A whole lot of scoring going on

Yet another fabulous day at Food and Wine.

Sunday seminars usually have fairly spotty attendance but not so with our session, Brian Duncan's reprise of his Perfect Wine and Food Pairings. We ran out of wine and had to short some of the latecomers.

Oh well, they do tell everyone to arrive at least 15 minutes early to insure their seats.

Instead to trying to get across town to another seminar, I sat in the prep tent and guzzled Vouvray, Reisling and Gewurztraminer.

Teardown went really quickly and I scored a bottle of Osborne Premium Pedro Ximenez Sweet Sherry during the volunteer raffle. One of the panelists in the Like Wine for Chocolate seminar suggested serving it with vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate shavings, so, later during the Grand Tasting, I went to the Hershey premium chocolate booth and scored some chocolate too.

I really was hoping to snag a bottle of the Gewurtztraminer that Brian Duncan was serving but the committee co-chairs had squirreled it away for themselves.

The perks of being in charge.

We had enough time between being released from our assignment and the start of the last Grand Tasting that I was able to get home to drop off my haul of sherry and Fiji water. I got over to the Tasting tent just in time to join the end of the line as it entered.

Perfect timing.

I drank more heavily than at any other tasting, trying a Martini Asti with strawberry puree, a Cointreau white sangria, a vodka/apple/sugar concoction, three or four Reislings, a couple of Pinot Noirs, a couple of Gewurztraminers and my favorite Sergio Prosecco and Mionetto Il Moscato.

I partook of the food too and perfected my trick of avoiding the line at the Academie Barilla booth with its exquisite cheeses and cured ham by waiting until the 10 minutes to go announcement to make my way over there.

I scored another pound of Starbucks coffee (my third) but did manage to lose my sunglasses.

I consoled myself with a big glass of the Mionetto Il Moscato and then shamelessly hung out at the Mionetto booth at the end until the wonderful Mionetto representative took pity on me and gifted me a bottle of the Moscato.

Yes! Life is sweet (as is the alcohol).

Oh, and I never did spit.

Moms behaving badly

Monica Emmerson is a big fat liar.

Now, listen, I've definitely been there.

Toting a toddler and luggage through an airport and dealing with stupid rules. I've even reacted and behaved in the heat of the moment in ways that were out of proportion to the situation at hand.

No, I've never intentionally dumped water on the floor out of spite but still, I've done things which have been fairly irrational.

However, I have not then gone on national TV and defended my piss-poor behavior. I've actually had the sense to feel a bit sheepish.

Monica claims she "accidentally" spilled the sippy cup. Maybe she didn't know when she did so that there was video. Video which clearly (at least to me) shows an irritated woman purposefully pouring water on the floor.

Monica should be apologizing. She should be saying that the rules which prevent her from taking her toddler's sippy cup through security suck but that is no excuse for her actions. She should be saying she was stressed, tired and in a hurry and completely over-reacted and acted inappropriately. And that she shouldn't have done so.

I absolutely love the fact that the TSA called, "Bullshit" and posted the videos and incident report on their website.

Come on, Monica. You can tell me. You didn't really "accidentally" spill that water, now, did you?

Still not spitting

It was really hard getting out of bed this morning. Really hard.

But I kinda forgot all about that when I started drinking at 9 am.

Yep, 9 am, there I was tasting six different Reislings with Andrea Immer Robinson.

Of course, by then I'd already been "at work" since 8 am, so that makes it ok.

I like Reislings. I like Gewurtztraminers. I had forgotten how much I like these.

I really like Mionetto Moscato and Sergio Prosecco. At $10 a bottle, I don't think I'll fall in the snob category any time soon.

I attended 3 out of 4 seminars today: Reislings Around the World, Green Grapes and Ham (a ham and wine pairing led by Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group and Dan Phillips of Grateful Palate) and the Perfect Wine and Food Pairings (Brian Duncan from Bin 36 in Chicago). I learned so much. I would have never thought to put together wasabi peas with Reisling or tomatoes with Gewurtztraminer. And ham, who knew that different hams paired so well with different wines.

And the Grand Tastings, so much good stuff. Once again, I didn't do much tasting at the early show since I had to continue to function for the rest of the afternoon but I ate, boy did I eat. There was lemon pepper ahi and some yummy fish with paprika sandwich (provided by Starbucks no less). There was caviar, rib eye, prime rib, aged cheese, proscuitto, cured Spanish ham, sushi, barbecue, and loads of things I could only describe, not name.

At the afternoon Grand Tasting, I did more tasting but even there the number of choices is just overwhelming. And a lot of the stuff is really high end. A friend's philosophy is that it's the only time she'll be able to taste most of this stuff. My thought is I don't want to know what I'm missing.

One more day . . .

It's been a long day

Got up at 4:45 AM in order to be at the Good Morning America taping. It ended up being a segment with Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse, competing in GMA's Best Burger Challenge which aired live on the east coast at about 8:20 am.

It was fun, albeit chilly. Mario is quite loose and funny while Emeril is a bit more nervous and stiff.

Since we were done by 6:30 AM and I didn't have to be at my volunteer gig until 8 am, we drove up to the Maroon Bells and took a short walk before Steve dropped me off at Paepcke Park. I helped set up and sat in on three seminars which were all quite good. In between and afterwards, I went to the Grand Tastings which were full of fabulous food and drink.

Being that I'm a bit of a light weight and being that all of the seminars involved wine tastings, I only tasted one wine during the early Grand Tasting but ate every morsel of food I could find.

Imagine a boatload of tapas interspersed among buckets and buckets and more buckets of wine.

