The wine world desperately needs more humor. I only wish I had the talents to provide it. At the very least, however, I can point folks to it when I find it. Today I was alerted to a gem of a piece by my fellow wine blogger Andy Barrow who runs the blog Spittoon.Biz. He pointed me to an episode of some British comedy sitcom I've never seen before called Black Books, which features two guys who run a small used book shop.
In this episode they get a chance to house sit for a friend with a wine cellar and then, well, hijinks ensue. Apart from the somewhat random opening sequence, it unfortunately takes them a while to get to the wine bit, so you either have to sit through the first 7 or 8 minutes of jokes, or you can fast forward. It's not exactly unpredictable, but it is very clever. Doesn't quite have the adolescent hilarity of the , but it's close, especially with those British accents.
"This image was made in a vineyard in Sonoma. Sometimes the most simple observations end up generating the most compelling images. This soft cloud caught my attention as I noticed that its shape mirrored the hill below. As humans we tend to find great beauty in unexpected symmetry." -- Michael Regnier
INSTRUCTIONS:
Download this image by right-clicking (Mac users, click and hold) on the image and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" and then select the desired location on your computer to save the image. Mac users can also just click the image and drag it to your desktop.
To set the image as your desktop wallpaper, Mac users should follow , while PC users should .
PRINTS:
If you are interested in owning an archive quality print of this image, or any of the other vineyard images featured here on Vinography, you can web site for $85.
ABOUT VINOGRAPHY IMAGES:
Every Thursday, Vinography features a new image from photographer Michael Regnier for readers' personal use as desktop backgrounds or screen savers. We hope you enjoy them. Please respect Michael's copyright on these images.
The City of Bethel has issued the following proclamation for the 24-hour period beginning tomorrow, 4:30 PM, local time. See the earlier post,
Berry, Very Clean Fish, Moose Harvest Day
August 31, 2007
WHEREAS , this will be a 24-hour alcohol & drug free marathon of events to show appreciation to all Emergency Medical Technicians, Police Officers, State Troopers, Hospital Staff, Fire Department Staff, and others that deal with alcohol & drug related emergencies everyday, 24 hours a day;
WHEREAS, this is also appreciation to those that choose to be sober that day and resist the temptation to use drugs & alcohol;
WHEREAS, this will be a time for the community to get together to share knowledge and success stories of alcohol & drug recovery and prevention;
WHEREAS, local business and agencies are volunteering to do special activities that day to acknowledge a united day of sobriety;
WHEREAS, this 24-hour marathon is an opportunity to show the children of our community that you can enjoy a safe and healthy life style alcohol & drug free ;
WHEREAS, the community of Bethel is encouraged to participate and is asked to be alcohol & drug free during this 24-hour time period;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Daniel C. Leinberger, Mayor of the City of Bethel, do hereby proclaim August 31, 2007, as Bethel's 1st Annual Berry, Very Clean Fish, Moose Harvest Day in the City of Bethel.
A few things, in no particular order, just my way of getting them off my chest.
Addictive Personalities
I have one. Be it food, sex, alcohol. Perhaps it's my Celtic roots. BEG is away right now (I'll explain in a moment) so I have slipped back a little and I'm not proud. The opportunity to eat crap (Pizza), surf sites that are not what I really should be surfing and drink too much. I know that alcohol is dangerous to me if I don't keep an eye on my consumption. But I like a drink. I love wine, I love the taste of decent beer and yes even spirits - gin and tonic, martini's, decent single malts. the one thing that keeps me in check is that I know excessive consumption affects my ability to, ahem, 'perform'. And with BEG away I don't need to worry about this, which leads me onto...
PRON. I have kept away for quite a while now (particularly as things have been a lot better in the intimacy front recently with BEC). But now she's away, well I slipped down the slippery slope. Looking at beautiful, pert, firm ladies... I know it's not good for me, yet I just wanted to, to lust after hot females. And even though I felt bad about it, I still did. Perhaps this was something to do with...
The fact that BEG lost her rag and was verbally abusive. OK I may be being overly sensitive here but... She was lost in her car, she'd phoned me to ask directions, I'd told her, I had to be getting off for a work appointment, she called again, in hysterics, I told her I HAD to go, she told me where to go, I was upset and angry and then resented the fact that I called her back to try and smooth things over, when part of me felt that the more assertive response would have been to NOT call back, NOT be the one to make the first move, NOT do anything. Perhaps her stressfulness may have been due to...
The fact that her mother fell and fractured her hip and was taken to hospital. So last weekend's plan's for fun were totally scuppered. BEG does not like her mother, based on the fact that her mother and father were abusive. But she feels a responsibility to look after the old lady. The timing of her mother's fall couldn't be better worse because we are due to go away on holiday next a week Saturday. So the old bitch is managing to make even this a difficult decision for BEG.
We had everyone over to celebrate Crafty Momma's birthday last Saturday. and Mrs. Mixologist showed up with Fandango and we were thrilled to have La Hermana, Michael TD, Snake, and the Evil One show up as well. LeBlanc and Mrs. Mixologist got Crafty Momma a beautiful new wind chime for her birthday as they know how much she loves them. We all stood around and talked as the food and drinks were prepared.
