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9 Oct |
The last supper Edie, Treatments, Wine
Comments (2) |
Well there’s no turning back now. The City of Hope called, and Edie is scheduled for an 11:30 AM check in tomorrow. So tonight was time for a special dinner.
We stayed home, and I cooked the perfect medium rare filet mignon, with rice and broccoli, accompanied by a 2005 Hartford Court, Sevens Bench Pinot Noir, and boy was it good.
Not only did I cook the steak to a perfect medium rare, but the wine was one of the better Pinot Noir’s we’ve drank recently. It was a full bodied Pinot, exhibiting a good balance of fruit, tannins and acidity, and with good texture without the high alcohol taste that seems so prevelant in the wines being produced now a days.
Of course, not even the perfect meal, and bottle of wine, can change the reality of the next two or possibley three weeks. They’re not going to be a lot of fun.
Saturday and Sunday, Edie receives high dose melphalan (reduced slightly due to a slightly impaired kidney function), to destroy the old immune system, followed by the transplant on Monday.
Then comes the hard part, waiting for the new immune system to take effect.
I know I’ve been preparing myself for this moment for quite awhile, but that doesn’t make it any easier, especially when you know there isn’t anything you can do effect the outcome.
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20 Sep |
No more wine Edie, Treatments, Wine
Comments (1) |
Tuesday, I was worried about the election and the economy. Well now that the government has come out with a bail out plan to save Wall Street the economy, that’s one less thing to be concerned about.
Now my biggest concern is Edie’s upcoming transplant. I had mostly put that out of mind the last couple of days, but I was reminded of it last night, when Edie indicated she can’t have any more wine, at least until after enough stem cells have been collected. That process begins Monday 9/22, and could take anywhere from one day, to several, or even more days.
As if the ritual Edie goes through every night of cleaning her Hickman Line, loading up a syringe with 900 CC’s of Neupogen, and then injecting herself with it, wasn’t enough, now we have to fore go our nightly glass of wine with dinner.
I know I’d sure be having lots of problems if I were on the other end of that needle. I’m having enough trouble just watching Edie go through it herself.
Heck, it almost makes you hanker for the good old days, when the world financial systems were on the verge of collapse.
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28 Jun |
The cure for the common hangover Cycling, General Health, Wine
Comments (2) |
There’s nothing like a high intensity workout (for me it’s a bike ride) to get that horrible feeling out of your body [and mind], after drinking a little too much wine, at a friends house, the night before.
[I really need to do more of that, as having dinner and wine with friends is a great cure all to help you forget all the issues confronting you on a daily basis. I just have to do a better job of controlling how much I drink.]
Anywaze, I didn’t get a very good nights sleep, and I certainly wasn’t in any mood to go riding this morning. Heck, I didn’t even want to get out of bed, it felt so good just lying there, but I knew I just had to, or I would feel a lot worse later in the day.
So reluctantly I got myself out of bed, and went down stairs to have my tea and hopefully some breakfast. Of course that was a lot easier said than done, as I plopped myself down in front of the TV (I didn’t even bother turning it on), with my cup of tea close by.
It felt so good, as I watched the clock tick by. If I didn’t get up out of that recliner soon, I might never get up, I thought to myself.
Again reluctantly, I got myself out of the chair, made myself a half an egg sandwich (at this point I was starting to run late), hurriedly finished the sandwich and my tea, and managed to get out of the house with just enough time to catch the group, provided I took a few shortcuts.
Almost immediately after getting on the bike, I felt better. My only thought at that point was catching the group, which I did without much trouble. I even got ahead of them (remember, I had to take a couple of shortcuts), and had to slow down and wait for them to catch me.
And then, as we started the hammer zone portion of the ride, whatever lingering after affects remained of my hangover, totally disappeared, and I’m feeling so much better now.
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16 Jun |
Am I a wine snob? Off Topic, Wine
Comments (4) |
While I am by no means a recognized wine expert, in the ranks of Robert Parker, Alan Meadows, etc. I have always considered myself more of an authority than most, in discerning good wines from mediocre ones.
Now while there are a few who may disagree with that characterization, and even I will admit there is a lot of subjectiveness in wine tasting, and not everyone has the same palate, or likes and dislikes, distinguishing the difference between good wines and just down right nasty wines i.e. vinegary, sour, devoid of fruit etc. should be a simple task for anyone.
But it still amazes me, just how some people can drink a glass of wine, that has left such a foul taste in my mouth, I have to spit it out, and actually rave about how much they liked it. And yesterday was a perfect example.
At least once a year, one of our wine drinking friends in Santa Monica, who has more money than he knows what to do with, and obviously more wine than any one person [or even two] could drink in several lifetimes, has a party to clear out some of his older wines.
It is extremely generous of him and his wife, as they supply all the wine, and a main course to eat while we’re tasting. All we have to do is get to their house, which from Long Beach isn’t always as easy as it sounds, and bring a side dish to serve along with the rest of the food.
For me, these events are more about the party and the socializing than the wines, as the wines are usually not that good, but it is still interesting to see how different wines from different producers hold up over the years. And with those expectations in mind it was a great event.
For the day, our friend opened 43 bottles of wine, ranging in age from 8 to 25 years old. Don’t fret though, by no means did we finish them all. The vast majority were undrinkable. Overall, I would say 30 to 35 were undrinkable, and 6 to 8 (mostly rhone style wines from France) were decent, and drinkable along with some food.
But not everyone agreed with my assessment, raving about a few I couldn’t spit out fast enough. I even went back to try one or two again, just to be sure I wasn’t wrong in my original assessment, which I wasn’t.
I’m convinced people say they like some wines, because someone else they like claims it is good, or they are just enamored with old wines thinking they are supposed to like them. I’m not sure why, but……
Regardless, and remembering what I said earlier, wine tasting is very subjective, and we don’t all have the same palates or likes and dislikes, the party exceeded my expectations, and I enjoyed myself.
And at the end, our gracious hosts brought out a 1994 and a 1999 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepages, which everyone agreed were both very good, and couple that with Tiger’s pressure putt on the 18th hole, at Torrey Pines, to send the US Open into a final round play off this morning, topped off a perfect day.