How I Spend My October: Thoughts on Wine, Fall, and Peter Weller

I would like to take this opportunity to properly apologize to Mr. Peter Weller in my post "Return of a Classic".  When listing other films he participated in I forgot to mention David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch.  Instead, in a frantic mess to think of a third film outside of the RoboCop franchise I listed Top of the World with Tia Carrere and Joe Pantilano.  Although I'm sure Top of the World is a great film (I caught maybe five minutes of it on a Wednesday afternoon on HBO) featuring actors that you remember from one other movie but that's about it, I myself would rather be known for a 1990's film adaptation to a book from the Beat era.  I know it doesn't matter.  But if Pete ever happens to read this (I really respect your work, Pete.  I even bothered to watch that History Channel special on French history you hosted.  Top notch work Mr. Weller) I want him to see and know that fans remember only the great films he's done, rather than the mediocre ones lost in the haze of the late 90's.  Then again, how many of us would want to be remembered for Buckaroo Bonzai (Maybe John Lithgow)?

On second thought, please don't read this, Pete.

I digress.

Welcome back to the blog.  Hope that everyone had a great week.  Mine went pretty well.  The weekend was very pleasant, given the fact that I had no obligation to work under the Tea Lords.  We had some great October weather here in St. Louis.  On Saturday, my long time friend and collegue, Matt Lewis, and I went with his parents out to Stone Hill winery in Herman, Missouri.  If you haven't been and have the means to go, I recommend it.  Herman is a pretty small town about a little over an hour west of St. Louis.  Very beautiful this time of year.  Lots of trees and hills.  Great place to stash your winery.  Anyway, took a tour of the wine cellar, which wasn't as expansive as I recall.  Yes, although this was my first time going to any winery since I've turned twenty-one, I did go with my parents once many years ago.  Probably when I was nine or ten.  All I remember was I played something like Wario World on my old gray brick Game Boy in the car on the way there and was pretty bored.  Watching your parents taste wine isn't the most fascinating thing in the world when your in elementary school.  But now, since I'm of age, the experience is worth the long car ride (Not much has changed, though.  I still played Game Boy, The Legend of  Zelda Ocarina of Time on my friend's 3DS, and he played on his Motorolla Xoom tablet). 

When we get there, we pay a couple bucks, Matt and I get our hands stamped with "21+" since we look like children and wait in the gift shop until it's time to take the tour.  We take it, get a little history about Stone Hill (Which I will not divulge in at the current moment.  I haven't the time nor patience right now).  Of course, at the end, we get to taste the wines.  We all gather round a circular bar thing, with two older people in the middle serving wines.  Now, they pull out the first wine and start pouring a little sample into each of our plastic cups.  The old guy pours for first Matt's parents, then Matt, then he gets to me and pours and says something like, "Are you even old enough to drink this?"

My first thought, "You've gotta be kidding me".

I show the guy my "21+" stamp.  Still, the old man is unrelenting, "Who stamped your hand?"  I pull out my wallet show my ID, the guy finally believes me, we all move on with life.  Matt believes he was trying to be funny.  I think I should have got into a brawl with him right there.  The odds were most certainly in my favor.

I've had to deal with this for years.  Even before I turned twenty-one.  When you're young, its frustrating because everyone who is young wants to be old.  And I've been told by older people when they see my frustration, "It'll come in handy when you're older.  You'll be old but still look young."  The usefulness of that fact cannot come any sooner.  The day I look like a twenty-one year old, it'll be great.  Then I'll stop my complaining.  Until then, I'd rather people not think I'm a teenager.

They had some really great wines.  I ended up buying a bottle of white wine called, "Vignoles".  Normally I would be more into the dry red wine, but none of the wine they sampled was really like that.  Even the reds were fairly sweet.  Even though it's somewhat uncharacteristic for me to like a pretty sweet white wine, this one was very good and had pineapple notes.  I love pineapple.  I was sold.  Matt on the other hand bought a bottle of the Cream Sherry, which in our opinion, had a similar taste to whiskey, without the "burns the whole way down" feeling.

After we bought our wine we decided to head back home.  All in all, a pretty enjoyable Saturday.  They are pretty hard to come by.  A typical Saturday would involve me zoning at Teavana for seven hours, but maybe we'll get into that another time.  At the moment, neither of us are truly interested in discussing it.

All right, I need to go do some other things today.  Particularly showering. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hopefully we'll both be back soon.

Orphans, Cornbread Crackers, Odd Jobs, Coffee Pee...And Well, That's About It.

It has recently been brought to my attention that it's been nearly a month since the blog has been updated. My sincerest apologies. This blog tends to slip my mind, or at least lies in the dusty back part of my brain. It's pretty much the orphan child no one wanted. But I will love it again and hopefully nourish it back to health because, let's be honest, the blog has become rather lame.

Well, I realized a few days ago that the human race has officially invented everything. Late one night last week, I went into the cabinet to pick out a flavor of tea to brew. The cabinet is located in the lower part of the island in the kitchen and inside there is a shelf that rolls out (this is where the tea is located, along with the pasta and popcorn). Just below this shelf is where my parents store their chips, crackers and various cooking oils (oh, and some maple syrup). So before I pull out the shelf I noticed a box of crackers labeled, "Cornbread Crackers". Curious, I open the box, take out a cracker, and eat it. As I'm chewing I'm thinking, "Holy crap...they did it. Those madmen finally did it. This little cracker actually tastes like cornbread." I was in shock. Now, I'm not a cornbread fanatic, but to put the authentic taste of cornbread into a thin little cracker is quite the achievement. Humanity, I salute you. As well as Archer Farms. The men and women who make up your business should also do something about cancer. If you can put the sweet, buttery taste of cornbread into crackers, surely you can find a cure to a devastating disease.

Also, I made it back to St. Louis Missouri. Although somewhat disappointed I didn't decide to stay in Idaho Falls just a bit longer, it does feel kind of good to be back home. For one, the weather is above 55 degrees, which is fantastic if you're ready for summer to be here (and I am). I was rather terrified when I came back because when I had left everything was still budding, and then a week later when I returned everything was green and flowering. Made me feel like I was gone a lot longer than I actually was...

Still looking for a job, but I've had opportunities doing odd jobs, such as last week when I helped Kurt Selzle (a realtor from church) clean up a house he is planning to sell. Lots of cleaning grime coated windows. Cleaning dust from the basement. Scrubbing floors on hands and feet. But Kurt was kind enough to pay me $10 an hour. So from 12-10:30pm I worked with him. Earned $105 and since spent some of that money for books on Amazon. Everytime there's a little cash, it goes to books. I have a problem, and I would like to talk about it.

I still drink a lot of coffee. Three cups a day, except today, I had a pot of green tea. Other than that, coffee every day. I don't know how to stop it. I think there was even a day when my pee smelled like coffee. You know you have a problem then, even if it doesn't actually smell like coffee. Either you drink sooo much your pee ACTUALLY smells like coffee, or you've gone completely mad and believe that, yes, even your wee wee smells like coffee. I'd almost prefer the former...

I started to ride my bike a lot more. The weather has been great too. Not too hot to where I can not breathe, and not too cold. And the sun has decided to shine nearly everyday. Thanks sun. I appreciate it.

I should probably carry a notebook around to list ideas so I don't forget them before I get to the blog. That's why you've been reading boring, ridiculous stuff the past ten minutes. I had a lot of great things to talk about. LOTS of great things. Believe me. But I procrastinated, and have since forgotten any and all of what I wanted to say. I apologize. The next blog will be a doozy.

DON'T ABANDON THE BLOG YET!!