So as most of the East Coast was hit with snow over this past weekend, all we got was rain. And lots of it. These pictures are in a Norfolk neighborhood. I didn't realize that I was going to need a boat for the winter.

Ingleside Vineyards Book Signing

So on December 5th Mr. Carl Flemer signed copies of his books, Four Centuries of Little Known Washington Parish History and Birthplace of the Nation: A Story Worth Telling, at Ingleside Vineyards. The only place that you can get these books, it would seem is at Ingleside.

So Jim and I jumped at the chance to have the author, of two books we have enjoyed, sign our book.

Yet again I forgot my camera. Luckily Amy Otis had a camera on hand and was taking pictures. I only wished she'd have warned me because I'm a wreck. Ah well you can't have it all.

Amy was quite handy with that camera of hers. She managed to get Doug Flemer, Carl Flemer and Bill Swain for a photo op. If you are interested in who these fine gentlemen are then please click here.

We did enjoy our visit to Ingleside, even if it is a 2.5 hour drive one way. We got a chance to sit down with Bill Swain, the winemaker, and chat. He is, after all, my favorite winemaker. No bias here I swear. We got to see some old friends. And, of course, purchase some wonderful wines.

And I end this blog with one more photo of Mr. Flemer enjoying a glass of Ingleside's Reserve Petit Verdot. A new favorite in our household.

The Season Has Begun

I know we are inundated with Christmas before December gets here. I think I've actually been trying to ignore it this year for some reason. But now I can't, because my brother-in-law has done this.

Good job Phillip!

-Michelle

Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It seems like only yesterday we had just bought our home and moved in. And here were are a year later. Where does the time go?

So many things have happened this past year and there are so many things to be thankful for.

Of course I'm thankful for my hubby, my home, my family and my health. And I'm truly thankful for my friends. I couldn't do a post without a picture so I thought I'd put my 'babies' up on the blog.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. And know there are many things to be thankful for. I hope you can find at least one.

-Michelle

Powerless

If you haven't been watching the news or you don't live in VA, then you may not know what's going on. Let me share.

We have been without power since 6 last night. But the recording from our power carrier says we will have power back by 10 tonight. Let's hope it's sooner as my computer battery is now at half life and it still needs to charge my phone a little more.

Leafing!

So today Jim and I went to the Shenandoah National Park and went leafing. Now some of you might wonder what leafing is. Well it's slang in areas that get beautiful fall foliage for the people who go out to ogle the leaves, like us.

The first shot is of Jim's side mirror. He wanted to get a shot of the leaves behind us. I thought it was really kind of neat.

We took turns passing the camera back and forth. So it's a mix of Jim's work and mine. Which was kind of fun. Because after a while of looking at what seems like the same thing over and over you need a new prospective.

I know the red leaves is a shot Jim took.

We go leafing just about every year. If time allows and all. This year I think we got there a little late, but the weather and schedules really weren't all that cooperative.

And sometimes the colors don't come out as vibrant as we thought they would. They seemed to fade as the sun got higher. We call the tree a fire tree, because it looked almost like the leaves were flames.

And I know this odd plant is my work. We don't always photograph the leaves. That's what makes it fun. We look through the pictures later to see what we did. And if we don't like it we can delete it. That's the beauty of digital photography.


I hope you enjoy them as much as we did taking them.

Ship Manuevers

Came across this while goofing around in YouTube. I love how you can hear the guy say 'I want to ride on that'.

He's taping this from the flight deck of the Eisenhower. That should tell you it's a MUCH bigger ship.

All I gotta say is I hope everyone was hanging on when they made that turn.

No matter what ship you're on it's always impressive to watch other Navy vessels in action.

I've added this one so you can see the difference in sizes and how quickly they can turn.

Wine Tasting

Last night we were able to attend a wine tasting with our wine group, the N2S2V2. And I'm not telling you what it stands for. A normally 2.5 hour trip took us 3.5 hours. 64 was a parking lot! I'm sorry that I suggested taking the route. And the trip home wasn't much better.

