Wine Tasting

My friend Sharon introduced us to a new hangout, The Vine. Which on Wednesday nights has wine tastings. For $5 you can have 5 samples of wine. Sharon and Sean joined us for our first night at The Vine.

The first wine of the night was a white wine, Cascal Garcia Vinho Verde. It was from Portugal. It was much like a sparkling wine. It was crisp and clean, very nice for a warm weather wine. My favorite wine of the night was the 4th, a red, Chateau Haut Marchand. It was a Bordeaux made up of 60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 15% Cabernet Franc. It tasted of berries, although it was very dry, not as acidic as I expected. It had a lot of tanins. Very good. I thought my favorite wine was going to be the Chianti, as I am particular to Chianti., but this one beat it out. The atmosphere was very laid back, anywhere from men in ties just coming in from work to me, in my boundry water shorts and a t-shirt. The service was good, especially considering how many people were in there, which I was surprised at how many there were. We will be trying to go back to The Vine soon for more tastings!!!!

Artwork - amazing photos

My favorite photographer is Craig Blocklock. I first became intrigued by his artwork several years ago while on a trip to Duluth. Rita (Tony's sister) and I went to the Gallery to see Craig's newest exhibit, which at the time was A Voice Within. This photos were mostly nudes of Honey Blacklock (long story there, she started as his model, but then they got married). These pictures took my breath away, and I had to have to book. A couple of years ago Tony bought me another book of his photos while he was back in Duluth, nature photos. Craig is a Minnesota native and his father was also a photographer, as well as his late wife (tragic story). When I look at his photos I'm instantly back in Minnesota, and it makes me homesick for a place I have never called home. The natural beauty that is Minnesota is something everyone should see. Lake Superior still blows my mind every time I see it. Craig's newest book, North Shore will be available in June...I think i'm going to have to go to the gallery when we're there in July and try to get an autographed copy. I tried to attach a picture, but i don't think it's going to come up. But go to the website and see for yourself!

Brunch in Little Havana

Brunch is by far my favorite activity of the week. I look forward to it all week long. We don't go every Sunday, but we try to go most Sundays. Breakfast and Bloody Mary's, what could be better? This morning we went to a new place we haven't been before, Little Havana. It was on the water and it was packed! The cuban style breakfast was delicious, and my eggs reminded me somewhat of Juevos Rancheros....and the Bloody Mary was great!!!! very very good! i would give it 3 1/2 celery stocks out of 5! Just the right amount of spice, right amount of thickness.

Interesting Read

I finished reading The Rule of Four in less than a week. It helped that I had a lot of time to read in NC, but I haven't been able to put it down! The book centers around the Renaissance mystery, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, and the power it has over two Princeton students who are trying to unravel it's secrets. They put their lives on hold to solve the many riddles the book has in hopes that they can find the meaning the author, Francesco Colonna, crypticly placed throughout the Hypnerotomachia's pages. I love books that involve history, I feel like I'm learning meaningful information as I read along. I've really enjoyed the couple of books that I have read that involved Renaissance history, the art work, the philosophy, the books, and the families. The other book that I read that had that history in it was The Birth of Venus, another great book that I recommend. The ending of the Rule was somewhat predictable but exciting none the less. I would give this book a 3 out of 5.

Outer Banks

We went to the Outer Banks last Wednesday to go to our friend's, Renata and Jason, wedding. We got a condo with some of my friends from work. The first picture was at the rehersal dinner. We had a lot of fun just relaxing and going do the beach.
Renata, Craig, Tony and me.
The beautiful bride, me and Cherie. The wedding was supposed to be on the beach, but the weather didn't co-operate, so they had it inside. But it was still very special and intimate.

Sorry I copied these twice, i'm still trying to figure out this blogging thing!

Hang Gliding Part II

Here's a couple more pics. It's hard to see but that's Tony in the air, and in the other one I am getting ready to stand up to take off!

Hang Gliding

This past weekend Tony and I got to try hang gliding in Kitty Hawk, NC! It was so much fun! I was really looking forward to it for the past few weeks, but when we got down to the Outer Banks the weather was cold and rainy, so I was afraid we were going to miss our chance. But then the weather warmed up and Saturday was beautiful so we were able to get into a class. It was a great experience and we would both like to continue doing it. One of the instructors said it would take about 10 classes to be ready to fly solo. The excitement of being a few feet in the air was incredible, i can't imagine what it would be like to do mountain jumps. The place where we did it was Jockey Ridge State Park, and the sand dunes there are rated as some of the best in America. The sand was really soft and forgiving in case you bit it.

Game time

Here's a picture of me and Tony at the O's game a week ago. Friday night is student night, and I guess we can still pull it off! We went with one of our friends, Craig, whose pic is at the top. The O's actually won and the game went into an OT. It was great!!!

(PS. I was smiling at the time, but I really over did it on the hot dogs, peanuts, and a really big coke, not a good time later in the night)

Baltimore Weekend

This weekend Tony and I went down to the harbor to go to B&N and then hang out by the water. The weather was amazing - as you can tell by the happy look on Tony's face!

April concert

In April Tony and I went and saw Bob Schneider in concert at a local venue, the 8*10 club. It was nice to be able to go see him so close to home. Marla introduced me to his music about a year ago, and he was awesome in concert! These pictures were all taken from the balcony of the club.

http://www.bobschneidermusic.com/

Getting Blogging

I thought i'd go ahead and get started with my blog, which i've been putting off for quite some time. No more excuses, i now have a computer and the internet at home, and i have a digital camera. So hopefully i'll keep up with this and post lots of pictures for everyone to see. I'm taking suggestions right now on certain things to blog about, but mainly, it's just going to be about my comings and goings. I'm not very good with this whole new technology of the internet, so this might be a rough start, but bear with me, and i'm always open to ideas. Does anyone know about graphics? Where i can get them? How do i download them to my blog page? I'll have to check that out this weekend. And i'll try to get some pictures uploaded.....
Meanwhile, Tony and I are considering doing this next weekend when we go down to NC for our friend's wedding: http://www.outerbanks.org/activities/air_activities/outer_banks_hang_gliding.asp