Hedonism

This past week, Lindz was out of town on a business trip. When she's gone, my life loses its backbone and slumps into self-gratifying disorder. I went to work, went to the gym and took out the trash, but everything else was centered around food and wine (with some Netflix DVD's thrown in). I stayed up too late every night.
The experiences:
Mantra Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County 2004 (I think it was 04, but possibly 05): I bought this at a wine shop near my office. I just had to escape the gloom of the office, and it was too hot to enjoy a walk. I opened it that evening, letting it breathe while I was at the gym. It's a nice, deep crimson color with a heady aroma. I smelled black currants and a wee bit of coffee or chocolate. Maybe tobacco. It was a brown smell. It was a big, balanced wine with nice tannins and alcohol. It kept up nicely with the roasted goat steak I ate with it. I watched some Space:1999. I had some left the next night. I had salmon with the last bit of it.

George DuBoeuf Moulin a Vent 2005 Domaine des Michelons: Traffic was pretty bad Thursday night, so I got off the freeway to go to Total Wine and wait it out. I picked out this Beaujolais because it apparently got a 92 from Robert M. Parker. I dropped it off at the house and dutifully went to the gym. This wine was a clear garnet, with a clean bouquet (think of a bowl of raspberries with some cedar chips and a sprinkling of tobacco in it). It was a really elegant wine. It had the typical bright berry Gamay flavor, but with nice woodsy, earthy notes. It had good acidity; it was very nice with the sauteed beef liver I had for dinner. I watched Sunshine as I ate.

Saintsbury Pinot Noir Carneros 2005: I forced myself to go to the gym Friday evening. Afterward, I changed my clothes and went to a local Mexican place where I hadn't gone before. I had an ice cold Dos Equis and a satisfying, if unsurprising Steak a la Tampiquena (it's still North Carolina Mexican food). I went home, full and sleepy. I talked to Mom for a while, and by the time the conversation was over, I regained some energy. I was reading The Emperor of Wine, a book which has had the effect of filling me with ungovernable urges to run out and get a bottle. It happened at about 10 pm. It had to be Pinot Noir, but the good shops were closed. Lowes Foods had a sure thing: the Saintsbury. While I was wavering between that and another wine that I hadn't tried, I couldn't help but eavesdrop on some fellow shoppers. Four college boys were debating the merits of various cheap, fruit-flavored wines (cheapness and sweetness being the desirable traits, apparently). It took me back to my college days, when price and alcohol content were the only criteria we considered. I brought my Saintsbury home, and I happily sipped and read until after 1 am. This one has the things that I love in California Pinot: soft, fleshy cherries, hints of cola, chocolate and smoke, an indulgent experience. It's mouthfilling and ripe; it gives itself to you without a battle of tannins.

I finally got out of bed Saturday and drank a French press of coffee with my breakfast/lunch. What the hell, there was a glass of the Saintsbury left; I drank that as well (it was just fine with coffee and blueberry chicken sausages). To pretend to myself that I was an industrious individual, I did a load of laundry. I put on some clothes and drove downtown to Seaboard Wine Warehouse.

Their usual Saturday tasting was going on. This day, it was French whites. They were all nice (the Vouvray was a little sweet, though), but the only tasting wine I bought was a white Burgundy. It had a really nice lemon-zest note to it; I'll have to write about it when Lindz and I drink it. I wandered around the store for a while with the goal of getting a couple of bottles for the wine rack and one to enjoy that day. I looked at a few $60 bottles that I want some day, but I held to moderation. I got, in addition to that white Burgundy and a couple of tasty everyday wines, a bottle of Plungerhead Zinfandel Lodi 2006. I stopped at our local pizza place on the way home and got a 14" pie with mushrooms, sausage and anchovies. I watched Solaris (the Clooney version). The wine was huge and gooey. Lots of ripe fruit with a sort of medicinal, black licorice, eucalyptus underpinning. Hard to describe. The movie was slow, psychological and visually well done. Everyone else seems to hate it. I'm going to watch the 1972 version next. Anyway, I watched, drank, ate, loafed, read and briefly dozed. I got up and went for a walk. I was totally useless, and I loved it.

Sunday, I got up, had breakfast and coffee, did some more reading, ran the dishwasher to keep up the ruse of productiveness, and went out for sushi with Bryan. A while after that, I went to gym, and then Lindz was home. Like magic, as soon as she was in the house, I started bustling about dinner. When she's gone, I do not bustle under any circumstances.

The fact that I had showed up for work is the main blemish on this otherwise respectable streak of hedonism.

Bookshelves

We like books. For several years, our books have lived on some cheap shelves from Target.

I took some time off from my pointless coma of a job so I could build some real shelves. It was a good old sweaty, sawdusty experience.

Here are the first two of the three units in place.

Here they are, coated in extra-fumy enamel paint. Lindz and I got a good buzz off of that.

It's hard to truly realize the change in appearance from this picture. The shelves are seven feet tall, about nine feet wide, and eight inches deep. They occupy almost the entirety of one wall. They're made of real wood, not glued sawdust, and they didn't travel here from the other side of the world! What a concept!