At the second and final Grand Tasting of the day, since I didn't have to work any more seminars, I tasted much more freely. I haven't quite worked up to spitting but I have managed to limit my tasting to just a couple of swallows of each wine (except for those I really, really like).

Today, I learned about seven great tasting wines under $15, six BSDs (or bubbly stunt doubles) and how six wines pair with six different chocolates. I managed to score a free bottle of my favorite BSD too.

I am so ready for bed . . .

Watch me?

Not sure how this works (ie, when it will air) but tomorrow morning I'm getting up at an obnoxiously early hour to attend a taping or live segment or something for Good Morning America from the Food & Wine Classic here in Aspen.

Maybe you'll see me on TV?

Classic

The Food & Wine Classic is celebrating its 25th year in Aspen.

I'm volunteering for the first time in my 8 years in Aspen.

Volunteering is a pretty cool gig. I do some work and I get a pass for which people pay $1000.

I've been to the Classic once in my years here. My girlfriend used to manage the lodge here in Aspen where Andrea Immer stays and they had two passes which we got to use for a couple of seminars (we saw Steve Raichlen and Jacques Pepin and his daughter, Claudine) and a Grand Tasting.

This year I get to go to all of the Grand Tastings. There are five. I will definitely have to pace myself since I also have to work before and after the Grand Tastings. In addition, once I'm done with set-up for each of the seminars at Paepcke Park, I get to go to any of the other seminars on a space available basis.

I'm not sure but I think I got pretty lucky with my assignment. I've heard that not everyone who wants to volunteer gets chosen. They give seniority to those who have volunteered previously and there are some pretty sucky assignments.

This summer, I've been trying to focus on vacationing here at home and since I have a ton of time off coming, when I applied to volunteer, I basically said that I was available whenever they needed me and that I was willing to work enough to qualify for a full pass. I was supposed to hear in the beginning of May but when that time frame came and went without a peep, I assumed that I hadn't made the cut, only to get a phone call a week or so ago, asking if I was still available.

Hell, yeah!!

The seminars I'm setting up for are all wine seminars: #105 The Price is Right; #205 Sparkling Substitutes; #305 Like Wine for Chocolate; #405 and 505 Reisling Around the World; #605 The Artisan's Hand and #705 Perfect Food and Wine Pairings.

There's a Volunteer Party next Tuesday that I was thinking I would blow off until the volunteer coordinator mentioned that, in an Oprah moment, she gave Tiffany champagne glasses as volunteer gifts last year. She said she couldn't promise the same this year but that it is the 25th anniversary. I just might have to show up to that party . . .

I'm pretty excited. Someday maybe I'll pop for a pass and be an actual paying customer but until then, this is a pretty cool way to go.

In addition to all of the above, I picked up two tickets to go to the taping of the Good Morning America segment Friday morning at 5:45 am. Considering that it's ten minutes from my house at a slow walk, I figured it'd be fun to do once even if it is obnoxiously early.

This week's favorite

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian is an excellent read, equal parts horror story, historical thriller and travelogue.

Built around the Dracula legend, the book follows a young girl as she struggles to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance and her mother's absence. While the story can be hard to follow as it jumps back and forth between narrators, after a slow start, the suspense intensifies as the unanswered questions grow. Kostova doles out her mysteries as a bread crumb trail drawing her readers deeper into her story.

While multiple aspects of the story held my interest, I found myself most attracted to the story as a travelogue. The author describes the characters' travels through Cold War Eastern Europe in a way that can only be described as enticing.

We read this book for book club and at least one member read Bram Stoker's Dracula as a result of having read this book. I love it when that happens.

This week's favorite

Tempest, revisited

On Sunday, May 27, I wrote a post regarding one of the current issues generating letters to the editor. One of those letters to the editor was mine in which I, more succinctly, repeated what I stated here on my blog.

The individual whose letter generated my response finally got around to replying in today's paper. Basically my question was why was he entitled to free parking and basically his response was because he's a hard-working parent.

Truth is, the permit is a very nice perk for parents; it takes away just a little stress that most hardworking parents have on a daily basis.

Hmmm. That's persuasive.

I really don't care who gets to use the carpool permits. It's not an issue in which I have anything invested. However, from an intellectual perspective, the parents' attempts to justify their gaming the system by claiming entitlement due to the fact that they are "hard working parents" begs a comeback.

Make me a well-reasoned, rational argument based on accomplishing the goals of the carpooling permit benefit, please.

The letter writer also did a little (too little) research and discovered that I live at the base of a mountain which is host to many junior high school sized second homes. In yet another example of stunning mental acuity, he jumped to the conclusion that I belong in the second home owners' tax bracket.

Well Bridget, I don't live at the base of Red Mountain like you do. I did hear rumors that at the confluence of Hunter Creek and the Roaring Fork there are trees that sprout dollar bills. If so, then my problems are solved. Otherwise, I'll just keep working hard to provide for my family.

The truth is that he lives downvalley, where housing is free market and appreciating at double digit rates, while I live in deed restricted housing where I'm limited to appreciation of 3% per year.

By his logic, I should be the one getting free parking in town.

Prudes

I was listening to NPR's Day to Day as I was logging into Blogger to write today's post when my interest was piqued by the mention of the Village of Glenview, Illinois.

I grew up in Glenview and my parents still live there so I turned my attention from Blogger to the radio only to shake my head in disbelief.

It seems that some prudish mothers in Glenview objected to this billboard which is located in an industrial/commercial area of the village. After an email/letter writing/petition campaign which generated a flurry of local and national news coverage with its concomitant free publicity, the billboard has been taken down.

