Who knew "Ze Fronch" had a history?

OK, as most of you are aware, Mrs J put together a wine cruise a few weeks ago that sponsored the winemaker from Untamed Wine Estates, a winery near our old hometown of Fredericksburg (TX for those who didn't know).  The river boat could hold about 140 guests, 50 or so of which were from our area of Texas.  The wine tastings were very well attended with our group and a growing group of other passengers.  The first session a few non-Texans came in and asked if they could join.  The winemaker said "of course".  Word got around pretty quick and the room filled up. Lots of fun and meeting new folks from around the world.  But when not tasting wine, we spent a lot of time in various French small towns.

We got on board the boat at Lyon France, sailed down the Rhone to Arles, France, got on a bus to Marseille and flew home.  Sounds boring doesn't it.  Well, yes, the flight over and back were boring. 

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 However....As an amateur historian at heart, I was looking forward to seeing the historical sites.  Suffice it to say there was an awful lot of history to be seen on the Rhone river.  Our ship was the AmaWaterways AmaKristina, a very nice comfortable ride with but few  guests on board (~140, the boat's limit).

 

Amakristina

 The views were awesome!

This was a typical view of the hillsides along the Rhone River.    Lots of castles like this one.  The vineyard is a lot (LOT, LOT) steeper than my phone could capture.

 

Below is a picture of the entry to a bridge across the Rhone near Lyon France.  If I recall correctly, and that's a big IF, this was build in the 12-1300's.  Impressive even now.

 

 

The picture below was of a battlement that guarded the gates to one of the early towns we stopped in.  Probably Viviers.  Notice the skinny gate below the towers.  Not many invaders could come through at any one time.

This was the other side of that gate.  Notice it's a fairly long, skinny passageway.  Again,  invaders would have a hard time getting through.  That would be Mrs. J in the photo.  If she'd have spread her arms, she'd be very close to touching both walls at once.

 

 

 

As we walked out the other side of the town wall, the pictures above were of the view of the castle where the battle would be fought, or at least where the town folks hoped it would be fought. This was the invaders point of view looking up at the castle.  

 

 

 As we walked up to the Castle, (which provided quite a bit of exercise to work off the excellent Cruise Food), we discovered a bit of middle ages artillery, a trebuchet.  Hadn't ever seen one in person, but recognized it from stories.  Very cool, unless you were on the receiving end.

 

 

Not sure exactly what this was there for (no plaque explaining anything) but it looked pretty cool. 

 

 

This was the view from the top, at least a thousand feet up, maybe more.  Yes, Sarge, we walked up.  Yes, I took a couple of extra-strength Tylenol that evening.

 

We did a bit of winery exploration and wine tasting over the next week or so.  Excellent wines, Unbelievable scenery with a nap or two included.  BP was quite low. 

The final morning of the cruise, we took a tour of our last town, Arles.  Our guide was very educated in the history of his region.  Kept me pretty enthralled and could answer all my questions. (And I asked a lot...an awful lot.)  

My wife reminded me that this was a bath house! 

This isn't a great picture as I couldn't get it all in.  According to him, the top story (not shown in the picture. It didn't turn out) was built in the 1600's, the lighter story in the picture was built in the 1300s and the bottom story in the picture was in the 00s.  That was extremely thought provoking.  But we're on the edge of the Med and not very far from Rome, so quite probably true.

The guide also showed us this site.  If you notice in the center of the shot, there are some parallel lines.  According to the guide, those were likely caused by chariots, back in the day as it was at the same level as the lower levels above.

 

So, a very educational, relaxing, entertaining, restful, enjoyable trip.  Well.  Enjoyable except for the LOOONNNNNGGGG flights to and fro.  But we'd do it again.  3rd cruise on AMA Waterways....Highly recommended.

Peace out, y'all! 

Texas is making Wine? Whoda Thunk?

Texas is making Wine? Whoda Thunk?

