Rejoice in the day

Church this morning started out with one of my favorite Lincoln Brewster song -- "Today is the Day."


Sometimes it is really important for me to be reminded that today is the day that God made and I should rejoice and be glad in it. Sometimes I just need to be reminded that the day will be as good or bad as I make it.

And if I rejoice that God has provided me the capability to enjoy the day and what He has planned for me--then it really improves the day.

It totally changes my mood from looking at the day as a bunch of tasks that I have to do into a day filled with opportunities.

Today is the day--and I will rejoice and be glad.

And I also was able to see my entire family for dinner and another birthday party for the big E who is now 5 years old. Talk about wedding plans and watch a baseball game. And top it off with a stop to Medieval Times for dinner.

Best Pictures of our Week in California

I went back through all of the pictures we took in on our California wine adventure looking for the one best picture that best represented the week and what we enjoyed doing the most.


Funny, I could not decide on just one--but it took two. And neither has anything directly to do with wine, or drinking, or vineyards.

I guess I'm still a country kid at heart because they were both from our trip to the Armstrong Redwoods State Park. Funny--I still enjoy a nice walk in the woods--even on a very crisp morning.


Chris took both of these pictures--and she was being creative, but they also capture something really special.


The first is of the cool haze that was hanging in the morning forest as we were enjoying the natural beauty and marveling at the works of God. The sunlight reflecting off the trunks and stumps and moss covered rocks. Being refracted by the atmosphere. I still remember the cool, clean smell of the forest that morning. And the sounds of the birds high above us in the canopy.


And the second--a sight so easily missed as it was off the trail and the web could only be seen from one specific angle as the sun reflected off it. The silk shimmers in the morning light as the spider, in the center, rests from the work of the night. It was beautiful shimmering there. A work of beauty.


I remember a saying from a long, long time ago--it was about taking time to stop and smell the roses along the way.


And I am glad that we took time out of our California wine adventure to see the natural beauty of the land and marvel at magnificence not created by the hand of man!

Orioles Baseball

I, along with about 13,000 of my closest friends went to the ball park the other night.

It was a raw night--cold and misty.

I was treated to seven innings of great baseball. A pitching duel between the Orioles and the Rays. It was fun to watch--especially since the O's had a 3-0 lead at the end of seven.

I was at the park with Jeremy and we had a great father and son time together. It was my first trip to Camden Yards of the season--one in which the Orioles have sunk to be the worst baseball team in the American League and arguably (with the exception of the winless Houston Astros) in all of baseball.

I love baseball--and it pains me to see a major league team make so many Little League mistakes.

I'm demoralized just watching them. Base running mistakes that run the team out of innings--and a huge managerial mistake at the game I was at where the manager failed to protect the starting pitcher , who had pitched a fabulous game, from being in line to get a loss when he finally tired one out into the eighth inning. He needed to pull him out one batter before he did. Although, it worked out for the pitcher--the team lost their lead and wound up losing 8-6 in 10 innings. I didn't stay after the Rays hit a three run shot in the top of the 10th (shhhh, don't tell Chris, I never leave games before the last out).

It is frustrating to watch.

It must be more frustrating to be a player and be on a team that can find a new way to lose, rather than win , every night.

I have such high expectations for the season. I'm still hoping for 82-80 at least. And 91-71 is possible even with this dismal start. It is early and there is a lot of baseball yet to be played.

So, let's get on with it and start winning. The sports talk radio has been talking about how the fans are booing--but the night I was there, we cheered pretty hard--we all felt like we could will the team to a win.

Yet, I lost my voice for naught. Had a good time with my son. Spent a cold night at the Yard. Imbibed some cold beer.

Does it get better than that? (yup, diving the Vandenberg off Key West)

Complicated Factors

Life has a way of racing out of control. Left to its own devices, the pace of life can cause us to become victims of the life we are trying to lead.

And that is a bad thing.

The hardest part is to try to understand the motivation behind the often competing requests and even harder--to separate fact from imagination.

I have noticed that we tend to naturally impose our own reasoning on a situation and when something happened we say things like: "What they meant was . . . " or even "They did that because . . ." and the truth be known--we really don't know the meaning or the cause. But we need to create one to either justify our own actions or to put meaning into a situation. Even though--we really don't know what is really going on.