As usual, there was much intaking of Mrs. Mixologist's famous "Taste No Alcohol, Knock You on Your Ass Lemonade" and other adult beverages and snacks (chips, dip, etc.) and burgers and dogs grilled up by Grill Master Big D. We told Mrs. Mixologist that she should bottle her delicious drink and sell it.....next thing we knew, Craft Momma had even made up a label and slapped it on a bottle and we had MM model with it for our fictitious ad campaign.
Also, as usual, there was much playing!
As everyone started getting some drinks into them, they really started getting into it.
The kids all had a good time hanging out and playing together.
Later on, we decided to play a game of and Mrs. Mixologist finally knocked LeBlanc off of his board game throne.
Soon after, La Hermana, Michael TD, Snake, and Evil One had to depart and Sugar Bear headed off to her weekly sleepover at Nanny and Poppy's house. We decided to play some "dirty" . I would post an example but I'm afraid it would earn this blog a XXX rating....but here's proof that they were absolutely hilarious:
We could hardly read them out loud for laughing so hard. We laughed so much that we eventually had to quit playing to give our aching stomach muscles a rest. Instead we played several games of in which I continued to give LeBlanc's boardgame-playing ego a good bashing.....tying with him for first place in the first game and then taking first all by myself in the several games that followed. By that time, everyone was getting tired and silly.
Finally, it was late and LeBlanc, Mrs. Mixologist, and Fandango had a long drive home ahead of them, so we said goodnight. The time always seems to go by so quickly when we get together, I guess because we always have so much fun. Fortunately, we will be getting together again this weekend to go to the out in the to catch a double-feature. I'll be sure to tell you all about it!
Eve says her court-ordered ankle bracelet following her DUI arrest is "the most annoying thing".
"When they told me I was getting it on, I thought it was going to be like a beeper, but it's like a pair of Bose headphones."
Well, honey, people want ice water in hell. Don't drink and drive and you won't have to deal with such nuisances.
Eve was also scared to tell her mom she got arrested for a DUI.
"I'm still scared of her ... [I] had to tell her before someone else told her or she saw it or heard it."
"I definitely learned my lesson," she added. "It was a stupid situation, stupid decision. I did something dumb and now I'm paying for it ... Don't drink and drive kids." ()
sorry for the lack of posts.
please, let me explain:
with the new semester beginning, i have been swamped.
no really, i've been at the swamp and salty dog and balls and whatnot.
you see, what's really beautiful about drop/add week is that you have a certifiable excuse for not attending class
i'm horrible, i know.
and perhaps you will soon see my face pop up conveniently tomorrow in your class.
but for now, enjoy your last day (actually night...waking up hungover at 5pm does not mean it's morning, though it should...)
It's Wednesday and I am actually doing coursework!!
Okay for the rest of this week i need to knuckle down and get this work done. The bad thing is that i have just spent 3 hours on the phone to my best friend, who is grounded for the first time in her life because of a major misunderstanding, and a kind of backlog of stuff she's done before.
This made me think about my family. At one point i did something stupid that lost all of my parent's trust in me. Then I worked to build that up again.
My family maybe isn't the most conventional, and every member of it is important to me, and so this was important to gain the trust of them again. My mother and father are divorced, and my mum got re-married 2 years ago on monday to who is now my step-father. Now it's not like the wedding day was the first time I met the man, he had been living with us for about 6 or 7 years before they actually got married. I take it that he split my parents up, but as it is a fairly tender subject to bring up with either my mum or my dad then i'm not quite sure what happened there. So I've gained 5 step-siblings through that. Also my dad was married before he met my mum, and had 3 daughters from that relationship, who I have only just recently seen again after about 10 years. All of them are a lot older than me, they have children of their own. I also have a brother, who is really the only member of my family that i feel i belong with. Seeing as everyone else has grown up in different places than me, even my cousins either live 100 miles away or in a completley different country. Now there is 5 years between me and my brother, so we are not particularly close, and he wasn't the kind of teenager who broke the rules or rebelled in any way really. I'm not saying I am the world's worse teenager but they have had more of a job bringing me up i think.
But as my friend said to me on the phone today, if you don't experience things when you are this young, when you go away to university or out to work you will have no idea how the world really works. Social skills are developed in your teens, and if all you do is talk to the same people that you were in primary school with and never experience having a boyfriend or anything like that then it is going to come as quite the culture shock to you when you do have to experience these things. Let's take an example. Alcohol. Okay, if you have never been allowed to touch the stuff at home or when you were grwoing up, as soon as you hit 18 you and your friends are going to go out and get wasted. Then you might get into a situation you really don't want to be in, the first time you have ever been paraletic and you meet a strange man who offers you a ride home... who knows the consequences? I know that maybe this wouldn't happen and it could be an extreme case. Now yeah, I'm 15 and maybe you think that I shouldn't be going out or doing this sort of thing at my age but my parents have always encouraged me to drink responsibly. I'm certain that alcohol should be introduced at home, in a safe environment. Becuase also everybody reacts differentley to alcohol, so it is better to learn how your body responds and how much you can take and how that affects your judgement.
Erm, this is turning into a bit of a rant so i'll stop.
I do have weapons of world war one to write about after all :|
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