 

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As one can see, there are a LOT of Texas Wineries.  When I went to College in the late '70s,(and the drinking age at the time was 18) there were 3 wineries in Texas. Val Verde winery in Del Rio was established in 1883 making wine for the predominately Catholic populaton in the area.  It is still in operation.  The other two were Llano (pronounced Yawn Oh) Estacado and Messina Hof winery in College Station (my new home town) both of these were established in the early 70s.  I consumed quite a bit of Llano while at Tech being a poor college student and their wine being drinkable and affordable.  OK, not great wine at the time. (I thought it really good at the time, but what did I know?). Still in business and makes some pretty good reds, again not great, but again affordable and drinkable.  Messina Hof makes pretty good wines also, but I'm not a fan.  Haven't found one I really liked,  your tastes and assessments may differ.  As a wise man once told me "Nobody likes every wine, but everybody likes a wine."  

True 'Dat!

But, as I said, that was millenia ago.  Now there are 191 Wineries in the state making it the #5 largest producing State in the Nation.  One guess on who's #1.  If you said California, pat yourself on the back, but that was an easy answer.  The others were Washington, Oregon, New York and....Texas.

 Most folks are familiar with the first four, so I'm going to discuss Texas wines

When Texas first started making wine (Val Verde Winery and Religious wine being an exception), the only model out there to decide on what wine to grow was....Wait for it,  Wait for it....

Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay!  There's a reason for that.  If you look at the climate of all four states, they are fairly cool.  Cab Sauv and Chardonnay grapes love cool weather.  Texas is not known for that feature.

But, the wine growers went and visited and learned from the vineyards there.  Came home and planted....you guessed it, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.  The plants grew ok, but didn't usually develop the flavors and characteristics that the two wines were expected to have.  They tended to be a bit thin in mouth feel (Not a good sign.)

So...On with the story of my eight wineries.  

 

Texas Hills Vineyard

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Texas Hills Winery is just outside Johnson City, Texas about 30 miles west of Austin.  Established by retired pharmacists Gary and Kathy Gilstrap, they fell into the trap of Cab and Chard, but quickly realized after a visit to Italy (where the climate is a bit more like Texas) that just maybe some other grapes would do better.  So they replanted (They kept some Cab because of the deep red color they could add to other reds).  Tempranillo, Shiraz, Sangiovese, and Grenache were planted.  A lot of hard work, mixing grapes, swirling, sniffing, tasting, and those wines became best sellers.  Unfortunately, Gary passed away a couple of years ago, so Kathy sold the winery.  It's still in business, just doesn't have the joie de vivre for Mrs J and I.  Not only did we love their wine, but the 4 of us have literally been around the world together.  Thanks Guys, it was great while it lasted.

 

Val Verde Winery 

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 As one can likely ascertain, Val Verde Winery is the oldest winery in the state.  Growing grapes and making wine wasn't as automated then as it might be now.  But....They're still around.  While going through pilot training in Del Rio, we would visit them and taste their wines.  Not bad, but I was in the "Sweet wine" state of a wine lover's career.  (I got over that as I got older).

The winery's history can be found here. Pretty interesting, They're still in the winery's original 1883 building.  Haven't been down there in quite a while, so can't/won't comment on their wines.

Yes, Beans, it's only about a 5 hour drive down there, what am I waiting for.

Anyhow, on with the wineries I'm a bit more familiar with.

 

Becker Vineyards 

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 Becker Vineyards was started by Dr Richard Becker and wife, Bunny. They bought land in the Fredericksburg area in the early '90s and started planting vines.  Today, their winery is one of the best wineries in the state.  As mentioned before, Cabernet Sauvignon is a difficult wine to grow and their Cab is very much the exception to the "Good Cab Sauv can't be made in Texas."  Their other wines are also very good.  Highly recommended.

 

Grape Creek Vineyards  

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Grape Creek was founded by Ned Sims. He and his wife bought the land and started planting grapes in the late 80's. I've written about Ned a few times, one was just a few weeks ago.   It's a good story, I'll wait.  Their wines are also very good.  Makes a nice Merlot and a Cab/Merlot blend.  As a WWII vet, (invaded, Guadalcanal, Saipan and Tinian) he was getting on in years. On his passing, the winery was sold and bought by Heath Family Brands.

 

 Sister Creek Winery

Yes, that IS the Sister Creek winery and tasting room

Sister Creek Vineyards is a bit off the beaten path being in Sisterdale TX (pop. 25)(sistercreekvineyards.com) Established 1988, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are their wines.  All very good.  There Chardonnay is one of the VERY Few I will drink. 