I've had a conversation where someone tries to tell me why I did something or said something--and here's the rub, they argued with me when I told them they were wrong!

So let me get this straight--I'm me and you're you, and you know my motivation for saying or doing something so well that when I try to explain it to you that you argue with me and presume to tell me I'm wrong?

That, friends, is a complicated factor!

When we imprint our own understanding on a situation or an action, we complicate the activity by masking the facts with the presumption. It is like when driving and someone changes lanes suddenly in front of us and we need to avoid them--we assess that they were inattentive or distracted while talking on a cell phone. Some of us spend a lot of brain power on that--and cause our own driving problems or blood pressure issues. In reality--we don't know why it happened--and we don't need to know the why, just the fact of the sudden lane change we needed to avoid.

In relationships, we complicate situations by trying to infer motivation for actions--when we what we really need to do is address the fact of the action--and allow the motivation to play out. We use the motivation to rationalize our response--especially if it is retaliatory or inconsistent with our normal behavior.

Yes--it is important to understand the broader situation, and it is OK to have a hypothesis--but to move from hypothesis to assumed fact based upon nothing other that intuition is dangerous. Seek data. Ask questions which probe and help expose the underlying situation. It is probably very different from what we believe (or want to believe).

I have seen many occasions where people believe the worst about a person and presume that they are being deceitful or mean-spirited. But it could be, and most likely is, something far less nefarious like just not appreciating the dynamics of the people and situation, or acting naively.

We also complicate situations be trying to determine "fair"--or more accurately when we believe someone is being less than fair to us and we do not believe we are getting what we deserve. Then the labels start going out--"they like ____ better," or "they don't like me," "poor me," "I deserve ___."

Fair does not mean equal--especially to someone who believes they are getting the short end of the stick! If you look at the definitions, you will find that equal is not a synonym for fair.

We need to allow people to make decisions and assume "noble intent." When we do not, we begin to create problems which may not really exist.

Strive to uncomplicate life by keeping the peripheral issues just that--peripheral. It will allow more time to focus on activity and fact rather than stewing about an incorrect perception. It will help keep the pace of life manageable by allowing us to focus more brain power on what really matters.

Back into Life--Making Lemonade from Oranges?

The hard part about traveling is returning to life, afterwards.

The memories are good. The pictures remind of the fun times.

But when the return to life comes--there they are: bills to pay, events to deconflict, crises to solve.

I feel like I'm going through life right now with concrete overshoes on--trying to get going, but I can't.

I remember this tree we saw in front of Rubicon Vineyards. It was the epitome of everything that can be really funny.

Look at the picture--click on it if you need to--the right branch of the tree is growing lemons and the left, oranges.

It is an example of grafting (obviously) and is a good demonstration for how European grape vines are grafted onto US root stock.



But is this is one of those cases when you have a bunch of lemons and wind up making orange juice?


It can be confusing, if you let it. Just like life.

Schramsberg Vineyard: A Review

A visit to Napa should definitely include a trip to Schramsberg for an inside look at sparkling wine (champagne) production.

The vineyard sits up a hill just south of Calistoga in a picturesque part of the valley.

The tour and tasting cost $40 and was well worth the price. There is a very nice pond outside the tasting room with a statue of Riddler's Night Out in the water--and that is very appropriate for the vineyard. I did get to meet the Riddler in the tour and watch him. He is pictured on their website.

The tour was very informative about the history of the estate and the wines that are made--mostly of the sparkling variety (a/k/a/ champagne). I was impressed that the White House serves these sparkling wines at State dinners--according to the tour. Of all of the cave that we visited at the various wineries on our Napa vacation--these were definitely the most interesting and some of the oldest.

I learned a lot about sparkling wine production and even got a chance to see some bottling in progress.

We did get to sample a Cabernet sauvingnon--which for the red wine lover in me, really appreciated the opportunity--but I learned so much that I would definitely repeat visit this place.

RECOMMENDATION: Visit this winery. They require appointments--so get an appointment. Make it your one expensive winery of the day visit for one of the days you are visiting Napa. Ask questions and enjoy the expensive sparkling wine they will serve as part of the tasting.

Monday Musings - April 12, 2010

1. Vacation weeks end too quickly and it seem the drudgery begins creeping back into life before the vacation really ends.