Jim took the

pictures this time around and I think he got some good ones. The first one is Lillian and Sue.

He got a lot of very good candid ones. I only used a few though.

The next one is of Melanie.

By the end of the evening we were all acting silly. Omar tried to give the bear a sip of his wine. To loosen him up. And Debbie let Jim know what she thought of all his picture taking. And of course I had to pretend to be afraid of the bear. Which was really hard, because I was laughing so hard.

Spanish Summer Wine Dinner At Cobalt

So last night I was able to attend a wine dinner at Cobalt in Virginia Beach with some friends from SOS.

The first course was called ensaldas. Which I'm guessing means salad. It's all new to me so I will be translating as best I can. Please bear with me on this.

It was lobster and crab salad with adobo grilled asparagus. They served Legado Del Conde Albarino 2008 from Rias Baixas, Spain. Which is a very nice white wine.

I really enjoyed this course. Asparagus is a favorite of mine. The flavors blended so well together. But it's so hard to find a wine to go with asparagus. This wine however was a wonderful pairing. Even people who prefer reds enjoyed this one.

The second course was called pescados which translates to fish. It was grilled swordfish with mango and strawberry salsa and sweet potato fries. They served Muga Rosado Tempranillo Rose 2008 from Rioja, Spain.

Normally I'm a huge fan of Rose wines. However with this one I was not impressed. I actually left the glass full after only three sips. It was a bit sweet and that's just not something I wanted from a Rose.

The dish was pretty good. The sweet potato fries were very thin. But the flavors went nicely together. I rather liked the fruit salsa. And I don't eat strawberries very often since they are persona non grata in our household due to allergies.

The third course was called mariscos, which translates to seafood. It was Spanish rice with chicken, crawfish and Chorizo. They served Bodegas Paso A Paso Tino Tempranillo 2007 from La Mancha, Spain.

I had never had this combination before. It had a really nice spice to it and I admit I cleaned my plate on this one. And I don't really do crawfish. But when you don't have to clean it or prep it, well then it's quite yummy!

The wine was good, but I didn't finish the glass off. I don't recall what it was about this wine, but I'm not sure if I liked this one or not.

Next was the intermezzo, which I took as an intermission. At this time we just had Tinto de Verano and Hank Foiles of Country Vintners Wine Distributors came around to talk with everyone. He had been giving talks about each wine and the parings as they came out. It was very educational, but we did spend a lot of time chatting and catching up with.

Tinto de Verano is a wine-based drink similar to sangria and is very popular in Spain. It's much simpler though. It's usually made up of 1 part red wine and 1 part La Casera, a soda similar to Sprite only less sweet. It can be replicated using a mixture of Sprite and seltzer

or club soda. It literally translates to red wine of summer. And I really enjoyed it.

So I had to get a picture of our wine steward, Arden Allen. She sat down with the chef and Hank Foiles to choose the wines that we had tonight. Plus she speaks Spanish. Just a nice little tidbit to throw in there.

The next course was called carne which translates to meat. It was grilled flat

iron steak with mushroom ceviche and chipotle mashed potatoes. They served it with Atalaya Almansa Monastrell 2007 from Ribera Del Duero, Spain.

I truly enjoyed this course. And the wine was very nice. All of the flavors combined so well. It was like a symphony in your mouth. Especially when you followed it up with a sip of the wine.

They did make it possible for you to purchase wine that you enjoyed at the end of the evening. Sadly I didn't, but I have the names of all the wines. So I can always search for them later. But some of my group did decide to leave with a bottle or two.

Sadly I forgot to take pictures of the last two courses. And I could just shoot myself for forgetting. But it was such a sensory delight that I forgot about my camera and enjoyed the meal.

The final course was called dolces, which translates to I believe means sweet. I could be wrong though. They served cinnamon and lemon creme Catalina with Lustau East India Solera Palomino nv from Jerez, Spain.

The best way I can describe this delight to the taste buds, was it was sort of like creme brulee only it was a light lemony flavor. I hope I don't offend Chef Alvin Williams with that description.