 

 Llano Estacado Winery

Llanowine.com

 

Llano Estacado was founded in 1976.  First wine that I drank on my own.  Texas had just passed a drinking age bill that allowed 18 year olds to consume alcohol. Their Grape Vineyard is in Lubbock because the climate conditions are very amenable to wine grapes.  Dry, flat soil with few bugs and/or heavy rain conditions. I assess their wines to be middle of the road.  Pretty good for day to day consumption, but not for a high-falutin dinner party.

 

Messina Hof Winery 

tourtexas.com

 

Messina Hof Winery.  Located in Bryan Texas (close to where we live now). winery is also one of the oldest wineries in the state.  Much like Llano Estacado, it's not bad wine, but more of a consumer "grab a bottle for dinner" wine.  A lot of it is sold, just not my cup of tea (Glass of wine?). 

 

Fredericksburg Winery

  

Fredericksburg Winery Established in1996 by two brothers, both Army Vets.  Most of their wine is fruit flavored.  Again, not my style wine, but a lot of it is sold. To each his own. The winery is located within the City Limits of FBG which attracts the tourist trade. One doesn't have to drive from, and more importantly to, their B&B...

As I mentioned earlier, Texas has been making wine for a long time (since 1650) but it hasn't taken off until recently.  Recently being 30-40 years.  With a little bit of exploring, you can find (and consume) some really good wines.  C'mon Down!

Peace out, y'all! 

 

 

It's another Tequila Monday

 Well, time is running out.  Lots of boxes either full, half full or still to be taped into readiness.  

The Wine Closet

That having been said, still a lot of packing to do.  Progress on the moving front is OK not great, but it has made some progress.  These are the contents of our wine closet.  60+ bottles of PDG* wine.  That will be loaded into my truck (inside the cab of course) and transported to CStat (AKA College Station) and stored at MBD's house.  Too big a risk of theft/heat damage to move it with movers.

Mrs J and I went to College Station last Thursday, spent the night and returned on Friday.  Took a look at the property that Mrs J was interested in.  It was a lot nicer than it looked from the air photo.

We'd set up an appointment to meet with a builder to talk about what was needed, what issues we might have, water, all the things that are needed to build a house.  The property is about 4.8 acres, which we feel is enough for a house, a barn, grazing area for the horses and privacy.  Lots of tall oak trees, but quite a bit of underbrush to be removed.  Fencing-in the perimeter will be one of the first tasks.  Then we can bring in the horses to graze.  

Mrs. J also had a pretty good idea.  She had done a bit of research on situations like this.  Apparently, there are people who have herds of goats that they will rent to "mow" the underbrush.  Gonna have to check out that a bit more, but if that works, well...

Got boxes all over the house, some full, some partially, some still need to be "built".  Got until December 18th to be out as the house changes hands at that point.  So...Time's awaistin'

Oh, one more thing,  after a long day, Mrs J and I were sitting out front having a medicinal glass of wine.

Being somewhat interested in aviation, Austin Bergstrom and San Antonio Airports flightpaths are within viewing range.  (Yes, Beans a glass or two of Josh Rose' aids the visual acuity).  In any case, I happened to notice this rare vision.

Given the bearing of the X and from where I'm looking. I'd say that they three Airliners passed over a TACAN station along I10 northwest of San Antonio.  Just thought it kinda cool that they all (well except for the fourth one) passed over pretty much the exact same spot.  The accuracy of the station is a couple of miles, so pretty accurate navigation, Mates!

Yes, Beans, they were also altitude separated as well as time over the TACAN.

So, sorry for a short post, Gang, that's all I've got at this point.  Gonna be a very (OK very, very) busy next few months.  Looking forward to completion and move in.

Peace Out, y'all!

*Pretty Darn Good!  (Sarge wouldn't allow the other "D" word!)

Locks, wine, beer and schnitzel

 Well Campers, we’re one week into our big adventure. At the time of writing this post, I am sitting on the upper deck in the lounge, watching barges go through a lock on the Main River. (No Beans it’s not the main river in Germany rather it is the Main River, pronounced “Mine” River.) According to our cruise director, we’ll go through 63 locks on this trip. But, it’s kinda fun to watch and figure out how the whole system works.

Spent a lot of time exploring towns that were old even before Columbus’s journey. We visited a few that were built in the first half of the previous millinium.

