Furry Brown Dog

Glenkerry on the deck.


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Deck Dog

Dustin and Glenkerry on the deck on a very pleasant Monday afternoon.


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The Return of Three

There were three mallards in the pond this morning, two drakes and a hen. Hopefully, Bob got a good shot.

The Perfect Wine with Fish?

White, of course!

Dustin and I had tuna sandwiches for lunch, and in keeping with that, sipped Chardonnay at beer thirty. Up to bat was 2007 Clos du Bois North County.

Too bad we couldn’t have drunk the wine with the sandwiches, or nibbled the sandwiches with the wine; another day perhaps.


Clos du Bois
Geyserville, CA
http://clodubois.com/

Rain Numbers - 22 March 2009

.62", for today
.95", for the storm
5.31", for the month
35.89", for the (rain) year

Rain Numbers - 21 March 2009

.33", for today
.33", for the storm
4.69", for the month
35.27", for the (rain) year

Rain Numbers - 18 March 2009

.01", for today
.01", for the storm
4.36", for the month
34.94", for the (rain) year

Offensive Defense

From Quotes of the Day, today:

The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.
- Friedrich Nietzsche


Sounds the current global warming nonsense (one can only hope).

Curtis Was Introduced…

…to the Curlys this morning. I spotted them from the window.

Rain Numbers - 16 March 2009

.08", for today
.19", for the storm
4.35", for the month
34.93", for the (rain) year

Dog-Shy

Bob reported that Glenkerry wandered past the pond and scared the Curlys off…

Rain Numbers - 15 March 2009

.11", for today
.11", for the storm
4.27", for the month
34.85", for the (rain) year

Connections

When I got to St John this morning, Fr Mike was walking from the rectory to the church, singing “Catalina Madalena…”!!

I joined in the verses (he knew one that I didn’t), and we both howled when we got done. He said, “Hey! There’s someone else besides me who knows that!!” I didn’t think to ask him where/when he’d learned it; I must rectify at the earliest possible.

RenRen was just as amused as I, and is absolutely sure that we learned it from Claudia Kellogg; I’ll have to inquire.

Fan Club

I filled in for Celia at St Michael again this morning; Tom buzzed up, again, too.

After the Offertory song, before Fr Bob started the prayer, there came a “Yay!!” from the side of the church to the choir’s left, from a small, cheerful, slightly noisy (but certainly not obnoxious) boy. Everybody in the church heard him, and were most amused.         :-D

Still Shy

Between snoozes on the alarm clock this morning, I heard one or the other of the Curlys down in the pond. When I got up, I didn’t see them; under the deck, maybe?

Camera-Shy

Woke up early, and Bob wasn’t in bed; figured he had wandered down the hall, and rolled over, and there he was, looking out the window (not very nice to startle his wife like that)!

Turns out the mallard hen, Mrs Curly as we’ve taken to calling her (from the curly tail feathers on the mallard drake) (the same Mrs Curly from last year?), was in the pond, quacking insistently. All in good time, Mr Curly appeared from under the dock and joined her.

When I got up, Bob’s Nikon was out, armed with the big, long lens, but to no avail; by the time he got ready to go, the ducks were gone.

Whose Responsibility?

From Talking Business, on nytimes.com, yesterday:

“…Judge Denny Chin had made clear that he was not going to allow the Madoff guilty plea to turn into a Wailing Wall for the victims, so most of them stayed away. Though Judge Chin allowed them to speak, he insisted they stick to the issue before the court: whether he should accept Mr. Madoff’s guilty plea. One woman argued that the judge should not and force a trial instead, for the “opportunity to find out where the money is.” But of course there is no money — certainly nothing close to the supposed $60 billion plus he was “investing.” That is the whole point of a Ponzi scheme: the fraudster uses money coming in from new investors to pay old investors, pretending that that is their gain.

“Afterward, the TV cameras surrounded a woman named Sharon Lissauer. She had not been wealthy, she said, but she’s lost everything. She didn’t know what she was going to do. She was weeping. It was hard not to feel sad for her — indeed, for all the victims of Mr. Madoff’s evil-doing. But one also has to wonder: what were they thinking?…”

The most telling part of the piece is the last two paragraphs.

The Inaugural 2009 (Public) Deck Sit

It got a bit warmer today than yesterday, and was still quite nice at beer thirty, so we trouped out to the deck and reclined. Ahhhh!

Dustin brought back strawberries, a bottle of goji juice with citrus, and a bottle of Girasole Vineyards’ 2007 Chard from lunch and tucked them all in the reefer. At beer thirty, he poured about half-a-Chimay-glass worth of chardonnay, a couple of splashes of goji, and two or so sliced-up strawberries. My!! Very interesting! and very tasty!

Good News/Bad News

From Quotes of the Day, today:

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.
- Patrick Young

The Inaugural 2009 Beer Thirty on the Deck

We didn’t do much sitting, so it’s not a Deck Sit yet…

Belgian was speaking, so Belgian it was, Affligem Dubbel. Interesting stuff. It’s quite dry, if you can call Belgian ale dry; not at all sweet, but certainly not hoppy. Curtis liked it pretty well; I’m pretty sure I do. I’ll just have to get another bottle, eh?

Their importer, Star Brand Imports, characterizes the Dubbel as “sweet”; I worry about what they’d call ”dry”.

Affligem’s Web site starts out with monks (presumably) chanting; very nice!

Meanwhile, Dustin was enjoying 2006 Folie à Deux Zinfandel from Amador County; the winery itself is Napa Valley-based, however. Dustin was quite happy with the Zin, as was I, having snuck a glass last night.

Amazing

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Il Divo before (just never got around to it, I guess…); what an introduction (thanks, Mimi)!!

Rain Numbers - 6 March 2009

.02", for today
4.16", for the storm
4.16", for the month
34.74", for the (rain) year

Rain Numbers - 5 March 2009

.48", for today
4.14", for the storm
4.14", for the month
34.72", for the (rain) year

Rain Numbers - 4 March 2009

.25", for today
3.66", for the storm
3.66", for the month
34.24", for the (rain) year

Rain Numbers - 3 March 2009

1.36", for today
3.41", for the storm
3.41", for the month
33.99", for the (rain) year

We had a few momentary microbursts today: one, 3.69"/hr. at about 2:30 in the morning, and another, 5.88"/hr. some time in the afternoon.

Rain Numbers - 2 March 2009

1.45", for today
2.05", for the storm
2.05", for the month
32.63", for the (rain) year

Rain Numbers - 1 March 2009

.60", for today
.60", for the storm
.60", for the month
31.18", for the (rain) year