I was lucky enough to get my picture taken with the chef. I know I look awful, but when I asked for a photo of him he sat down and said okay. Which was cool. It was also his birthday.

And of course I couldn't leave without a picture of the group. So we had Arden take a picture. So Erin, Amy and Andrea I had a fantastic night! Thanks for inviting me along.

Afterwards we went to the Melting Pot, just a short walk from Cobalt, to have coffee and dessert.

Duty Day

So once again I took Jim dinner while he had duty. Among a bunch of other things. As I was getting ready to leave there was a storm that passed through. So Jim and I waited under the tent on the quarter deck.

As we waited we happened to see this. It's a single tugboat pulling, what we think, is a trencher. I hope I got that right. But I thought it was cool and decided to snap some pictures with my phone.

A Day In Our Backyard

Over one of the weekends this month Jim and I noticed the squirrel on the back porch railing. Daring little bugger was staring at us.

I guess he'd just finished eating from the squirrel feed.

It didn't even bother him when I got up and walked to the door. I didn't open it, but he did stay still for the photos. I'm not exactly saying he's a camera hog, but the pictures do speak for themselves.

Just Another Duty Day

Normally, when Jim has duty I bring him dinner. If he's really lucky then he gets lunch and dinner. Apparently most spouses don't do this. Don't know why.

That is if I'm not covered in Poison Ivy or look like an alligator bag.

Today was such a day. Finally I feel like a human being and can go out in public without worry of being hunted down, for the gator skin. ;-)

So I took Jim lunch and this is what we saw while we were headed inside the ship.

I was intrigued by all the sailboats that were out on the water. Which made me wonder. What is going on? Is there a sailboat race?

I did find out that there's a Pirate Festival in Hampton and an American Indian type festival.

Just had to share. It's an interesting perspective.

Home Improvements

So when we first moved into the house back in September, this was what our driveway looked like. It was awful. We were told that the city would not allow the driveway extension that we requested.

I thought it sounded more like a load of bull, but there wasn't much I could do. It was terrible. Muddy when it rained. And there was NO curb cutout. So it was tearing up the car.

So we decided we were going to do something about it. I called around. Got some estimates. And finally found someone who made me feel confidant.

And the second to last week of May Concrete Works came to my house to take care of all of this.

There were only two men who did this entire job. Bob and Curtis were fantastic. They started on a Tuesday and finished up on

a Saturday. If the concrete place hadn't added to much of a certain chemical to the concrete they would have been done by Friday. It took the concrete a while to dry.

We've recommended them to quite a number of people.

And of course no tale of construction is complete with the after picture. I hope they get tons more business. They were professional and very courteous.

Our driveway is much larger now. Hooray! We can park our small boat and three to four vehicles, depending on the size. And best of all? The curb has been cut and it will never tear up our vehicles again!

They said it couldn't be done, but I say that's a bunch of bull!

-Michelle

Think Green

So Earth Day has come and gone. All week I've seen different stations who have been promoting 'green' and having their 'stars' tell us all what they do to help the environment. Insert the eye roll here.

Which irritates me in a way. You only see those type of commercials the week before and the week of Earth Day. Then it's back to business as usual. Sad really. What about the rest of the year?

Which got me to thinking. I know I've weakened the nation by doing this. ;-) Do I 'do my part for the environment'?

Well last weekend Norfolk had an electronic recycle day. So instead of throwing our 20 year old TV, that had finally bit the dust, in the trash we saved it and took it to the recycling area. Keeping it out of a landfill. Yeah us. But what else. One thing does not save the world! I do recycle things and put out the recycle bin, when I remember, on recycle days. I use my reusable shopping bags instead of plastic. If I forget them for some reason I keep the plastic and return them to Wal-Mart in exchange for a reusable bag. I also buy organic and local, when I can. Does that count?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not some tree hugger, but I'm not out to destroy the world.

Now world domination, that's something else entirely. ;-)

-Michelle

The Universe Is Against Me!