 Man, did I feel young again, at least for a while. 

No, this castle wasn't that old, but it was built in the 1500's so...old!

 Got on the Boat in Nurnberg, which was where the Nazi Leaders were tried, convicted and executed.  No sympathy.  Don't start a war if you can't win it.  Also, don't murder several million people just because you don't like their beliefs. 

Our next stop was Bomberg.  Another walking tour, another castle, another church. Much like Nurnberg, this town was pretty much destroyed in a night fire bombing raid by the RAF.

 

This is a picture of a diorama of the town after the raid in April of 45.  The only building that was mostly intact is the Church which is in the top center.  It suffered some roof damage, but nothing like the rest of the town.

 

War sucks! Don't start one if you can't win.  

 

After that bit of depressing history, we decided on lunch.

 With beer, of course!

Next stop was a winery.  First on the agenda was a tour of the cellars.  Quite old, the family had been in business for at least 500 years.

 

 

The bottle of wine in the middle was made and bottled in 1529.  It's been valued at 1.2 million Euro's.  According to the winemaker, it's not drinkable.  However, their Riesling current release is quite nice.

Back on the boat, it's time for our first wine seminar. Mrs J had set up our friends at Texas Hills Vineyard to put it on. Unfortunately, Gary had passed away in the interim. His wife, Kathy, stepped up in his place and, although nervous, did a fantastic job.

Had most of the 65 passengers on the boat attend the tasting. Started with a nice Chardonnay (I'm not a fan of Chardonnay, but this one was quite good) then a couple of outstanding Reds.  This was followed by a nice dinner where their wines were served again.  As good as they were by themselves, they were better with the dinner.

Shortly thereafter, we called it a night.

One last thing for this week.  I think I've found the perfect retirement job for Sarge.  NCOIC of the Castle Guard at the Royal Palace in Prague Czech Republic. 

 

More to follow.  Too much happening on the boat to sit in my room and tell stories.  Those are for RTB.  Gotta run, I hear Beer, and/or Wine calling my name!

Peace out y'all!

An adventure has begun

 Well, Campers, as the title of this post has stated, Mrs J and I are on a new adventure.  I have mentioned that she is a Travel Agent and had come up with a pretty good idea to put together and get customers interested in Wine Tours.  No, not of the wineries in our area of Texas, although we did start the first version thereof.  (There are probably close to 200 now, we are not part of that number.)

No, she puts together River Cruises in the various wine related area that are serviced by river boats.  As you are reading this missive, we are a couple of days away from starting our second cruise.  We are going to cruise, the Rhine, Main and Mosel rivers in Germany and Luxembourg.  I am late writing this because one, I thought we were leaving Texas on Friday and would arrive in Europe on Saturday.  Unfortunately, we left on Saturday (as scheduled, Yes Dear!) and arrived late Sunday.  But...while you folks are reading this, I and my brave friends will be sitting on the deck (IF warm enough) or in one of the public areas on the ship if not. 

Lufthansa 787.  Actually used this to learn how to copy a picture from an iPhone directly to a MAC.  Worked

After arrival in Prague, Czechoslovakia, we did a bit of a walk around to stretch our legs, I mean it WAS an overnight 9 hour flight from Austin to Frankfurt followed by a 1 hour puddle jump to Prague.  Our concierge gave us some pretty good info on important things to go and see.  (I think I'm going to skip the Concentration Camp. I don't know.) Then Tuesday we'll be on our way.  Our Good Friend from Texas Hills Winery is leading the wine seminars as well as providing excellent Texas versions of their wines.  We've done this before to great enthusiasm, no reason to believe there will be anything different this time.

We've got two of those scheduled and the rest of the cruise, 7 days, we will be seeing various parts of Germany. (I'm one of the very few fighter pilots that never served a tour in Germany, all in the Pacific or pointed that way from the States.)

Then we've got two days in Reims studying Champagne, then a day in Paris before we fly home.  Obviously, I didn't bring my desktop PC with me (and it's acting like it's on it's dying breath anyhow) and I'm still trying to figure out transferring pictures from my iPhone to my new Mac. With a little luck I'll fix that shortly.

Unfortunately, the "No Sleeping Authorized" flight from Austin and the second flight in Germany and a few other incidents that delayed arrival at the Hotel, have left me pretty tired.  I think I'm going to find dinner and call it a night.

