Best bargain wines

I'm off to go hiking in the Sierras starting tomorrow and ending Monday eve. As usual, my place is a mess, I'm only half packed, and it's almost 11 p.m. I had to buy a lot of equipment for this one, like a tent, walking sticks (I know they're yuppie, but I figure being 34, I got to start taking care of my body), water purifier, polyester clothing (so you don't stay damp) etc. etc. It cost me a bundle at REI before I realized I could get most of this stuff cheaper at other stores. For instance the 2 person tent from REI that I bought for $170 can be had for half the price at the outdoor shop across the street. Naturally I will return the REI tent and keep the cheaper one. I love America!

On another subject, just so you folks don't think I never give you free stuff here on this website, here is the top bargain wine list published in today's S.F. Chronicle:

Best Budget Brand Wines under $15 or less

- San Francisco Chronicle Wine Section, Aug 25 -

1. Bogle Vineyards (Sacramento Delta). Try their Chardonnay for $9 or Petite Sirah also $9
2. Castle Rock Winery (Calistoga, CA). Napa Valley Chardonnay $15
3. Concha y Toro (Chile) all red wines are good deals.
4. Don Sebastian and Sons (Sonoma, CA). Good merlot, Chardonnay or C. S. They often blend other's wines into their own.
5. McManis Family Vineyards (San Joaquin Valley). Chardonnay, P.S. and California Viognier (?), all around $10.
6. Falesco (Italy) Umbria Bianco, Umbria Rosso, Umbria Rose $8.
7. Hogue Cellars (Yakima, WA). Merlot, Riesling, Sangiovese Rose $10-$15.
8. McWilliam's Hanwood Estate (Australia). Australia Chardonnay, Riesling and Shiraz all around $10.
9. Villa Maria Estate (N.Z.) Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and Merlot all $13-$15.
10. Three Thieves (Mendocino Cty, CA). They sell 1 Liter glass jugs and Tetra Brik Boxes of "Bianco Trebbiano", California Zinfandel and C.S. for $6-$10.

Enjoy the shopping!

Elkhorn Slough Excursion

Today I had an opportunity to enjoy some more of California's scenery south of San Francisco. My colleague Dan from work invited me to meet him down between Santa Cruz and Monterey (that's about a 2 hr drive) for kayaking excursion. Despite the early 7 a.m. wakeup this morning (or maybe because of it), I had a relaxing drive listening to A.M. radio through the normally congested Bay Area suburban / industrial areas between Oakland and San Jose, followed by a scenic and windy drive south on Hwy 17 from San Jose to Santa Cruz. The last part of the drive was along Highway 1, which further south and further north of Santa Cruz becomes a very scenic coastal road, but in that area is more or less hillly and barren. Arriving at the appointed hour (we had agreed on 10 a.m.), I found the rental facility and saw kayakers already taking their morning instructions from the "harbor master" (the guy who was renting out the boats). Figuring I was late, as usual, I hurried inside, only to be told I was the first in the group to show up - at 9.58! This is my kind of crowd.

Anyways, we got going soon enough, and because it was foggy, as usual, you had the feeling it was still early in the morning, even though it was rapidly approaching noon. For an explanation of coastal fog in norther California go here.

Below are some pictures of us getting going in the morning.


Learning the Basics: Land Kayaking 101


Dan and Collin following by the rest of the horde

An agreeable sight was looking east into "Elkhorn Slough" (the name of the estuary that runs in about 5 miles from Moss Landing harbor). It looked very peaceful and calm. Reminded me of Wolf Lake in Wisconsin.


I soon started seeing some of the wildlife they told us about at the rental place: in this case, some pelicans perching on logs.


If you click on the picture you will see the sea lions looking very lazy.


A sea otter having a snack. In the morning I could actually hear the guy chewing away on a clam or mussel of some sort.

At the end of the day, we were nice and tired. Since I decided to "go the extra mile" and not turn around like some others did after about 1 1/2 hrs on the water, I ended up paddling a longer distance that I thought I would - I guess it was about 7 miles. I admit I had the advantage of a fast boat and no kid that required "pushing" on the boat. I had a sunburn ... on my ankles - the one place I forgot to apply sunscreen.

To sum it up, a tiring but eventful day - and now I'm ready for bed!

Just hanging around

I have to finally admit I've settled into a bad routine. First off, this week I actually had to work. Our main technical "guru" on the team at work is leaving us! After 8 years in the team, he decides to take a new position somewhere else in the company. This guy was so good, the rest of us didn't really even have to work! Joe is nothing short of brilliant when it comes to computers, especially what he can do with MS Access and Microsoft Office. So does his leaving say anything about my ability to work together with others??? I hope not. Joe and I got along pretty well. I just stole a lot of his grapes (he always keeps a bag of white grapes in his cube, and I love to stop by to "chat", that is to eat his grapes).

So this week was kind of hectic, because I had to try to figure out what the heck Joe had been doing these past 8 years so when our medical contracting customers come to me from now on, I'll be able to help them. That was the first "bad routine". The SECOND one is, this week I spent a even more time on the Internet that usual. I mean a LOT of time... like 3-5 hours a day, every day! (not including at work, where I try not to "surf") Thank God no one's charging me per hour for this, like in the old days of AOL. Because if they were, I'd be poor. Maybe I should go BACK to AOL?

