In addition to making an appearance at BarCamp Austin, I also plan to be at South by Southwest Interactive (a.k.a. “SxSWi”)…
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Category: It Happened to Me
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On My Agenda Next Week…
Today’s a day off for me and many — but not all — people in Ontario, as it’s the first instance of a new statutory holiday called Family Day. The establishment of this holiday was a promise made by the Provincial Liberal Party for a long weekend in the depths of winter.
One might think that this is the sort of government initiative that would have universal appeal, but that’s not the case. Between confusion among employees as to whether they’d really get the day off, logistical problems as to what to do with the kids, employers complaining about lost revenues and people who dread spending time with their families, the news outlets are reporting tales of woe and the gnashing of teeth:
- The Globe and Mail: To Celebrate Family Day, Start with Low Expectations
- The Barrie Examiner: Beware of What You Ask For
- The Ottawa Citizen: Province’s Brand-new Family Day Rapidly Becoming Too Much Work
- CBC: Ottawa Merchants Blame Ontario for Family Day Store Closures
- Toronto Star: Family Day: The Holiday that isn’t Really a Holiday
As for me, I’m going to kick back, noodle around the house, hang out with the wife and cook her a nice lunch and hit the Rhino later this evening to catch up with the other geeks at Rails Pub Nite. Happy Family Day!
My sister and brother-in-law gave the Ginger Ninja and me a pair of tickets to the Vintages wine tasting for 2005 Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux wines. It took place on Tuesday night, and naturally, I took a few photos…
Here’s Yours Truly having one of his couple-dozen-or-so samples of red. I like to think that I “clean up” nicely…
The event took place in the Regency Ballroom on the second floor of the Four Seasons, conveniently located across the street from my office. Here’s a shot from very early in the evening, just after they opened the doors to the tasting salon:
This was one of the more pricey tastings. Normally, Vintages typically charges an admission of about $75 to $100; this particular one cost $175 a person, probably due to the high expectations of 2005 Bordeaux wines and the number of Grand Cru vinyards represented at this particular gathering. This fee included all the wine you can sample and a fair bit of food, which included roast beef, sauteed mushrooms in pastry, two kinds of risotto and a good selection of fruits, breads, spreads and cheeses.
Here’s a shot of the event an hour later, once it got into full swing:
The procedure at these gatherings is pretty simple: walk up to a table, hold out your glass, and they’ll pour a decent-sized sample. Swirl (to oxygenate the wine), smell, taste and dispose of in your preferred fashion. Many people chose to simply take a sip and then dump the rest in the many buckets, conveniently spread throughout the ballroom:
Ooh! Free punch!
I personally follow the Irish philosophy that when you die, you’re held upside-down in a barrel of all the alcohol you’ve wasted. If there’s enough in the barrel to drown you, you can’t get into Heaven. Hence I finished most of my samples.
Favourites
Our hands-down favourite red was from Château Cantenac-Brown, which comes from the Margaux appelation in south-west France. I’m not enough of an oeno-weenie to describe it using “proper wine tasting terminology”, so I’ll borrow this description: “Loaded with fruit which was impressive for its age. Sweet and silky with candied cherries and red licorice.”
The flavour of this particular wine jumped out at me. I’m more of a “what food will this go with?” wine, so I sampled it with some of the food provided — it worked well with the beef and mushrooms, and after hitting the cheese table, I came to the conclusion that I could be very happy with a bottle of Cantenac-Brown and a big plate of Roquefort or Stilton.
The manager of the Chateau Cantenac-Brown winery, Jose Sanfins, was there, and he was more than happy to let me take a picture of the bottle more than proud enough of his wine to pose with it.
Chateau Cantenac-Brown goes for $56 a bottle, and we bought a lot of 3 (the minimum size order that you can place at this event).
We also liked Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron, which also paired well with Stilton. That stuff will run you about $200 a bottle.
The Sauternes we liked best was from Chateau Suduiraut, which Wendy described as “pear-licious”. A bottle will set you back about $115.
Well, enough wine snobbery for now. I leave you Gentle Readers with a toast!
Links
On Saturday, the Ginger Ninja and I attended my friend Hector Catre’s birthday bash. I met Hector about thirty years ago through his brother Nic, with whom I went to high school and played in a Billy Idol/Platinum Blonde cover band. Hector’s been around for all sorts of hijinks (including the Worst Date Ever), and I was more than happy to celebrate another trip around the sun with him. Happy birthday, Hector!
Rule #1: Accordion + booze = fun.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.
I’m glad to see that people still remember AC/DC’s Big Balls.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.
“Any requests?”
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.
Stone Temple Pilots’ Plush is an accordion song that doesn’t know it yet.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.
The people at the next table asked for some Smashing Pumpkins; I gave ’em Cherub Rock.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.
“Thank you! I’m here all night!”
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.
Me and Hector, enjoying the elixir of life.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Brown.
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Bustin’ In
You’ve probably seen this type of door lock, common in older houses:
They usually sport a switch that sets the lock into “automatic” mode; close the door and it automatically locks. These locks can cause problems, such as accidentally locking yourself outside. Apparently, if the switch breaks while set in “automatic”, not even the key will unlock it, as Dan, who works with me at TSOT, discovered two nights ago. Worse still, his landlord was out of the country and the locksmith was asking $400 to drill through the lock.
I live pretty close to Dan, so when he asked me to give him a hand getting into his place, I was happy to oblige. Luckily the house’s garage had a ladder, and after trying a couple of second-storey windows, we hit the jackpot:
Our mission accomplished, Dan took me and the Ginger Ninja out for dinner by way of saying thanks. Glad to help, dude!
If you missed the first set of photos, they’re in this entry.
One More Accordion Convert…
I didn’t get a photo of Anneke trying out the accordion, but Michele did:
Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Photo courtesy of Michele Perras.
…and Me!
We can’t forget Yours Truly, pictured below in his Accordion Happy Place…
Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Photo courtesy of Michele Perras.
There are more photos in Michele’s photoset of the party.