The moms got together for a celebratory coffee.

I have a couple of thoughts on this.

First off, images like this are ubiquitous in today's America. Trying to combat their effects by attempting to ban the images is a losing proposition. It is much more productive to create an atmosphere and a dialogue with your children that explains and emphasizes the unrealistic aspects of these images.

Use the existence of these images to become the voice in your child's head.

Second, the owners of these businesses could not, in their wildest dreams, have anticipated how much free publicity their two week billboard investment would generate. I'd love to see their website visit statistics for the last couple of weeks.

The moms are having a coffee to celebrate while the business owners are most likely celebrating with something much more expensive.

Travel Plans

This is where I'll be visiting some time in the next year.

I've already ordered my Lonely Planet guide.

Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman

I found this book fascinating.

Ehrman presents a well argued, scholarly work dealing with how the books of the Bible and specifically, the New Testament have been altered through the ages, both purposefully and accidentally.

In a move that gives his work added weight, he lays out the methodologies of the scholarly field of textual criticism and then presents clear examples to support his arguments regarding changes made and motivations therefore.

What Jesus Meant by Garry Wills

Wills has an interesting perspective on who and what Jesus was. He believes, as his foreword states, that Christ was not a Christian.

. . . he is not just like us, he has higher rights and powers, he has an authority as arbitrary as God's in the Book of Job. He is a divine mystery walking among men. The only way we can directly imitate him is to act as if we were gods ourselves - yet that is the very thing he forbids. He tells us to act as the last, not the first, as the least, not the greatest. And this accords with the common sense of mankind. Christians cannot really be 'Christlike.' As Chesterton said, 'A great man knows he is not God and the greater he is the better he knows it.' The thing we have to realize is that Christ, whoever and whatever he was, was certainly not a Christian.

Wills offers some thought provoking analysis of what the Gospels really have to say about Jesus. His is an anti-establishment view. He claims that religion killed Jesus, that Jesus was opposed to religion as it existed in his day and that he "did not found a church."

Don't read this book if you don't want to question your preconceptions.

Life Stories

Browsing through Blogger's Next Blog feature, I happened upon Watch the Glass's May 22, 2007 post in which she discusses a New York Times article by Benedict Carey entitled This Is Your Life (and How You Tell It).

Carey reports that researchers have found interesting tendencies in how different types of people narrate their lives:

In analyzing the texts, the researchers found strong correlations between the content of people’s current lives and the stories they tell. Those with mood problems have many good memories, but these scenes are usually tainted by some dark detail. The pride of college graduation is spoiled when a friend makes a cutting remark. The wedding party was wonderful until the best man collapsed from drink. A note of disappointment seems to close each narrative phrase.

By contrast, so-called generative adults — those who score highly on tests measuring civic-mindedness, and who are likely to be energetic and involved — tend to see many of the events in their life in the reverse order, as linked by themes of redemption. They flunked sixth grade but met a wonderful counselor and made honor roll in seventh. They were laid low by divorce, only to meet a wonderful new partner. Often, too, they say they felt singled out from very early in life — protected, even as others nearby suffered.

Carey goes on to detail how someone can move forward more positively based upon how s/he narrates negative episodes from his/her life.

Elizabeth from Watch the Glass adds some smart and savvy analysis of her own:

It's a simple drag-and-drop: if I can drag the beginning of the next story to the end of the previous one and drop it there, suddenly the narrative hints at excellent fortune and good timing in my life.

She's only got four posts since April but I found them all quite edifying, albeit a bit on the wordy side.

Oh boy

This was the email from the NPS Grand Canyon River office which greeted me this morning:

Dear XXXX BRIDGET XXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for submitting an application in the Grand Canyon National Park noncommercial river trip lottery. We are pleased to inform you that your lottery application was successful and we have scheduled a Small trip for you to launch from Lees Ferry on July 25, 2008.

To keep this trip, you must login to the lottery website at https://npspermits.us and pay your River Trip deposit within two weeks of the drawing date. Failure to pay the trip deposit by this date will result in the automatic forfeiture of your July 25, 2008 and its subsequent re-release through a follow-up lottery.

Once your deposit has been paid, nothing further will be due from you until 90 days before your launch date. By that time you will need to have completed the online Noncommercial River Trip Permit application and paid for your trip participants.

If you have any questions or need further assitance, please ask. We are happy to help. Congratulations on winning a trip!

Sincerely,
Steve Sullivan

Two weeks' favorites

Two weeks' favorites from PostSecret.

I'm in so much trouble

See that number next to the "Number of applications in the lottery," 2275? My application is one of them.

According to the decision Steve and I made on Sunday, my application wasn't supposed to be one of them.

Oh boy.

The National Park Service is running the lottery for 2008 permits to run the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon this week. Steve and I have been on the waitlist since January 2002. Recently the National Park Service implemented a multi-phase transition from the waitlist to an annual lottery. In doing so, they gave wait-listers extra chances in the lottery.

At this point, Steve and I have 7 chances each in the lottery or 12 combined chances. Yes, I know the math isn't right but hey, we're dealing with a government agency here.

We've been talking about taking Rachel on a trip and I was looking into dates for next summer.

But, Steve has a bit of a love/hate relationship with white water river rafting. It's very stressful for him, being responsible for piloting a raft safely through dangerous hazards and being responsible for the safety of those aboard his raft. It's much easier for me since I'm basically just a passenger (although I do have to put up with Steve when he's being StressMan).

In addition, a friend and his daughter (who is the same age as Rachel) who were going to be invited if we got a permit can't take a Grand trip next summer.