Anyways, the main reason I was online so much this particular week is the Lewandowski family fantasy football league draft, which is happening online as we speak. For those of you readers not familiar with fantasy football, it involves picking offensive football players at each position (in American football there are certain positions like Quarterback, Running Back and Wide Receiver that score almost all the points). The better you know which players will do well in any given year, and the better you are at picking those players (there is a rotating order to the draft), the better your chances for success are during the "regular season", which begins after labor day in early September and lasts till Christmas.

We - that is "the league" - decided to have the player draft "live" this year, to give everybody a chance to pick all their players instead of the SI.com computers doing it for us. And with 15 people in the league (all family members - a new record for us), that's a lot of picking. The fun part is, you get to "chat" / talk trash with your competitors - and watch them pick. The bad part is, if you are like me, you end up spending a lot of time scouting NFL players online to see who has the best fantasy football league prospects and not getting around to doing more healthy stuff like "real" sports or cleaning your apartment.



I put up a picture of the most recent draft board just to give you an idea of the suspense and drama going on. Incidentally, the picture you see at the top, "Welcome to Oakland", is also my team logo. It has little to do with the name of my fantasy team except for the "Oakland" part. I have always had Sausage-related names all 4 years (it started with "Knackwursts", which I kept for the first 2 years, then last year it was "Smoking Knockwursts" and now I made the radical change to "Oakland Sausage Factory"). Just something to emphasize my Milwaukee roots...

By the way, here are my picks so far:
Round Pick Player Position
1 7 Kerry Collins QB, Oak (a mistake, considering I could have gotten Priest Holmes)

2 9 Kevin Jones RB, Det
3 7 Nate Burleson WR, Min
4 9 Steven Jackson RB, SD
5 7 Michael Clayton WR, TB
6 9 Jeremy Shockey TE, NYG
7 7 Tyrone Calico WR, TEN (here I could have picked Keenan McCardell from the Rams, but didn't because I'd been reading how great a preseason Calico and Steve McNair are having)

So ... that's the long version of Why I am Online Too Much. I am beginning to think it's like a bad habit I can't break. I'm a compulsive Internet addict. So Steve, you might be a gambling fanatic, but I've probably got you beat in terms of computer time...

Well that's my weekly roundup. I am going to post a new poll, this time it's about what are some of the hobbies I should be taking up. I'd be interested what you have to say.

By the way, the results from last week's poll indicate that I should take along the tomato girls when I want to impress women like Rachel McAdams, and that I should also work more and not think of Rachel so much. Thank you very much - but I'M STILL SINGLE!

Worst Movie of the Year ... Period

Hi everybody,

Just so you all know it I am still here and going strong. The aphids seem to be going away, thanks to my garlic broth remedy. However a new calamity has struck the garden: the tomato plants are getting yellow on the bottom! I asked an expert here in north Oakland and she said I might be over-watering and causing the tomato to focus all it's "juices" to the top. So from now on, tomatoes only get watered once a week! Let's hope that cures them.

On another note, I saw a totally terrible movie this weekend : "Wedding Crashers", starring, well, who cares who those guys were!



The basic premise of the movie is these two guys, who are professional mediators in their other lives, go around to weddings of people they don't know (they find out by reading the paper) and get drunk and hopefully also laid with the other girls at those parties. The only redeeming quality of that movie is Rachel McAdams, and that's because she's cute, smart and WAY too good for this movie. At least for me, there was one thing I could enjoy looking at and listening to.


question: How old is Rachel, anyways?
answer: though I would have guessed about 18, she is actually 28 going on 29, that means 5 years younger than me. So do I have a chance? (you can vote in this week's poll)

Anyways, if you were considering whether to spend your $8 or whatever it costs to see "Wedding Crashers" in your neck of the woods, I am here to say SAVE YOUR MONEY and spend it on a better movie you will remember longer than this forgettable one. Heck, you could even rent 2 movies for this price, one of them being "Rocky IV", and the other being any other movie with Rachel McAdams or a movie star/starlet of your choice.

Speaking of "Rocky IV", I mentioned it because I just watched bits of that movie in between "Fear Factor" on TV tonight. It was shown on Cine de las Estrellas here (in Spanish, of course). Even though it was considered a flop back in the 80s, I loved the training sequences in the cabin in Siberia, and the inspirational 80s music including the "Final Countdown" by Survivor. On item I have to criticize however- Sy Stallone does not look like much of a boxer the way he lets Dolph beat him up. And it's not very realistic to get absololutely pounded for 10 rounds and then win the fight. But hey, it's Hollywood, and I STILL liked this movie way, WAY more than "Wedding Crashers".



One last thing: remember how Ivan Drago a.k.a. Dolph Lundgren says "I must break you" as he's facing Rocky in the beginning of one of the boxing rounds??? Well in Spanish it's "Yo contigo acabare". That sounds a lot cooler to me than "I must break you". Go Ivan!