Merry, uh, Holidays

Or Season's Greetings! Or Happy Hannukah! Or Happy Eid ul-Adah!

In celebration of the holidays, I bring you "The Spirit of Christmas" (and in Russian for those that prefer).

Good info on veg*n diets

We have a vegan/vegetarian (hence veg*n) distribution list at work, and one of the regular topics that comes up is good sources of protein. The next-most popular topics are iron and vitamin B-12, since many meat-eaters think that veg*ns can't possible get enough of these nutrients.

It turns out that with a little research/education, and a varied diet, you can meet all of your dietary needs with a veg*n diet.

In terms of education, the Internet has lots of good information... So much that it's hard to know where to start or who to trust. I'd recommend starting with the pages on the Vegan Society website.

Brown really was a dumb idea

I rememebr when the first Zunes came out and everyone looked at the brown colour and went "Whaaaat?!"
Some folks said brown was an "in" colour (lots of fashion designers were using brown that year), and that Microsoft was riding the crest of the coolness wave and differentiating the Zune from the white iPod.

Cue 2007... The new Zunes are out, and brown is nowhere to be seen...
The old Zunes are on deep clearance (e.g. $109 on Buy.com). What colour is left?
You guessed it : Brown!

When all life on earth is extinct, there will be "mint in box" brown Zunes left as a testament to Man's ingenuity.

Woodinville St. Nick's wine-tasting

Last weekend, a few friends and I sent to Woodinville for their annual St. Nicholas Open House. The event ran over both Saturday and Sunday, but we only did one day - next weekend I think I'll try to make it to both days, since there are far too many wineries to fit into one day. As it was, we did pretty well, visiting around 10 wineries in about 5 hours.


I had only basic knowledge of the area's wineries, having been to Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Winery a few times, and having heard about a few of the bigger wineries like Januik.


We skipped most of these big names, but did stop in at the Januik / Novelty Hill winery, which is very impressive and modern. This was in contrast to our first stop of the day at DeLille Winery (which was one of the venues we looked at for our wedding). DeLille was very cozy and had lots of wood and country ambience (kudos for the huge roaring fire on a wet snowy day!). They also had passed hors d'ouevres and a cheese selection to die for... I didn't think their wines were that amazing, though (they have lots of awards, so I guess I'm not smart enough to appreciate their wines?)

A slight peeve at DeLille was that they stamped your St. Nicks booklet for every glass of wine you tasted, which was rather tedious and seemed cheap. (How many people would have abused their hospitality and drunk too much wine? No other winery felt the need to be this fastidious.)

Back to Januik / Novelty Hill: Their tasting was held in the actual winery, with loads of stainless steel fermentation tanks and oak barrels stacked to the ceiling. Their wines were clean, fruity and generally very good, but I thought they lacked some "character" and tasted a bit generic. (We were tasting their more everyday wines, which no doubt are made in a more approachable style). I did like their Cab Sauv and they had a very good Rose wine that we all liked. There was also a guy selling amazing savoury shortbread that came in several flavours, and each went very well with a particular kind of wine. A nice idea, and his stuff worked very well with wine (unlike some savoury biscotti we tried in Oregon this summer).

Other wineries we tried were:

• SilverLake (their adjoining tasting room also had incredible fruit wines from the Hoodsport Winery, and yummy chocolate truffles). We bought some blackberry and raspberry wine, which have already been had and enjoyed :)
• Facelli Winery, which is a small family-run winery tucked away in an industrial park. Their tasting room was small and a little cramped, but the family was on hand pouring their wines and very friendly.
• Northwest Totem Cellars were pouring their wines at the old Hollywood School House. They were defintely the most laid-back and inviting of all the wineries, not even looking at our St. Nick's booklet. They had an awesome folk band playing, and their wines were quite good. (I think I liked their Low Man Red the best, but the Cab Sauv was very nice too). Their first reds are being released this month, so keep an eye out for them!
• DiStefano Winery had some good wines and great food - their pumpkin soup was very welcome as the rain poured down outside.

The highlight of the day for me was the discovery of Pomum Cellars. The setup was basic but inviting and the wine-maker was on hand pouring his creation. Apparently they had some amazing cheese, but I missed it completely as I tasted the one wine they had out - they 2004 Shya Red. This was the only wine I tasted all day that made me go "Wow!". It's a Bordeaux-style blend with more of an old-world style and lots of character. I had a great time talking to the winemaker about how he got into the wine business, and his plans for the future. Since he's from Spain, he is working on some Spanish varietals and will have a Tempranillo coming out soon (next year?). I'm really excited to see what their future wines are like and would recommend trying their wines if you have the chance.

