A Night at the Yards

I got to spend a cold evening at Camden Yards the other night. I love going to baseball games--I an convinced that is one the reasons why I enjoy living the the Baltimore region.

The Orioles, of course, are in the American League East--which by most accounts is the toughest division in baseball. The defensing World Series Champs, the NY Yankees were in town Wednesday night--and although the Orioles are off to the second worst start in franchise history, it is always fun to see the Yankees lose.

OK--so that didn't happen on Wednesday night. The O's lost 8-3. But even on this cold 50-some degree night, I enjoyed being at the park for a couple of hours seeing the O's battle the Yankees.

Saturday night--we are off to see the Boston Red Sox--I like watching them lose at the Yards, too. But the Boston fans are, frankly, terrible. They epitomize everything that is wrong with visiting teams fans. I truly would not want to be considered part of the Red Sox nation--because they are downright unruly.

I remember days when the O's won more than they lost (like 13 season ago) and when the Yards were sold out every night and just getting a ticket to see the O's play with almost 48,000 of your closest friends was a big deal.

Ah, those were the days. Now I get upset when I have to wait in a concession line--and some nights there are less than 10,000 people in the Yards watching the game. Not so on Saturday--the buses and trains will be full of screaming, mean Red Sox fans--and I am convinced I will be sitting in the middle of these same fans in my seats.

But for the other night--it was baseball, beer, and a nice evening. Even though we lost--it was still a treat to see the team play.

And the pictures--they are taken from my seat--which gives me an awesome view of the field and after about an inning, I can even start calling balls and strikes fairly accurately.

Hey--meet me at the Yards.

Sun gets in my eyes

There is was again this morning. My old friend Sol.

It has been about two months since Sol's brightness was noticeable during my morning commute and this morning as I left the club after an atypically good racquetball match, Sol was staring directly into my eyes.

It hurt--but at the same time it felt so good.

The sky was crystal clear--not a cloud in sight for the first time in almost a week. And for the first time since the time change to daylight savings time--Sol was there to greet me and fill my inner self with warmth and light.

Yet--it was a brisk 38 degree morning even so.

I barely felt the cold as I was greeted. And I was reminded--I love sunshine!

I was feeling good already because I overcome, even briefly, the crappy racquetball I have been playing and put together three strong games. Sol's light made me feel even better and more positive about the incredibly busy day that was ahead.

I stopped for a moment to appreciate the light, the clear blue sky, the crisp air, and the day ahead.

Robert Frost wrote a poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" about a similar situation during the winter. My stopping during the warmer seasons is far more applicable to my personal situation, but the ending of the poem still rings too true:

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Parador Cellars: A Review

During our Napa trip, and I guess on any trip, there is always the hope that I will discover something that not everyone else has discovered. Of course, with all of the wineries and commercialism in Napa and Sonoma, that is nearly impossible to do.

Chris and I along with my sister Pennie and her husband Scott; however, did find that unique memory of the trip in the form of a very small winery called Parador Cellars. How it happened is almost as much of a story and the pure enjoyment we got from "discovering" something that not everyone finds.

Parador is run by the winemaker--Steve and his wife. Steve is solely responsible for the quality of the wines and the blends. And, I believe he hit it perfectly in the wines he makes. A visit to the Cellars, is a visit to their home in Napa--and a phone call for an appointment.

We were introduced to Parador Cellars at Zu Zu, a tapas restaurant in Napa where we found the Parador Red Wine, a Cabernet-Tempranillo blend on the wine list and tried it. It is fabulous. As is the Tempranillo that Parador produces.

We were treated to a personal tasting at the house and were able to taste an assortment of the wines. I was able to taste the 1999 Reserva which was a Cabernet-Tempranillo-Sangiovese blend as well as the 2004 and 2005 red which was the Cabernet-Tempranillo blend and complimented the 2003 red we enjoyed at the restaurant. We also sampled the 2005 Tempranillo and the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon which were used to create the red.

I highly recommend these wines and the experience of meeting the winemaker, Steve and his wife, to discuss the wines and get to know them was fantastic and was truly a highlight of the week in Napa.

The find of the week! Fine wines and a great winemaker.

Left Behind Memories

Well, maybe it was something more than memories.

Each of the past two weekends were special with respect to time spent with our grandsons. We were able to spend individualized time with each of them. And that is something very unique in our fast moving world.

Saturday, this past weekend, was filled with baseball (tee-ball and Orioles on the TV) and time spent with Ethan and Jax, while Sunday provided some good one-on-one time with Lucas while we were out looking at a house and then back to our house for more Orioles baseball and a meal. This was followed by more time with Ethan and Jax in the evening.

