I dream of bears (the animal)

We were on a road. The flat part, a road that climbed a long mountain. Maybe 5 or 10 people behind us, another 20 or so ahead of us, up the road. Some family, strangers, on this road. Suddenly, a bear wanders across the road. My brother doesn't react, behind us. Krstn and I start to run up the hill. It is heavy running. Hard to run, uphill. We gain some high road. I look back down, to see the people, ants, and the bear. Something is happening, but we can't make out what.

Moving the spider to a better place

J and I have both had spider dreams in the past month. My last one featured large, scary spiders. In this one, though, the spider was cute like a plush toy.

Some of the details have faded, but I came upon a huge, very elaborate spider web. I remember marveling at the repetition of precise patterns, the intelligence behind the web. But... the web was in an inconvenient place... on a building or a doorway?

Then I saw the spider responsible. It was as large as a tarantula, and had black and white shaggy fur, like a stuffed animal. The spider was equal parts horrifying and cute.

I decided that this was no place for a spider... and decided to move it somewhere less public. First I destroyed the web, then I scooped up the spider and carried it down a country road. Then the dream gets kind of fuzzy... there were more webs... and I remember growing kind of fond of the spider...

Black Goat + bagels + lox = Magical Third Flavour

Just to get things straight: I really don't know what I'm doing. You know that, right?

This morning at the SAQ, I was looking at the 2006 Beaujolais and nothing really excited me. So I went a little downstream and found this saucy little bottle called Reserve de la Chevre Noire, Pinot Noir from Maison Boisseaux-Estivant. What the hell...

J and I opened it an hour ago and weren't all that impressed. It just... seemed one dimensional; a red wine for people who prefer white whine.

But here's the kicker: We toasted up a few Fairmount Bagels and topped them with cream cheese, lox, onions and capers and then tried the wine again. OMG... it was perfect.

We were experiencing, right there and then, The Magical Third Flavour. You know, when you put two things together and they make something else delightful [that could be a metaphor for life, or at least coupling... if only I could come up with something more profound to write here].

While it's all very well to fool around here, we realized, there and then that 2008 was the year that we should actually, truly learn about wine, pairings and all that.

lazee koala

Well, this is a little red wine.

We dined on spaghetti with meat sauce.

This one blasts through all the nonsense and delivers a packed, 5 sense assault on the body.

If this wine could talk, it would talk: Aramaic.

black underwear

In this dream, I am wearing one-piece black longjohns.
Some things happen that I can't tell you about.

I wake up.

Viejos Robles: easy like Sunday morning

We worked on this bottle over the past couple nights. Glasses just appeared here and there, like casual conversation. We like Viejos Robles just fine, like we'd like anything, anything at all that came all the way from Argentina.

What... you want more information?

Viejos Robles was like a tidy little chocolate truffle. One that doesn't leave any cocoa on your fingers.

Borsao takes the East Plateau by storm

I'm nosy. The kind of nosy that peeks into people's recycling boxes to see what they're drinking. And It's that orange label... I see it everywhere. People are drinking Borsao like it's goin' out of style...

Fine dining, a dental hygienist and a dirty toilet

I was at the dentist's (incidentally, the same dentist's office that J dreamed about recently) , on my way into his office when I need to use the toilet. I tell the dental hygienist and she takes me down a side set of stairs to a small bathroom next to a restaurant. It is the filthiest bathroom I have ever seen. Horrifying...

When I'm done, I tell the hygienist and she says that it belongs to the restaurant, not the dentist and there's nothing she can do. Instead of returning to the dentist's, I sit down in the restaurant, which is kitschy in a 1970s fine dining kind of way.

I order a meal and wait a long, long time. At the tables next to me, there are four men, clearly all friends but sitting at two separate tables. I realize they're on a double date. I sit quietly listening to their conversation.

I wait a long time for my meal. While I wait, I become less discrete in my observation of the four men. A couple of them are aware that I'm watching them; they think I'm flirting, and maybe I am. But I know they're gay. This becomes embarrassing for me. I decide to tell the waiter that my meal is taking too long and I prepare to leave.