Columbia Winery moving

I just noticed this story on the Seattle Times website about the Columbia Winery in Woodinville. They are moving from their current iconic location, and will be looking for a new retail/sales location in or around Woodinville. The production facilities will move to Eastern Washington.

I also didn't realize that Columbia are owned by Constellation Brands. I've just finished reading The House of Mondavi about the Mondavi family and the collapse of the Robert Mondavi's wine empire. It was eventually bought by Constellation...

The book is great, by the way. Very readable and full of interesting anectdotes and facts about the wine industry. If you're interested in wine or rags-to-riches-to-rags* biographies, check out this book.

* OK, not rags in the end exactly, but you get the idea.

Costco spam

Sigh... I love the marketing spam many companies feel inclined to send their customers. Costco is one of the more persistent ones, sending a weekly email advertising their latest Chinese imports. As is legally required, they include an "unsubscribe" link in the email, and I tried (in vain) to unsubscribe today.

1. You can't unsubscribe by replying to their email. You must click on a link they provide in the email...


2. The unsubscribe link is invalid and clicking on it does nothing. (The URL starts with "../" which is not a good sign :) )


3. Their email includes a customer service email address, so I sent them a request to send me working unsbscribe link...


4. This is the reply I got from the customer service "robot" :






Thank you for contacting costco.com.Please note your e-mail has not been submitted to customer service as we have upgraded our e-mail system.Simply click here and follow 3 easy steps to submit your question. Our goal is to provide immediate assistance and continue to add features to improve the customer service experience.If the above link does not work, paste the following link into your browser: https://costco.egain.net/system/web/custom/initialPage.html?lang=en-US&topnav=&whse=BC


This is an automated response and any replies sent will not receive assistance.

Sincerely,

Costco Wholesale



5. Clicking on the link they provide eventually leads to nice error message:
   
   

Frack me, but they've managed to make this way more complicated than needed. I guess they really don't want you to unsubscribe!!!??

Office make-over

On Wednesday morning, after the ice-hockey game, I came in to work to find my office door looked a bit different:



The entire door was wrapped in gift wrap and had a nice bow around it. Inside, I found almost every object in my office wrapped in gift wrap! My chair, notice boards, monitors, keyboard and mouse, even my (empty) water cup and pen! This picture doesn't really do it justice (and I had unwrapped a few things by the time it was taken), but you get a rough idea:

 

I had no idea who had done this (yes, I'm slow) - initially thinking my boss or colleagues were pranking me. Then I recognized a few holiday decorations from our house (the reindeer), and a note on one monitor finally solved the mystery: My fiancee and friends had pranked me while I was out watching the ice-hockey! (It turns out they were not all watching the Sound of Music as they had said....)

Thanks to all the "naughty people" that did this! It was a huge surprise and made my day!

In closing, here's the light-up snowman head:

Picnik chuckle

I used the Picnik photo-editing application for the first time last night (it's the one that Flickr partners with, so it's the easiest way to tweak your Flickr pictures).

I must say I was mightily impressed. For a web app, it was slick, intuitive and worked nicely. (Granted I only cropped an image, but still, compared to the Windows picture editor it's a step or two ahead).

The loading screen is worth seeing - they've definitely followed the light-hearted tone used by Flickr for their website. So, in keeping with the name "Picnik", the loading screen informs you that the program is:

• Laying the blanket
• Buttering the bread
• Planting trees
• Warming the breeze
• etc.

Luckily ants and yellow-jackets are not mentioned...

Ice Hockey

I went to my first ice hockey game last night, and had a fun time. Luckily my friends K & R wer there to explain the intricacies of the game to me, otherwise I would have been pretty lost.

It turns out ice hockey is blindingly fast and quite exciting to watch. I spent most of the evening trying to follow the puck around the court and figure out what random event had caused players to be sent to cool off. There was only one real fight during the game, no teeth went flying and there was no blood on the ice. The crowd was pretty bloodthirsty, and would rise and cheer whenever a player from the visiting team, the Tri-City Americans, got checked hard into the "glass" surrounding the ice.

Despite starting out well, the Seattle Thunderbirds slipped from the initial lead to a 2-2 draw and the game went into a 4-on-4 sudden death period, with the Tri-City Americans finally scoring a goal and winning 3-2. I have to say, the visitors outplayed the home team and deserved to win.

I suggested we drive out to the Tri-Cities for the next game, and keep supporting the winning team...

