Maiden Voyage

It's been a while since I've stayed up late to finish a book, but I did it last night. Naya was in the crook of my arm as I was reading about the trans-Atlantic leg of Tania and Tarzoon (her cat) in "Maiden Voyage". This book is a classic that I've known about for years and years and that I've avoided reading until now, not wanting to catch the circumnavigation bug. It describes Tania Aebi's circumnavigation at ages 18-21 in the 80s, on a Contessa 26, a boat most people would now consider woefully undersized for the job. After I got my boat, people would always ask, "Oh, just like Aebi, have you read her book?" But of course I wasn't about to go on a circumnavigation ... not on Shadow Line.

The book does a good job of capturing the crankiness and fearfulness of the 18-year old as she departs New York, and her transformation as she proceeds westward around the world. I'm not sure I'm going to read it again anytime soon, nor that it will become a favorite for me as "the voyage of the Aquarius" did, but I really enjoyed it this first time around. I read it at home and on the bus, and for the last two chapters, I stayed up late with my very own boat cat and finished it off. I should mention that this very moment Nick Jaffey is doing a trans-pacific voyage on the very same type of boat, after having crossed the Atlantic from Germany, and shipped the boat overland in the US.

2004 Blair Fox Syrah

I had this wine a little over a year ago, when Dima brought it to wine night. I liked it then, but I've had a lot of wine between then and now. I wanted a super nice bottle to share with Dan last night, and I was going to default to the 2006 Stolpman Syrah, but Lazy Acres had raised the price to $46 (gasp!) and that seemed insane. Note to self: find a case of the Stolpman and hoard it. In the meantime I saw the Blair Fox was $30, which is how much I'd intended to spend in the first place, so I picked that up. I gathered from Dima that the Blair Fox is very highly regarded. Wine advocate gave it a 90, apparently. I like it a lot. No, I love it! I paired it with Greek roast chicken and potatoes, but frankly this wine is a meal in an of itself. Oh the opacity! Oh the legs! Oh the soil! You can really taste the soil in this wine. It was incredible.

Estancia 2007 and Blue Fin 2008 Pinot Noirs

I cracked the Estancia 2007 Pinot Noir a couple weeks ago, and I've been having a glass of the stuff with dinner since. I've tried it with pasta, shrimp, salad, chicken, you name it. It hasn't disappointed me. Half a glass was left when I walked in to my apartment just now...

... and decided to open a new bottle of wine: the 2008 Blue Fin Pinot Noir, which is a Trader Joe's brand. This stuff is crap: the color is pale, it's watery, and it's sour. So I poured the remaining glass of two-week old Estancia to compare it to. Side-by-side, two weeks old, the Estancia beat the pants off the Fin. The Estancia is nearly opaque, has an aroma, and, after two weeks, you still want to sip it. Not that it's my favorite Pinot Noir, but it is solid.

Terminator Salvation

Review

Seriously, go see it!

My Dinner With André

One of the most stupefyingly boring movies of all time. What do people see in this pretentious crap anyway?

It makes you long for the worldly wisdom of Charles Bronson!