The baseball season is upon us. Yeah! I've purchased Extra Innings from Cox so that we can watch the Cardinals play.

They had a game against Chicago Saturday afternoon. We were all set to watch, but it was not to be. Apparently the game was on FOX in that area so we didn't get it. Why am I paying for Extra Innings again? Greedy FOX! What about fans that don't live in the area?

Another game was to be played Sunday evening. Again we were all set to enjoy the game. I'd hurried home from a previous engagement and was really ready for some baseball. It was rained out.

That is why I say the Universe is against me!

The next game is Tuesday, so we'll see if the fates are against me or not.

Being First

Being first requires a couple of things. First and foremost, you have to be in a position to be first. Second, you need the talent and the drive to take advantage of that position. Being in the position without the talent and drive just means the next guy in that position will be the first and you will be forgotten.

Last night, both of these conditions were satisfied for our favorite major league baseball player. Jody Gerut was the first person to hit a home run in NYC's City Park, home of the New York Metropolitans, aka the Mets. Clearly he demonstrated he had the talent and drive to take advantage of the circumstances he found himself in.

Not only did Mr. Gerut (We haven't met, so we're not on a first name basis.) hit the first home run in City Park history, he is also the first person to lead off a game in a new ballpark with a home run. In Elias Sports Bureau terms, that makes him immortal. Someone may repeat the feat, but he will always be first. The subject of mid-game trivia questions everywhere. A surefire way to make sure your name is never forgotten.

Pretty cool if you ask me.

Mr. Gerut also showed his class (we expect such classy acts from someone from Illinois) by donating the bat he used to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

What a great way to start the season. And now we have MLB Extra Innings, so we can watch the San Diego Padres, when my beloved Cardinals are not on of course.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

It's that time of year again. So in honor of it, I just had to post this. I never realized the many different versions of this song. So I chose the version done by Gretchen Wilson.

My hopes for this year are to see a few Tides games, possibly a Nationals game and to see the Cards do well. Please God please! Okay enough of that. Enjoy the baseball season everyone!

-Michelle

If You Don't Teach Your Cat About Catnip

Who will?

In Memory Of A Great Man

I just found out that Jacques Recht, a wonderful and knowledgeable man, just passed away.

Jim and I were lucky enough to meet this man and form a friendship through our wine group. It was always interesting to hear his thoughts on wines and he was always willing to sit and chat with you about the many different things about wine.

Jacques, a Belgian oenologist, was sailing around the world on a catamaran he had built when he ventured into the Chesapeake Bay and had a chance meeting in 1980 with Carl Flemer, the owner of a large commercial nursery and vineyards on the Northern Neck. As it happened, Flemer was in need of a winemaker to launch his Ingleside Vineyards. Jacques agreed to give him a hand, at least for a few weeks. Thos few weeks turned into 25 years, during which Recht moved from Ingleside's winemaker to wine making guru for the entire state. He has been a consultant to numerous wineries, including Oasis, Oakencroft and Tarara. For the past several years he has been the winemaker for a small winery, Athena Vineyards, which is near Wicomico Church on the Northern Neck.

Our sympathy and hear felt wishes go out to Lillian, his lovely wife, and all his family. He will be greatly missed. Farewell Jacques, you will be missed.

-Michelle

Good Friends, Good Wine, And Good Food.

Normally our weekends are a time for Jim to just relax. And we really don't do much of anything. This weekend, however, was a bit different.

So Saturday we drove the 2.5 hours to Ingleside Vineyards. Of course we did do a tasting. Hey they have new things for tasting. Plus we stayed and chatted with our friends and drank a glass or two of Rosato. We were actually on a mission to get a case of Rosato di Sangiovese, but that wasn't our only reason we were there.

No we were also there for a meeting with our wine group. Something we had not done since we left the area. And it felt like coming home. We fell into the same old jokes with some of our friends and many people acted as if we'd been gone for a short amount of time. Not the nearly twelve months that we had been gone.

The first picture is of our friends, Bill and Linda. Just two of my favorite people.

