kerewin's whine cellar

Garden State

You gotta see this one thing, it'll change your life I promise you

We left the theater with a buzz.....and just talked about it and life and the different ways it spoke to us.

World Wrestling Federation

If the world operated on the WWF premise, then today I would have been the Rock, and all the wine reps would be whomever it is that The Rock is always cooking.

or something like that

major league smack down today at work

and it ROCKED

oh yeah, I said that

the Cred' Issue

This is good

This is better

(as always just click the pictures to follow the link)

Total Shite Day

When you walk in the door at 2:30 only to find out that they guy who was supposed to be there at 9a, and do all sorts of work, called in sick. Well that isn't the best of days.

So today the only joy in Mudville as a quote, seems somehow fitting, now that I am the manager of the department.

�"Every chef must learn how to govern the state." - � �Nikolai Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov), Will the Bolsheviks Stay in Power?

Things To Do In Seattle When You Are Dead

Several months ago we went to a favorite pub that is always crowded. There are signs about sharing tables, and these guys from Chicago asked us to sit and share with them. We got along with them and so they asked us good places to go and see in Seattle and we made this totally awesome list for them.

The next morning we were all like, "dude, what was on that list?" We sure wish we made ourselves a copy. In the months since then we speculate as to what weput on that list. Since a good friend is coming to visit, we were trying a little harder tonight.

This is what we came up with:

Troll (I refuse to post a link to this, knowing Vajrabelle is coming to visit, it has to be a surprise)
• Lenin


• Needle


• Carey Park (sunset is nice)


• View Ridge Park (sunset is WAYYYYYYY nicer)


• Waverly Beach (site of our 2nd date)


• Alki Beach


• Shorty's


• Capital Hill, in general


• Snoqualmie Falls


• Midnight Movie


• Jet City Improv


• Union Bay Café????


• Mount Rainier


• Mount St Helens????


• Leavenworth


• Olympic Peninsula/Port Townsend


• E.M.P.


• New Library


• See a show?


• See a movie?

Any other suggestions?

and OMG!

I am totally published.

Five doll hairs to the first person to guess which trick of the trade I offered!

*snort* Remember saying doll hairs to friends when making dubious 5-year-old bets????????

Let Me Get This Straight.....

Why I love my job in one word: samples.

So, I show up to work and tell people what wine to buy, and then they do. Wine reps come by with wine to try (and spit) all the time. THEN, they also leave bottles, unopened, for me to take home and *try.*

The only thing better would be if they decided to bump me up to manager and give me a raise.

Oh, did I tell you that I just got promoted to manager and probably got a raise? Damn, I love my work. Someone remind me of this in a few months when I start bitching, mmmkay?

Going for the Gold

Very addictive, annoying game (via kjm, via Bondi)

On the menu tonight

Had a friend come over for dinner tonight and since I had the whole day off I decided to make use of everything in my kitchen, including the chicken stock I made a week ago.

So, on the menu this evening:

Garden green salad with carrots, celery, tomato, and a housemade balsamic vinaigrette
• Pesto risotto (using the basil grown here at the house)
• Beef tips marinated in olive oil, kosher salt, and balsamic vinegar. Then, lightly sautéed and served with a red wine reduction (pan drippings, chicken demi-glace, fresh thyme, onion, red wine, and butter)
• Chocolate pots de créme for dessert
• All of this paired fabulously with some cheap semi-local beer

I am not bragging (ok well a little) but I am tired and can't think of anything funny to update. On the other hand, all this time I have had off, I have really gotten to hone my cooking skills. All of that is about to go away, so I am a bit sad.

OHHHHHHHHHHH.......how silly of me to forget the fresh pasta I made with the leftover egg whites from the pots de créme! Now I have lunch for the week.

stuck to the wall with solid screws

Superstitious much?

When I was a kid my parents would get a bayberry candle for Christmas, or sometime in December. Then they would burn it day and night so that it would be melted before the New Year. They believed that if you didn't get it burned all the way through, you would have bad luck for the upcoming year. As we (the sibs) got older we always thought it a hoot to get the HUGEST bayberry candle we could find and see if the parents could burn it in time.

I thought about that this morning when I opened up a bayberry scented soap. Has anyone else heard about this superstition? I found this which is close, but not exactly the same thing. Also some other thoughts on the history of Catholic Church witch hunts and the saying "Bell, book, and candle."

So just what were they thinking? How did they hear of such a thing?

Just a little bit of sorry will do

A lady came in today and was perusing the Sauvignon Blanc section. I went over to help her and she said she was looking at either the St. Supéry (Meritage blend) or the Charles Krug. Having only tasted the SS, I could basically just guess what the CK would taste like. However, they both have great reputations and similar prices, so I knew she would end up being happy with either.

So, I explained to her what each would be like. She asked me which was better and I had to be honest and say that I thought the St. Supéry. Then she asked me the killer. "Which would one would you probably buy?" so I said, "Well, the Charles Krug."

"Why?" she asked.

"Um, well, the sales guy for S.S. once spilled red wine all over my clean, white shirt."

"Did he apologize?"

"Not really."

With a smile she grabbed the Charles Krug, "We can't reward that kind of behavior now, can we?"