Peace Out y'all!

juvat

Family

 Merry Christmas all Y'all!  Hope you are having an enjoyable, peaceful celebration of Our Lord's Birth.  You'll be happy to note that the various portions of the juvat clan arrived safely and are exchanging war stories left and right.  

 Brother Peter hadn't arrived yet in the above picture.  Got in to AUS at about midnight, decided to drive here instead of staying at the hotel.  Successfully managed to avoid the 4 legged roadblocks on the highway and arrived about 0200.

The next day we decided to visit our favorite Winery and introduce my brother (lives in California) to the blessings of Texas Wine.

After a brief tasting, we bought a bottle of one of their Gold Medal Syrah's (took the gold in CA, yeah, they’re proud of that accomplishment).

For those in the know, there is considerable interest in buying the winery and the conditions of the sale are pretty favorable.  No contract yet, but hopefully soon.  Will relieve a whole lot of stress on the surviving winemaker. (pictured above)

I also enjoyed walking around the tasting room and looking at the stuff.  This rang a bell for me.

Might need to get this towel also.

An enjoyable afternoon was had by all.  

Saturday night we had a pleasant and very much needed surprise.

3 inches of liquid gold will do wonders for the hay field as well as reducing the amount of dust therein.  The latter will also do wonders for my sinuses, so again "Thank you, Lord!"

Finally, I've discovered one of the finest sleep inducing products known to man.

Me and the Grandson got about an hour long nap in.  Both are better off for it.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.

I promise, bigger, better, longer post next week after things settle down a bit around here.  Got to run to HEB right now for the "Aw S417!" stuff I forgot for dinner tonight.

Peace Out, y'all!

A little hot summer, out in the sun...But...Fun!

 OK, we're in double digits of the number of days where the high temperature is in Triple digits.  Highest I've seen is 121.  But at least the humidity is high-ish.  (45% humidity with a high of 121 is...well...uncomfortable.)  Unfortunately, the rain gods have not gotten around to lowering the humidity by raining some of that water vapor out of the air.  Grass is pretty brown around here.  Which raises the chance of a four letter F-word substantially.

No, Beans, get your mind out of the gutter! That particular F-word is "Fire".

There have been  a few, but the Fire Departments in the area have managed to control them fairly quickly.

Lord, please let THAT trend continue!

One of the benefits of triple digits, is the grapes in the vineyards in the area are ripening fairly early this year. And because of the drought, the quality of the juice, I've been told, is very concentrated so, very good. So, my winemaker friends at Texas Hills Vineyard are a bit excited over that.

 But, our traveling buddies, who also happen to be those winemakers, have a harvest celebration day around this time every year.  Typically it revolves around this theme.

OK, maybe not the wrestling part.

This is more like it.

 

My job (inside where it's Air Conditioned) was to cut the grapes from the shoots.  That went pretty well and the buckets when full got dumped into the crusher.  Once that was full, the juice and the crushed solids gets pumped into the vats, and the wine making process gets started.

It was a lot of physical work, but still interesting and kinda fun. 

 

Finally, two things happened, one, the grapes that had been picked were now in the vat, beginning the process with the crushing of the grapes.

 

 

And, two, we got to try some of last year's whites. 

(Reds take a couple of years at least before they're ready to drink. Whites are generally ready the next season.) 

So...we had that going for us.

But,  this may be the last time for this.  Our winemaker and wife are pushing 85 and 78 respectively. So the vineyard and winery are up for sale. 

If any of you folks out there are interested...I'd be happy to introduce you.

How many wineries are there IN Texas, juvat? Well, according to this site there are 200+ currently, making Texas the fifth largest producer in the US.

Well...

Source:

 

I'm in the middle of the cluster just north of San Antonio and west of Austin

Peace out y'all!

Excitement all 'Round

 Well, Campers...It's been an excellent week at Rancho Juvat this past seven or so days. Even after a long return from our Wine Cruise down the Danube river with our Winemaker and Winedrinker friends last week.  All ramifications from a broken British Airways jet in Budapest and running through subsequent airports were cured with a 16 hour sleep session.  We have now reset our nocturnal clocks to coincide with the sun's orbit.  

