Out with the Winos

I got the early flight out of Munich, so that I could join my friends on our annual trip to the winery Christmas festivals. Once again a long flight in coach, but a lighter than expected headwind got us into SFO early.

From there I met Lynn and crew at the David Bruce winery where we tasted a bit, and then moved on to Byington winery. Both wineries have annual Christmas festivals with wine tasting, music, food, and such on the first December weekend. It was a nice holiday festive atmosphere. They have holiday music, hot mulled cider, and some good eats. You can wander through the cellar areas and taste more wine than they usually have. The trip to David Bruce has become an annual event since one of our friends, Greg, lives near the winery and we can do all the wine tasting we wanted and then crash at his place. Thanks, Greg.

I hate Greg. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I mean – I’m just jealous of all that he has – youth, good looks, success. He is a couple of years older than me – went to Stanford and is a VP of something or other and has worked at a bunch of silicon valley start-ups. He bought a house in the Los Altos hills a few years ago. He paid cash, I’ve been told. He drives a bright red convertible Porsche – among other things. He survived the dot com crash better than most, and seems to have saved most of his investments from the current downturn.

Lynn was at the festival with Jim (her other half) and Stacey (her sister). Stacey will be driving back to L.A. tomorrow. Lynn told me that I should help Stacey get a more educated wine palate. She still seems to have a taste for sweet wines, but then she’s still a kid. I hate to try to get anyone to change their tastes. Good wine is wine that you like – the same goes for food – and just about everything else in life. And there is no accounting for taste. Anyway, I did have a nice time flirting with Stacey. She is so cute. To bad about the 8 hour drive between us.

As we were leaving the festival, Jim invited me to go windsurfing with him next weekend if the weather is good. Be serious. December, and the weather might be good?!? To someone from Hawaii? I didn’t say that, of course. I agreed to watch the forecast.

Thanksgiving

Enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at Liz’s down in Morgan Hill. Liz is Lynn’s boss from work, and she is a great cook. (For new readers Lynn is my BFF and drinking buddy). We had all the standard Thanksgiving fare – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. But there was also turkey long rice, pork adobo, lup chong, lumpia, haupia, and a bunch of other filipino food that I can’t remember what it was. Liz is half Filipino and half every other race that has mixed together in Hawaii. She is from Hawaii too – it’s amazing how the Hawaii folks stick together even after relocating to the mainland. Her husband Tom is Jewish, I think from New York.

I brought 2 bottles of red that I thought would go well with Turkey. An '04 Ravenswood Shiraz and an '03 Sokol Blosser Oregon Pinot Noir – nothing extravagant and quite accessible wines (that means even non wine snobs can enjoy them).

Lynn brought her sister Stacey who is visiting from L.A. She’s a really cute kid. She is going to USC getting an advanced degree – masters if I recall correctly - somehow related to medicine. There was quite a crowd of other Hawaii exports there as well. We played a rousing game of "What high-school you went?" It’s a Hawaii thing.

The food, wine, and conversation were all wonderful. Someone brought a DVD of a recent University of Hawaii football home game, they are rarely televised here. This was shown on Tom’s new ginormous plasma TV. I am generally bored by non-participation sports, so I stayed in the kitchen and helped Liz clean up and chatted with Stacey. She didn’t care for the wine I brought, but opted for after dinner white zinfandel. After the game the crowd thinned. Tom, always the generous host, brought out a very nice single malt scotch that he had been given as a gift last Christmas. Tom doesn’t drink – but he knows that I do. It was an Oban, 14 years old, not too peaty, and really smooth and flavorful. I had a couple of glasses, neat.

The party was nearly over with Jim (Lynn's other half), Lynn, Stacey and myself left as the guests. We sat in the family room discussing work, sports, politics, the weather in Mililani and such. As it was time to leave Tom asked if I was OK to drive – although I wasn’t really drunk, the truth was it would have been a bad idea. Jim offered to take me home with him. "We have the guest bed," he said "I don’t think Stacey would mind sharing." I never know what to say to things like that. To be honest, the thought had crossed my mind (was it obvious?), but this wasn’t how I envisioned going about it. I really wanted to look at Stacey, but turned to Lynn instead. She made a slight – almost imperceptible - roll of her eyes. Liz broke an uncomfortable silence by offering me a room. "You’re welcome to stay here, we have plenty of room." They have a 5 bedroom house and there are just the two of them living there. I accepted Liz’s offer and took their guest bed.

Liz and Tom have an amazing relationship. They have been married about 10 years and even from a distance you can tell that it is still fresh. They are genuinely best friends and lovers. I have seen them disagree, but never be disagreeable to each other. Perhaps they save that for when they are alone, I don’t know. If I ever get married I’d like to have a home like theirs.

I woke up a bit before 6:00 on Friday with a pounding headache and a mouth that felt like a rodent had crawled in and slept there. (OK, maybe I was drunk) I took a shower and poked around the bathroom for some aspirin. I couldn’t find any. I changed into my clean clothes. I keep a set in the truck, along with a toothbrush, just for events like this. I made a mental note to add aspirin to my overnight kit. The headache was bad enough that I decided to head out to the local Safeway to get some aspirin. I also picked up some breakfast. Some fresh thyme, chives, and tarragon, a dozen eggs, some brie cheese and black forest ham. I couldn’t remember if Liz has coffee, I don’t recall her drinking it at the office. So I also got a pound of Starbucks and a bag of oranges.

I went back to Liz’s house and made the coffee and squeezed some oranges. I sat and read the San Jose Merc and had a chat with buster until signs of life started to emanate from upstairs. Buster is their pet ferret that they keep in a cage in the family room.

Liz came down first. "Good morning! I see you found the coffee maker." I offered her a cup and some orange juice. I started to chop up the herbs for omelets and began heating a frying pan I found in the kitchen. Liz protested, "Stop, you can’t cook breakfast. I’m still full from last night." I looked at her and could tell that she didn’t mean it. "Your mouth says no but your eyes say yes." She laughed and put a hand on my shoulder. "Have you ever had pork adobo for breakfast?" she asked. "We’ve got plenty."

"Thanks, but I’m partial to eggs in the morning." I really do love a brie cheese omelet. I made three and Tom was down by the time the third was done. Tom made exaggerated "mmm" sounds while eating. I love it when people do that - when they are eating my cooking. When he finished his fresh squeezed OJ he jokingly asked if I’d move in. "That’s the best offer I’ve had all week." I replied, "But the commute would be a bear from down here."

I headed back home at about 10. Scott (my housemate) had gone to visit his family in Yakima so he wasn’t home. Jason (my other housemate) was out somewhere but I didn’t know where. I sat on my bed and looked around at my room, my head still pounding. I had moved in more than six months ago and half my stuff was still in boxes. This isn’t what I had in mind for a bachelor pad. I went to the kitchen to get a bottle of water. When I got there I saw that Jason had left an empty can of chili on the kitchen counter and some dirty dishes in the sink. Hell of a thanksgiving dinner.

I suddenly felt terrible for him.