So, after much discussion this weekend, Steve and I decided to just let the lottery deadline pass without finalizing our application and to consider trying for a 2009 permit. I had some regrets on Monday but, oh well, too late.

Or was it?

Today, I got the following email from Steve Sullivan at the River Office:

As we prepare to run the 2008 Grand Canyon river lottery, we have noticed that you have an outstanding hold on your application that will prevent it from being considered in the lottery. According to our records, you have not paid for your application.

We understand that this may be because you have changed your mind and do not want your application considered in the lottery. If this is the case, it would help us focus our attention on those who need our assistance if you would do the following. Login to the lottery site at https://npspermits.us, click on "View Application", then click on "Cancel Application". You do not need to do anything further.

On the other hand, you may want to pay and have your application considered in the lottery. Though the lottery closed on Monday, we have extended the pay option for you through 5pm today (Wednesday, 5/30/07). To pay, login to the https://npspermits.us site and click on the "Pay Now through pay.gov" link. Note: this link will not be available after today, so please act quickly.

Next thing I knew, Rachel (who was sitting next to me when I got the above email) was twisting my arm and forcing me to submit my application.

I spent the next five minutes sitting with my head in my hands, alternating between moaning "I'm in so much trouble" and "I hope we don't win."

I still have to tell Steve . . .

Dear Dr. Laura

I've come across this letter twice now, once in one of my favorite episodes of West Wing, Midterms, October 18, 2000, and more recently, in What Jesus Meant by Garry Wills.

The scene in West Wing when Jed Bartlet puts the Laura Schlessinger-esque character, Jenna Jacobs, soundly in her place is quintessential Bartlet, rivaling his initial appearance in the pilot.

According to Snopes.com, "the authorship of the letter is still a bit of mystery," but it is classic.

Dear Dr. Laura,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them.

a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

e) I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an Abomination (Lev 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

g) Lev 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev 19:27. How should they die?

i) I know from Lev 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev 24:10-16) Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted disciple and adoring fan.

Project 365

Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way

I'm going to give this a shot.

We'll see how it goes: Mountain Musings Project 365 Photoblog.

Yet another tempest in a teapot

Parking in the downtown core of Aspen is not free. There are short term metered spaces and there are spaces in which you can park for a longer period of time which get progressively more expensive the longer you're parked.

There are also spaces reserved for those people who carpool from downvalley. The carpoolers stop at a booth by the airport, pick up a parking pass based on the fact that there are multiple individuals in the vehicle and park for free that day.

Recently the City Council told the director of the parking department that those vehicles with only one person of driving age do not qualify for a carpool permit. This means a parent chauffering his/her children does not qualify for a carpool permit.

And here we go again . . .

There have been multiple letters to the editor on this topic. The parking director has been insulted and called names.

While I understand the disappointment which attaches to losing such a benefit, as far as I'm concerned, it seems that it's a benefit these parents have been accessing through a loophole and now they're upset that the loophole has been closed.

I'm having a hard time getting behind the sense of entitlement these parents are exhibiting as they whine about having to pay for parking.

The free carpool parking is an incentive for the people who are willing to undertake the inconvenience that usually attaches to carpooling and a reward for their willingness to remove a vehicle from the upvalley commute.

A parent is doing neither of these when he drives his own kids to daycare. Why therefore do these parents think they're entitled to free parking?

One guy went so far as to detail how inconvenient it would be for him to take the bus with his kids.

My response is that there are costs to either decision; one of the costs of taking the bus is the added inconvenience while one of trade-offs for the convenience of driving is having to pay for parking.

My prediction however is that City Council will cave and re-open the loophole. Call me a cynic.

Of course, since none of these carpoolers are eligible to vote in city elections, perhaps the Council will stand firm. Wait, that was cyncal too, wasn't it?

Oops, I did it again

I've always had this annoying need to be right (well, more annoying to others than to me). They say lawyers are born, not made (I heard this on Brothers and Sisters so they in this case are the writers of Brothers and Sisters) and I'm pretty darn sure this was the case for me.

When I was in 8th grade, my history teacher, Mr. Kinsella, whom I really liked, told the class something which I knew to be incorrect. I was not satisfied with correcting him in front of the entire class (remember, I really liked him) but was compelled to back myself up by excusing myself from class for a trip to the library to find corroboration which I then presented to him, again in front of the entire class.

Charming, huh?

I can say that in the intervening years I have at least gotten more subtle.

Rachel's philosophy teacher (trivia - he was in the New Bohemians for the Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars album) whom I hold to a higher standard since, in addition to teaching philosophy, he's also the debate teacher, told his class that George Bush has the lowest IQ of any US president in the past 50 years.

While this is a statistic that I find eminently believable and entertaining, it just didn't pass the smell test for me.

I Googled it and lo and behold, it was in fact a fabrication. Granted a fabrication which had been reported by The London Guardian and The New Zealand Southland Times but a fabrication nonetheless.

I emailed the Snopes link to Rachel's teacher with Rachel sitting next to me simply shaking her head. She's used to me by now and knows that there's basically no stopping me. At least I didn't get up in front of class to correct him.

I was pleased and impressed to receive a reply email shortly thereafter from the teacher, thanking me for pointing out his error and vowing to correct himself with the students. Very classy response.

Cliches

I found out Thursday night that a good friend from high school was found dead in her house. I haven't seen this friend since 1981 and spoke with her very briefly a year or so ago, after not having any contact since sometime around 1988.

I'm not sure how I feel about this or how I'm supposed to feel.

While details are scarce, it appears she died unexpectedly, of natural causes. Although I have had relatives, friends and acquaintances my age and younger die due to traumatic causes, in my circle, she is the first of which I'm aware in my age group to have died of a non traumatic cause.

