q wraps it up

The left is toast.  If You're not a Trump supporter, I suggest you employ some critical thought and re-evaluate your position.

#walkaway 

knee deep in shit

Bill and Hillary flying commercial with the hoi polloi?  I can only assume someone froze their assets.

weight competition

When Tammy told me she was seeing a chiropractor for weight loss, I could barely contain my enthusiasm.  Not that I thought she needed reducing but chiropractic and weight loss goes together like bologna and whipped cream.  I couldn't wait to hear the whole plan.

Last night she brought over all her chiropractors Do's and Don'ts and what to eat when and how much of what and I immediately found some serious flaws.  Putting on my best poker face I suggested we have a weight loss contest.  The biggest loser gets a shinny quarter.

"A quarter?" she said.  "Let's make it worth while and have a dinner at Bandits for the biggest loser."  I compromised on a simple bottle of wine for the winner until Sue insisted on a dinner cause she wants in and thinks she can win this.  We settled on second and third place buys the dinner of choice for the biggest loser at Texas Steakhouse.  I already know what I want and it involves baby-back ribs for an appetizer and lots of drinks.  This is going to be so easy. 

Ok... A little back story here.  Sue is happy with her egg, orange, salad, and chicken diet and can gain or lose weight at will.  Tammy's diet is the basic amateur, bullshit diet that consists of high carb, low fat, low protein with some high priced oils and potions thrown in to make the whole process effortless and magical.  I chose one meal a day with keto.

We all weigh ourselves each morning and record it to track results.  From that, we measure our individual losses.  The contest is for one week, Thursday to Thursday. The number on day seven is subtracted from the first number and the biggest loser wins.  Simple.

Now, just to be clear, I'm not in competition to see who can lose the most weight but to prove this chiropractic hack is so full of shit and to prove to Tammy that she doesn't need to spend mega bucks for something she can do herself.

I can't say who had what for breakfast or lunch but I know what we all had for dinner.  Sue had celery and cottage cheese.  (Oh man, she's trying so hard) Tammy had scallops and salad.  I had fried mac n cheese, grilled pork chops, two brats, a whole cucumber, some cottage cheese, and a bag of chips.  Unlike Tammy and Sue, I'm not abstaining from alcohol but embracing it by drinking rum before bed.

The results are so predictable.  Sue will lose a few pounds, Tammy will lose less and gain it all back within a week and I'll lose a pound a day, keep it off, and get ripped in the process.

Day 1.  Sue lost .8 lbs, Tammy lost 0 lbs, and I lost 1.2 lbs, despite the gastronomical feast I consumed the night before.

See, I told them both upfront I was going to win and the initial quarter bet was just a token.  I explained how a high fat diet will hack your system into burning your own body fat for energy and intermittent fasting accelerates this process.  But they wanted to up the ante.  So be it.
               
I told you this was going to be easy.

      

rubicon is done

When I finally blended the Rubicon I wasn't sure what to expect.  The final result was beyond my expectations.

70% Cabernet Savignon, 20% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc was the formula but they had to be fermented separately, which meant I had three separate fermentations running, with three different profiles since April.  The Cabernet Savignon was the backbone with the Merlot as a buffer with the Franc as the icing on the cake.  The result was spectacular, in my opinion.  But I had to get a second opinion before I bottled the batch.

I stopped by Honeyhole Winery with a sample and asked Pete to give me a scathing critique.

Don't hold anything back, I said.  Be critical.  He poured some in a glass and examined it.  Good color, he said.  Gave it a sniff and said he smelled oak and I replied that it's been on oak for a month and a half.  He gave it a taste and said it's really good and would go well with beef, pork, and any pasta dish.  He took another sip and said it's perfect.  It's a new wine and hasn't matured but I should bottle it immediately and store it for two months to fix the flavors.  He said it's perfect for his taste, which means it's perfect for my taste, as well.

He asked what proportions of each wine I used and when I stopped fermentation and at what point I added wood, and a few other questions and said he can order juice at those proportions by the pallet.  That's when I realized he planned to add Rubicon to his winery menu.  "Why do you think I was asking you all these questions?  When you first told me about Rubicon, and researched it, I knew I was going to make it."

Nothing could make me prouder than to teach the wine-maker how to make the best wine Europe can produce.  But the difference between mass production and art are miles apart and what I failed to tell him was the three wines have different profiles as far as sweet and dry, which makes all the difference in the world when it comes to blending the finished product. 

To be honest, I knew my Rubicon was severely head shoulders above anything out there but I really expected Pete to provide some constructive criticism and when he said it was perfect I did a few mental backflips.

I spent Sunday bottling wine and drinking way more than my usual share in celebration of creativity gone right.

Even more so, now that I got that wine out of the way, my creative instincts very much want to dabble in orgonite using cement with a totally new approach to satellite dishes and direction beaming.

BTW, if anyone has some label ideas for the Rubicon, I'm all ears.