Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wine tasting: Barbera and Ruffino

I started doing this earlier, but my laptop battery ran out before I could get things properly shut down. I hate it when that happens.

So, anyways, The Wine Shop, in Nicholasville, had a wine tasting yesterday, in which they poured two italian wines:

Ruffino 2001 Orvieto Classico (d.o.c.)

Orvieto Classico is a white wine from italy – specifically from Umbria – and is composed of Grechetto, Drupreggio, Procanico and Trebbiano Toscano. Ruffino is an estate in Tuscany, and has a wonderful web site contaning a lot of information about their wines.

Although I caught a little bit of a nutty aroma, mostly I detected pear and tangerine, which was pretty cool. The taste was light, somewhat sweet, and bright (if that makes any sense – like a mouthfull of light – interesting sensation) and in the taste I found more of the nuts I had been told to expect. I suppose, for the most part, I’d rather people not tell me what to expect, because then I wonder if it is just the power of suggestion, or if it is really there.

The color is a wonderful straw color, reminiscent of summer.

This would be really good with an herbed chicken, or perhaps a baked fish – but then I tend to think that everything is good with baked fish, so you might want to discount that one! 🙂 Not everyone would agree with me on this, but I actually think that this would make a great sipping wine while sitting on the deck with a good book. It has enough sweetness to stand on its own, but also enough character and body to work with a meal.

Next, we tasted the:

Michele Chiarlo 2000 Barbera d’Asti (d.o.c.)

Barbera is red wine, made from the Barbera grape. Asti is a region in Italy. You can read more about Barbera d’Asti wines here.

If you have not had many (or any) Barberas, this is a good one to start with, as it has all the characteristics that I expect in a Barbera. It has a lovely dark ruby color, and the smoky, dark berry aromas that I want from a Barbera.

I felt, at the tasting, that this really would be a lot better with a meal – perhaps something simple, yet flavorful – like, say, spaghetti. So I got a bottle and brought it home, and made some spaghetti. Fortunately, I was right. The meal brought out the wonderful smoky flavor, as well as the plums and, perhaps, a little bit of strawberry (?) to go along with the rich berry flavors that just kept getting better as the wine opened up (having been just a little tart and acidic immediately after opening.)

Highly recommended, particularly if you like big, bold reds.

Additional notes: Italian wine labels can be hard to read – figuring out which is the producer, which is the appelation, and what the other stuff is, can be a little hard, particularly if you don’t speak any italian. There’s a good guide to reading wine labels at LeesMarket.com, including information about Italian labels.

upside-down flag

This morning I drove past a house where the flag was flying upside down. While I assume that this is in protest against the war, I did a little research on the reason, if any, for flying the flag upside down under correct flag etiquette.

“The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”

Now, having read this, I presume that this could be done for a number of reasons, and it is not clear, on the face of it, whether this is done as a protest against the actions of our nation, or in support of them. I guess this would largely depend on the age of the person occupying the house, and how old they were during WWII. But I could be way off base.

It is worthwhile, however, looking at the variety of web sites out there about flying the flag upside down, and the reasons given for it. Most of them are astonishingly shallow and narrow-minded, but a number of them are well thought out. I’ll leave it ambiguous which ones I think are which, and likewise will leave my opinions on our military action ambiguous.

God bless our men and women at the front, and God bless America.

Boycot Domain Registry of America

Today I received a bill from Domain Registry of America. (I won’t give them the satisfaction of providing a link to their web site, but if you care, it is droa dot com.) It was for the renewal of my domain name, rcbowen.com, which, they claim, is to expire on May 24, 2003. Two things are important here. First, the domain is not scheduled to expire on the stated date. Secondly, it is not registered with, nor has it ever been registered with, this registrar. This tactic is intentionally designed to mislead busy people into thinking that it is merely a bill, missing the fine print, and transferring their domain to these swindlers. Not only are they being unethical, but their prices are outlandish – $25 for a year, $40 for two years.

I encourage you to boycot this den of thieves, and, if you have any domains registered there, to transfer them to Dotster, or any of the other registrars that actually conduct themselves ethically.

Wok

I’m enjoying my new wok. Last night, I made stir-fry – yes, I know, not very imaginative, but it seemed like a good inauguration for a new wok. It was very very good. And with it I had some yamaimo soba (a japanese bean pasta) which was just wonderful.

This morning, I fried an egg in it. I thought it would be a disaster, but I figured I’d try anyway. Somehow, I managed to flip it without breaking the yolk, and get it to my plate without breaking the yolk.

GeoCaching

This morning, Sarah and I went to Shillito Park to play in the playground. While we were there, we went over to the GeoCache that I had found on Thursday. I did not have anything with me to swap out with what was there, on Thursday, so I had taken something with me today to swap out. So, I went to where the thing was hidden, got it out, and let Sarah pick something out of it, replacing it with what we had brought.

Sarah promptly cancelled most of the other stuff that we had scheduled for the day, and decided that we needed to spend the rest of the day “treasure hunting.” We found three caches, and looked for one other, which we were unable to find. Sarah enjoyed it all at least as much as I did.

If you’re not familiar with GeoCaching, you should take a look at www.geocaching.com. It’s basically a treasure hunt with a GPS, and it is very cool, and a lot of fun.

By the way, we found:
Belleau Woods Cache
Another Li’l Cache in a Pretty Li’l Park
“Wave” at me

We looked for, but did not find:
GardenSide Treasure

Trackbacks

I just discovered that my journal was configured to reject trackback pings, which is, presumably, why none of them have shown up, even though I know that I’ve been referenced elsewhere. Now, perhaps, my ego can swell to its intended size.

Pair programming

Did some pair programming this afternoon with Ken, on the Library project for the LPLUG. It really was amazing how much more can be accomplished with two programmers working together than the same two could produce working on their own.

Particular kudos to Schwern for the Test::More module, and particularly for is_deeply, which saved a HUGE amount of time and work on testing.

Also interesting is to see the looks that people give you when you’re pair programming – like they think that you’re just wasting half of your effort. I do know for sure that I always get more actual functional code written when I have someone working with me. Part of it is motivation. Part of it is the fresh ideas. Part of it is the catching of stupid mistakes before they can cause real damage. It’s an interesting synergy.

GPS

I picked up a GPS on the way to work this morning, in anticipation of an upcoming trip. The idea was to get something, play with it for a week or two, and then return it.

I am hooked. This is the coolest toy I have every played with, with no exception that I can think of. I’m a little unclear what the appeal is, exactly, but it is very very cool. Real specific, huh?

So, in case you wondered, I’m at 37,51.508N, 84,39.595W, and 883 ft elevation

Oh, by the way, what I got is here, but what I really want is here