I'm getting older. I had a milestone birthday this year, I tease my husband about needing reading glasses, my parents will be 70 next year . . .

Home Improvement

Home improvement in deed restricted housing is a very interesting proposition.

Our appreciation is capped at 3% per year. This amount is basically guaranteed regardless of the condition of our home upon sale. I mean, if we did absolutely zero upkeep and owned the home for a long time, the cost of basic repairs would be deducted from the sale price but other than keeping it in basically decent repair, we're guaranteed 3% per year.

The flip side is that, with some limited exceptions, we don't get to recoup any upgrades. Any changes we make to the house can only be made with a thought towards improving our quality of life, not with a thought of increasing the value of our home.

This makes the cost of redecorating/remodeling extremely pertinent.

We've lived in our house for almost 5 years and other than replacing a few light fixtures, painting the exterior of the house and enlarging our garden, have done basically nothing. We are now attacking our first interior remodeling project in our small downstairs bathroom/laundry room.

I say we but really Steve's doing all the work. It's a bit of a test project to see how well we do with do-it-yourself remodeling. Since it's a bathroom, it's not quite as visible as the dining room or living room and will make any mistakes easier to hide. Steve's done a ton of work as an electrician so he's familiar with remodels but he's never tiled or patched or painted, etc.

Our house was constructed on the cheap so among other things, nothing is level or spaced properly. Since we're replacing all of the fixtures, Steve's moving and rewiring all of the boxes and generally trying to fix what the original builder, Colorado First (or as our neighbors call them, Colorado Worst), left us.

We have a time constraint as Steve starts a new job on Tuesday and we have the financial constraints already mentioned so it's been a challenging proposition. These sorts of projects take on a life of their own and can easily grow out of control. Deciding where to compromise without losing sight of the original vision has been tricky.

It remains to be seen just how successful we'll be, both with our timeframe and the finished product.

Two weeks' favorites from PostSecret

Beach vacation

I'm not so into beach vacations. I get bored. I don't like sand, heat, humidity or bugs.

So I went to the beach for vacation . . .

It was good.

My last beach vacation was at a remote private beach house near Los Barriles, halfway between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. We had to drive 45 minutes on a dirt road to get there. The owner of the house told me, "You're not going to want to leave." After a week, I was so ready to go home. Too solitary for me.

But, not so in Sayulita. Sayulita is a small village 35 km north of Puerto Vallarta with a nice beach and a good beginner surf break. But the best thing about Sayulita, as far as I'm concerned, is the surprising number of good restaurants. Mexican, French, Mediterranean, Argentinian, Italian, Asian. It reminded me of Aspen in that respect. We had good breakfasts at El Espresso, Rollie's and Don Pedro's and excellent dinners at Sayulita Fish Taco, Don Pedro's and Fiambala (although Fiambala's cooking was a bit heavy on the garlic).

There was also good food available from street vendors and taco stands. Especially on weekend nights, people set up small stands outstide their houses, selling yummy home-cooked fixin's.

We were there the first week of off season so the beach was not overcrowded but was far from empty, a good thing in my opinion, in that the people watching opportunities kept me entertained. Steve and the other couple with us put in a fair amount of time surfing, although Steve had to limit his surfing after he broke his rib when he fell on the board.

We went up to San Francisco (San Pancho to the locals), 8 km north of Sayulita and had an awesome tapas dinner at La Ola Rico. San Pancho is even quieter than Sayulita. Sayulita is more my speed. It's a fairly typical Mexican town with lots of construction in progress, some more actively in progress than others. It's dusty with lots of dogs, stray and not. It's got a cute central square or zocalo surrounded by shops and restaurants. There are a couple of pharmacies and food stores, with one super tiendita. They just installed an ATM which was operational approximately half the time we were there.

We took an excursion to Puerto Vallarta one day. We stopped by Casa Kimberley, the house Richard Burton bought for Elizabeth Taylor and saw the cool old cathedral, La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, and the renowned bronze statues along the malecon. I was glad to have seen PV but was equally glad we weren't staying there.

Our lodgings at the Villas Chula Vista were very nice, an air-conditioned two bedroom two bath with a full kitchen, three balconies and a pool. The only drawback was that it was about an 8 minute walk straight up a hill which was a bit of a chore in the heat of the day. The beach lodgings looked attractive too but were more expensive and lacked the pool. Not sure which I would choose if we return.

When it was time to leave, I was in a good place. It's always nice to come home to Aspen but I could just as easily have stayed for another week. It was a nice feeling, not sorry to leave but not in a hurry either.

I'd be happy to go back.

Postscript: Just found out that, on 5/9/07 (the day after we left), Sayulita was named one of the top ten travel destinations in the world.

Details

The passport is in Denver. It arrived there yesterday. Since Denver's so close (cough, cough), we're going to run down there this morning to pick up the passport. That's what we're going to call it from now on, The Passport.

The office of International Passport Visas Inc. from which we must retrieve the passport is open today from 10:30 am until 11 am. Ergo, the obnoxiously early hour you'll see timestamped on this post.

Now, as much as I obviously am shaking my head about the whole escapade, especially the need to drive to Denver (twice!), I must mention yet another benefit of this choice. Thursday morning when I went out to the car to go to work, I was quite pleased to see that while in Denver, the car had been detailed. It looks fabulous. It hasn't been this clean since I brought it home from the dealership 8 1/2 years ago.

Me, me, me

It's all about me.

Steve drove to Denver in a snowstorm, will probably be driving back on Friday or Saturday and then back again on Monday (remember, we're talking 4+ hours one way).

