Monday Musings - January 20, 2014

1. 2014 is already 20 days old! Wow! It is flying by.

2. It is entertainment awards season with Oscar nominations and Screen Actors Guild awards and so many other awards and shows that it is hard to keep up with it. I wonder if I will watch any of the movies that I haven't seen just because of award nominations. But if I do, there are even recommendations on which films to see. Check out this link for suggestions: Four films to see.

3. I think the news media has declared open season on politicians.

4. The NFL had got to do something about terrible officiating! I was watching the 49ers-Seahawks game and could not believe the number of game changing calls that were missed or botched.

5. Another Arctic cold-wave is headed into the area just to ensure that I am aware that it really is winter and that springtime is still a long way off.

6. Super Bowl. Broncos and Seahawks. I choose, Broncos!

7. Lately, it seems that the new media is avoiding real news and becoming more of an outlet for network advertising. I could not believe that one whole segment of the Today Show on Saturday was devoted to a new cast member on Saturday Night Live.

8. There is some interesting Super Bowl trivia regarding number 1 seeds. The game between the Broncos and the Seahawks will only be the second Super Bowl between number one seeds since realignment in 2002. The other was between the Colts and the Saints (won by the Saints) during 2009. Only one other number one seed has won the Super Bowl: Patriots during 2003. Number one seeds have on 2 of 11 Super Bowls. This one will make it 3 of 12. What does this mean? The number one seed is the team with the best record, but may not be the best team. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

It was a cold, but sunny Saturday

The bone chilling cold returned to Maryland and I was greeted with a dusting of snow yesterday as I allowed the dogs to head into the yard for their morning business. I think even they were a bit shocked at the temperature change. And yes, I wrote dogs, plural. We are dog sitting for Ben this weekend and so I have my pair-o-Kees (or two keeshonden) for the weekend.

I admit, yesterday proceeded at a much slower pace than some recent Saturdays that I have written about. We two basketball games, but thankfully they were back-to-back which made for a much more efficient use of time while allowing us to focus on each grandson's efforts individually.

But the real question soon became--what to do on a cold but sunny Saturday.

Food court at the Annapolis Mall
January 18, 2014

Why, let's go to the mall of course!

And so off we went to the mall--in Annapolis. One of the biggest malls in the area. 

It turned out that many other people had the same idea--get out of the house but find somewhere warm to spend the day. Their decision, like ours, was to head off to the mall. 

And it was a good thing we sojourned to the mall because we had one gift card with an approaching expiration date. I bought a new shirt using that gift card and so it wasn't all bad.

Today, escaping the cold will be a bit easier because of the football playoffs. They don't start until a bit later than normal--but the games should be exciting. 

I still dream of being on a hot beach with a cold drink in my hand baking in the Caribbean sun. Now that would be a great Saturday!

Maybe next year.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Overcomplexifying Wine

I decided to explore this word for one more day.

It seems that I have moved down the road in my enjoyment of wine into the realm of overcomplexifying. Yup, no longer is it enough for me to just like a wine.  

Gone are the good old days when I just considered whether I liked the wine or not. Now, whether I like it or not, I am pulling the wine apart and deciding why I like it or what could be improved in the wine to make me like it.

Is is balanced? Is there a complex flavor and aroma presentation? How does the wine feel? How are the tannins? The acidity? The minerality? What aromas are present? Currants or grapefruit or flowers or cherries or leather to whatever flavor you can imagine. I tasted a wine once where the winemaker described hints of bubblegum. 

And I look at how the wine appears in the glass. Is the color good--be it red or white. Does the color go with the kind of grape? 

I have overcomplexified wine drinking and enjoyment.

Even when someone asks what my favorite wine is I find myself unable to give a straight answer? Do you mean for drinking with cheese? Or sitting around the pool on a hot summer afternoon? Or enjoying with pizza, or hamburgers, or salmon, or a hunk of beef? Red or White? 


It used to be so simple--my favorite wine was an Australian shiraz.  But now it comes out something like a 2005 Axios Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. I can't afford to drink it very often, but it is my favorite. On the other hand  depending upon the day, my favorite wine might be an Americana Vineyard Apparition, if I'm in the mood. 

Perhaps that is why life is all about. We take simple things and overcomplexify them, just to make ourselves feel better.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Overcomplexifying

An associate at work came up with the word "overcomplexifying" yesterday to describe the problem solving approach used by some people. I actually found the word "overcomplexify" in the Urban Dictionary. I think the second definition is really funny and too true, but I can't print it in my blog do to some raw language. So click the link and scroll down to the second definition. I think there are four definitions total, but the fourth seemed a bit redundant.

Overcomplexifying is actually so true that it is almost funny, if it weren't so tragic.

Some people have the gift of being able to take simple concepts and make them impossible to understand. 

In retrospect, overcomplexified was how I viewed my day yesterday. I am beginning to loathe Thursdays. They are my busiest day of the week. 

I had meetings at 8, 9, 10, 1030, 11, 12, 1PM and 3 PM. Ugh! I missed the 1030 meeting because I wasn't out of the 1000 meeting yet.

Is it Saturday yet? Maybe I can sleep in until 6 AM and get this week out of my head!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Tail lights stretching into the morning fog

I pulled onto the foggy highway yesterday morning in my pick-up truck and was greeted by three rows of red tail lights stretching into the distance as far as I could see driving at a walkers pace.

Traffic was jammed solid. Three lanes across. Trying to survive in the fog.

It took an extra fifteen minutes to get to work, but I arrived alive despite the dense fog which was doing a good imitation of the mist in the movie by the same name.

