Lots of words today...but wonderful words...
I spent the better part of last weekend volunteering in (and recovering from) the big “Raiders and Invaders” celebration over in
Leonardtown. Friday, I was helping at MFO’s
place of "work", in historic Tudor Hall. They hosted a
reception as part of First Friday and the kickoff to the weekend. One of the artists from North End Gallery set
up an exhibit of her “period” portraits.
Some of the subjects were local folks.
We had a great time and wonderful weather. After helping set up the food and stuff, my
duties were to pour wine for the guests.
Darn the luck! Of course my professional
obligation was to make sure that the wine stayed of sufficient quality to pour
for everyone, which entailed sampling each opened bottle and some along the way
as it was consumed.
We had four wines
from the Port of Leonardtown Winery , two reds (Chamborcin, and Captain's Table)
and two whites (Vidal Blanc, and forgive me the name escapes me, an “apple wine” sort of like hard
cider, although it did reach 12% ABV). We displayed but didn't pour the special bottling of "Raiders Red" made especially for the weekend. I was able to sample it the next day, and it is very nice. Of
the four we did pour, I preferred the Chamborcin, it was a nice fruity wine, next the Vidal
Blanc a tried and true southern Maryland winner for soft summer evenings. Captain’s Table was a little too “off dry”
for my taste, and the Apple wine was also a good summer drink.
Speaking of “off dry” it always amazes me
how many people say “oh, I don’t like those dry wines, I prefer something
sweeter”. Of course to us self styled wine
snobs, anything but a dry wine isn’t considered worth too much attention. Okay, yes, there are exceptions.. wines like
a Sauternes from Chateau d’Yquem are in a class by itself, and certain rose’s
can be enjoyable, and then there's port.. However, comma, I still stick with my DWTHYL theory of
wine. If you like it, fine. I am not about to preach to you what to
drink. Enjoyment is the goal, not how
many things like: “hints of mushrooms and summer truffles” one can come up with. However a gorgeous Burgundy or Bordeaux have much to offer. Something to grow into perhaps. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable evening, saw many friends
and had a good time and kept up the quality of the wine served..
The next day (Saturday), I had just volunteered for the
general event and was told I would be the “Green Room Manager”. The description sounded very important; things like making sure all the musicians and actors knew where and when they were to
perform, cater to any needs, and generally help them out. Well, much of my time was spent looking at
Which, while it IS a room, is NOT green. I guess it is a generic term. When folks were there, it was fun to hear
them talk, practice their British accent, play a couple of tunes and things
like that. I especially liked the “Whimsey”
pair. They were fun. He tried out a couple of jokes on me like: “How
was the Roman Empire dived in two?
Answer: with a pair of Caesars”. --Insert
rim shot here--. So, it was a long but
interesting day and I was glad to return home for a cooling DMOTRWAT.
Along the way, I think I developed a new law. You might remember I coined the “Moody Law of
Docenting” that says that no matter how dead a site may have been for hours,
patrons will show up the minute you pack up to leave. Well, a new law might be along the lines of “Nobody ever finishes a bottle of water”. To while away the time I gathered the many
bottles of water (almost) consumed by the Players and Musicians. I would say in about 90% of them, there was
maybe a half to quarter inch of liquid in the plastic bottle. I really didn’t think that they would be
coming back for that last drop.. Hence the proposed new law: Nobody ever finishes a bottle of water.. Check it out.
A fun project
Ha! Thought I would
let you get away without mentioning food?
Wrong-o oh Gulliver! MFO and I will
be going on two trips this fall, a river cruise on this side of the Atlantic, and
another tour on the other side of the Atlantic, visiting Wales. For the Wales trip, many of the lunches and
dinners are included in the package, but several are “on your own”. This of course delights the Bottom Feeder as
it affords him a chance to explore dining opportunities in faraway places. Some stops are in larger cities some are not.
So I have a great time with Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Chowhound, Urban Spoon,
and the like. Googling "Restaurants near
Podunk" tends to drive you to Chamber of Commerce sites but it is a good start. The others rely on readers “reviews” and
hence are prone to a degree of subjectivity. It is fun to see the string of reviews.. they go from “XYZ Restaurant enjoyed the best meal I’ve ever had in
Podunk” to “Don’t go to XYZ, the worst meal I have ever suffered through”. But, however, comma, if you read enough of
them, in general what are probably good restaurants generally rise to the top.
So a narrowing process gets you to two or three highly rated place. Next stop,
look at their menus. Indian food? Feeder
says no thanks. French? I’m in.
again personal preference is your guide.
Then see how far they are from your hotel.. walking? Taxi? Out
of the question? So eventually I will
develop a list of places that we hope to visit “on our own”. Of course anybody can do this, but I enjoy
travelling by keyboard. I will share my
list with any traveler interested.
Great fun, and of course I will also include the level of
DFD
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