The wine tasting with our group was seven red wines. The theme, there's always a theme, was big bold reds. It's been a while since I've had a lot of reds. I'm a bit out of practice.

Jim, being the smarty pants he is, told the group he was just there to drink. So he took no notes on the wines. I quite frankly am out of practice and really couldn't pick out the subtleties of the wines.

After the wine tasting we broke into two different groups. Some went to The Moorings while others went to Good Eats.

Linda, Neil, Phil, Andrea, Debbie, Melanie, Linda, Jim and I all went to Good Eats. We had three bottles of wine at the table.

Jim and I both had the blackened prime rib. Which was wonderful!

We spent a few hours there. The staff was wonderful. The food fantastic! The company even better.

The Great Michelle...

Has done it again!  That's right I predicted a boy and so it came to be.  

Our friends Sarah and Jameson, well more Sarah than Jameson, had a baby boy on the fifth.  Congrats you two!  

My sources tell me William Clark weighed in at 7.5 pounds and was 21 inches long.  And that Mommy and baby are doing fine.

See Jameson, I told you it would be a boy.  Silly thing!  How could you ever doubt me?

I expect baby pictures people!

Movie Theater Etiquette

So over the weekend Jim and I went to see two movies.  A real record for us.  Lately there has been nothing out there that we want to see.  But I digress.  We normally go to afternoon matinees because there usually aren't a lot of people there.  And we really don't like crowds.

Saturday afternoon we saw Defiance with Daniel Craig (a.k.a. the new James Bond) and Liev Schreiber (a.k.a. Cotton Weary from the Scream series).  I admit I had to look up the last guy.  He has a familiar face, but I couldn't place him.  

Sunday we saw Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood.  Apparently this is the last movie that Mr. Eastwood is going to star in.

The first movie was good, but it did drag on a bit.  The only problem was the three old people who talked to each other during the movie.  They'd ask each other questions, loudly.  And in the previews there was a Marine commercial (I can't think of a better term for it.) they felt the need to be disrespectful.  I wanted to get up and smack the trio.  Show a bit of respect!  Especially since you are in a movie theater right outside of the base.  At the end of the movie, during the credits, they felt the need to complain that it was dark.  Of course it was dark!  The movie was still rolling.  And of course one woman complained that the movie was a bit violent.  Well duh!  It was set during World War II.  What did you expect?  Flowers and puppies?

I NEVER want to hear older people complain that the younger generation has no manners.

What they did was unforgivable.  It's one thing to whisper to the person next to you once or twice.  It's totally another to state things in a voice loud enough to be heard four rows away.

There's a special place in hell for people who talk in movie theaters during the movie.  I don't mind if they talk during the previews, but come on.  Show a bit of class.  I paid good money to see this show.  Not hear you yak.

Ugh!

And if you're looking for a good movie to see I definitely recommend Gran Torino. 

Ingleside's Champagne Decadence

Last night Ingleside Vineyard's had a Champagne Decadence event.    I attended this event alone due to the fact that my sweet husband was out doing his job.  Sadly my pictures are not of the best quality because I took these with my iPhone (Which still rocks!) instead of a camera.  And the lighting was a bit dim to ensure the proper mood for the event.  My photography professor would be so ashamed.  But hey I made a 2.5 hour trek on a Friday night.  I won't even start on how the traffic was.  At least I was able to get myself put together.  And get there within a reasonable amount of time.  The event started out with a glass of wine as you signed in.  Either Chesapeake Cabernet/Merlot or Chesapeake Chardonnay.  I chose the Cab/Merlot, since it is a favorite of mine.  And they put your name on a little tag so that you wouldn't loose your glass.  Very nicely done.  Doug Flemer then welcomed everyone and off we went to where the magic begins.

