Wine dinner #7

In honor of Robert Mondavi's 100th birthday - and our 10th Anniversary!

Mondavi Wine Dinner, June 13th

Course 1: Watermelon goat cheese salad, paired with fume blanc
Course 2: Wild mushroom ragout, paired with pinot noir
Course 3: Grilled lamb chop with polenta, paired with "Oakville" cab sauv
Course 4: filet mignon with green beans and potatoes, paired with "Reserve" cab sauv
Course 5: Lemon pudding cake, paired with moscato

The Awesomest Pat McGee Concert Ever

I saw Pat McGee Band play several times in college, at least twice at Sweet Briar. And thus began my love for the band, in the fall of 1999 (especially rhythm guitarist and harmonizer Al Walsh!)

The band went through several iterations of members over the years, and enjoyed some mainstream radio success with "Beautiful Ways" off of their album "Save Me" in 2004.

They played at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis last night, and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. RHOS is an intimate venue, probably only about 100 people, and our table was about 8 feet from center stage. After the opening act (Matt Duke, who is an excellent guitarist and a very passionate singer), three men came out - Pat on lead guitar, Jonathan on keyboards, and Al on rhythm guitar. YESSSS! And thus proceeded the most kickass acoustic set from their first three albums (the one exception being "Elizabeth" in honor of Pat's daughter's birthday next week).

The guys opened with "Fine" and closed with "Passion" and "Rebecca". In the middle they played (in no particular order) "Could Have Been a Song", "The Story", "Who Stole Her From Heaven", "Straight Curve", "Flooding Both of Us", "On Your Way Out of Here", "Runaway", "Haven't Seen for a While", "Minute", and "Lost". All amazing music and vocals, with stories in between.

And then they came out for the encore. The 90 minute encore. Where they took turns playing lead on classic rock songs that had impacted them when they were younger and really encouraged them each to go into a music career in the first place. I'm probably not getting them all from memory at this point, but they played "Old Man" by Neil Young, "A Pirate Looks at Forty" by Jimmy Buffet, "Willin'" by Little Feat, "Something in the Way She Moves" by James Taylor, "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel, "Take it Easy" by the Eagles, "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton, "The Weight" by The Band. Matt Duke came back on for a crazy guitar version of "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel. And they closed by harmonizing "Southern Cross" by Crosby Stills Nash and Young.

We didn't leave RHOS until 1am, and had to walk like a mile back to the parking garage in the rain (curse you, google maps, for lying and saying the parking garage was 0.2mi from our destination!) But it was an INCREDIBLE night.

Teaching Schedule

I subbed my first class last Wednesday (woohoo!) and I have four more subs lined up in the next several weeks. Since I'm keeping them on a separate google calendar to make it easy to track my teaching hours and stuff, I decided to make that calendar public so people could see when I'm teaching. Right now all the classes are at Flow Yoga in Leesburg, VA and all the times listed are 15 minutes earlier than class starts since I need to be there a bit early (but as a student you should always try to get to yoga class a few minutes early too!)

Wine Dinners #5 and #6

Wine Dinner # 5: A Chef's Kitchen (Williamsburg, VA), April 6th

Course 1: Champagne toast and Hors d'oeuvres
Course 2: Vidalia, roasted garlic & morel mushroom soup
Course 3: Avocado & strawberry salad with toasted pecans
Course 4: Scallion & lime shrimp cake
Course 5: Roast rack of lamb, sweet potato mash & swiss chard
Course 6: Linzer torte with orange custard sauce

(3 wine pairings currently unknown; will update)

Wine Dinner #6: 'Bourbon and Reds', May 2nd

Course 1: Bacon wrapped scallops, paired with a Bulleit mint julep
Course 2: Pear and bleu cheese salad, paired with pinot noir
Course 3: Pan-roasted salmon, paired with Bulleit rye
Course 4: Southern BBQ mixed grill with southwest mac and cheese, paired with red blend
Course 5: S'mores cheesecake, paired with Bulleit 10 year small batch

Wine Dinners #3 and #4

Wine dinner #3: Oregon Wines, August 24th

Course 1: Champagne toast and Hors d'oeuvres
Course 2: Chilled crab cocktail salad, paired with pinot gris
Course 3: Summer tomato basil bisque and goat cheese crostini, paired with "Remy Red" 
Course 4:  Filet mignon, pan roasted wild mushrooms and mashed potatoes, paired with pinot noir and zinfandel
Course 5: Apple crumb tart, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, paired with reisling

Wine dinner #4: Napa Valley Wines, March 14th

Course 1: Roasted asparagus and herbed goat cheese, paired with sauvignon blanc
Course 2: Snow crab bisque, paired with chardonnay
Course 3: Cremini mushroom tart, paired with pinot noir
Course 4:  Filet mignon, creamed spinach and sweet potato casserole, paired with cabernet sauvignon
Course 5: Cheesecake brulee, paired with sauvignon blanc

Forgiveness

I've struggled with the evangelical flavor of Christianity that was a part of our lives for a number of years, partly because of internal conflicts and partly because I don't want to be associated with a lot of what I see that also identifies with the evangelical flavor of Christianity (read: a large part of the GOP, for starters). But experientially I remain convinced that there is something bigger than myself and this world. I read Rob Bell's book "Love Wins" when it came out and was really drawn to the idea of Christian Universalism; unfortunately there are very few churches that openly teach this and after my negative experience with a local non-denominational church when we first moved to Virginia, I more or less gave up on actually finding a church.

