World Wide Wrestling

I usually don't post on a Tuesday. But, the kids are finished with their homework and in the living room watching WWE wrestling. No, no, before you say it, I had nothing to do with the WWE addiction. I won't watch it, well, except the episode they shot in Afghanistan to help entertain the troops. Their father started it. Now they are hooked. My son is the worst. He even dressed up as Batista once. Complete, with fake muscles and everything. (that's Batista pictured to the left).
He asked to start his homework early tonight so he'd be done when it came on. He even yelled at me. Not in a bad way, just to get my attention. "MOMMMMM! I REALLY NEED TO DO MY HOMEWORK! NOW! PLEASE!" Recently we subscribed to satellite. Prior, we didn't have the channel that showed this absurd show. Lucky me, now we do. I draw the line at the female wrestlers. It's just obscene. They have to turn the channel until the chicks are done beating each other up, wearing next to nothing. No self respect. I try and teach my daughter that you don't have to be half naked with fake boobs to succeed. I'd bet that if they put clothes on they would be just as popular...ok, almost. I can understand the bare midriffs, they have six packs, they should be proud, they worked hard to have stomachs like men, but the G-strings need to go. Along with the camera angles.
Fetzer Cabernet Sauvignon, vintage 2003. Alcohol 13.5% Free! Thats right...J-Dog bought it for me. That makes it good no matter what anyone thinks. No really, it's not bad. Very distinct cherry flavor. No, not just very, extremely. It's dry and smooth with long legs and a long finish too. As you can see it is aged in oak barrels. Of course this only makes it better. It also helps drown out the screaming wrestlers in the background. Couldn't ask for anything nicer than that. Thanks J-Dog! I owe you one!

In the dog house tonight

They are "giving wine a new leash on life"!
I bought this because of the drawing on the bottle, the easy open screw cap and becuase my grandma, Elma used to have a dog named Checkers. My brother and I gave her the dog when I was about 10 or 11 years old. He was very naughty but she loved him. Since he was not nuetered, if he was feeling insecure he would mark in the house. (the dog, not my brother). Grandma used to get so mad at him. At the same time, she spoiled him rotten. He would get braunschweiger as a treat instead of dog biscuits. She would wrap a little piece in some wax paper and keep it in her pocket while she took him for a walk. When they got back in, she would sit down, take her shoes off with him sitting at her feet waiting in antcipation for his little chunk of mushy goodness. If you are not familar, its a german version of smoked liverwurst. She would give me some as a treat too. She would spread it on bread with a little mayonaise. Yum! Nobody ever told me it really had liver in it. I haven't had it since I found out.

Dog House Checkers' Cab 2002. $9.99 alcohol 13.7. I like it! It has an array of different flavors if you concentrate on it. I picked up on an olive taste. A berry taste. It is bold, tangy, and just plain drinkable. It's as good as some more expensive wines I've had. The Bob part of me is back in Montana, but I'm sure he would agree with me. Of course if he doesn't, he'll be in the Dog House...although, I'm not sure that's such a bad thing.
Here's a picture of Nikita in the dog house. She looks pretty happy!


This might just because she is a kid with zero worries or responsibilities. If I knew then what I know now, I would still be living with my parents. Ok, maybe not.

Dude!

Gnarly Head Old Vintage Zin. 2004. Alcohol 14.6% (nice) $9.99 Lets just jump right into it. Made with 80 year old vines...should they retire? NO! According to the grower, the vines produce less, but more flavorful grapes. I have a problem with the name, Gnarly Head. It sounds twisted, old, rotten somehow. It also sounds young, immature and California...ish. You know, "gnarly dude". It'e reminiscent of some bad Hollywood movies featuring young kids who have little experience past prep school and their parent's BMW's.
Ok, when you open this one, let it sit and breathe for about an hour. Yes, an entire hour. It has to air out. If you open and drink, it will taste really sweet, like Mad Dog 20/20. The Bob part of me "loved it". (He is home for a change). We have to say that it does have lots of flavor, very bold fruits, spice , tannis and full flavored, smooth finish. I drank some right off, don't do that. Don't be hasty, open, find other things to do, let it sit, serve later. It's worth the wait. If we rated our wines by a number system, which we don't, I would give it a 9 out of 10. But we don't so just go buy it. You will be happy you did.

