The fun stuff!

Hi all.
Well, look out, i'm 6/9ths of a bottle into some '97 Hermitage (Paul Jaboulet La Chapelle, to be specific....anyone .... anyone... Buehler...Buehler) and my newly acquired expertise in 4th grade math tells me that that is also 2/3rds and yes, the rest is in the glass to my left. Nothing in the math book talks about what happens when you blog and drain the bottle at the same time. We shall see! Thanks to Heidi for helping me initialize a dent in the bottle so I can't take "full credit" for it. Good stuff by the way...i'll give it a WS 94 (thats a William Sedgwick 94...not a Wine Spectator 94...oh nevermind.)

I must also give a shout out to my man Arthur Ellison who not only cut us a smokin' deal on our stay here at the Palm Villas at Mauna Lani, but also left for us the aforementioned Hermitage as well as a bottle of 04 Caymus cab, which you may know, is one of my all time favorite houses. Please rent one of his places if you ever come here to the Mauna Lani. He owns three in this building and though we are in the largest of the three, i'm sure they all rock the house like this one does. I have posted a link to his VRBO site before, but his email is palmvillasrental@aol.com if you want to reach out to him. He's working on a new website for them, so i'll post a link when he has it ready.

OK, what else...oh yea the camera..I know I need to post photos but I'm not exactly sure where the camera is and i hear the batteries are dead anyhow. I have to say that that Canon camera, while a great camera from a photo perspective, sucks battery juice like no tomorrow. I think they were in a pact from hell with the energizer bunny to pad the corporate coffers when they came up with this energy pig. Let's just say that the bunny does NOT keep going and going and going. It like goes for a little bit, gets a little pooped out, then it starts flashing a red battery icon with a "NO" line through it and then it shuts down. Nice. The should have called it the Cannon Slurp. Instead it is called the Cannon X blah blah blah..whatever.

ummmm..yummy wine.

Since Heidi has been sneezing like a banshee when she drinks wine, we have not been drinking much on this trip. We think that maybe she's allergic to sulfites, because she IS allergic to sulfa drugs. Does anyone with medical knowledge know if there's a potential connection? I will say that we DEFINITELY have noticed a connection to her sneezing and any wine consumption. Does anyone know of a good wine that does not contain sulfites? That would be good too, sort of slaying the dragon without spilling the blood, IF you know what I mean, and I think you do.

Oh, i'm reading Hawaii (by James Michener.) Wow, what a read. i'm on like page 400 and i'm only about 1/3 (aka 5/15ths, yea boyee) of the way through. Last night, i was getting tired of reading so I was looking at my position in the book relative the end of the missionary section (Oh PLEASE, i'm talking about the god-fearing Christian missionaries that brough Christianity to the heathens, not the a-hem, "Missionary position", gosh you people have such dirty minds) and it looks like it was "doable" then 2 hours later i'm still not even close. I think the type is about 5 pts. They should sell "free lasik surgery" with the purchase of the paperback version of this book.

Anyhow, if you have any interest in these islands and you have not read this book, you should. Clearly it is not an accurate historical account, but consistent with Michener's style, there is much authenticity to it's background info and it obviously leverages reality in it's tales. I'm told there's also a movie based on the novel starring Julie Andrews, which probably does not suck, but also would not be nearly as good. Here's the trailer..., powerful natural forces belch fire from the center of the earth to create a potential paradise far from anywhere, genocide, incest, bloodthirsty brutality, group sex, pestilence, religious fundamentalism (both multi-demigod and missionary style Calvanist Christianity to be specific) red-hot lava, hurricanes, smoking volcanoes, shark attacks, 60 foot waves, warmth, trust, love, belief, faith and more...all in the first two chapters (of yea 400 pages). Really quite amazing. i'm looking forward to the rest of it. But ANYONE who has read this...can I get a ooorah or an amen to what a putz Abner Hale is? AAAAGH! If he was not so brilliant in some ways with balls of pure steel, i'd hate the guy. Actually i still kinda hate him. Sorry, just venting...read the book so we can commisurate.

Well, I just hit the sediment (in my glass) and the clock struck midnight. Well, it didn't really "strike" anything, it just is midnight. OK.
time to call it a night. B.