Some other random observations:

1. It's amusing to see the make-up of the teams, though. Take the Tri-City Americans, for example. Only 2 of the 23-strong team are from the USA, most being from Canada. I guess Canada was annexed and I missed the news ? Only 1 of the 23 Seattle Thunderbird players are from the USA, and none call Washington State home. It's kind of weird to see the fans get so, well, fanatical in support of the "local" team versus the visitors, considering they are basically two Canadian teams :)
2. The visiting team had the coolest player names: T.J Fast and Colton Yellow Horn. They also had the funniest name: Brett Plouffe.
3. Ice hockey fans like to shout "You suck!" a lot. The smart ones add a name to end, so everyone knows who the suckee is. A few people seemed to think everyone sucked, which was a bit severe, I thought.
4. Food and beer cost and arm and a leg. I guess that helps to keep the crowd from getting totally hammered?
5. The game is interrupted every two minutes to plug some sponsor or other, usually thinly masked as a give-away or competition for the fans. The "half-time" shows were quite cute, though: 5-9 year-olds playing "bunch-puck", and the crowd throwing pucks onto the ice, trying to get them through the sun-roof of a car.

Favourite mustard?

What's your favourite mustard?

I'll freely admit that I'm a mustard snob. French's doesn't cut it, and I often make the trip to our local German deli to buy some good German mustard instead. Luckily, A shares my passion, and we've gradually been exploring and discovering new mustards that meet our high standards :)
For me, good mustard should be quite hot, but flavourful and not overpowering, not vinegary, and only a little sweet (if it's sweet at all).

I grew up really liking the Gundelsheim mustard in a glass mug. (You get a free coffee mug once the mustard is gone, how cool is that!?)
Colman's English mustard was also a regular condiment - great with cheddar cheese or roast beef. (This stuff is very hot though, and clears your sinuses out like hot horseradish).

In the USA, A and I discovered the Dijon mustard at Trader Joe's. It's really yummy and packs much more flavour than the ubiquitous Grey Poupon. (Some people call it "super hot", but they must not have had Chinese mustard or Colman's... hehe)

The German deli I mentioned earlier (Liebschen, in Bellevue) has some good mustards, including several varieties made by Thomy that come in metal tubes. The Tomy Scharfer Senf is great and became our new favourite a few months back. It's a bit too pricey to put in/on everything, though.

I am now eagerly awaiting some French "Tubissime" mustard that I ordered. (Made with Orleans vinegar and Guerande salt, and hand-made in small batches, probably by cute little french maids in flouncy skirts).

Mind 'ow you search...

My colleague Robert Hensing linked to an interesting and scary article about "evil" results in search engine queries being used to infect people's machines.

Ways to stay safe(r):

• Use Vista on a 64-bit machine with hardware DEP enabled, and UAC enabled
• Run as a normal user (not an admin)
• Don't install anything when a website prompts you, unless you know and trust the website, are really are sure it's something you need, and it's signed by a trusted publisher.
• Uninstall Quicktime :)

Beowulf

A and I saw Beowulf this past weekend, and really enjoyed it. The animation is astounding, and the script while mostly faithful to the poem also has some nice twists and additions.

This review by Henry Gee covers the movie perfectly.

Not so much fun were the four teenagers in front of us in the cinema. They seemed to be terminally addicted to text-messagign on their cell phones, and would pull them out every minute or two to machine-gun a new message. I have no idea why they felt the need to send messages during a movie they paid to see! Eventually a cinema usher cam over and asked them to not use their phones, but this led to much nattering and the girls leaving and making a noise in the hallway outside the theatre.

Housing in South Africa

The PRI (public radio) program The World recently had two segments on housing in South Africa. You can listen to the segments here:

• Irish vulunteers building houses for the poor.
• Interview with Desmond Tutu about the ruling ANC government.

Acquiring a taste for wine

I stumbled on this article from the Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest Magazine: Acquiring a Taste.

It features a nice beginner's guide to wine tasting, ten tips to improve, and a list of wine clubs and events if you want to be part of some organized tastings.

Blind tastings

Slate has a new article by Mike Stenberger which talks about blind wine tastings. This bit was amusing:

Blind tastings can serve both as rites of passage—the exams for both the Master of Wine and the Master Sommelier degrees include blind tastings—and as ritual hazings. Within wine circles, nothing cements a reputation quite like acing a blind tasting. Years ago, British wine writer Oz Clarke was served a mystery red. After much sniffing and sipping, he said he couldn't decide whether it was the 1982 Paul Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle or the 1983. There was a reason he couldn't make up his mind: The glass contained a blend of both. But such triumphs are rare; more often than not, blind tastings yield embarrassment.

