Skiing in Spring!!

What a great day!! I *finally* had a chance to go cross-country skiing during one of our many snowstorms this season. All the other storms happened on work days and then were immediately followed by near zero degree temperatures. I happened to be off today for Good Friday and the temperature was perfect for busting out the skis and breaking a few trails. I went to two different areas in the city with a break in between at my favorite coffeeshop. I am fortunate to live within five minutes of a number of beautiful parks and river parkways. Since it was still blizzarding when I went out, I also got soaked, but that was half the fun. It helped a lot to be wearing a good pair of goggles. Getting out and playing in the snow was the best way to keep my spirits up after a brief teaser of spring-like weather this week. We could actually see our yards again for the first time since early December--well, no longer. This has been a long, hard winter filled with many snowstorms, lots of dashed plans, and way too much shoveling...which is exactly how I will be starting my day tomorrow...shoveling out of at least 12 inches of snow, assuming it actually does stop snowing overnight...

Open That Bottle Night 2/23

I hosted my first wine tasting since leaving Seattle with my new winebrat friends here. A good time was had by all and wonderful wines were shared. The top wines of the evening were 2006 Foley Pinot Noir (Rancho Santa Rosa), 2005 Incognito (David Michael Phillips-Lodi), and 2003 Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe (Chateauneuf du Pape). All were pretty concentrated with dark fruit and spice (even the Pinot) on the nose and the palette, and had a nice, long finish. They all paired extremely well with food, esp. the Pinot and the roasted eggplant. I would buy more of all of them. The other wines were also very good, but there were too many of them, so unfortunately, my tasting notes are loosely scribbled and full of obvious redundacies. I was hoping to share more about all of the wines, but my notes are useless. I also recently attended tastings featuring all Syrah, and before that, a tasting with the winemaker from Korbel. We all fell in love with their 2004 Lake Sonoma Zinfandel (Russian River). It had a powerful bouquet, a silky mouth-feel, full of ripe, dark berry fruit, with vanilla notes, and a long finish. It was perfection. Time to sign out. Cheers.

Remember Howard Jones?

I was very inspired by an experience that was shared today at our World Peace Meeting this month. I'm still practicing the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin with the support of members in the lay organization, Soka Gakkai International (SGI). I learned from one of those members through her experience, that keyboardist Howard Jones, one of my favorite musicians of the 80's started practicing this Buddhism about 14 years ago. She's a huge fan of his and learned about Buddhism through his website at http://howardjones.com/about/buddhism.html. I was so impressed by this that I checked out his website to see for myself, and sure enough, his personal testimony is stated clearly with sincerity and conviction, and ends with links to more information about Buddhism, one of which I have also added to my page. In reading his page, I instantly felt a connection with him through our shared practice. I understood from my own personal experience exactly what he was saying. Howard's words reminded me to appreciate how fortunate I am to be practicing this Buddhism and to remember that the greatest gift I can share with anyone is knowledge and understanding about the ultimate law of life, of cause and effect, of the interconnectedness of all beings, and how chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, which is at the heart of this practice, can help you be in harmony with the law and experience the highest life condition, and the awesomeness of human revolution. My own personal human revolution started happening about 20 years ago and is still evolving, as I continue to create my virtuous future with each thought and action in the present. I'm grateful to those who inspired me today, and everyday. Thank you.

Celebrations!!

I'm happy to announce that my brother has just been selected as the new Executive Director of Friedens Community Ministries http://www.friedenspantry.org/. Their primary mission is to feed the hungry and they run a couple of food pantries in the city. We are all super happy for David and very proud of his accomplishments. I've included some recent pics of me hanging out with David at a birthday bash celebrating the city's 162nd year (in the beautiful lobby of one of our most historically significant hotels), and at dinner last night to celebrate David's new job along with our Dad and some of David's closest friends.

Second Story

Finally, we get to the second floor after nearly a week away from my computer. I've had lots of evenings packed with activities lately, Todd Rundgren concert last week, an all-city birthday party this week, and my favorite event, a Pinot Party the next night. We tasted three pinot cultivars including blanc, gris, and noir, mostly from Italy and the US West Coast. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't any Burgundy. My favorite was the Lucien Albrecht Pinot Gris from Alsace. It was actually pretty rich for a pinot, and off-dry with some really nice apricot notes. The Cloudline pinot noir (Oregon) was disappointing compared to previous vintages.

OK, back to the house. The first room, the den, the main attraction is the daybed, my favorite place to fall asleep reading. The next room, the study, is used more for working out now than as a study. I find myself wanting to move the laptop to the kitchen instead of using it at my desk. The studio is least developed--lots of potential there.

The Hearth & Beyond...

As interior spaces go, the kitchen is the weakest room in the house--greatly in need of remodeling. The bedrooms are small and the closet space is nearly non-existent, typical of early 20th century houses. Thank goodness someone before me decided to convert the closet in this bottom picture to a "California closet," saving me the effort.

You may have noticed the empty wine glass on the kitchen counter--recently drained of a delicious Italian sangiovese, Il Poggione Rosso di Montalcino 2004 (Tuscany). This wine, as with all sangioveses I've had is very food-friendly. It's medium-bodied with cherry notes, well-balanced, no excessive tannins or acidity. Also smooth enough to enjoy as a sipping wine. Like a good book, I was sorry to reach the end of that bottle, as it was my last one. I'll just have to fall in love all over again with a new wine...

Road Trip to the State Capitol

Today was Library Legislative Day and last night we had 10 inches of snow dumped across the region, but that didn't stop us from going and lobbying our State legislators this morning, even if it did take nearly twice as long as it should have (normally a 90 minute trip)... I had appointments with seven State Representatives and Senators, and saw not a single elected official--I got stuck in "staffer" mode all day long--so typical. They always say "I'll be sure to share this with ______," -- yeah, right!! Well, at any rate, it was a beautiful day, even if the roads this morning were atrocious. Coming back at the end of the day was much better. Here are a few pics of the rotunda, dome, and exterior--very similar in style to our beautiful Central Library. We will return to the House Tour in the next posting--I thought we were due for a little break--I don't want anyone to get cabin fever :)