Happy New Year

Here's a teeny, tiny snowman to help us all usher in the new year. Isn't he the most adorable thing you've ever laid your eyes on? Awwww. Yes he is. So adorable.

Ahem. Happy New Year Everyone!!! :-)

Spanish Wines Imported by Small Vineyards

I went to an amazing free wine tasting event a couple of weeks ago at Wine World in Seattle. There were nine different wineries pouring several of their wines, plus there was a local importer called Small Vineyards pouring several offerings from their Iberian line, which consists of several Spanish wines. I've tasted several of the Italian wines that Small Vineyards imports and they've all been really delicious, so I was excited to see them pouring Spanish wines. I tasted two that really knocked my socks off and when I heard the low prices of these, I grabbed several bottles of each.

The first wine that I tasted that I want to share with you is the 2009 Aravo Albarino. Albarino is a white grape from the Rias Baixas region in north west Spain. This white wine is dry, crisp, very aromatic, is a gorgeous golden color, and tastes like a crisp pear on a hot summer day. I'll be going back to Wine World for more of this freshening Spanish white!

The second wine that I love and want to share with you is the 2008 Finca El Tesso Tempranillo. Tempranillo is a red grape from the Ribera del Guadiana zone in the Extremadura region in western Spain. This red wine is dry, medium bodied, is a beautiful opaque purple color, has lovely berry flavors, and has a bit of the earthiness that I find very appealing in Spanish wines. It would be perfect with Spanish food, but I had a steak last night and it was a pretty nice match. The Angel Paiva family has been making wine on this estate for five generations!! I love discovering wines that are handcrafted by families that make wine because it's in their blood. This is obviously one of those wines because it's a steal at $10.00.

And if you're wondering why I put a picture of Sean Connery next to the glass of white wine, I have no idea why except that when I tried to find an image of Spanish wines, for some odd reason, Sean Connery's picture showed up among all of the images of wines and grapes. Who could resist?

Details about the wines
Dry Spanish White - I believe this was under $15.00
2009 Aravo Albarino from the Rias Baixas region and bottled by Beira Aral, S.L. - Arbo, Spain

Dry Spanish Red - $10.00
2008 Finca El Tesso Tempranillo from the Ribera del Guadiana zone in the Extremadura region in western Spain and bottled by Bodega Martinez Paiva.

Where to buy
400 NE 45th St. Seattle, WA
http://wineworldwarehouse.com/

Top Ten Reasons to Own a BlackBerry

#10. If you’ve recently quit smoking, it gives you something to do with your hands.

#9. You can check your email or surf the Internet when you’re stuck in traffic.

#8. You can find wine tastings to go to while you’re out and about running errands.

#7. If the wine event you’re currently at is incredibly lame, you can find another one close by that looks like it might have potential.

#6. You can make notes about the wines you like at a tasting event but know you won’t remember later because you had a few too many tastes.

#5. You can Tweet about a cool wine event you’re attending so everyone will know what a wine nerd, umm, wine aficionado you are.

#4. If you’re heading to a wine shop from across town and you’re not sure how late they’re open, you can quickly find out.

#3. You can check how many hits you’re up to on your blog.

#2. If you’re hungry while you’re out wine tasting, you can order a pizza on your way to the next winery where you’ll be tasting wine and it’ll get there the same time you do.

#1. If you’re at your in-laws’ house and you’re having a sucky time, you can get out your BlackBerry and read news, your favorite blog, or just look at porn, and you can tell everyone you’re checking your work email because you’re expecting your boss to contact you about an important project.

Hackers are the Most Interesting People

When I'm not out tasting wine, buying wine, talking to winemakers about their wine, or writing about wine, I'm writing technical guides for our local software giant. Yes, I'm talking about Microsoft. The cool thing about the folks at Microsoft is they encourage feedback from the public about their products and documentation. My team just released a new Beta guide to the Web that deals with malware. For those who don't know what malware is, it's malicious software (viruses, trojans, and nasty little programs like those) that can and will infect your computer and generally make your life hell. I didn't write this guide all by myself, but I played a large part in writing it. My point is, sometimes we get feedback from the masses that is so damned funny that it must be shared. The following letter is absolutely real and verbatim that came from the feedback email link we provide in our guides. It made me laugh so hard that I wanted to share it with all of you. Enjoy (remember - I didn't change anything in the following email except to remove names and addresses to protect the innocent).

"Dear ____ team,
Having purused the guide and justified all endorsed responses to malware challenges. I thought it to be a well writen and informative document. Albeit I don't receive many if any malware infections ever well should I say hardly ever. I wouldn't endorse all these scanning software applications as they begin a backdoor exe into your computer system. I strongly feel one should endorse safer computer browsing as being key to evading these problems " don't download garbage", is the safer experience. If one steals software and goes for the free experience the costs are very high. My own experience can attest to that I have experimented with malware and othe viruses as I used to save them. I saved them until one hard drive was saying help me help me hehhehhe. But I no longer experiment with these things. You see I have even been accused of hacking at one point in my life and to this day not allowed on the local computer system at the library as I went inside their server to see what information was their and to my surprise was very infected with lots of malware viruses and porn. I am sometimes to nosey for my own good. I do however fix freinds and family computers those of whom puruse unsafely and download all the free crap thats out there.Then I have to go into the registry find it and kill them. The funniest bit of malware I found was from a site that had midget porn Which of course I thiought very funny but not so with the computer owner hehehehe.Not mine of course. I currently use xp home on all my computers, have in the past used windows 98 which was good and windows 2000 but my favourite was windows 3.1. I have no real explanation as to why I liked it the best maybe because I could use it for my collectioning of viruses and malware back then, seemed more secretive then.There were fewer users, on the internet and you had to call the university to get on the web. I would upgrade to windows 7 and was given some disks at a local cloud computing seminar which I did use but the operating system was only good for a set amount of time.Since I won"t crack anymore I use xp. Thank you for listening”
Lawrence C____
____ ___________ rd
Suite ____
London Ontario
N6J3T9
519-___-____

Treacherous Trish - The Story Begins

Ho Ho Ho

Go, Santa, go!

Kumquat Postal Worker

Kumquat Postal Worker: Hi. Can help you?

Me: Yes. I'd like to pick up a package. Here's the package delivery slip I received today.

Kumquat Postal Worker: What address?

Me: It's on the delivery slip I just gave you. It's in your hand.

Kumquat Postal Worker: (Didn’t attempt to look at address on delivery slip.) No can read address.

Me: What? Okay. My address is 1234 I Hate Postal Workers Lane. Unit Z.

Kumquat Postal Worker’s Boss: Sometimes our carriers have terrible handwriting.

Me: (Thinking: That’s because your carriers are postal workers and they have the IQ of a Kumquat. Can Kumquats even write?)

Kumquat Postal Worker: Closing in 5 minutes. I go look for package.

Me: (Thinking: Sheesh. This postal worker can barely speak English. And can she even read?)

Kumquat Postal Worker: Carrier no return yet. Package no here. You come back tomorrow.

Me: Staring incredulously (Grumbling quietly: Fucking government workers. IQ of a fucking Kumquat.)

Me: (Thinking: Hmmmm. I wonder what Kumquat wine would taste like...)