Been a while

Haven't had much time to post these past two weeks, my wife and I having consumed that most precious of bay area consumptibles - a house. So, I'm sneaking this post in while at work (more on that later).

This didn't prevent us from heading up to Dry Creek Valley a couple of Saturdays ago; the fence posts along the driveway up to Rafanelli each topped with a pumpkin. Availability at Rafanelli is down to 3 bottles of merlot per person ($27.00 per bottle), 1 bottle of zinfandel ($32.00 per bottle), and a bottle each of two Hillside Terrace Select cabernets (100.00 per bottle).

Pickings were slim at Ridge too. York Creek Petite Sirah is gone for good - the folks who supplied these grapes to Ridge will be using them in their own cabernet. I had a bottle from 1998 a few months back - one of the more memorable bottles I had this year. But maybe I just dig on fumes and char. I picked up the Jimsomare you see below (that's Iron Chef America on the TV btw) and a few odds & ends.

Work though. It's been busy enough that I've had to eat lunch on campus a few times recently. To give you some idea, I type between bites of 'Lamb & Argentinian Style Potatoes'. The the hash-slinger behind the counter at our cafeteria asked if I wanted,"the sauce on it." When I asked what kind of sauce the lamb came with he said,"a lamb-based sauce."