But that's all good 'cause I got this cool new carving board out of the deal.

Diminishing Returns?

Today, they had 16 inches of snow on the Front Range.

So, it seemed like a good idea to hand deliver the expired passport to the office of the passport expediters in Denver.

After all, it's only a 4 hour drive one way in good weather.

I'm not sure it's about the vacation anymore. It's more the challenge.

The passport still has to travel to DC and back by Monday.

Errrr . . .

Today's drama involves an 8 am scheduled departure to Mexico tomorrow, an expired passport, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and much contradictory information on various and multitudinous websites.

First off, 10 years is a remarkably long time to try to keep track of an expiration date. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for more frequent renewals but I'd love to see some statistics on just how many people miss their passport expiration/renewal date.

In a tangibly staged process, we first decided that the course most likely to be successful was the one where the expired passport holder shows up at the airport, feigns ignorance and surprise and, after some minimal hassle, is allowed to proceed.

Weighing in favor of this approach was the argument that entry to Mexico only requires proof of citizenship and proof of identity coupled with a US State Department website statement that an expired passport is in fact proof of citizenship. In addition, the State Department website's FAQs regarding the passport requirement explicitly states that, upon return, should a traveler not have a valid passport, s/he would simply be subject to secondary screening.

Mitigating against this approach were United Airlines' hard line approach that a valid passport is required to leave the country, not just to re-enter and the $3300 fine an airline must pay if it does not comply with the WHTI.

So on to stage 2 of our problem-solving attempt wherein we try to take advantage of the fact that a valid passport is not yet required for overland border crossings. After spending much time researching a bus to Glenwood Springs to a bus to Denver to a flight to Phoenix to a bus to Nogales to a bus to Hermosillo to a flight to Puerto Vallarta to a bus to Sayulita, we get shut down by some schmo in the Mexican Consulate in Tucson who says that, no, in fact, an expired passport will not suffice as proof of citizenship.

Next stop, stage 3. In stage 3, we discover, a half hour after FedEx closes for the day, that there are businesses out there to which we can overnight the expired passport, pay beaucoup bucks for an super expedited rush turnaround and possibly get a renewed passport in time for the rebooked departure a week from tomorrow.

Of course, it's too late to call any of these businesses this evening but guess who will be on the phone at 7 am tomorrow?

Will there be a stage 4? Will the expedited passport business deign to expedite our passport? Will we be re-rebooking? Tune in tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel.

That's so cool!

Chicago, my birthplace, has an awesome skyline. The lakefront is a beautiful place to bike, walk or run. Every visit home, I look forward to an excursion downtown. We usually take the Metra train which is such a relaxed way to get there but, if we have our bikes with us, we'll drive to the north end of Lakeshore Drive, park and ride our bikes south. A stop at Millennium Park has become de rigueur.

And now, the Chicago Spire.

This looks very exciting. The architecture of curves is visual eye candy. Having just been in Seattle and seen the fun and whimsical Experience Music Project, I'm thrilled to see that Chicago once again appears willing to embrace exhilarating architectural vision.

I hope this project comes to fruition.

Seattle

Note: This post was written last week during a particularly boring conference session.

I'm in Seattle attending a conference. Seattle's cool. I like it. Having been to a number of convention centers, I have to say so far Seattle's facilities and amenities top the list. The downtown area is vibrant with lots of stores, restaurants and hotels. It's close to the waterfront with its attractive and enticing Public Market and the original Starbucks. (*see below)

Starbucks. I like Starbucks. I've mentioned previously my proclivity to seek out Starbucks when I travel. My biggest disappointment when visiting China was our inability to find the Starbucks in the Forbidden City.

I am frequently made to feel that my affinity for Starbucks is shameful. Oftentimes, it's implied as in Seattle's Rough Guide when it states that the original Starbucks' interior is the same as every other Starbucks (not true). Other times, it's explicit such as when the friend who styles himself as a coffee aficionado sneers and looks down his nose at the suggestion we stop by Starbucks for our caffeine fix.

When traveling far afield, it is comforting to stop in a Starbucks. I'm not saying I'm going to spend all my time in Seoul in Starbucks and then claim to have seen Seoul. But it certainly was interesting to see how the Seoul college students commandeer their local Starbucks as a study hall/student center, much more so than any other Starbucks I've visited.

I'm staying at the Sheraton Seattle which is the conference hotel which is why I chose it. Wishing, however, that I had stayed at the Grand Hyatt. It's equidistant to the Convention Center, has a Starbucks and a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in the lobby and is not a construction zone.

At the Sheraton, we have a bar and restaurant. Period. My first night after verifying that the hotel lobby gift /sundry store was open til 11 pm, I went down for a snack only to find out that for the duration of the construction, the lobby shop is closed.

Of course, there's an enticing little food basket conveniently placed next to my TV with candy bars for $3 and bottles of water for $5.

*It turns out that even though everyone freely refers to the 1912 Pike Place location as the original Starbucks, there was a store at 2000 Western Avenue which predates the Pike Place store. Not sure what the explanation is for this . . .

Last week's favorite

Remember, I live in a tourist destination . . .

This week's favorite

My favorite from this week's PostSecret.

Sun-Maid Raisin Bread UPC?

On March 21, I wrote a post about my difficulties with Gristedes.com. In that post, I mentioned that Sun-Maid cinnamon swirl raisin bread has a different UPC than Arnold's raisin cinnamon bread.

Pretty much didn't think anything more about it.

Until . . .