  

Once we arrived we were given a wonderful education in the making of Champagne.  Or as they call it in Ingleside, Sparkling Wine.  They call it sparkling wine to avoid confusion with wines from the Champagne region in France.  It was very detailed and informative.  Sadly I can't remember everything.  There were a lot of people there.  I tend to get distracted.  Always tend to keep my ears open when I don't have the hubby around.  And there were a number of people who felt the need to chat during the presentation.  They showed what the yeast looked like during the fermentation process and the racks that they sit in.   We also learned that it's very labor intensive.  Each bottle is handled more than forty times and it takes more than four years from grape harvest until the first glass is enjoyed.  No wonder the price for sparkling wine is a bit more.  A lot of hard work and love go into it.
We then went on to the barrel room to taste some of this bubbly happiness.  We tried three different types.  Bad me I don't remember their names and I didn't take notes.    As I recall one was natural, one had liquor in the dosage and I'm not sure about the other.  I liked the natural the best.  Each one had a different aroma and taste.  Very educational and fun.  The racks are barely visible in the first photo, but I had to take the picture.  I got a pretty good shot of Andrea as well.  She's always on the move, so most of my photos of her turn out blurry.  Which sucks.  She helped serve the sparking wines as well as some of the goodies that they served.  

I was able to get a shot of Amy Otis, the events coordinator.  She's thought up some really good events.  And she has even more planned for 2009.  She also took many pictures at the event and has promised to email them to me.  So if and when I get them I will post them here.  Hers should be so much better.  She had a nice camera, unlike me.  So to all my Ingleside friends please remind Amy to email those photos from the event.  I'd appreciate it.  Every event that we've attended that she's been in charge of so far have been great.  If you're ever curious as to what event is coming up at Ingleside you just need to click on the events tab on their website, which Amy is also in charge of, and they will list it.  I highly recommend calling in advance for reservations to the events.  Just in case it's a limited number for the event.  Like this one was.  I lucked out and called in plenty of time to reserve my spot.

No Champagne Event would be complete without a picture of the winemaker, Bill Swain, pouring a glass of the sparkling wine.  This one had a pink tinge to it.  It was served at the end of the evening with a nice toast to everyone who had worked so hard to put this event together.  Bill's wife, Maria, is the assistant winemaker.  She's actually the one who does all the work on the sparkling wine.  It's hard work, but she does seem to enjoy it.  And all of us enjoy the fruits of her labors.

The caterers are in the next photo.  Barb and Gary did a fantastic job!  Everything was extremely tasty.  The food was separated into four different 'regions'.  All of which have some very good wines that come out of them.  They were Spain, Italy, France and California.  As well as the wonderful food, they had sparkling wine and another wine.  Something different for each 'region'.

France had mini quiche lorraine, brie cheese and stuffed mushrooms.  The mushrooms were my favorite, but I'm a big fungus fan.  They also served the Chesapeake Cabernet/Merlot.   A very nice drinking wine. 

Italy had ravioli with white wine sauce, Gorgonzola cheese, antipasto and prosciutto pinwheels.  I really enjoyed the ravioli and prosciutto wheels.  They served Sangiovese at this station.  Which goes oh so very well with Italian.

Spain had tuna and goat cheese empanadas, manchego cheese, and calamari frito with safron aoli.  I really enjoyed Spain.  It could be that was because Maria was there.  She passionate not only about the wines, but food as well.  And she's a good one to ask questions about wine.  The calamare was done very well.  Just right so it did not become rubbery.  The wine served there was the Rosato di Sangiovese.  One of my absolute favorites.  It goes very well with just about everything.  But I like to drink it just by itself.

California had sturgeon and salmon caviar, shrimp salad and fresh shucked oysters.  Phil, in the last photo, actually shucked the oysters that evening.  Cleans up quite nicely doesn't he?  I tried the oysters for the very first time with a little cocktail sauce on it.  I was egged on by Phil.  Let me just say I've experienced it once.  I don't need to do it again.  A Chardonnay was served here.  And Bill Swain was at this station.  So it was another good spot to be in if you wanted to pick the wine maker's brain.  Which I, of course, did.

It was a wonderful event.  Kudos to all that worked on it.  It was something that I hope they do again.  I would go for sure.  I look forward to the other events that will occur this year.

-Michelle