Preliminary results in wine research

Only *11* more days until we leave for Italy. Not that I’m nervous or counting down or anything.

For all you vegetarians out there, did you know that animal products MIGHT be used in the production of your wine? If a wine is “fined” they use some agent to remove small precipitates and proteins from the wine. Wine makers can use egg whites or isinglass to clarify wine. (However inorganic agents can also be used. (Isinglass is made from the swimbladders of fish and used mainly in white wines from Germany.) So make sure you ask or look for the unfined wines if you are concerned. Me, I think it is OK.

Went to dinner at Dusty’s tonight (Yum!!) for a wine dinner. The winner of the evening:

• Clos de Los Siete Red 2006

But of course, Parker reviewed it and gave it a 90+ rating so there wasn’t any to buy. Blah. A steal at $17 a bottle too.

Of course, my favy South American red is:

• El Felino - Mendoza 100% Malbec.
• 
  http://www.paulhobbsimports.com/nativo/

Yum, yum, yum. Rich, purple and fruity but with a lot of tannic structure. It used to be a steal (<$15) but the price jumped about two years ago. It stabilized at around $23/bottle. Tres yummy!! (The cat on the label really doesn’t have anything to do with me liking it by the way.)

So I know, nothing to do with Italy. So here’s the quick update: I know how to say “Would you like to eat something at my house?” in Italian. (Watch out Jim, you’re gone for three weeks!!) Thinking about taking one of the cats with us. Are we crazy? I think so.

Oh deer!

Some of you might know the saga of me and the deer in my backyard. If you don’t, just wait until spring and I am gardening again. You’ll hear all about it.

I’m used to waking up during the winter and seeing deer tracks all over the backyard. Occasionally, the deer are even hanging out back there, nibbling on what ever green is poking out of the snow.

It’s reached a new low in my backyard though. The deer are now bedding down in the MIDDLE of my backyard. Not hiding under the trees, or sheltered near the bushes, but in the middle of the yard.

I don’t know how to do arrows in Photoshop, so I used lines instead.

You can see the tracks wandering around the backyard too. If you could see my neighbors backyard, there are NO tracks at all. I’ve tried to convince them that they can let their dogs run around in my yard too, but to no avail.

At least I won’t have to see the devastation of my flowers this year.

I have a visa… and I’m already over the limit.

Visa, visa, visa. What an awful word. If you are planning on staying in Europe for more than 90 days, you’ll need a visa. To get a visa, you need to go to the consulate of choice and bring with you proof of …. everything. Proof of health insurance, proof of lodging, proof you have a way out of the country, proof of means, proof of rabies vaccination, proof of good taste in clothing… It’s amazing. Maybe one day I’ll regale you with the story of proof of health insurance, but not now. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back in October, I did not know any of this.

Because I have a Fulbright scholarship, I’m supposed to get this letter from the Italian commission that explains some of this info. I think that this letter is magic and is all I need. I contact the Italians back in OCTOBER about this letter. They say “No too early, wait until the end of November!” So I wait. And wait. Finally, on January 3rd, I email again.

Office closed. Back in on the 7th.

January 8th I get a note from the commission saying “Oh yeah! You need that letter. We’ll send it to you today.” It arrives on January 14th. In a FedEx envelope. In Italian. With no instructions. I freak.

I frantically email my contact in Italy and start surfing the web. I find the consulate’s website and realize that this is not simple. And I need one to THREE weeks. I also find on my surfing trip a .pdf file entitled “Predeparture Information for Fulbright Grantees to Italy. Academic Year 2007-2008″. Amazingly, this has a lot of information that I need!!

Just a note here - I never got this pdf file. I was never told it existed. I know, because I went back through EVERY piece of paper that I have gotten in conjunction with this award.

So for a week, I hunt down every scrap of paper that I need. This includes a letter of invitation from our host in Italy. The host won’t respond to my emails, only Jim’s. Sigh.

Three weeks from the day I am supposed to leave, I am about to go to the consulate, but realize that it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and everything is closed. Small panic attack, but now that I have all of my paperwork, I’m much calmer.

Wednesday, my friend Claire and I head to Detroit. Long story short - 1.5 hours of driving to the consulate, 15 minutes of waiting in lobby, 3 minutes at window waiting, 15 seconds of very nice lady sorting through my paperwork and telling me it is all there, 1.5 hours of driving home. Now the panic begins. When will it all get here!?!

Claire and I take a detour to the new MGM Grand Casino in Detroit on our way home. She won $50 in the first 3 minutes of playing. I lost $5. We leave.

So the visa arrived on that Saturday. JOY!! WOO HOO!! I open up my passport to admire my fancy new visa…. and realize the departure date is wrong. ARGH!!! Because it is Saturday, I have to wait until Monday morning to call the consulate and beg for mercy. (It wasn’t my fault, but groveling is the best bet I’ve found.)

I call this morning, and apparently, they really don’t care when you leave. I was told it would be no problem and don’t worry (crazy american). So, I’ve decided not to worry about it. Maybe they’ll deport me, maybe not. Maybe they won’t even notice.

On a lighter note, I finally learned something useful in my Italian lessons today: “I’d like some wine.”

This is a chickpea.

So in preparation for my trip to Florence, I’ve been cramming trying to learn at least a little bit of Italian. I’m using two different CDs. The first is the Barron’s Foreign Service Institute “Mastering Italian”. The first 10 or so units was all about learning the correct way to pronounce things. Which is good, but from that I learned how to say “Is Amanda around?” Not very useful, unless I end up meeting an Amanda. About unit 13 we started learning vocabulary.

Now remember, this set of CDs has “The same course used by the U.S. Government to train *Diplomatic Personnel*” (The stars are actually on the case!!)

The first phrase that we learn is “What is this?” (Che cos’e questo? in Italian if you care.) The first response that we learn: It’s a chickpea (E un cece). Thank goodness our diplomats know how to identify chickpeas. I also learned “It’s a wolf” and “It’s a wastebasket”. (Lupo and cestino, respectively.) One day this might be helpful but I was more hoping for things like: “Where’s the bathroom?” and “Help me, I’m bleeding.”

The second set I’m using is the Pimsleur language CDs. Very good. Learning some more useful phrases (”I would like to drink something.”) in this set of CDs. It is presented in dialog format. This is good because it forces you to respond. However the dialogues are kind of creepy:

• Man - Signorina!
• Woman - Yes?
• Man - Where is Veneto Street?
• Woman - Over there.
• Man - (Out of the blue) How are you doing?
• Woman - (Spotting friends and running off) Goodbye!

Is it just me or is it teaching men to stalk women? Another dialogue:

• Man - Would you like something to eat?
• Woman - No, I would like something to drink.
• Man - My house?
• Woman - I want to drink now!

Honest to goodness, this was a dialogue on the CD.

It’s been fun. I annoy Jim every night with the phrases that I know. Of course, he responds in Italian which annoys me because he’s not doing any of the CDs with me.

Maybe today I’ll learn “Where is Pepe’s house?”

Italy

First Post

Welcome to my blog. I know, just what the world needs: another stream of conscious rant by someone you’ve never heard of and don’t care about. But look! A picture of a cute (?) cat!

Enjoy as I keep you updated on my life and travels.