It was a wild and crazy day and since summertime fruit is beginning to appear--there was the obligatory watermelon. Watermelon is a favorite of our family. We cut it into bite size chunks, put it in a bowl and munch on it all day long until it is gone.

This morning, as I opened the door of the powder room, I was reminded of the grandsons and the watermelon as I turned the still sticky door handle.

I never really thought about it before this morning, but we expect door handles to be smooth and metallic to the touch. And when they are not smooth--we are somewhat repulsed. We wonder--what am I touching and what is wrong here?

And then I realized--it is a memory.

A memory of Sunday, and watermelon, and laughter (with some crying thrown in) and of grandsons with sticky, watermelon sloppy hands running to the powder room to wash up.

I was going to clean off the knob. Erase the stickiness which recalls the memory.

But then I decided not to.

It made me smile--and on a gray, overcast morning with more rain and gloom in the forecast I needed something to make me smile.

I chalked it up to a left behind memory.

Monday Musing - April 26, 2010

1. A rainy weekend did not prevent us from removing yet another tree from the yard and making my obligatory weekend trip to the landfill. Good-bye apple tree which bore no fruit.

2. Our family has matured to the point where there are multiple events every weekend which keep us busy and together. That can be exciting.

3. I do note that the Orioles provided their baseball faithful with their third win of the young season yesterday in a thrilling comeback, extra inning victory over the Redsox. They are now 3-16 and have only four fewer wins than the next two worst teams in major league baseball. But--they won!

4. And writing of sports--the Penguins advanced into the NHL Conference Semifinals after spotting Ottawa a 3-0 lead Saturday night, they came back to win 4-3 in overtime. Let's try not to do the cardiac arrest approach for the next round.

5. The grass sure is green right now. The rain and temperatures are really helping everything to grow.

6. It is hard to believe that in a just shy of two months--we will be having another wedding in the family as Patrick and Tina make the commitment to each other. The closer it gets the more real it seems.

7. I guess I have been cutting a lot of things with my chainsaw--both blades now need to be sharpened. I could always buy a third blade and that was not sharpen the other two--but that doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

8. Well the league racquetball playoffs are underway this week. Keeps me busy and interested.

9. Memorial Day is coming. Can you believe I'm already thinking about it. And we have conflicts already! Ugh!

Baseball Saturday Morning Season Opener

Well--there we were. The first. When you have young grand kids there are a lot of firsts and Saturday was no exception.The first tee-ball game for the first grandson.

I was excited--he was wearing the number of my favorite player Brian Roberts, which is number 1. And he started the game a second base.

It was fun to watch these five-year olds try to grapple with the complexities of baseball.

Watch, catch, think throw--to where again?

And I run to where? Why?

One player couldn't get the concept of coming home down and kept going to the bench after he left third base.

But Ethan--tried hard to stay in the game and keep involved.

But of course then there is grandson number two--Jax. What did he do while big brother was playing. Well he kept himself entertained with the storm drain--until if course the excitement became overwhelming and his established nap time slipped past. He received a pass to head home with gramma and take a nap.

It was a cool and overcast day with occasional sprinkles--but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of the ardent fan base nor the players.

As for the score--who knows.

This is Tee-ball--everyone hits and runs.

Three innings of batting around.

All told--I think only one out was recorded. So that would make the final score 39-39 because the out was noted but the runner stayed on base and subsequently scored.

Hey--it is tee-ball.

Oh what was the play of the day? Start of the bottom of the third (and last inning). Ethan's team being the home team is coming to bat with E scheduled to bat 12th. He walks up to his Mom and announces he needs to go to the bathroom. No he can't wait.

Nicole turns to me and says--"This sounds like a job for Poppop!" The situation becomes clearer as there are no "port a potties."

And so Poppop saves the day and we took care of the problem and had the young player back in time to take his swing at the ball!

Shoulda been on ESPN's "Play of the Day."

The Azalea in the Garden

I forget each year how dynamic azaleas can be when they bloom.

And this year is no exception. We have a white azalea in the front garden which puts on a show that rivals the Fourth of July at the Mall in Washington, DC.

OK--maybe not with the booms, but the sheer splendor of the blooms and the size and volume of blooms.

Wow! It makes me smile to notice it and it is there just asking to be noticed.

A splash of color and brightness surging the springtime forward and farther away from the memory of the days of cold and winter.

I love the green I see now all around with the trees in leaf and the grass growing. Soon--the pool will be open and I'll be lying on my floatie with a cold one in my hand feeling the heat of the sun on my face!

But I am rushing things--let's just enjoy the journey to get there.

Dead Trees

They stand almost together at the back of the yard among other tulip poplars. They are tall and there are now three of them.

