Updates...

Shannon and Lyman have a new daughter - Fiona. Yipee!

I had a most splendid weekend - having gone to a wine (drink-too-much) tasting on Friday. I had a load of fun but learned many things about wine - some of which I new and some of which was new.

• Sulfates, which are a natural by product of wine, are not the cause of my headaches (and no, it's not from drinking too much of it either) - there are other things called aimes (or something like that) that might be contributing to "red wine headaches".
• Grapes like to grow in crappy, arid, lava rock soil. It's actually better for the grapes to struggle in order to make great wine. This is why eastern Washington (high desert, formally lava land) does so well with wines, and California, Greece (though their wine is kind of crappy.)
• There are two general types of fermenting - in a giant steel vat and in oak barrels. Those white wines that have a crip taste are made in vats. Those that have an oak flavor are made in barrels.
• Cab Fran is a type of grape. YUM. One of my favorites.
• There are many ways to enhance the flavor of the wine after you open it. Whites should only be chilled for about 20 minutes. Reds should be opened to let some of the flavor open up. You can also do like a water bong in your mouth to get more flavor out of your red.
• Cheap wines doesn't mean it's bad. I brought a bottle of one of my favorite wines and the sommelier exclaimed "OMG - my mouth is having an orgasm."

I learned lots of other things but all I can remember three days later. It was fun.

Saturday was for mostly relaxing and sewing helmet panties for RollerCon is week (yeah!!). Sunday was a retreat for the HIV Trail Unit Community Advisory Board (very informative) and some leisurely outdoor skating.

I planted new plant on the porch/deck and cleaned up the apartment. I'm just about ready to go to Vegas for 5 days! I can't wait!