Starting at 9:32 pm on April 1, I started seeing traffic on my blog, almost exclusively from Canada, driven by variations on the search terms, "sun-maid raisin bread upc."

Huh??

Since Sunday evening, I've had a dozen visitors looking for the Sun-Maid raisin bread UPC.

Welcome! Please make yourselves at home. I hope I can be of assistance.

But, could someone please enlighten me as to why you're looking for the Sun-Maid raisin bread UPC?

I feel like I'm part of some trivia contest . . .

The Feminine Mistake

Leslie Bennetts writes an opinion piece at HuffingtonPost.com regarding her recently published book, The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?

It would probably annoy Bennetts to no end that, like those she complains about, I haven't read her book either.

But that's not going to stop me . . .

By presenting her audience as either the women who have chosen to stay at home and the women who have chosen not to, Leslie Bennetts is missing a key audience, an audience for which her book might just be the most helpful, the women who haven't made the choice yet.

As Bennetts explains her book, it serves to reinforce the decision of the working mom and serves to criticize the decision of the stay at home. It's unlikely to affect the behavior in any appreciable way in either of these two groups. The stay at homers will tend towards defensiveness (as Bennetts complains they have) and the working moms will tend towards smugness.

Just as telling a friend who's in a bad relationship that she is in a bad relationship is rarely productive, likewise, I suspect, a friend who's made the "Feminine Mistake" is unlikely to be receptive to having this pointed out to her.

But, the women who haven't had to yet make the choice . . .

Bennetts states that

My goal in writing The Feminine Mistake was to provide women with what I saw as one-stop-shopping that would help close this information gap. My goal was to gather into a single neat package all the financial, legal, sociological, psychological, medical, labor-force, child-rearing and other information necessary for them to protect themselves. My reporting revealed that the bad news is just as ominous as I'd feared; so many women are unaware of practical realities that range from crucial changes in the divorce laws to the difficulties of reentering the work force and the penalties they pay for taking a time-out. I devoted two chapters to financial information alone.

If this is the case, then clearly her target audience, the audience who would be most benefited by the information presented, is made up of the women, young, unmarried and/or childless, who have not yet been faced with the choice of whether or not to "abandon their careers and become financially dependent on their husbands." This is the group who can then weigh their options and make their choice more fully informed.

But Bennetts doesn't seem to get it. She's surprised by the defensiveness of the stay at homers and wants to save them from themselves. This is highly unlikely. Like the millions who play the lottery, they will continue to hold out hope that each will be the one to beat the odds, the exception to the rule.

Instead of complaining about the lost causes, she should be focusing her energies on those she can sway.

This week's favorite

My favorite from this week's PostSecret.

Ignant

as in "Rosie O'Donnell is an ignant fool."

Ignant: proudly, willfully ignorant. Holding up one's ignorance as a virtue, and using it as rhetorical and moral leverage. cf. Ignorance.

when you know you wrong.

So, college drop-out Rosie O'Donnell thinks she can hang with the big boys.

"That's retarded." (Rachel's response when I told her about the 9/11 conspiracy theories.)

O'Donnell has bought into the 9/11 conspiracy theorists' argument that it was all just a government plot and is spouting this nonsense on The View.

Now, in the past, I've really had no issue with Rosie. She can be funny, I'll give her that. I liked her in A League of Their Own. She can also be brash and abrasive but it's never bothered me.

But now, she's just being stupid and she's doing it on national television, giving credence to a whole subculture of conspiracy theorists.

But, hey, let's not let facts get in the way of a good rant.

I'm embarrassed to be on the same side of the political spectrum . . .

"She thinks I'm pretty"

Rachel came back from physical therapy yesterday with a bit of interesting news.

While at Aspen Valley Hospital, she met the President and First Lady of Iceland, Olafur Grimsson and Dorrit Moussaieff.

Rachel and Dorrit bonded when Dorrit, whose middle name is Rachel, learned that Rachel's first name is Rachel.

Iceland's first lady told Rachel that she thinks she's pretty. She also told her not to worry about how she walks since lots of people "walk funny."

It seems Iceland's first lady broke her leg (skiing?) and Rachel ran into her while they were both at physical therapy.

Iceland's president was with her, exercising while she was having therapy. Rachel felt bad for him because he kept getting interrupted by phone calls. There were secret service type people present too, replete with suits, sunglasses and ear pieces.

Nobody wears suits in Aspen. Well, almost nobody . . .

Steve just called from work to say that the president was going to be skiing today with the Highlands' patrol director, Mac Smith.

I'm guessing that skiing proficiency is a job requirement for the Icelandic secret service. I wonder if they'll be skiing in suits.

The Courtier and the Heretic by Matthew Stewart

This is a book in the vein of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter and Longitude and The Measure of all Things by Ken Alder, but where those books deal with the discoveries of physical science, this book deals more with philosophy and religion's response to those discoveries.

The approach of the modern world was very threatening to religion and the concept of God. Things which had previously been accepted on faith or because the Bible or the Church told us it was so were increasingly coming into question.

It is in this environment which Leibniz, Voltaire's model for Dr. Pangloss in Candide and Spinoza, the moral atheist, formulated their differing, yet intertwined, philosophies.

Stewart's argument is that Leibniz and Spinoza were both ahead of their time in understanding the portent of modernity but that they reacted to it very differently. Spinoza welcomed and embraced the shifting definition of God while Leibniz did all that he could to forestall the impending storm.

As a philosophical dilettante, I found this book hard and yet fascinating. Many a paragraph I had to read and reread, only to still not quite grasp its point. For all that, Stewart presents the conflict between the two men in an engrossing way which kept me reading through the depth.

