5.13.2008

what i wanted to do today




what i DID today: laundry.

i guess there are worse fates. in celebration of accomplishing 5 loads in one day, i bought the makings for guacamole-turkey-chili nachos, and a bottle of chardonnay. the purchase of the alcohol went something like this:

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(oonaballoona saunters through the wine section at whole foods, and is immediately approached by a gentleman who assumes she does not have any experience whatsoever with alcohol.)


"why, hello there, can i help you?"


"why hello yourself. you sure can. i'm looking for a bottle of chardonnay... j lohr?"


"oh, we carry that in a half bottle".


"half bottle, eh?" (oona suppresses laughter. half bottles are for leprechauns.) "what do you have in a full bottle that's comparable?"


(several whole foods men join the pair perusing the chardonnay. oona considers narrowing the impending suggestion by asking for something from the central coast, perhaps paso robles. she decides to give them free reign, and hopes the decision is a wise one.)


"well," harumphs whole foods guy #2, "this bottle is certainly comparable. in fact, it's better."


(#3 snorts in agreement.)


"really? because if i get home and it's fruity and tangy i'm gonna be pissed. i want it buttery, and it for damn sure better have some oak."


(the whole foods posse pauses to reconsider the curly haired pixie standing before them.)


"...no, it's buttery. with a touch of oak."


"excellent. i'll have it."


(oona traipses off to the cheese aisle, where a lovely young lad offers her many and varied samples.)
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21 comments:

  1. Wine badass,

    I listened to your mixes yesterday/today, and I love them! The chocolate was gone pretty much immediately. I will do a full post soon, when I get out from under this grading. Thanks loads!

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  2. So what was it like in the end?
    Unfortuanelly, I have no experience with this. Usually I simply stick to what others choose for me... Considering wine is the only kind of alcohol I like, and considering I study in Southern Moravia, I suppose I should do something about it...

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  3. Five Reasons for Drinking

    "If all be true that I do think, There are five reasons we should drink:
    Good wine a friend or being dry
    Or lest we should be by and by
    Or any other reason why."

    Henry Aldrich

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  4. YES! i am a wine bad ass. i am also 7 feet tall.

    being a wine bad ass, i should probably know why southern moravia is the place to be for wine... i really don't actually know that much. i just like freaking the LA whole foods guys out with declarations like "yes, i'd like 2 pounds of steak, and as i like it bloody, what cut do you suggest?" (they usually look at me and expect me to ask for directions to the tofu-dairy-free aisle. i am breaking them.)

    the wine was a hit! henry aldrich would have liked it. although it seems there wasn't much he wouldn't have liked.

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  5. Next time you have your buttery/oak Chardonnay, BBC recommends listening to the following:
    Atomic (Blondie)
    Rock DJ (Robbie Williams)
    What's Love Got To Do With It (Tina Turner)
    Spinning Around (Kylie Minogue)

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7400109.stm

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  6. Bohemia and most of the rest of the Czech Republic = beer, beer and a bit more beer, please
    Southern Moravia = wine, and don't give the best ones to the stupid Prague people, all right?
    Does that help a bit?
    It is said that the whites are better than reds here. It has something to do with type of soil, I think. Father swears on Riesling. Others swear on other varieties. I take what others suggest for me.

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  7. Yes, Oona, Henry sounds like our kind of guy.

    I love a good Riesling with Cajun cooking, Hana! (or anything hot)

    Oona, remember the Cajun restaurant we used to go to in New Brunswick, called The Old Bay Restaurant? We haven't been there in years. The last time we ate there it seemed like they'd changed chefs. The Crawfish Etouffee was loaded with peppers and onions over plenty of rice but where were the crawfish and andouille sausage? AND THEY WERE OUT OF THE RIESLING!

    It is a charming place though, designed like a French Quarter restaurant in New Orleans (New Orleans/New Brunswick!?) And they even have an Oktoberfest!

    I have to look for a good Moravian Riesling and maybe try my hand at Crawfish Etouffee this summer.

    Try that one next time you encounter the Whole Foods crew, Oona. :)


    PS Real men like fruity Chardonnay, and half bottles are OK as long as you drink at least three of them to make up for the half that's missing.

    Half a loaf is better than none. :D

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  8. mary robin, that link is COOL, i wonder what jazz would compliment?

    look out hana, you have 2 balloonas on the search for a moravian reisling now. that just sounds good. i think i will ask my whole foods posse, after i compliment them on the excellent chardonnay.

    big daddy, maybe we should bring our own bottle(s) of reisling next time, just in case. better safe than sorry.

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  9. I've remembered a book about Southern Moravia I read recently; and the author also swears on Riesling. So I think it is sealed now. :-)

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  10. Wait, your Whole Foods sells wine???
    Neither of the ones I went to did. Do you think it's a California thing?

