last two decades of operation, functioned as a nursing home and eventually closed in 1982." The McMenamin brothers bought the property and transformed it from a poor farm to a drinking farm.
With seven bars, a winery, a brewery and a distillery you can get drunk and then spend the night in one of the many hotel rooms on the property. The day the cow and I journeyed (it wasn't really a journey it is 10 miles from HoY) to Edgefield it was kind of misty -which gave the experience a "sit back and relax" atmosphere.
We stopped and got a map of the complex to figure out where to belly up first. We decided the winery was a good start. The server -Josh- was great. You can basically try any type of liquor at Edgefield for a buck. The buck you hand over does not get you those wimpy pours you see in Napa - You get about a 1/2 a glass of wine (albeit the glass is rather small). The cow tried six of the reds while I tried 6 of their whites. After talking to Josh, we decided that a stop at the distillery was in order. "Whiskies, brandies and gins are created here and specialties of the house include the rich, amber-hued Hogshead Whiskey, fragrant Edgefield Brandy and popular Vintner's Gin, as well as Longshot Brandy and Pear Brandy." NO-We did not try them all but again for 1-buck you can try any of them. After watching the bar patrons ebb and flow, we settled down in front of the pot-belly stove for a cocktail and watched the golfers come in for a shot.
Our last stop was the "Hobbit sized Little Red Shack" it was charming. It was dark and only lit by candles and the fire. There were four tables total and they would barely seat two people. So, needless to say it is truly Hobbit sized. We settled in for a glass of wine and discussed the other options that Edgefield has to offer.

Cats!

OK - We know that our cat is brilliant but she is also mean spirited. This is the progression of her thoughts. She wants to get a drink of water at the bathroom sink faucet (she has conquered this move in every location we have lived in less than a day of being there). At HoY she simply goes in the bathroom and sits on the toilet (yes, we have to keep the lid closed but she will jump up even if the lid is open). She will meow a couple of times and wait patiently for us to come in and say "jump up" - Here is where she gets mean spiritied. Sometimes she sits in there and doesn't meow or we can't hear her because of music or what not. She then will tear, eat, claw the toilet paper beyond recognition. There have been several BRAND NEW Toilet paper rolls that had to be laid to rest because of this cruel and unusual punishment handed down from the claws of TAM. Cats - They are so cute!