I came away finding references to these two philosophers recurring around me and am inspired to read more. I've already started to reread Candide which is, in part, Voltaire's critique of Leibniz' theories. I'm also intrigued by Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion which draws on Spinoza and which was featured with an interview of Dawkins on Fresh Air the same night I finished this tome.

Biting the hand that feeds you

Like millions of other people, I read and enjoyed Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code.

Like a significant percentage of those millions, I then bought and read Holy Blood Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln almost entirely due to the fact that Brown acknowledged it as one of his resources. (Hey, I like to read fiction.)

Holy Blood Holy Grail experienced quite a healthy sales increase in the wake of The DaVinci Code.

So, I was puzzled when I first heard that two of the authors (that's right, just two, not all three) of Holy Blood Holy Grail were suing Dan Brown's publisher (not Dan Brown) for plagiarism.

If you're plagiarizing something, do you reference it repeatedly?

Apparently Britian's Court of Appeals, which today affirmed the lower court's decision rejected the plagiarism claim, wondered about this also.

According to Danica Kirka of the AP,

Lord Justice Bernard Rix said Brown hadn't disguised his use of the work of Baigent and Leigh.

The character of Leigh Teabing is an anagram of Leigh and Baigent, Rix noted, and at one point Teabing refers to "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" as "perhaps the best-known tome" on the subject.

"That is not the mark of an author who thought that he was making illegitimate use of the fruits of someone else's literary labors, but of one who intended to acknowledge a debt of ideas, which he has gone on to express in his own way and for his own purposes," Rix wrote in his opinion.

However, in terms of motives for the lawsuit, it was found that the publicity of the trial had significantly boosted sales of Holy Blood Holy Grail.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This book is one of my top five favorite books.

Of course, my list of top five favorite books probably contains more than five books at any given time.

We had book club again last night and this was our chosen book. So, even though my list of books to be read is longer than even I know, I had cause to read this one again. Yay!

I'm almost always intrigued by narratives woven around the idea of time travel. The philosophical questions time travel engenders and each creator's way of answering those questions fascinates.

The work in crafting Henry and Clare's love story is wonderful. Niffenegger weaves joy, longing, redemption, pain, grief, and humor into a confusing, riveting, ingenious tale.

To a woman, our book club liked the book. Some did find the book a bit hard at the start, a complaint my mom echoed when I gave her the book as a gift.

Among other topics, the book led us into a spirited discussion of morality and the defensibility of shifting the lines of morality in the pursuit of self-preservation.

. . . there is only free will when you are in time, in the present.

Henry DeTamble

Oh dear

Seems that people are upset because when they pick up their rental cars during snowstorms in Chicago and Detroit, the cars have snow on them.

Waaahhh.

Bandwagon jumpa redux

Hoya!! Saxa!!

Wow!!

Let me say it again.

Wow!!

I don't have a TV so I didn't see it.

But, I have a radio and I heard it. The last few minutes of regulation and the 5 minute overtime of yesterday's Georgetown/UNC East Regional Final were phenomenal. I haven't been that jazzed about college basketball in a long time.

When I was in college at American University from 1980-1984, I worked for the AU men's basketball team and I watched the Georgetown team, just down the road, become the powerhouse that it was at that time. Our guys played summer league with the Georgetown guys at Georgetown's old, stuffy, un-air-conditioned McDonough Gym and I hung out a little with David Wingate (who was hot for my girlfriend, later, roommate) at his on-campus apartment which he shared with Patrick Ewing.

I was working the scorers' table at the Capital Centre when AU earned DC bragging rights by beating Georgetown and Patrick Ewing. (It's amazing how the chill from the hockey ice underneath seeps through the wood basketball floor.)

I watched Georgetown win the NCAA tournament in 1984 and watched them lose to Villanova (with its record setting .786 field goal percentage) on my birthday in 1985, the same day that I learned that I had been accepted to Georgetown's law school.

So, although I haven't followed them in years and although I was originally a rival, I am now an alum and I'm taking great personal interest in this year's goings-on, what with Patrick Ewing, Jr. and John Thompson III.

What Rocks!

Redundancy

I've got to hope that this guy's not this stupid. However, his hints of irony and satire, if present, are so subtle as to be invisible . . .

Stop the Melting Madness

Dear Editor,

I am sure that if you have been out on the trails of our wonderful mountains lately you have noticed the snow is disappearing rapidly, and there are rocks and trees poking through at levels seemingly unprecedented in the memory of those of us that pay attention to such things. It is heartbreaking to see their majestic finery slipping away so early.

Ah, the locals say, global warming is to blame! They have seen the movie by Albert Gore and are convinced, and even our own Aspen Skiing Co. is buying it. But the true culprit is right under their noses, on the faces of their watches, foisted upon us by another sainted Democrat - one Franklin Delano Roosevelt!

Yes, my friends, I am speaking of the insidious evil known as daylight-saving time! When we switched our clocks ahead on March 10, we not only lost an hour of sleep for one night, we added an hour of sunlight to every evening until next November. Any fool can tell you that afternoon sun is the hottest sun, as that is the hottest part of the day! Think of the damage an extra hour of solar radiation does to the snow on our mountains. And this year, with a Democrat Congress, daylight saving time was moved up four weeks, adding all that extra melting time. It will be a wonder if there is even a snow bank left to play in when April rolls around.

Now if the time for all right-thinking Americans to call their congressman (sic) to tell them that this madness must stop, before Aspen and its economy melts away.

David K. Gibson
Aspen

Either that or he's a Republican. Oh, right, that's redundant.

This week's favorite

My favorite from this week's PostSecret.