Valentines Day

So not to get mushy, but me and Heather had a pretty good Valentine's Day weekend last week. Each of us had a day to something for the other....On the Saturday of that weekend, Heather took me for a picnic on a beautiful day at the Scottsdale Civic Center. It was near a bunch of outdoor art and water features. We had some delicious tofu, kale salad, smoked pasta with mozzarella, and bread with Brie. Afterwards, she took me to the local arts center, where they had an interactive music display. One of the pieces allowed you to DJ, but alas, we were supposed to bring our own records. This was really a downer, considering that I want to learn how to DJ for some reason. After an uneventful visit to the bathroom (hint hint), we took off to eat some good ole ice cream. I got the dulce de leche, which literally was chunks of caramel on a cone.... a great end to a great day.

On Monday, it was my turn. The date officially began at 8pm, but first I had an intramural soccer game. Our team won 4-2; my fantasy stats looked good with 1 goal and 2 assists. I could have had 3 assists when I kicked a corner (that's right a corner) to the center and the header was missed high. Anyways, the reason I tell you this, is that after the game I had to run to the School of Sustainability and take a shower on campus. Our building has a shower because it is encouraging people to bike to work rather than drive in the heat.... Anyways, I digress again. After I showered and got ready, I took Heather to Studio Vino for a wine tasting. Although this wasn't your average wine tasting.

Smelling Oak Chips (see story below)

When we arrived, we met our friends Colin and Jenny, and were introduced to the owners. They informed the girls that we were here to taste 10 wines, eat appetizers, and select one of the wines to make. We would make the wine that night, then come back, bottle it, and design a label. Pretty cool huh? So we conversed through the tasting, enjoyed our company, while making the owner and our host laugh quite a bit... someone mentioned Indian Leg Wrestling, and all of a sudden we have the owners and girls asking us to do it in the studio... funny, but I lost both matches.

the leg wrestling

Anyways, we then proceeded to make the wine, which involved us pouring the grape concentrate into a bucket, mixing it with warm water, and oak chips (which we smelled), and stirring it with a huge power drill. Lastly, we poured the yeast in to make it ferment and we'll be back in a few months to bottle and cork it. Pics of are visit are soon to come, as soon as Heather shares them with me.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on what to put on our label design... my thought is to put some obscure country like Estonia and a year like 1962 on the label, to make it look vintage.