drinking

My 2008 wine challenge

~ thedailydish ~ 4 Comments

As some of you know, I like wine, a lot. I like drinking it. I like sampling it. I like buying it. I like stockpiling it for the future. All-in-all, I am one wine-loving gal.
So last year when we did our shoestring-budget kitchen remodel, one of the things my husband surprised me with was a small 12-bottle Haier wine cellar. It looks super fancy, but really is just a freestanding dorm fridge with glass door and inner wine rack. I love the thing, but frankly it does the worst job – if any at all – of either chilling or refrigerating the wine. It looks a lot like this one:

haier

Only a lot less high-tech. No do-hickies on the top to regulate the temperature. Instead it has a turn-knob on the back that has two labeled settings, “white” and “red” with gradations in between. Turn it to red, and I think the thing goes off completely. Turn it to white, it gets just cool enough to tease. A bare whisper of cool. but enough to keep you from throwing the thing in the trash, especially since it wasn’t THAT cheap, and it looks so good in the kitchen. I guess what I am getting at is the thing is just a glorified wine rack, we store our bottles in it and they look so pretty and tempting, but if I am going to be drinking white wine, I have to remember to put it into the REAL fridge. I like my white wine chilled – actually COLD – and anytime I forget to put it into the REAL fridge for a cool-down (and have to pull it directly out of the Haier), I have to drink it with ice cubes in it. It makes me feel slightly less classy. Long story short – if you are going to invest in one of these Haier wine fridges, make sure it works. REALLY works.

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2008 is to be more disciplined when it comes to my wine drinking. Less unrefined knock-back swilling this year. And now that the Target Brand Box Riesling is finally gone, I can commit to that. This year, I will be taking a more considered approach to my indulgence. Although my husband and I have made a point over the past couple years of selecting new wines each time we stock up, this year I will go farther. I have set myself a new and worthy goal. This year I will concentrate on moderately priced to dirt-cheap wines ($15 and under), which I have not yet tried (or at least not in my new disciplined manner). I have even begun a **WINE DIARY!** to meticulously document all of my accumulated wine knowledge – all those nuances and bouquets, the fast-forgotten facts one inevitably sheds once the bliss is gone. Never before have I been so enthusiastic about a task. I have done research the past three nights and have been been ASTOUNDED not only by my findings, but by the amount of wine I can drink without feeling guilty! Yes, I know most wine tasters spit out their wine between sips – but NOT ME! I am UP TO THE CHALLENGE.

My First Cruise

~ thedailydish ~ 2 Comments

We left a week ago, October 28th, for 6 nights of fun onboard the Norwegian Spirit: departing from New York, with stops in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Bar Harbor, Maine; Boston; and Martha’s Vineyard.

I’d never taken a cruise before, had never really considered taking one, but my parents (former cruisers) were treating the whole family and how could we say no to that? I was psyched to visit Nova Scotia, a place I’d always wanted to see, in addition to Acadia National Park. And so we went, no need to ask twice.

My maiden voyage was an experience and I’ve certainly come away from it a more enlightened person. The most amazing thing to me was actually living on the sea for a week, on a massive ship, and to think about what it’s like for the employees who live and work there.

For those who’ve never taken a cruise, it’s sort of like being stranded at a resort. There’s more than enough food, plenty of booze and entertainment, but you really can’t leave. If you get bored, if you want to stay longer in port, if you want the effing motion to STOP ALREADY – it ain’t happening! If you cruise in a warm climate, you’ll probably be so busy sunning, swimming, and drinking that you couldn’t care less. But the cruise we took had by necessity more of an indoor theme (it was cold + windy), the water was rough, and we spent a lot of time wandering around the ship, gambling in the casino, and of course eating. Having Meniere’s disease, I undertook the voyage with slight trepidation, thinking overly rich, salted cuisine was gonna throw me for a loop, but the food was delicately seasoned and everything was fine.