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  11. hey welcome back geri!

    yeah, i guess it's a good thing about living here, i gotta give it that, alcohol in every supermarket.

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  12. Hm I couldn't stop myself to add something to the alcohol discussion...
    As a Bulgarian, there is nothing wrong in drinking beer or wine on daily basis with your lunch or dinner - with my parents in my teens.
    As German native for the almost 8 years it happens to see people breakfasting with beer and a sausage (cliché I know, but they are so often true). But these are mostly in the workers department (for our own safety most of them work in the building industry). A good German can drink up to a beer case? (20) with pride and near toilet. That turned me from a wine drinker into a beer drinker - but I am in my best times on about 6 without being drunk, but with the toilet.
    New obsession - Orval - a Belgian monastery beer. It's all about the magic...
    As an almost Berliner I must say that is the only city in which drinking beer on the street, in the metro and so on at any daytime is more normal than drinking coke or water. In fact they will look at you if you drink coke.

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  13. Drinking in public, Geri!!!

    The U.S. has some arcane and puritanical alcohol laws. People sometimes drink in public but it's illegal just about everywhere. Some towns are still "dry"! (No alcohol sold at all)

    Public drinking isn't usually a problem but if someone calls a cop or a cop sees you could get ticketed. Usually they'll just tell you to get rid of it or go drink somewhere else but if they're in a bad mood they can actually arrest you for having open alcohol in public. Same thing in the parks. No alcohol in parks, usually by local ordinance, just about everywhere.

    We used to visit Montreal every year. The first year we visited we decided to pack a picnic lunch for the botanical garden (Montreal has such a fantastic botanical garden). We "smuggled" in a bottle of wine to drink with our lunch! Or so we thought. When we got to the botanical garden we were surprised to find wine and beer are sold right there!

    HOW CIVILIZED! :)

    J'aime Montréal! (or anywhere with sane laws on adult beverages)

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  14. No beer in the park! I think it will trigger the second French revolution in Germany if they forbid THAT! Summer is all about barbecue and BEER in the park. I think you can even leave the barbecue out(I am not even mentioning Bulgaria).

    Actually my sister lives in Montreal and I was there. I was even in the botanical garden and ate some of their tomatoes (my sister took some chillies home).

    To be honest US is for me a bit a surreal land I know only from politics (bad) and Hollywood films (bad). On the contrary all my US friend were cool but they were New Yorkers. Not sure if that counts...

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  15. Geri, if you think America is a surreal land just try to imagine how surreal it is to someone who grew up here and remembers what America used to be.

    Unprovoked aggression, torture, extraordinary rendition, domestic spying, secret courts, corporate owned propaganda outlets masquerading as "news" media, subversion of the justice system, people held for years without charges then tried without knowing the charges against them, the end of habeas corpus -- the list goes on and on.

    I barely recognize the land of my birth. Is this still America?

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  16. holy crap big daddy, this is why you need a political blog. although, like father like daughter, i agree.

    and geri, i gotta agree on the bad hollywood as well. straight from a new yorker living in it!

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  17. According to most NYC p'oh-leece, you may not consume alcohol publicly, UNLESS you cover it in a brown paper bag, thus making it totally legal.

    According to my friend David, his 'stoop' is not his property, and so drinking on said stoop is illegal (unless, of course, he has brown paper bag in tow). He had a fancy NYC ticket in the amount of $75 to confirm this rule.

    According to me, 'balcony', 'patio', 'deck' and 'fire escape' are interchangeable terms, and drinking is completely acceptable on all of them.

    I enjoy my whites buttery and oaky as, though prefer reds entirely, and friendship bracelet exchange is understood and accepted. Lanyard or embroidery thread?

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  18. lanyard, for longevity, natch. though i do enjoy the wash and wear of the embroidery thread.

    man i miss drinking on my stoop. we lived 3 blocks away from a precinct, too. not that i ever saw a cop on my block. we figured the bourbon we were consuming was too high brow for a ticket.

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  19. That's the good thing about liberal college town suburbia, I guess. I dare anyone to tell me I can't drink on my own front stoop while the kids chalk up our walkway!

    Don't hate me because I'm digging the cheap vinho verde lately. So cold! So fizzy! That's all I really require on a hot spring evening when the clocks says wine-thirty.

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  20. Hate you? Why? We all love green wine too! Whether on a hot spring evening, or a hot summer afternoon, a late night refresher, an eye opener, breakfast drink, vitamin chaser, mouthwash -- my motto is; it's always after noon somewhere in the world. :D

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i thankya truly for taking the time to comment, i love a good conversation-- and hope you know my thanks are always implied, if not always written!