delicious road tar

I don't know anything about wine. Some I like, some I don't. I've occasionally been known to drink it from a box and think it was pretty good.

I don't usually like Chardonnay, though maybe I just haven't tried a really good one. Same goes for Merlot, but generally, I'll drink just about anything.

I went to a wine tasting with some friends last weekend at a local shop. I went to a wine festival once, but this was my first time at a tasting. I didn't do any swirling, and I drank my samples.

We picked up a printout explaining the featured wines. The whites started normal enough with comments like "smelling of honey and exotic spices," "dry with a creamy texture," and "wonderful notes of orange rind, lemon blossom and buttery apples."

Then we moved onto the reds. "Beautiful sweet raspberry, wild mountain berry ... " sounds good, until "incense, wood smoke and autumnal vegetation-like characteristics." Yes, all in the same wine! (It was very good, but at $54.99 a bottle, I'll never have that one again!)

Next up, a Syrah that reveals "exceptional fruit as well as notes of road tar, camphor, chocolate, blackberry liqueur and roasted meat." (This one wasn't great, and left an aftertaste.)

Finally, an Australian Shiraz (typically my favorite), is "purple-colored with fragrant aromas of toast, black cherry, scorched earth, pencil lead and blueberry." (I liked this one, too. Still, $39.99 is out of my price range!)

So ... we've got road tar, pencil lead, scorched earth and roasted meat ... are these aromas something people look for in wine?

Fortunately, I couldn't pick out those flavors!

i was going to say something meaningful for my 200th post ...

But ... uh ... I got distracted by something that made me giggle in the Home Depot garden department:

"Contains Liquified Worm Poop"

I know, I know. I've let my inner 10-year-old out again!

But couldn't they have used a different word? I would provide a list of synonyms, but it's bad enough that the search engines are going to pick up "worm poop!"

Obviously, it's sort of fertilizer ... but all I see is a bottle of liquified worm poop! (If you're interested in reading about how good worm poop is for your plants, you can read more about this product!)

Anyway, yeah, this is my 200th post, and I've just set a new low for myself.

And now, the phenomenon that introduced me to blogging in the first place is nearing the start of it's second year. I'm planning a redesign for NaBloPoMo, though if finish early, I'll probably post before November 1. I'm excited about it!

But don't expect any change in format. My potty humor is here to stay!

monkey mayhem

The night of the race, we ate dinner at a Greek restaurant on the boardwalk. We sat on the ocean-facing patio.

Next door was an amusement park that I could see from my seat. I was infatuated by one ride in particular. It had odd spinning monkeys. They were kind of creepy; I couldn't stop staring at them.

Since it was getting dark, I had to return the following day and capture their monkey splendor.

Click on the monkeys if you'd like to see larger versions.

Be afraid, be very afraid!

definitely not the bluebird of happiness

We arrived home today to find a bird standing on the porch. This normally wouldn't be unusual, except that as I approached, he didn't move.

He looked terrified; I figured I must have startled him.

I backed off, and waited a few seconds. I was a bit worried that as I walked past, he might freak out and fly into me!

He continued to stand there, beak open.

I nudged his foot with a stick, hoping to snap him out of it and get him to move along.

Nope, nothing.

I cautiously walked past to the front door, and went inside. He stayed there, still looking catatonic.

Since my digital camera batteries were dead (the camera's kind of broken which caused the drained batteries), I could only get a (crappy) photo with my cell phone camera.

You can't see the look in his eyes ... or that he was standing there with his beak open.

Since I barely have a zoom on that thing, I was also standing no more than two feet from him.

After starting dinner, I peaked outside and there he stood. A few minutes later, same thing.

Eventually, he turned his head and hopped in a circle.

After dinner, he was gone.

Hopefully he went on his way before one of the neighborhood stray cats realized there was a free meal on our porch!