Pindar Pythagoras, Red Table Wine, North Fork of Long Island
Pindar describes this wine as “a geometric blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec.” Really, how could I not love a wine whose name invokes the great Greek philosopher/mathematician who gave the world the Pythagorean Theorem? This bottle was also my first eagerly anticipated taste of wine from one of the small local vineyards that dot the North Fork of Long Island. With so much to live up to, could this wine truly be the equal of the square root of the sum of the squares of its sides?

YES, Pindar Vineyards has a real winner here! This complex, medium-bodied blend displayed rich oak flavors with subtle fruit and toastiness and a little spice. It was the kind of wine that held my interest through the entire bottle and always left me wanting more. It was a wonderful introduction to New York wine.

We went hiking last weekend at the 1,700 acre Devil’s Den Preserve.

I have finally gotten around to updating the section of this website about me, which sounds odd to say about a website that is all about me, but, it’s true. Click “ROB” on the main menu to check it out.

Rancho Zabaco Heritage Vines Zinfadel, 2004, Sonoma County
The back of the label describes this wine as having “juicy ripe blackberry and boysenberry fruit flavors with an underlying hint of pepper.” I seriously wonder if the people who write this stuff actually taste the wine before they make up the nice sounding nonsense they print on the label. What’s more, when I googled reviews of this wine, at least half the reviewers described this as a ‘fruity’ wine, which truly makes me wonder if I’m completely missing something or if that many people will blindly succumb to the power of suggestion (thought I’m strongly siding with the later). Saying this wine is ‘fruity’ is like saying that Hawaiian Punch is fruity; yes, it’s red, it claims to be made with 5% actual fruit juice, and it does taste more like fruit than Coca-Cola, but does it really taste like fruit? Not any that I can identify.

So what did I observe in this zinfandel? It was medium-to-full bodied with a deep purple hue, tasting of earth and pepper (I detected nothing ‘underlying’ about the pepper). It wasn’t half-bad, if perhaps a little simple and dull. Actually, since so many red wines tend to focus on their fruity notes, I found this to be a refreshing departure. And I guess printing on the label that your wine tastes like dirt doesn’t help sell bottles, but a little truth in advertising would be nice.

This weekend I finally dusted off my scanner off after months of inactivity and lots of pictures piling up in the to scan queue. My last post of a postcard I received over 7 months ago is evidence of that. In fact, after experiencing computer problems earlier this year, my scanner wasn’t even installed on my PC anymore. So I dusted off the scanner (literally, it was really dusty), installed the drivers and was ready to scan. Only one problem — instead of scanning, my scanner just sat there frantically flashing a little red light. Bugger!

After fiddling around with the software, restarting both scanner and PC a few times and doing all the usual sanity checks (I even checked the scanner manual to find out what a flashing red light means — apparently, it means something is wrong with the scanner and I should bring it into a certified Epson service center — as always the manual is SO helpful), I finally decided to inspect the scanner hardware itself and I discovered the problem. Under the glass scanner bed I could clearly see that the belt that moves the scanner head up and down was laying slack and the post and wheel the supports the belt was askew. Double Bugger!!

It was just as I was beginning to curse my bad luck and wonder when I could buy a new scanner and get my pictures scanned when my inner engineer kicked in. Maybe all is not lost — maybe I can fix the scanner! I quickly whipped out my tools and the disassembly began. In a matter of minutes I was holding the offending bits of plastic in my hands; two small plastic tabs had given up after years of diligently holding my scanners insides together and snapped off — cheap pieces of crap! But how could I possibly re-secure my scanner’s entrails and get it up and running again? After sifting through my drawer of spare parts, odds and ends (a fixture of any engineer’s home) I found my answer … DOUBLE STICK TAPE! After a careful application of the super-sticky stuff, my scanner was up and running again, admirably doing its duty and working beautifully.

It’s a common geek joke that an engineer will try to fix anything with duct tape, but how many actually ever do? That I was able to take a piece of complex electronics and make it go from broke to working with just tape and ingenuity could be one of the proudest moments of my engineering life.

Date: December 2006
From: Matt
Excerpt: “I was going to get you a postcard with a picture of Chichen Itza or Riviera Maya or something but I figured you could get those on the internet. But where could you ever get an iguana saying Go Mexico!“