Odds and Ends

Fine wines for a great cause

My secondary mission this past weekend was to attend a wine tasting in my old home town. The primary mission was, of course, to see Madame Mère de le Vieux Sergent, that is, my Mom.

Now my Mom once asked me "Why don't I have a nickname on your blog like everyone else?" I answered, rather lamely, that I didn't really know, seemed like "Mom" was a pretty good title. But now I realize that my mother should have a clever moniker here on the blog.

Having thought long and hard on that topic, whilst motoring back from The Granite State on Sunday last, it struck me that as Napoléon's mother was referred to as Madame Mère de l'Empereur, roughly "Mrs. The Emperor's Mom," so, I thought, why not Madame Mère de le Vieux Sergent, roughly "Mrs. The Old Sarge's Mom" for my Mom? We'll go with the short version, Madame Mère. As did Napoléon. Pun intended.

So there you go. I hope one of Madame Mère's friends will pass that along to her. Of course, I'll tell her myself next time I talk to her. POCIR.

Now about that wine tasting.

Saturday dawned cloudy and somewhat gloomy, but by the time we went into the hills to get to Eugene and Vicki's domicile, the venue for the wine tasting, the weather had turned glorious and we now had a gorgeous late summer / early fall day. The sun was shining and there was nary a cloud in the sky. A bit breezy mind you, but not bad at all.

We sampled ten different wines, about half were domestic and were quite good. We had one (maybe two?) wines from New Zealand and three from Italy. All were quite tasty, some more than others. I liked all ten (you in the back, quit giggling!) some more than others. But those two wines depicted in the opening photo were both quite good, for more than one reason.

Chateau La Paws, our leader Jim (he is a distributor of fine adult beverages, a good man to know!) told us, donates part of the cost of each bottle they sell to local animal shelters. Bear in mind, the chardonnay was probably about the 6th or 7th wine we had sampled, my wits were not gone, they just weren't quite as sharp as they could have been. That's why I'll give you a link to their website so that you might examine it at your leisure.

There were about fifteen people there and we all had brought something to nosh upon. All of those offerings were quite tasty, all in all it was a rather refined and relaxing afternoon. Good food, good beverages and great people to hang out with. I sorely needed that!

Now there are a couple of other things I wanted to share today.

The first concerns my moniker, The Old AF Sarge. Now a colleague of mine from the place of gainful employment mentioned to me the other day that every time he sees the phrase "The Old AF Sarge" he always reads it as "The Old Fart Sarge." I assured him that I was not offended as that moniker fits me very well.

I really am getting to be an old fart.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the National Football League. That organization is beginning to bug me nearly as much as politics. Watching the games last year was so painful that I quit altogether. Admittedly I did watch the playoffs...

Yeah, playoffs.

I tried to watch the games last weekend, but the officiating and the announcers seem to get worse every year. People tell me, "Just mute the sound!" No. I like hearing the signals on the field and the crowd noise. So I guess I just have to stomach the putrid announcing and the often pi$$ poor officiating. Yup, throw a flag, that'll make the game more interesting. Bah!

I tried watching a game Sunday, the announcers were jabbering about some effing nonsense when they realized that they had actually missed a penalty call on the field. I mean they completely missed it. Thanks fellas. Effing nitwits.

The guys on Sunday night football are tolerable. Fortunately the a$$ clown that works with them is only present before the game and at half time. I find other things to do when he's talking. If you don't know who I mean, don't ask. Guy was good when he stuck to his area of expertise, which is sports. When he colors outside the lines, he is just another progressive windbag.

So yeah, not wasting a lot of time watching the NFL this year. I am watching more college football, though not a lot. I blame credit Buck. He always preferred the NCAA version of the sport. Egads, next thing you know I'll start watching hockey!

I used to watch it way back in the late 60s, early 70s. Then it became a boxing match on skates. For a long time I'd only watch Olympic hockey. Now there's a game of skill and finesse. Don't see a lot of fights in Olympic hockey. I think.

One last thing, I had a dream the other day which involved me having to choose one, and only one, football game which I could watch. That would be one game every year. The only game. What did I choose?

Army - Navy. That's a no brainer for me.

Oh well, so it goes. I have an aircraft post in the mill, not sure when it will see the light of day, perhaps soon. Think delta winged.