The article is worth reading - Mike makes some good points about the pros and cons of blind wine tastings.

Speaking of wine, Happy Birthday to Gary! (A day late...)

New Zune

Microsoft released the new models of the Zune media players yesterday, and the reviews seem generally positive. One thing that has kep me from buying a Zune (apart from the bulky hardware and crappy PC software, ahem) was the lack of a subscription service.

I've been very happy with Napster's subscription service and my old Creative Zen Micro. For around $15 a month I can download and listen to pretty much any album, and then purchase ones I really like if I want them on CD. The Napster software works well, and the Zen Micro is a decent music player.

I'm happy to see that the new Zune software now includes a subscription service, called Zune Pass. For some lame reason, Microsoft decided to "hide" the monthly price for Zune Pass. You won't find it here or in the FAQ. Instead, you need to go to this Microsoft Support article. Weird... Perhaps we show you the price once you've created a Zune account, but personally I'd like to know the cost before going through the rigmarole of setting up an account (and handing over my personal info).

Now, if there's a way to get TV shows off of my Comcast DVR and onto the Zune, that would be nice. Anyone got that working yet? :)

Rodrigo y Gabriella

Yum Lass and I saw Rodrigo y Gabriella live last night at the Paramount. A truly incredible show! I'd seen them earlier this year at Bumbershoot, but last night left their earlier show behind in the dust.

If you like guitar music and haven't heard of them, check them out - They play what you might call acoustic heavy-metal flamenco music.

My only criticism is that some of their songs sound too much alike, are a bit rambling and "bitty", and basically just vehicles to show off their amazing technical skills. (I was spoilt growing up listening to Tananas and Tony Cox in South Africa).

The flamenco guitarwork and driving rhythms are very catchy though, and the sheer energy they put into their performances is breathtaking. They are also capable of playing with a lot of sensitivity, and I found myself liking their slower songs best (like their take on Take Five, and Floyd's Wish you were here). The solo stints they did as the other took a well-deserved break were incedible (especially Gabriella's solo).

Speaking of Tony Cox, I just noticed he has a new album out (with Benguela), so I'll ask South African Santa to send me a copy...

Monkey's Wedding

One of the interesting bits of South African English is the term "monkey's wedding" for a sunshower (rain falling when the sun is shining). It turns out there is a common theme in the folkloric names for a sunshower - many cultures talk about weddings between animals. (See this Wikipedia page).

Whenever I see a sunshower I still automatically think of "monkey's wedding" - it's amazing how phrases like this from your childhood get cemented in your head. Anyway, now some of my American friends will have a clue what I mean when I say this...

Time to eat out a lot in Seattle (again)!

25 for $25 is back - except it's now called Dine Around Seattle. NWSource has a nice overview of the new restaurants on the list.



I'll definitely be going to a few of my favourites (like Barking Frog, Zoë and Yarrow Bay Grill), and maybe try a new place or two as well. (It's a fairly low-risk way to try a fancy new restaurant).



Speaking of Zoë, Yum Lass and I had a great meal their last Friday. It's been a while (2 years?) since we were last there, and they didn't disappoint. The chef's focus seems to have moved from seafood to meat, and his menu reminded me a lot of Mario Batali's Babbo (which is fresh in my mind after having just read "Heat"). I decided to be daring and try meat for the first time in ages (I've been pescatarian for a few years), and I ordered the wild boar pasta. (What made me cave in and eat meat? I think a mixture of the cold weather and a desire for something really hearty, descriptions of artisinal meat and boar pastas from "Heat", and a certain moral flexibility...)

The pasta was delicious, but seemed to stick around in my system for a day or two in an odd way, so I don't feel a need to eat meat again. Who knows, perhaps it'll be a 7-year-itch thing?

Queue up the Queen song

'coz We are the Champions of the World! :)

South Africa won the Rugby World Cup final! Woohoo!

Normally I'm not much of a sports fan, but the 1995 Rugby World Cup was truly memorable, and managed to convert me somewhat to being a patriotic rugby fan.

I had a few friends around today to watch the match almost-live* and had a great time. Much beer was drunk during the match, and a celebratory dram of scotch followed in honour of their victory, so I had a nicely fuzzy Saturday afternoon.

* I ordered on pay-per-view and recorded it on the DVR so we started watching 30 mins after the game started.