2. Winter's grip has really finally departed the area--after a week of 80 degree temperatures and light rains, I had to mow the lawn again yesterday, and I still enjoyed it.

3. This one is for Chris, Tina and Patrick: I love my new iPhone. Yea--it drops calls, but the mapping app is awesome and all last week I was able to do things my Blackberry coundn't even dream of doing--like finding a Starbucks near where I was and then interactively guiding me to it.

4. I am still going over everything I learned and collected during last week's jaunt to the west coast, I guess that is really one of the high points of weeks away--when they stay involved in life and don't just slip into the fond memory category.

5. I missed Makayla last week and was crushed when she seemed underwhelmed to see me. Dogs really know how to put people in their place.

6. Wine is rapidly becoming a hobby. I met a couple while in Napa last week who are living the dream--their hobby became their livelihood--what a neat thing. Don't worry, I don't think I'm going to go into wine making anytime soon.

Safe Return and Fond Memories

Well, it is over.

Thanks to a relatively uneventful trip on Southwest Airlines our Napa adventure came to a safe conclusion early this morning (about 1AM) when we pulled into the driveway and unloaded our treasures and dirty laundry.

During the trip we saw natural wonders including geysers and giant redwoods; and we saw grape vines and wineries and mountains and so many things that it just really can't be all told.

These pictures here kind of give the variance of the week--from looking at the new leaves sprouting into the warm sun, to bottles of champagne lining the cave walls at Schramsburg--to works of art and a Persian Palace Winery at Darioush.

There are so many things to see and do. We even got in a little shopping and antiquing.

The high points of the trip were walking among the giant redwoods and talking to the winemaker of Parador Wines.

We spanned quite a diverse set of wineries from the opulent at Darioush and Rubicon, to the modest Buena Vista (in Sonoma).

We experienced a wide variety of wines and were able to sample some wines with incredible price tags--$165 per bottle. And found that they were OK. But we also found some great wines for much less.

I continue to be unhappy to be living in Maryland--where the legislature has no problem regulating things like cell phone use in a car--but can't see to get its act together to "Free the Grapes." Come on--it will increase state revenue! That we lived in Maryland almost always was a source of discussion at the wineries and I was told many, mostly illegal, ways to circumvent the Maryland liquor shipping laws--most of which require the commission of a felony! Here is a real good question--how can something be absolutely legal in most states but yet be a felony in others?

But--all in all--the trip was awesome. We saw art--and we saw nature's beauty.

And now I'm home where the lawn needs to be mowed and I get to return to the reality of daily life. But always with the memories of a great trip.

Stalking the next big adventure

And so we aren't even home yet from our current spring fling adventure
and are already talking about next year. Somewhere in the Carribbean
seems to be the leading contender.

And as I sit here on the plane in Las Vegas, I am wondering why
aircraft wind up sitting on the tarmac waiting for a gate to open when
I have vacations to plan and things to do?

A sandy beach sure sounds nice right now.

Ah. When is spring break 2011 anyway?

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Saturday Morning Insomnia

I am sitting here in the hotel room at the end of a great trip with
insomnia. It is like 3am and there is packing to do later and then the
journey to home.

It is hard to believe the week is over.

It was a great week. We visited some 15 wineries as well as seeing
some great sights.

We met a lot of really cool people along the way and I'm sure we had
such a great time because of the really nice people we met. That and
it is off season meaning cooler temperatures and fewer tourists like
ourselves.

I have a lot more to write about the trip and the things we did. But
in one area I feel we really were successful and it was a highlight.

As corny as it sounds, we really wanted to discover a winery that not
everyone knows about or has heard of.

Yesterday in what was the culmination of something which really began
with our first dinner on Monday evening, we met with the winemaker and
his wife and really cute 3 month old jack russel terrier of Parador
Vineyards. We sampled six wines at their home and this was in adition
to the two wines we had enjoyed during the week.

They are all fabulous. He is a small wine maker and makes a very
special and unique Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempernillo blend.

We talked about grapes and wine and wine making for the better part of
almost two hours.

Talking with them really helped put into perspective the differences
between the big production wineries and the small literally two person
operations.

To say it was great is an understatement. But more later. I'm
thinking I can finally roll over and get some much needed sleep.

Travel days are always hard on me.

See you soon

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