For some reason as springtime arrived in each of the succeeding past years, they didn't wake up from the slumber. And now they stand, mostly devoid of branches which have fallen into the yard and been removed, rapidly becoming a potential danger to the trees around them and to the yard should they falter and fall.

And they will fall--like one of their brothers who fell last year and served as firewood during the past winter, keeping us warm on those all too cold nights in February during the deepest part of the Snowpocalypse.

So I need to call a professional and have them felled, so their falling does not cause undue damage. And then I can begin preparing them for the next phase of their existence--firewood.

I guess that's the green thing to do--in honor of Earth Day which was yesterday, make sure everything is used and not wasted.

So these formerly majestic trees which provided a cooling summer canopy will soon be providing warmth during the cold winter months. Is that a cycle of life?

Sipping Wine at Robert Mondavi

Another of the great and well known wineries we visited during our Wine Week in Napa and Sonoma was the Robert Mondavi Winery in Rutherford, CA.

This is another of those larger than life wineries and is another winery which, because of its size, wasn't on our original daily plan, but because we were there at the end of the day and felt like doing one more winery, we stopped to visit.

The winery is expansive with a large parking lot and big open areas. As always, we went to the reserve tasting to taste some of their wines. The reserve tasting was actually recommended to us by another winery we had visited when the person doing the pouring chatted with us and discovered the kinds of wines we really enjoyed.

I admit--the reserve tasting included four wines with retail prices of $135, but we were able to do a vertical tasting of the reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from 2001, 2002, 2005, and 2006. I love vertical tastings and thins one helped confirm in my mind that right now, my favorite vintage of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon is 2005 due to its complexity and deep tannins. The 2005's we samples around Napa are definitely not for the fruit lovers in us--but for the hard core, rocking deep, complex wine lovers.

As the tastings in Napa go--this one was one of the few that was simple a pour and go. Meaning that they poured our flight of wines and sent us away to enjoy and sample them without the narrative to describe the wines. I have come to like the narrative. I want to understand the wines and the weather conditions that helped to create them.

The other thing I was looking for from this winery was--so what is so special about a wine which retails for $135? And is it special enough to make me want to buy it?

The answer, sadly, is that I found many wines for less than half the price which stand up to these highly priced and special wines--so no, I cannot yet be convinced to buy them. Actually the B.V 2005 Maestro Cabernet which retails for $65 (and was on a half price sale by the case at the winery) matched up real well. OK--better. If I didn't live in Maryland, I would have a case. Thanks Maryland!

But, I did thoroughly enjoy tasting wines that are so far outside my current budget--just to see what makes them special. They were complex, and they were very good wines, but in my opinion--priced about double their true value given the range of wines we sampled during the week.

Don't misunderstand--the visit to the winery was fantastic and I am glad we visited--the perspective was extremely useful. But, I'm not likely to being home a reserve Mondavi in the too near future.

Recommendation: Put this winery on your B list. Visit if you have time, because it is a beautiful stop and a delightful way to end the day. We were in Rutherford anyway. But, depending upon the length of your visit to Napa, there are better places to focus attention on. I admit, we did not take a tour--this was one of those point and shoot stops based upon a recommendation from another winery. If you are really in to Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and the $135 price tag doesn't scare you--this winery should be raised to the bottom of your A list.

Relaxing at Chateau St Jean

One of the things we discovered about the wineries of Napa and Sonoma was that many of them tried to create a unique environment to enjoy and taste the wines. We found the emphasis on mixing teaching with history and a unique experience to be very enjoyable.

One place where we didn't do a tour, but went straight to the tasting was at Chateau St Jean in Sonoma.

It is a beautiful winery and when the day began, it was not on our list. But through the course of the day we happened to decide to stop in and enjoy the wines. It is a beautiful winery--as many of the wineries in Napa and Sonoma are. It is almost as if they are not only selling wines--but encouraging an experience.

We have been to a few wineries in our time, and what we encountered in most wineries in Napa and Sonoma was the need to slow down and enjoy the wines and the atmosphere. While a wine tasting in some places may take 15 minutes to taste 5 wines, here at Chateau St Jean we spent almost an hour and a half tasting six or seven wines--and savoring every mouthful. Learning about the wines and the wine makers. We did the reserve tasting.

And of course enjoying the beautiful scenery.

We received personal service. And we enjoyed wine. Chris is very fond of merlot--and frankly, there isn't a lot of merlot in Napa, so this was a good stop for her. She discovered a very nice merlot.

Sadly, we actually had to truncate our visit here a bit because we had an appointment at another winery about 45 minutes away--but we could have spent a lot of time at this very nice and enjoyable winery.

Recommendation: Chateau St Jean should be on your visit list when visiting Sonoma. A good place to stop mid-day and relax and recover while enjoying well made Sonoma wines.