Big Sky

Had New Years eve wine in Montana this year. The Bob part of me was still there. The joke at the site was that they were going to make a career out of that oil well. They are supposed to drill, get it going, then move on to a new location and repeat. Usually, it takes about 10 days. Bob was on that site for over 3 weeks and when he left it still wasn't finished, but they found a replacement so he could come home for a while. He has many "honey-do's" to catch up on.
So, I drove up there, 11 hours from Denver, to have a glass of wine in the big city of Sidney Montana. It would have only taken 10 hours except one of the dogs was "sick" and I had to pull over about 23 times to let him "go".
For dinner we had 2 choices. The Cadillac. A steak joint and casino. The South 40. A steak joint and casino with Karaoke that evening. We chose the South 40. It sounded more rural and I like to watch drunk people get on stage and make fools of themselves. The specialty there was prime rib and lobster. They serve up a giant slab of slightly warm raw beef laced in fat with french fries and a lobster tail on a separate plate. Honestly, it looked disgusting. Everyone in the place was obese too. They made Bob and I look anorexic. I'm thinking that beef isn't that good for you. Or maybe you just shouldn't eat 10 pounds of it in a sitting accompanied by a cholesterol tail soaked in butter and fries.
We got there at 6:30 with the blue hairs. It was a good thing too, because it took a little over an hour and a half to get our dinner. Here's a tip. If you go to a steak joint, in a small town, just order what they are good at. I ordered Walleyed Pike and Bob ordered Salmon. After an hour, the waitress let us know they burned the pike and had to start over. At least she was honest, they could have told us they were out on the ice catching it and I would have believed at that point. She offered us a drink, but we were only 3/4 done with our bottle of wine...so we passed. In the meantime, we admired the decor. Low ceilings, barn beams, that just right rustic look that reminded us were not in Denver anymore. Bob says I'm snooty. I don't think that's true, I just think if you are going to pay $25 for burnt fish, the place you are eating at should have a cleaner look. Oh yeah, and the men should take their ball caps off while they are eating. None of them did. In fact, one of Bob's co-workers was there with his Tooke hat. He was sitting right next to us and if he didn't have the hat, we probably would not have noticed him.

We had limited wine options.
We chose Beringer Founders Estate Merlot 2002. $20.00 a bottle. Alcohol 13.9%. It was a bit sweet, oaky with blackberry and plum, spicy for sure. Not very smooth. Bob thought it went down like sandpaper. It wasn't silky smooth like his new beard. We didn't like it very much and won't look for it here.
My mom says men were meant to work outside in the cold and that's the reason they can grow hair on their faces. On the other hand, she says women should stay inside and eat chocolates and blog wine. I think I agree with her. My son thought Bob's new beard was funny. When Bob walked in the house Nolan was laughing so hard he couldn't breath.


What a silly little boy! He went on like that for about 10 minutes. Incidentally, Bob's hair grows mostly under his chin, he looks like a farmer from Montana.
So we finished off our Montana New Year evening upstairs in the bar area listening to people singing Karaoke, country songs of course, and watching them drink out of "fishbowls". Hmm, now here's an interesting concept. A giant bowl filled with alcohol (an example would be a Long Island ice tea) with four or more people sharing out of really long straws. We just had a couple of Miller Lites while we waited for the countdown. The barkeeps brought out party hats and favors along with cheap champagne and turkey sandwiches. It was actually kind of fun. One thing I have to say, this was one New Year we will not forget. We tried to remember where we went last year and well, we just couldn't. There is something to be said for small town fun. I only hope that next year we will be here.