colors: red and yellow

mood: aware

thought for the day: over the weekend, steph and i went up to napa valley with some relatives and friends who like to do the wine-tasting thing. we met up at a winery where they store their barrels in a cave while they age and soak up flavor from the oak casks. the guide took us around and gave us quite a bit of samples from the variety of wines. for the most part, the cabernet's were pretty much in the same bballpark, with the level of toasting and the type of oak used being what made them taste different. there was a pinot noir and a cabernet franc that were different, but the rest all just tasted pretty similar to my untrained palette. i suppose after they've aged a bit more in the bottles and the complexities show up, it'd have more difference and a real wine person could taste that kind of thing in its infancy, but not me. anyway, we had a whole lot of wine there, and one of the guys in our party, pretty much a hugh hefner wannabe, bought three cases (12 bottles per case, $85 per bottle, that's a lot of math) in order to be part of the VIP club there. steph and i thought abbout buying a few bottles of the $58 wine to open one every five years for special anniversaries or something, but figured we could wait until we're done with school.

after that, we went to another winery, where we shared a flight of wine that was IMO kinda OK. they had a t-shirt for sale there that said "take the pinot bowling", which seemed nice, and lots of nice outdoor and indoor architecture, which to me was a good deal more aesthetically pleasing than frank lloyd wright's stuff. then we went to another winery, and everyone other than me split a couple of bottles of something or other. i decided to become the designated driver, since i figured the roads up in napa (so many people just driving from winery to winery) were filled with drunks and i better maintain some sobriety to navigate all the weaving cars on the two lane highway

one of the women in our party had very large fake boobs, perhaps a 36 F or G, and a relatively low cut tanktop. needless to say i couldn't help looking, probably abbout 50 times over the course of the day. steph said she probably looked 25 times herself -- they were pretty difficult NOT to look at. when i found out she was well over 50 it was even more shocking as she looked like she could've been 35, but i'd guessed 45. plastic surgery apparently can be used on faces as well....

when we got back to the cabin they were staying at, one of the guys cooked veal and several vegetables and pasta. even though it was veal we tried it and it was good. i plan to make that my last time with veal though. i also ended up hanging out with the guys and watching football -- ohio state vs texas -- ohio kept fumbling at the end. i still understand football just fine, but i have no idea how any of the teams are doing, or the names of any players, and i'm fine with that. there are times where its nice to just do a little male bonding and watch a football game, with everybody comparing armchair quarterback notes.

i forgot to mention, a special aside for steve, on the way up, we drove by several gas stations with names like "gas for america", and "usa gas." i got some pictures, and may upload them when i get a chance.

starpower: 3.0 thurstons

chant/prayer/mantra: knucklehead

joel