Warm days and warm nights

As suggested it's been rather warm here lately. Not necessarily in a bad way though. Up until today it was rather pleasant, getting hot but with relatively low humidity, so it was dry. I imagine this is the kind of lovely weather our friends to the West get to have day in and day out... bastards. Then again they have intermittent fires and earth quakes to contend with... hm, I wonder if it would be a worthwhile sacrifice.

That said, tomorrow I believe it is going to rain - I can feel the moisture building up in the air, condensing. I love the rain, but the inevitable humidity before or after is not my kind of weather. I sweat when I sleep, and that means my sheets are gross and need to be washed constantly. I suppose we could get AC, but I'm terrified about what that'll do to our electricity bill. I've not even gotten the first one yet, so until that comes I'm not in any rush to cool the place down with anything more than some well positioned fans. And it's not as if people all over the state, country, and world don't live without the modern convenience of air conditioning. We'll survive. There are far worse things that I could be challenged with.

Since my last entry I've seen The Dark Knight - actually, it was that night. Some friends and I went to a midnight screening at Severence in Cleveland Heights. It was a fantastic movie, and I can't wait to see it in an IMAX theatre. There should be a trip to Pittsburgh, or Columbus, or maybe Cincinnati in the near future. I'll be brief, but echo what everyone else has said, and note that I think Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was phenomenal. I'm not determined to see a posthumous Oscar, but more so let down that they won't be able to do any overlap with the next film unless they re-cast.

I went to a wine dinner last night at Whole Foods. The last Monday of every month they have a themed tasting for $45 called Counter Culture - it's held at their cafe-style prepared foods counter in the specialty section. Maggie, my wine lady, told me about it Sunday, and I signed up immediately. A tour of Greek wines and accompanying Mediterranean influenced cuisine. It was really stunning, but I won't go into great detail about it now - I have the menu which I can perhaps upload a photo of or transcribe. (Edit: I scanned a copy below.) In general Greek wines are tasty.

Heard it on NPR

Very interesting look at the actual meaning of the infamous "jihad."

 

I wanted to share it with anyone reading, so I'll just link it up - as I don't want to get sued for re-posting copywritten material on my blog! (I'm still waiting for Paris to sue me over those Eiffel Tower pics!!!) Below is the opening paragraph with a link to the full article

 

What Does 'Jihad' Really Mean?

by Jamie Tarabay

After years of using the word "jihadist" to describe terrorists who carry out attacks against civilians and the U.S. military, the Bush administration has finally realized that doing so actually pays those groups a compliment in the eyes of some Muslims. (full story...)

 

I'm sure this is probably nothing new to some of my more gloablly educated readers, but regardless I hope you find it as interesting and perhaps enlightening as I did.

 

Cheers!

Mobile Blogging

So after digging through all kinds of third party applications and other websites looking for some way to post to my blog remotely, I discovered that this entire time (well, I'm not really sure for how long) Blogger has it's very own Mobile Blogging service. So now I can blog from my iPhone without having to log in - or anywhere I can access email for that matter.

Hopefully this additional posting option will lead me to make more frequent postings.

So what's been going on in life over the last couple months... June went by so quickly. I can't believe it's already July, and half way through July at that!

June was our last month in Cleveland Heights, and we have now moved to Shaker Heights, about 4 miles away, to the upper suite ofa nice duplex on charming Winslow Road. Another friend, Dan, has also moved in with us, so we are now three. Things are working out well enough currently, though I think the whole move process was somewhat stressful and took some adjustments for everyone. You'll have that I suppose. Everything got in easily enough though, and now I'm focused on working on one or two rooms.

The main living areas (living room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen - to some extent) are all arranged and unpacked. There are still some things that need to be done in the kitchen. My bedroom is mostly unpacked but things need to be rearranged and set in their place.

Shortly after moving in we got a visit from Rebekah, who was passing through Cleveland a few days before heading back to Spain. We spend a lovely evening with her and enjoyed a nice home cooked meal.

Later that week we had a sorta housewarming and 4th of July party at our place. Uneventful for the most part, but fun.

Working a lot lately, and listening to a lot of NPR.

iPhone got an update to the software (as well as a new phone, but I don't think I'm going to waste the money getting one). I've been playing around with the new features and applications that are available. Lots of cool stuff.

I want to start working on some ideas I've had for a wine website, an application of my own for the iPhone, and my consulting gig. I need to sit down with some friends who have expressed interest in helping - and I'll need it, given my lack of web/programming knowledge.

The advanced class for WSET starts in about 6 weeks. I'm busy reading through the text still. I'm hoping to do better on this exam than I did on the Intermediate, but that's going to mean devoting a lot more time to memorizing and really engraining information into my mind. Also need to start doing a lot of at home tasting (not to get drunk! lol) because we'll have a blind tasting as part of the exam. I'm nervous.

Winery is working out very well. We've had a busy summer, but it's rained on and off almost every weekend since it's been truly warm. Sort of odd. Vintage Ohio is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm kind of in the air about whether I really want to help. Cindy sounds like she's set on putting me in the special reserve tent for our Chardonnay, which is a wine that qualified for Ohio's new quality wine program.

Also, regarding wine, Tony - my former prof at Kent - is in need of someone to help him teach his classes this fall, and said he was interested in having me there. I'm really excited about that, and I think it would be a fantastic experience.

So that's about all for now. I signed up for a Twitter account, so if you're on there feel free to look me up.

Cheers!