The ship itself was beautiful and unbelievably enormous – like a floating hotel, but more.

And the decor was lovely (other than our circus tent bedspread) and subdued with a lot of Asian detail. The trained staff continually amazed me, performing all of the requisite functions without regard to the movement of the ship. It must come with practice, but was impressive nonetheless. The Kids Crew children’s program rocked and the girls couldn’t wait to go back every night. On Halloween they took the kids all around the ship for trick-or-treating and many of them said it was their best Halloween ever (not surprising – they made out like bandits).

Our first night on the ship though.. UGH. I wasn’t seasick – I’d taken a ginger pill or 2 earlier and felt peachy in that regard, but I’d been fighting a cold before we got onboard and wasn’t feeling 100%. The water that night was rough and the wind raged and howled against our balcony most of the night. Between the rocking of the boat and the screaming wind (and the newness of it all to me), by bedtime I was a nervous wreck, convinced I’d be awakened in the middle of the night having to jump ship. By 6:30 am, while most others were sleeping off their hangovers, I was out of bed practically dancing I was so happy to still be alive. I threw on my jacket, headed to the top deck and walked laps for an hour. The sky was gorgeous, and the sea sparkled and stretched for miles in every direction. The dolphins I saw swimming off the bow were just icing on the cake.

The remainder of the trip (save for the last night) was great. We visited the Citadel and art museum in Halifax, bought some Nova Scotian whiskey for my husband. Stood on the top of Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor, took in the spectacular foliage, walked all over Boston, as well as treating the kids to the children’s museum, and rode bikes around half of Martha’s Vineyard. We had a blast in the casino, won over $350 on the slots, and enjoyed nightly shows – especially the Second City comedy troupe and Richie Byrne.

But the last night.. When we left Martha’s Vineyard on Friday evening, Hurricane Noel was coming up the coast – and fast. The small transport (temper) boat that we rode back to the ship was being slapped around like a naughty child, and people were frightened. The captain of the Spirit wisely decided our best chance was to try outrunning the storm, which we did manage – blazing from Martha’s Vineyard to New York full-steam ahead. The gale force winds shook us like popcorn, heaving the island-sized boat around like a toy. People kept making jokes about us eating our last supper onboard. HAHAHA – Not funny. After spending a week at sea sanitizing my hands 30 times daily, it seemed unwise to actually press lips to the dirt, but when we arrived in NYC Saturday morn I wanted to kiss the ground.

It’s great to be home, though I’m still swaying back and forth with the movement of the ship. At this moment the room is tilted at a slight angle and I feel as though I may teeter off my seat. Last night while uploading photos from the trip, I felt positively nauseous. It must be an effect of Meniere’s as the rest of my family are fine, but oh how I wish it would stop. How ironic for me to be seasick now – back in PHILLY – when I felt great all week on the boat. Cursed sea legs ear!


In Bar Harbor: The biggest lobster claw I’d seen in my life – you could live off that guy for a week!


My older daughter is obviously thrilled to be participating in the emergency drill. Go Team Z1 !


A photo of the pool on one of the calmer days – looks like the water is trying to liberate itself. John and the ladies went hot tubbing while I snapped pictures snuggled warmly in my parka – it was about 50 degrees outside and WINDY – then of course John had to go swimming in the big pool (which even at 80 felt cold). We were all surprised to learn the pool’s filled with salt water. It makes sense – but we weren’t expecting it.


A pilot boat had to escort our ship each time we entered or left a port. Here’s a pic from Bar Harbor of the escort returning to his boat. It was always neat to watch – and the first time we saw we didn’t know what was going on. I was like hey – did someone miss the boat? are those pirates? Duh. Good thing my parents were there to explain all those little things.


The hardworking Canadian border patrol. This one’s strictly for my sister who marveled (several times) about the quality of the men in Halifax. (She is from PHILLY after all).

For more pix – check out my photo gallery.