Re: The Cruise, we got on the boat at Vilshofen an der Donau and cruised to Budapest.  That involved 7 Days, 3 oops 4 Countries (seems I forgot the Czech Republic in my list of Germany, Austria and Hungary), beautiful scenery, good food and great wine.  HIGHLY recommend AMAWaterways River cruises.

Yes, Beans, that's unpaid advertisement.   

British Airways was a bit of a disappointment, but they did have one feature I liked, and for some reason, used virtually the entire flight.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make it do an aileron roll.  

Rats!

Got to Munich and met up with our van driver and were off to meet the boat.

As one can see, this isn't an ultra large ocean liner.  It holds a max of 162 passengers (~120 on this trip, 28 of whom were confirmed Texan wine consumers, the rest would be converted) so the atmosphere on board was quite pleasant.

Set sail and saw quite a few interesting sites.

Interesting photography courtesy of our new Friend, Nuncio Previtera.  I think it's a cool shot.

The following morning we got our wine business out of the way with our first wine tasting.  Open to all passengers, it went quite well with a lot of comments along two lines.

1. "I didn't know they made wine in Texas."

2. "Wow, this is very good wine."

Gary, the winemaker.  Mrs. J is ready for the toast

 So...Mission Accomplished.

Lots more sites to be seen as we got further south. One of the more interesting, historically, was this castle.

This castle was where King Richard I (AKA Richard the Lionheart) was imprisoned on his way home from the Crusades.  It is also the location where I updated my understanding of the difference between the word "Can" and "May".  There was a Hiking tour option with a hike up to the Castle itself.  "May" implies permission, "Can" implies ability.  

No, I didn't visit it.

Stopped at a very old abbey and inspected their wine cellar.

Did I mention "Very Old"? No, they wouldn't allow us to taste it.  (I was ok with that.)

It did have a very nice Chapel though.

So early on in the cruise, we're back on board after an exhausting day exploring castles and drinking wine and I'm sitting at a table with one of the other guys from Mrs. J's group.  Doing the usual "get to know you" routines and I mentioned that I'd been a pilot in the Air Force.  He said that so had he.  I asked the usual questions assigned to that "get to know you" track. You know..."What did you fly?" He said "F-4's"  Well, the conversation got fun after that.  I asked where he'd gone to Pilot Training.  He said "Laughlin".

Talk about coincidence.  So had I, but about 5 years before him.  Meanwhile, one of the other guys on the tour was sitting at a table nearby.  He leaned over and said he'd gone through Laughlin also.  He'd gone through a couple of years later than my new friend and had then flown C-130's in the Guard.  I asked my F-4 friend when he'd gone to Lead-In and which squadron.  He'd said 1985 and the 435TFTS.  Talk about Coincidence Squared.  I was an IP in that squadron at that time.  There's a good probability I'd flown with him.  The three of us had a great time telling flying stories (commonly referred to by mere mortals as "Tall Tales").

But it was a good time.

This picture was courtesy of Milly Young, the F-4 Driver's better half.  She showed it to me and I knew it had to put it in the post. Thanks Milly.

Per Beans Request, Panorama of Budapest taken from the Castle on the Buda Side.

On a different subject, it's been a while since I've updated Miss B's status.   Bottom Line, Up Front.  She's doing well and making progress.  The pulmonologist has given permission to start weaning her off supplemental oxygen and she's handling the reduction quite well

She also passed a couple of significant milestones this past week.  First, she's gone over 12 lbs and the fact that she's putting on weight is a very good sign. Another good sign is this.

She's able to sit up (for a short period) by herself.  You GO, Girl!

On a final note, I had to run to Austin yesterday for a Top Secret Mission.  Secrecy had to be maintained until the forces were successfully redeployed and the target maneuvered into the proper setting. 

 

Mrs J was able to distract LJW by taking her shopping for Baby Stuff.

Apparently, Little Juvat was able to align the gravitational forces of the Moon, Sun, Jupiter and Mars and teleport himself from Honk Honk to Texas.  A little quick thinking and a misdirecting comment by yours truly of LJW while He and I were RTB'ing from Austin kept the game afoot and...

Voila'!  A little Family getting re-acquainted time for a week.

Dad and Miss B reintroducing themselves.

Life is Great!  Peace out y'all!