The fog slowed the traffic and I am sure contributed to many ulcers among drivers who left too late and didn't account for the expected dense traffic conditions. 

We have had a lot of fog lately. The changeable weather has contributed to most of it. Cold ground and warm air. 

Maybe this morning will be better, traffic wise. Less fog and higher speeds.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Family, family, family

Jeremy, Patrick, Dad, and Nicole

I have been reminded this past week of the value of family.

Last evening, we had an unplanned, impromptu dinner with Mom and Dad, Jeremy, Nicole, Lucas and Patrick.

It was awesome for us to be together on Mom and Dad's last evening in Maryland before heading off today for Houston to escapee the cold months. 

Sunday, during the football games, I was able to snap an awesome image of my kids on Dad's lap. Wow. That hasn't happened in a long time. 

Memories. 

It seems to me that sometimes we spend too much time on other people and forget that families are the most important part of life. Yes, I have great friends, and I love them. I think of most of them as family, too. But our problem is that sometimes we place other people (who are not even friends) and activities before family and friends.

Families rock. We just need to spend time together to know that.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Picture on the Milk Carton

I remember when it was fairly common practice to put pictures of missing people on milk cartons. I wonder whatever happened to that practice? It seems milk is now delivered in plastic containers that are made up of mostly empty space and there is no place for a picture.

Antique Milk Bottles

It is kind of sad that we have lost touch with milk cartons. And I remember that before milk cartons there were milk bottles. I remember the bottles, both the half gallon size and the smaller ones that we drank milk from during school. They had little paper caps in the tops that with a small tab on them that I never could seem to manage to get off without pushing them down into my whole milk which usually had a layer of cream on top. Mmmm.

I was given the small sign in the picture this weekend as a remembrance of the milk carton days. It is really very true--I think there are more wine bottles around than milk cartons these days. Maybe we need to place a picture of a milk carton on a wine bottle.

But the truth is, more people of my friends will see a wine bottle than a milk carton. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - January 13, 2014

1. I'm still having some issues remembering that it is 2014. I guess I'm in denial that 2013 ended so abruptly.

2. Birthday celebrations, football celebrations--it was a weekend full of celebrations!  Celebrations are a lot better than the alternative!

Luke, Ethan, and Jax on Dad

3. What is cooler than seeing three of his great-grandsons on my Dad's knee? Now if I only could get them to sit still long enough for a picture.

4. People quibble about the strangest things. If they only could step away and look at the big picture.

5. One of the great things about wine is that there is at least one for everyone's unique tastes.

6. I listened to A-Rod's defense and was amazed. It sounded the same as a child's defense when accused of eating cookies from the cookie jar. You didn't catch me in the act, therefore I didn't do it. I'm glad that in the end, he will be nothing more than a sad footnote in baseball history.

7. On the baseball theme, if A-Rod only got effectively a one year suspension for doing something that definitely affected the outcome of baseball games, why is Pete Rose still suspended for life?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

I Thought Saturday was supposed to be a day off?

My work week, which is at least a classic work week, is a Monday to Friday affair. I use my weekends for relaxing and getting a few small projects done around the house, maybe attending a sporting event or a concert, and going to bed late and getting up later. The operative concept is- that weekends are for relaxing.

That, friends, is only a concept that does not often apply to real life. 

Take yesterday as an example.

The planned day:

9:00 AM - Basketball game - Jax
12:00 Noon - Basketball game - Ethan
4:00 PM - Birthday Party - Lucas
6:30 PM - Annual Wine Club Dinner - Friends

An aggressive schedule for a Saturday.

Wine Club Dinner Table

Now lets look at the actual day:

8:30 AM - Depart for Basketball game
9:00 AM - Basketball Game - Jax
10:30 AM - Unscheduled brake job on Son's vehicle
11:30 AM - Mount and install a large television on the wall in my bedroom
12:00 Noon- Oops, missed the second basketball game and seeing grandson score - Ethan
2:30 PM - Emergency trip to the store for cilantro, chips, pick up medications, and fill the truck up with gas
4:00 PM - Lucas Turns 4 Birthday party!  Yay. Great food and fun. Caught a few minutes of the Seahawks-Saints playoff game.
5:45 PM - Race home, change clothes and head out the door. 
6:30 PM - Wine Club Dinner -- which was awesome!!
10:30 PM - Return home, catch a few minutes of the Patriots-Colts game
11:30 PM - Fall into bed asleep before head hits pillow

I can't wait for Monday so I can go back to work. Lol.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Dad's Birthday--A Celebration

Birthday Cheesecake

Celebrating 86 years, last evening Mom, Chris and I went out for a celebration dinner of Dad's life and health. 

Although it was raining and chilly, it did not dampen the spirit of the celebration as we visited a local eatery and engaged in cell phone free conversation and memory making for over two hours. 

It was interesting to see the restaurant fill up with other diners and then begin to empty as we had chosen the busiest dining hours to enjoy our meal.

Dad Enjoying his Cheesecake

It was a nice, relaxed paced evening for the four of us to enjoy along with more food than we could eat. 

The conversation ambled through many topics of the day, but mostly it was aimed at deepening the ties that bind families together as we appreciate each other's points of view on the topics of the day--carefully avoiding the taboo topics of politics and religion.

The cheesecake, as it turned out, was the hit of the meal! Even Chris got into the spirit of the evening by helping the birthday boy finish his man-sized portion.

Dad and Chris Sharing Birthday Cheesecake

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD