Point of No Return???

I did it.  I bought a Mac.  After purchasing a new PC in October with Vista, I have done nothing but curse it.  I hate it.  I have always wondered about the easy to use fun audio, video, and photo side of mac, but could never justify buying one.  I need a PC for all of my "business stuff".  I can't run my tax and accounting software on Mac.  

Because I hate Vista so much, and couldn't go 2 seconds without a "I know you double clicked this program, but come on now, do you really want to open it???" I installed VM Ware Workstation.  Basically I run my old computer on it with XP.  I just have the luxury of the latest processors and memory with the new computer.  

I took my wife to the apple store last night and bought her a Mac Book Pro.  We were there for over two hours.  I learned so much about Macs.  Imagine a store where the employees actually know their products (and their competitors and sometimes aren't afraid to admit, "yeah that is better than what we can provide").  That was the Apple Store in Fashion Fair mall.  Whenever I go to bestbuy or CompUSA I get someone who has no clue about any of the products.  I always know more about what I am trying to buy then the person selling it.  Apple impressed me with their service and knowledge (The greeters don't know much, but are quick to refer you to someone that does).  

When we came home, I began to wonder.  If I use a virtual machine to run windows anyway, why don't I just get a Mac.  I have all of my windows work stuff, and also have the fun cool stuff.  I bought my PC from Sam's Club in October.  Within 6 months you can return it for a full refund.  So I went into the Apple store today with the intent to buy a Mac Pro Desktop and order a 30inch Dell screen (the Apple screen is $1800 and the Dell is only $1200).  After talking to the same associate about my needs, he talked me down (how often do you have a sales person talk you down).  The 8 processor coolness is awesome on the Mac Pro, but for what I do it would be like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.  So I type now on my top of the line imac.  Buying the Mac Pro and the dell monitor would have run $4500.  I was out the door with the imac ($2299), protection plan, and VM software for Mac for $2500.  I only have a 24 inch screen instead of 30, but I think I can use my old monitor as a second display and survive (did I really say that, I used to be content with my 15inch VGA display).  

Here I go!!! Hey WHERE IS THE RIGHT CLICK??? I LIVE WITH THE RIGHT CLICK!!!

GIGI'S

My wife and I went to Gigi's Cucina tonight in the Fort Washington area. This was our second time there. The first time I was conservative and went with the Lobster Ravioli. It was great as was the overall service, presentation, and quality of product for the price. It is not inexpensive, but very reasonable for what you get in return. This time I tried something new, filet mignon. OK Cow is not exactly new to me, but the way they make it is.

What he had:

Filet Al Cafe

Filet Mignon served with coffee bean, kaluha and bailey's irish cream reduction sauce. I am not exactly sure what else was in the sauce, but it was amazing. Very unique sauce that was creative and complemented the beautiful piece of meat.

What She had:

Duck with blackcherry grappa sauce. I snuck a bite of this and it was also amazing. I will be getting this next time I go so I can enjoy an entire portion of it.

I brought a bottle of Westbrook Wine Farm, Fait Acompli, 2005. Since I was drinking alone I didn't want to spend money on a nice bottle only to drink two glasses. I enjoyed the Fait as always, and let the entire staff have the rest of the bottle (which they seemed to enjoy). It paired nicely with the Filet.

SAVE ROOM FOR THE HOME MADE TIRAMISU!!!

Hawaii Time

I love Mike and Mike in the morning. However, you know there is something wrong when, as you lay in bed and turn on the tv to wind down before sleeping, Mike and Mike is already on. Gotta love tax season.

Then the quote of the day comes from my beloved puppy, Miles (pic here) (yes he can talk, and you have to read this with his voice):
"Ummm Dad, I know you were up til 4am working, but I hope you don't mind if I just lay here and play with my squeaky toy. I know its 7am, but its all good."

WHAT A GAME!!!

What a game. I really wanted to see Favre against Brady, but this turned out to be one of the best Super Bowl's in many years. I love to listen to Dan Patrick, and today they were talking about what the Manning to Tyree play should be called for the rest of eternity. We have "The Catch", "The Drive", "The Immaculate Reception (or deception as I like to call it)", and now??? It is funny that Dan was talking about this today. Before the game was even over I was talking about it to my friend that was over. "What are they going to call this? "The Escape"" is what I first thought of. However, that gives Eli most of the credit for escaping the grasp of the D-line. It needs to be something that can give credit to both Eli and Tyree for their amazing parts in the play. The best I have heard so far is "The clutch." Any suggestions?

Bonneau Chardonnay

Well if you know my wine tastes, you will hardly see me drink Chardonnay. This is for a few reasons. I have not found one I like well enough to purchase one directly, and when I go out, I eat meals that would be wayyyy to big for them. However, sometimes a wine club will ship me one and I will try it. Many I drink are nothing but butter and I want a lobster tail to dip into them. I rarely drink one that is of a complexity and taste of my liking. Most of the time I think "man I wish they would have sent me something other than chardonnay" however... I opened this tonight.

Bonneau Chardonnay, Catherine's Vineyard, Los Carneros, 2004

Retail Price: $22

Production: 800 cases

Ratings: Double Gold Medal San Francisco Wine Competition

My Thoughts: Wow, it had wonderful forward hints of asian pear and peach. Nice balance of fruit, oak, and acidity. Greatly enjoyed it and would reccomend to highly.

What I ate: Chicken vegetable pasta medley that my wonderful wife made.

Check out Bonneau here.

Love Wine...

But I have never wanted it this bad...

"ADRIAN, Mich. - A man was charged with drunken driving after going through two bottles of wine, cutting through a snowstorm on his lawn mower and riding down the center of the street to reach a liquor store, authorities said. Police found Frank Kozumplik, 49, homeward bound on a John Deere tractor Saturday night, toting four bottles of wine in a paper bag, officials said. He told officers that his wife had taken their car to work, and that the mower was the only way he could reach the store, two miles from home."

Read it Here.

My Baby Bean!!!

We had our first ultrasound today. It was a scarry moment for both of us. 2 1/2 years ago when we went into the ultra sound is when we found out the result of conception was not an embryo and my wife miscarried. However, this time was much more joyous. We saw our little bean baby with its heart (which seemed to be most of him) pumping away. It seemed like over half of the embryo was heart. I guess I can say "My kid's all heart!"

When the Football's Gone???

I am not necessarily someone who thrives on routines, but I do have some I enjoy. I can count on every Sunday from September to February being just about the same. I am at Church from 7:30-12ish, then I am in front of my football central until 9pm, or whenever Sunday night football finishes. I have 4 tuners in my living room that can record HD and two displays. When I get home from church I start the morning games, skipping commercials and halftime, and am live in the afternoon games usually some point near the 3rd quarter. I try and think of nothing of importance, and it is my time of relaxation and something I enjoy. Now that the footballs over what do I do? Do I have to be productive? Get caught up on movies? Institute mandatory nap time??? We will see. Today I felt lost and the world wasn't right. It was the first Sunday without football. This is one of the two times of year I am always extremly depressed (the other being the first week of daylight savings in fall).

Free Money

So if everything goes as planned, most of us will be getting a tax rebate this summer ($300+ depending on your status). Congress passed this legislation but nothing has been enacted. It should soon and we could be receiving checks by early summer. The government hopes we all go out and burn the cash to give the economy a kick in the butt. What are you going to spend yours on? Me, it will probably go to nursery supplies (yes we are expecting if you didn't know)!

99 Pine Ridge Stag's Leap

As I posted about the 02 Oakville from Pine Ridge, I thought I would post about my favorite wine they have made. I have three bottles remaining and the last one I had was in December at Trelio. I do not remember the exact contents, but I ate the Chimichuri Tri Tip that chef Mike concocted and it was amazing!!! I like it even more than their Filet (and that is saying something if you know me).

Quick Facts:

Pine Ridge, Cabernet Sauvignon, Stag's Leap, 1999

80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot, 8% Merlot, 3% Malbec, and 3% Cabernet Franc.

5,000 cases made

Oak: 100% French, 85%new for 16 months

Release: 2001 $60

Ratings: 94 (WS and #4 on top 100 wines of 2002)

My Thoughts: Amazing Black fruits with mocha, vanilla, and cedar and earth hints. Balanced and complex. Should be great over the next decade. My only problem is how to make my last three bottles last.

Miles

On New Years Day a new member joined the family. His name is Miles (yes that is Miles Davis for all of you paying attention). My wife took this picture of him and I love it. We get to hang out mostly all day together (although I spend too much time at my computer working if you ask him). He lays on my feet while I work at my desk until he gets restless and I walk him or go play fetch for awhile.

2002 Pine Ridge Oakville Cab

During the meal described below with the 94 Quintessa, we moved on to the 2002 Oakville Pine Ridge cab. Pine Ridge has been one of my favorite Napa wineries and I have been a member of their wine club since 2003. We had the opportunity to dine with the wine maker, Stacey Clark, at a wine dinner in when we lived in Dallas. They grow and make great wines.

Quick Facts:

Pine Ridge, Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville, 2002

83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc.

Oak: 100%French Oak for 16 months

Release: 2004 $60

1,600 cases produced

Ratings: 93(WS), 93(W&S)

My thoughts: Great aromas of cherry, chocolate, cedar. Nice long finish with velvety tannins and nice complexity. Amazing!!! My second favorite thing to come out of Pine Ridge (99 stag's leap). Nice job Stacey!!!

Quintessa

While now I believe this wine to be too expensive for what it is, I have a Vertical of Quintessa from 1994(premiere release)-2002. About four years ago when I was beginning to be interested in wine I had a bottle (don't even remember the vintage) and loved it. For those of you that know me, when I take interest to something I go for it (go big or go home). So that is a little background info. Quintessa seems to be found in every steak house chain I have ever been to. I have seen it priced from $165-285 in various steak houses. While each vintage of Quintessa now yields about 8,000-10,000 cases, this premiere vintage produced 500 cases.

Quick Facts:

Quintessa, Rutherford, 1994

Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot (don't know %)

Time in Oak: 22 months (100% French, 50% new)

Release: September 1997 $70

Current Trading Price: $99

Reviews: 91 (wine spectator)

My thoughts: Nice fruit forward with rasberry, currant, vanilla, and floral notes. Medium complexity. Tannins have really softened. Probably peaked 2 of 3 years ago.

What I ate:(at Trelio) PETITE ANGUS BEEF FILET MIGNON
Smoked Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Pearl Onions, King Oyster Mushrooms, Red Wine Jus

The wine was good, but we continued the meal with...

Bonaire

In March we spent a week in Bonaire and then went back and spent 3 weeks in June and July (2007). The diving was amazing. We had over 300 pictures from our summer trip, but our laptop was stolen and we lost all but three (because I had emailed them to friends while in Bonaire). This is really Divers paradise. You can dive as much as your body allows for a flat fee of $110 per week. Here is a seahorse from under the town pier at night, a turtle from Andrea I, and a view from our apartment at Bel Mar.

Hobby...maybe career???

I have really been bit by the SCUBA bug (I guess that would be Poseidon who is doing the biting). In 2007 I logged more than 100 dives. Since I am playing catch-up I will just show the highlights. In Feb. and May we went to Key Largo. I was taking the underwater photography class when I stumbled upon a little friend. As you can see he wasn't too fond of my presence.

Testing the Blogging Waters

This is a test. I have not blogged in nearly three years. Will I start??? I still don't know. I gave up nearly 3 years ago because I didn't want to learn HTML. Everyone had cool blogs and mine was all text. Now that it is more user friendly, I may try again. Plus all my friends are doing it and I want to be cool!!! In case you are wondering this is a picture of me on the USS Speigel Grove in Key Largo, FL. It was taken in May 2007 I believe.

What is Worship...???...

I had one of those moments today. The kind of moment that sends a chill down your spine and you feel in the very presence of God. What caused, or more accuartely contributed to this? We were playing Agnus Dei, a song that has been played forever a million different ways. When we play songs like this, I need to sit back and really read the words and think about them. If don't they will just come out and it will be like a machiene running and not worship. We have rehearsed the song played it before, and the same result everytime. Right at the climatic moment, HOLY, everyone is on a different chord, the band falls apart. Rehearsal was no different, horific. But my prayer tonight was different. Not mistake free music, but facilitating an environment for worship. It came time to it, from almost nothing musically (one guitar and one vocal) to a huge hit, of bass, drums, two heavily distorted guitars, and the chill was sent through my body. That is all I ever wanted to acheive as a band, but had a revelation. I wanted it because it was musical excellence and sounds good, and God showed me the real reason for it. Facilitating an environment for worship. When that is your goal, it seems everything else falls into place (you still have to practice and prepare). There is a huge spiritual movement going around our society today. Even non-christians are trying to be more spiritual in their lives. You see Hollywood inventing religions and watch Oprah or whatever and everyone needs to be more spiritual and at peace. I see this same effect taking place in younger generation christians. I have talked to younger christians lately that believe worship to God has to be soft and somber, a very spiritual aspect to it (spirtual in the sense of how I mentioned before, at peace and soft). I have been told that music with solos, or with loud distortion guitar is not real worship. It is worldly and gets in the way of someone's heart opening to enter God's prescence. I think that is non sense. Music enhances and magnigys every emotion. Have you ever tried to watch a scary moment of your favorite scary movie without the music, not so scarry. Have you ever seen a piece put together by a network of a recent champion sports team? Something that is just a game can almost make you cry because the music they put to it magnifies the emotion so much. I belive that is why we use song to worship. IT allows us to open up and let all our emotions come out to sing praise to our creator. If that wasn't true, every church would just replace their worship time with poetry reading prasing the Lord.
The kind of music you like will probably facilitate the best environment for you to worship. If you like country, go get a country worship album, if you like rock and roll go get one, alternative, organ and choir, it doesn't matter. The sound and the music doesn't matter. Third Day's recording of Agnus Dei is amazing, but when listening and worshiping along with it, it isn't the verse, the chorus when I feel closest to God, it is in the guitar solo (be careful that isn't real worship to a lot of people). The music creates the perfect environment for me to enter an intimate time of worship with God. I love Kutless' new worship album (Strong Tower). I get chills every track. It has, musically speaking, hard and soft moments. From rockin', distorted guitars, to nice acoustic moments with great vocal harmonies. You get both in their first track which is an arrangement of "We Fall Down." For me I like quiet moments of just lifting my voice, and then I like climatic huge moments where I feel passionate and my whole body is involved in worship. If you are involved in leading worship, you need to focus on musical excellence, but at the same time we need to check ourselves and see why we are striving for that. Is it for us, or for him? In today's world, their is so much good worship music available to us in so many different varieties of music. You can get classic hymns, or modern rock. We should not knock the way people worship, but embrace it. As I have told you I have been criticized of my worship to hard and showy. I have also criticized the other side as being boring and lacking passion. I think we all need to just embrace our time of worship, and go somewhere that facilitates that environment for you. As long as our heart is right for worship, it doesn't matter if we have a 50 piece band, or a kazoo. It is our heart at the time we enter that worship.

Return of a lost blogger...

Well here we are April 17th, weeks since my last post. For those of you who know me, you know why. Tax season gets a little (ha) busy the beginning of April. But the worst of it is over and life returns to some aspect of normalcy. Nothing great to say right now, just wanted to drop a line to say I am still here. I will get back to posting regularly. And if you know a tax man that managed to have time to blog the past three weeks, tip him extra because he/she is probably in need. Just kidding, see you soon.

Flag Page

At the conference in my last post, I was turned on to flagpage.com. I have taken persoanlity tests before, I have read the 5 love languages, but this is extremely pracitcal. It can change teh way you view, treat, and admire your spouse and really anyone. Especially if you are in a leadership position, this can show you what makes the people you are leading tick, and how you can motivate, or destroy them. It breaks the 4 basic personalities down (control, peace, fun, and perfect) as orginally stated (in more sophisticated terms) by the greek philosopher Hippocrates. It goes into much more detail and you get a greater understanding of yourself, AND ESPECIALLY OF OTHER PEOPLE when you look at their flag page. You end up with a flag with five traits listed in order of priority of how important those traits are to make you feel happy, loved, and appreciated. So often we (usually not realizing it) start to tear at other people because their flag looks completely different than ours and they are driven by completely different things. WE go around critisizing people for not being like us. This will give you an insight on how to motivate people and make them feel loved and appreciated. If we go through life motivating people by means that motivate us, we will in a sense motivate nobody. Flagpage is a revelation to what you need to feel loved. And if you look at somebody's flag page and you have critisized those characteristics, you need to step back and evaluate how you relate to that person. I am pretty sure that we are to lift our brothers up, which means encourage and motivate, not try to convert everyone to adapting the same personality traits we have. There is balance among the four traits in this world. Could you imagine a world where only Control people lived. Yikes. There is a way we are wired the way we are, and we need to embrace each other. There is a $10 fee for using the on-line service, but it will be the best $10 you have ever spent. And if you know me personally, let me know and I will send you my flagpage.

The dreaded marriage conference...

With my anniversary being last week, I touched a bit on being a husband. MY wife and I are attending a marriage conference (far from what it sounds like) this weekend. Laughing your way to a better marriage I would recommend to anyone and everyone who is married, whether you think your marriage is great or not. So often our society puts emphasis on change. We need to express our feelings, so we can change the way our spouse treats us. This organization is set out to pointing out bluntly the differences between men and women and learning to understand them, NOT CHANGE THEM!!! Mark Gungor believes most marriage conferences try and make men more like women. We need to realize that God made women and men biologically the way they are for a reason. We need to accept, embrace, and use that understanding to be successful in our marriages. By the way, Mark is also probably the funniest speaker I have ever heard. Order his DVD today and share it with everyone you know. It is about 75 minutes and fun the whole time. And if you get the chance, go to one of his workshops (6 hours), it will change our life! There is no guarantee from the Laugh Your Way organization, but men I can almost promise more and better sex.