Anyway, that's just a bit of background for this next bit. I had seen one of those silly Facebook share pictures today that said "Type yes if Jesus has forgiven your sins" and I immediately thought "Why does anyone need permission to forgive someone?" If you hurt me, I can choose to forgive you whether you want me to or not. I don't need to go to you and say "I'll forgive you if you say it's okay for me to forgive you." Or "I'll forgive you if you ask me to." Forgiveness isn't an expression of the person who has done something wrong, it's an expression of the person who has been wronged.

Year in Review 2012

Wow, that was a lot of dead air, huh? But I wouldn't let the year slip away entirely without my Year In Review post. It was kind of crazy when I opened up last year's and read stuff about moving, because it feels like that was SO long ago already. And now we're getting ready to move again!

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before? Ran a half marathon! Deadlifted more than my bodyweight! Bought a single family home!

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I got my 500 Mile t-shirt! I didn't win the fitness award, but I'm trying again this year and am way ahead of where I was at this point last year. My goals for next year are to lose body fat, especially on my thighs! Going for below 18% and an inch off each thigh. And to get some money back into savings, since I've been used to having a large cushion for several years.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Alyssa (our niece Olivia), Carly (Sonya), Amber (Chloe), Emily (Charlotte), and Sarah (Kyle). The girls are still outnumbering the guys by a good margin!

4. Did anyone close to you die? I don't think so

5. What countries did you visit? Mexico, Jamaica, and Bermuda, and Haiti for the third time.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? HOT TUB

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Bought our house on December 10th! And I got my new job offer just three days before that. It was a crazy weekend :-)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? New job, finally! It only took a year...

9. What was your biggest failure? Relatively minor, but I kind of sucked hard at my first yoga teacher attempt. I hope I'll get better.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I think I was injury and illness free this year (knock on wood, as there's still 5 days left...)

11. What was the best thing you bought? We bought a house!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? I really appreciated our realtor not questioning decisions we had already made for ourselves, such as how much house we could afford, getting a 15 year mortgage, and the fact that we didn't care about school districts.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? The vocal part of the GOP, particularly the vocal evangelical christian part

14. Where did most of your money go? We wrote a check equal to 2/3 of my salary to close on the house.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Three-point-five vacations! Long weekend in Annapolis in March, OBX in June, cruises over Labor Day and Veterans Day.

16. What song will always remind you of 2012? 'Some Nights' by fun.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier!
ii. thinner or fatter? slightly fatter
iii. richer or poorer? richer!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Cardio. I slacked off there after my birthday race, and that's when the weight started to come back on.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Sharing walls with neighbors. Soooooon....

20. How will you be spending Christmas? We went to my mom's for Olivia's first xmas - I think she was a little overwhelmed. Awesome food as always, though.

21. How will you be spending New Year's Eve? Same same with Matt's fam in NoVa - it's the one event we can count on them well in advance to plan and execute

22. Did you discover any great new websites in 2012? Fitness Black Book

23. How many weddings? Three, all local and well spaced (thanks guys!) - Mike and Katherine in March, Tito and Kelly in August, and Matt and Lawrie in November

24. What was your favorite TV program? The Voice and Next Food Network Star were both fall favorites this year

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Parents who let their child scream endlessly

26. What was the best book you read? 'How Yoga Works' was pretty neat.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Avett Brothers, The Head and the Heart, fun

28. What did you want and get? A paid off car! And though I didn't think it was coming for a long time, a house! And also Rosetta Stone Italian so we can start learning the language for our Mediterranean cruise in a few more years :-)

30. What was your favorite film of this year? Argo

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 3.1 for 31! Eight people joined me for the Leesburg 5K, and then we ate cupcakes! And then we went out to dinner with friends at Don Pablos again, where they again made me wear the giant sombrero (and gave me free sopapillas).

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Getting my new job in August instead of December

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012? Same as always - business casual during the week, gym clothes in the evening, casual on the weekends.

34. What kept you sane? Meeting short term goals

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Adam Levine, but I wish he'd get some of his tattoos removed :-)

36. What political issue stirred you the most? Old white men attempting to legislate women's health issues

37. Who did you miss? Jim! Come back from California plz. I'm putting a gym in my new basement...

38. Who were the best new people you met? I don't think we met too many new people this year. I suppose my new supervisor from March-Dec is about the only person I can think of.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012: Run ALL the numbers. I didn't realize until I did all the math that buying a house now with 10% down (and paying a little PMI) still had a lower total cost than buying the same house 3 years from now with 20% down, when interest rates and housing prices pretty much have no where to go but up.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: "Our house is a very, very fine house with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard, Now everything is easy cause of you" - CSNY

(8 years and counting! YIR 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005)