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We went with friends to Zaytinya in downtown DC this weekend. If you’ve never been, it’s great - the Greek equivalent of a tapas restaurant, though more sophisticated than that I think. Anyway, they have a good selection of Greek and Middle Eastern wines, which I’ve sampled through in the past (including varietals like Xynomavro, Assyrtiko and others). This time, at the end of the meal I tried a Mavrodaphne, which I’d been wanting to do for a while.

Basically this red grape is grown in and around Patras for use in a relatively famous Greek dessert wine of the same name. I’ve seen different Mavrodaphnes on sale at Total Wine stores before. This particular bottle (I didn’t write down the exact name) reminded me of a young, aggressive version of ruby port. That is, it was a little sweet, with some caramel and creme bruleé, but also a lot of acid. It was nice, but not particularly special, and in fact an actual ruby port would probably have been nicer. Nevertheless, it was still a nice experience, and it’s a varietal to add to the life list.

I finally had a chance to try one of the more exotic-sounding grapes last night, thanks to a pintxos (Basque tapas) festival being held at José Andrés’ Jaleo restaurant over the past couple of weeks. (more >>)

I have tons of respect for the Google team, and use Google Maps on a near-daily basis. And not too long ago, they added an uber-cool feature that lets you drag and drop your route on their map. The first time I tried it I thought, WOW. That’s how this all should work. Except for one thing: it doesn’t work with I-66, just about the main artery in the DC area - which means it’s useless for me. (more >>)

My wife was in the middle of a quick saute of shrimp with leftover pesto sauce, and she needed a white wine to add to the mix, pronto. I grabbed the first remotely accessible thing, which was a Vin de Savoie, a wine from the Savoie region of France, just south of Alsace. (more >>)

Have you ever had a bottle of inexpensive wine you just forgot about? Like, for a really long time? Usually your plonk just turns into plonk, but occasionally, good karma will grant you a boon. (more >>)

I rub my wife’s feet. A lot. This makes her very happy. Which makes me very happy. Many of my friends don’t do this. I don’t know why. It’s so simple.

Last night while rubbing my beloved’s feet, I asked, rhetorically, is there anything more important to a happy marriage than the foot rub? She thought for just a beat, and replied serenely, “the back scratch.” Eminently reasonable. “That’s all?” “That’s it.”

A few moments later I asked, “Does it have anything to do with the shoe thing?” “Yes, totally related.” Silence. “Why?” One beat later, she purred, “Because we must have pretty shoes. Bur pretty shoes make our feet sore. Can’t help it. Must have pretty shoes…”

This was as secret wisdom emanating from Olympus itself! We humans often utter Truth under the influence of various… influences. Know then, Men, these two things about the foot rub: a) it renders a blissful state upon the woman so that she can utter Pure Truth, to your benefit; and b) it mitigates the pain of the Pretty Shoes, which in turn grants much marital peace and bliss. Go forth and practice this wisdom, then, for it will bring you great joy.

Is it already time for Wine Blogging Wednesday? It seems like just yesterday I was writing up our trip to Quebec for the last WBW. I admit it: this one snuck up on me. This month’s challenge was more, er, challenging than the last one - Portuguese table wines! And not just any Portuguese table wines either (as if that wasn’t enough): there are rules! Given my lapse in memory, I wouldn’t have been able to participate at all, if it wasn’t for a terrific local wine haunt. (more >>)

Last night we had a couple of Sonnet’s friends over who were not wine drinkers. One drinks wine a bit, but only really drinks reds. We were having some barbecue pork chops, and it was pretty hot, so I pulled out a bottle of Mark West Pinot Noir 2005. Typical cheap Pinot - light body, a little cherry taste, not much more. (more >>)

Although this has been posted all over the place, I’m going to post it here too. Randy Pausch is a professor of Computer Science (among other things) at Carnegie Mellon University, which is where I did my graduate work. The professor is now dying of pancreatic cancer, and will leave behind a wife and three young children. Before he left the university for good, he gave one final lecture, where he talked about achieving your childhood dreams. The actual lecture is about an hour and twenty minutes, and well worth the time invested - right up to the last second of the speech. Funny and moving. It made me proud, very proud, to be a CMU graduate.

In addition, Dr. Pausch is the founder of the Alice software project. According to the web site, Alice is an “innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation that tells a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web.” But it’s more than that. It’s nothing less than the ultimate fulfillment of what started with Logo back in the 1960’s and 70’s - it teaches kids how to program computers, without realizing they’re learning it. Picture an application programming environment with full graphics, allowing users to “script” 3D actors, objects, video, with drag and drop tools that literally prevent you from ever making a syntax error. And you can instantly see the results of your work, as virtual worlds come to life and move around with the touch of a key. How far we’ve come from turtle graphics!

Apparently Alice is already being used on a significant percent of college campuses to teach undergraduates about programming. What an astounding legacy to leave to the world. Thank you, Professor Pausch. I wish I had had the chance to get to know you when I was at CMU.

Tonight’s dinner was a melange of Chinese goodies, including some mild winter melon soup, roasted duck, and homemade pork dumplings with spicy sauce, among others. In lieu of trying to match all that (daunting, but possible), I opted to open a bottle of after dinner, just for sipping - moderately better than a dessert, I suppose. Because it’s practically Indian summer right now (going up to 90 this weekend!), I tried to figure out something light, though I wanted a red, and preferably something that I hadn’t had before. What I wound up going with was called Marzemino. (more >>)