1. Talked about the several acres of contiguous property and then felt the need to define "contiguous" for me. This is after I told him that he used such a nice S.A.T. word.
• 2. Told me about the seven natural lakes (damn I have a good memory, I had that by heart) on the property, following it up with "That is, not man-made." I almost spit in my glass while tasting, thinking, "How else would they be natural?"
• 3. Corrected my pronunciation of Meritage. Which, OF COURSE, rhymes with heritage and not Dodge.
• 4. After knocking a glass of wine out of my hand and breaking it, he not only didn't help clean up, he didn't offer to pay for my dry cleaning. This after I said, "Oh man, I JUST picked this up at the dry cleaner." (Instead, he responsed, "Well it is a good thing the most of it landed on me" [his dark slacks])
• 5. Even though he reacted with shock, "Oh my god, I've never done that before!" he never seemed actually apologetic, nor even said, "I'm sorry."
• 6. After tasting me on their most expensive wine, he proposed a special deal. "If you order three cases we can make a fourth case a special price, bringing the whole thing down to a point where you could pour this by the glass. [Yeah, at like $18/glass jackass.] At this point, I just laughed in his face, "We have 17 tables, I don't order four cases of ANYTHING"

1. He got back to Cali and Fed Ex'd me a box of winery t-shirts, posters, and Wine Away with a card suggesting that while I didn't have it to use when I most needed it, I would definitely have it the next time he came in to town.

The box contained neither payment for my dry cleaning, nor free wine. Either one would have worked wonders, with the free wine being, of course, the best option.

In a year and a half of buying wine for the restaurant, I had only 2 bad experiences when my reps brought winery reps with them. This is numero úno. Remind me someday to tell you about numero dos.

walk a mile in these shoes

When you work in a temperature controlled climate you feel like this all day:

As soon as you leave you feel like this:

I feel like I work in the North pole and live in Florida.

Note to self: do not title any more posts "clean up on aisle [blank]" ever again, as it will ensure that the next work day you will be cleaning up spilled shit and not once, but twice.

“Water makes you sick and wine makes you sing.” –Genoese proverb

Clean up on aisle 7, please

Just to be clear, I haven't worked in a grocery store before. This is only my 3rd week and to be frank, I pretty much only know about wine. The only reason I know the location of the soda pop is that it is just beyond the beer section. Ice? Right around the corner from the wine section in those aisles with the glass doors that tend to indicate frozen items. But really people.......I DON'T FREAKING KNOW where the damn (fill in blank here) is. I hate that I am forced by the Co. to walk you around the store looking for it because PEOPLE.....I have WORK to do here in the wine section. Don't even get me started on the stocking of the beer. Did you know I had to do that too? Yeah, I didn't either.

By the way, when you run over your toe with a pallet jack, it hurts. It hurts like a mutha, but you can't dance around yelling the F word at the top of your lungs because you are in a grocery store and people might hear you. Oh yeah, and it pisses me off when you look at my name tag and then mispronounce my name. I won't be offended if you don't know who I am. In fact, I prefer it.

How is my new job coming along? Oh quite nicely, thank you for asking.

life changes create blog changes

Take a quick look around, things are slightly different. New standard picture. New description under the title. Who knows, one day I might even make my own banner or something.

When I first started this, I knew I wanted to gab a bit about my family and my work, and I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, or lose my job. Consequently, I kinda went out of my way to not have my real name appear on this site, or be linked with it, so that google couldn't catch me out when I wasn't looking. I have recently changed my mind about this so I had to wade through old entries and delete the few that I thought might get me in trouble. Speaking of me, that "about" page on my other website is fairly outdated. I am no longer a vegetarian, for instance.

Now I can put the link back up to my personal website that I haven't updated in over 2 years.....*yawn* I have to renew it this year, so if I do, look for some changes. Chances are pretty good that I will just take it down entirely.

In other news, I have officially worked as the Wine Steward at the upscale grocery store for two whole weeks. It is waaaaaAAAAaaaaay different work than the old restaurant, but that is why I changed jobs, right? The second week was better than the first and here's to the third week being even better!

Oh, all those funny extra links you see? I am officially admitting to being addicted to reading blogs. The ones I read with a fairly religious zeal are all there, but in no particular order. (If I told you I read them in a very very very strict order, would you laugh at me? I suspected as much which is why I varied their listing.) As some of you know, I am completely addicted to quotes, and I have a bunch of food ones saved up, so I might routintely change what is listed up there in the description. Or I might just end each post with a quote...........we shall see.

I made a resolution to try and post SOMETHING each day. If just a quote, or a link, or a picture or an idea.........because I am incredibly lazy I resist posting all the funny things that happen to me each and every day. I have to break that cycle.

So, here's to changes! *ching ching*

“Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.” –Dorothy Parker, Inventory

M.P.Qs. 11 & 13

Number 11

1. What is your favorite color?
• I go through phases. When I was a kid my parents gave my sister and me the same gifts (because we were only 14 months apart) but in different colors. H-star always got red and I always got blue. However, I can tell that I am going through a red phase at the moment, because everything I buy in clothing is red these days. This follows on the heels of baby blue, before that it was khaki green, and before that basic black.
• 2. What is your favorite thing about your home?


• Probably the wine closet.
• 3. Things: collect, or throw out?


• Genetically both the Hub and I are packrats. However we are really trying to fight this urge by general purging of shit via eBay and donations to charities (suckers).
• 4. What was the first car you ever owned?


• An '87 burgundy Volkswagen Golf GTI, that we bought in the Fall of '01. Hot little baby, man it could run.

• 5. Do you balance your checkbook on a regular basis?


• No. I used to be incredibly anal about it, taking hours to balance it down to the penny. Now, I just go online and check the balance and vaguely balance it in my head against checks written. Luckily, in this day and age, I write VERY few checks and mostly use online payment or debit card, so you see fairly instantly how much you have left.

Number 13

1. When you purchase wine, what do you look for? (i.e. aside from price, do you look at labels? do you go by wine magazine suggestions?)
• 2. What magazines do you subscribe to?


• 3. What is your favorite thing to cook for parties?


• 4. You've had your new car for awhile, what are your thoughts on it now? (and this question could very easily apply to my car as well, so I am not too worried about having to answer it)


• 5. What is the last book you read and would you recommend it?