EGADS! Hello 2007!

Yes, Mother. You're right: The older you get, the faster time flies...! I shall remember 2006 with exceptional fondness, as sincerely one of the happiest years of my life. And if 2007 is only half as great as 2006 was, the year will be astronomically stellar!

Topping the list of 2006 Greats....

Officially moving in with the man I love more than I can ever relate.

Spending that year sharing everything in our lives together. And I do mean everything.

Meeting his entire wonderful family and he meeting mine.

Meeting so many wonderful folks, most his clients and colleagues, and spending so much time enjoying their company throughout the year. Many are already becoming true friends.

Gaining 20 pounds. EGADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finding the Whale Watch Inn in Anchor Bay, CA, so that he could touch the Pacific shore for the first time. (Everyone, EVERYONE should stay there!!!! No phones or TVs, but 5-star service, killer suites, and the morning awakenings of the nearby sea lion colony. Google it -- I insist!) Then spending the rest of the week in Napa and Sonoma, and lastly in San Francisco.

Making 400 Bourbon-Soaked Chocolate-Covered Cherries (my recipe, totally from scratch)
Making 5 pounds of Buttermilk Pecan Pralines (Ditto to above)
Making 2 pounds of Date Candy (Double-ditto)
Making 6 pound cakes (triple-ditto...) and drizzling them weekly in Knob Creek Bourbon

Gaining 20 pounds. EGADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Being too fat to fit into last year's drop-dead gorgeous navy beaded evening gown for this year's round of holiday parties...and having to get a brand new one from Terry Costa's. (Talk about a happy accident!)

Having his support to quit my job and go take care of my mother when she fell and broke her hip. How many men would do that?

Being able to travel with him between Halloween and Christmas and see even more wonderful folks at various gatherings or dinners. Most important of all was to be able to spend this time with him. I have been a tremendous test of his driving patience....


Being able to spend as much time as life has allowed me to spend with my two sons. My oldest is quite successful working in a top steak house as a waiter (probably rivaling my top salary) and is happy living with his two pals he has known since high school. I just wish he would take that extraordinary brain of his and get back into college. The youngest remains in college, is doing exceptionally well there, and has a wonderful girlfriend.

Greatest Christmas Gifts: A beautiful engagement ring and the pleasure of my sons' company on Christmas Eve.

God has so blessed me and all of my family this year. May He have blessed yours also and shall continue to do so in 2007.


Happy New Year!

Ah, California Wines!

In mid-September of 2006, we enjoyed an extraordinary week at Diageo's Crush Camp in Sonoma and Napa Valleys in California. Diageo is a large consortium owning not only my favorite whiskys (Lagavulin, Oban, Talisker), but Beaulieu Vineyards, Sterling Vineyards, Provenance Vineyards, Acacia Vineyards and -- our abstolute favorite -- Moon Mountain Vineyards. Ours was the only non-commercial "camp" of the year and we were joined with 11 other couples from across the country.

For four solid days, we awakened at the crack of dawn and were bussed out to a vineyard for breakfast and a talk with the winemakers. The first night, however, provided a welcoming at Moon Mountain Vineyard in Sonoma, where we road in the beds of pickups straight up the mountain to be greeted by a wine tasting and canapes as the sun set. That's where we became immediately addicted to their estate-grown Malbec. Well, their cab, too.

We picked grapes at the Three Palms Vineyard (the workers called us "loco gringos" for spending so much money to pick merlot grapes for half an hour. Don't blame them, but it was a blast. Sterling winemakers gave us a tour of their fermenting rooms, where we had two-week-old Sauvignon Blanc before it was barrelled to make way for the reds. Next a tour of their caves, then their expansive processing facilities, then lunch that was off the charts. We had the pleasure of sitting with the winemaker and talking more. Provenance Vineyards yielded a personal and expansive tour by Tom Rinaldi himself. More Sauvignon, as well as his Rutherford he is so proud of. He says to give the vineyard time -- everything is still young. At BV, we listened to their winemaker explain the years of wiring experiments exhibited in their test vineyards and tasted so many of their delicious wines. Then we went into the LaTour home and learned how to blend wines, based upon the Tapestry varietal as a marker. Our blends were to be rendered and labeled for later presentation. Later, we helped Chef Joey Altman of Food Network fame to create our dinner at the LaTour home, and we drank more BV George de LaTour than should be legal. That stuff was GREAT!

Our last day culminated in a brunch at the Acacia Vineyard, with their champagne and chardonnays and more Joey Altman fare, as well as a complete tour of their vineyards and processing facilities by their winemaker. Even saw actress Terri Hatcher from a short distance (she was there on a shoot). Demo of predatory birds followed (they are used to keep the huge local population of sparrows and the like away from the grapes), then the presentation of wines we had individually blended at the BV house with our certificates of completion for Crush Camp 2006. A five-star treatment throughout the entire camp. We've already signed up ourselves and two other couples to attend the next available Crush Camp...not until 2008!

In this photo above, I proudly hoist an eight-pound Eagle Owl at Acacia -- one of the absolute highlights for me personally in this trip.