This week we lost our beloved JoJo.  She was an 12 year old Golden Retriever who we acquired from Golden Retriever Rescue of North Texas
5 years ago.  In spite of the terrible life she had before coming into the rescue group, she had a wonderful disposition and personality and she always made us smile.   She loved her family and her adopted siblings.

She had a super life with us for 5 years and she showed her appreciation with her un-conditional love and her funny and entertaining ways.

As dog priorities go, I think food is always number 1, and that was the case with JoJo, but ice cubes had to be a close second.  Offered a bowl of dog food and a bowl if ice, I’m not at all sure which she would go for first.

We Loved her a lot and miss her very much.

Posted by DRHamp as We Love Dogs at 7:26 AM MDT

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The following was posted by Brian Heater over at Gearlog :

“One of the best things about Google is, for better or worse, the company seemingly has no sense of technological limits. Be it sending people into space for the X-Prize or offering rural Wi-Fi via weather balloons, the company is not afraid to test its own limits. 

Back in early 2007, the company filed a patent application for barge-based data centers, which use the water both to cool and power themselves. The application, which was granted on Tuesday, outlines datacenters based three to seven miles off shore in 50 to 70 meter deep water. The ocean’s waves generate electricity that powers the data centers. There seems to be a good deal of doubt whether the company would ever actually utilize the technology, but heck, it’s Google, so you never know…”

Google  never ceases to amaze me and continually makes me go Hmmmmmmmmm! — usually(but not always)  in a good way

Posted by DRHamp as Hmmmm! at 10:29 AM MDT

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This post will be an exception to that.   Beginning in the late 60’s , I became interested in and studied wine – eventually falling in love with the whole subject.   Having said that, I’m not an expert by any measure.   I’m not in the business, I’m not a professional wine critic/reviewer.
I am seldom able to describe a wine by identifying specific tastes and/or aromas.   Based on the mouth feel,the balance, and yes the aromas and flavors that I can’t adequately describe;  I either like the wine, or I don’t.   So, if I like a wine – then it’s a good wine and if I don’t like the wine – it’s not a good wine.  What I’ve found over the past thirty odd years of dabbling in wine is that I’ve come across very few “not good” wines, very few exceptional wines, and a whole lot of good to very good wines which were basically pleasant but not memorable.

Along this wine path that I’ve traveled, I’ve come across a few wine producers who, in my opinion, make consistently excellent wines and who I count among “My favorite wineries”.    Among them are: Tablas Creek and Phillips Hill in California, and Chehalem in Oregon.   I have said before that I’ve never had a wine from Tablas Creek that I didn’t think was excellent — the same could be said for these other producers – consistently producing

outstanding wines that really suit my taste.  There are a few other producers who would be on this list but for a single wine that didn’t suit my taste or fell short of my very subjective “exceptional and memorable” designation.

So, back to the subject at hand – the wine / wine producer that generated my, again very subjective, Rave.    Scholium Project is a low production, “Cult” winery in the Suisun Valley of Northern California, just east of Napa.  By low production, we’re talking about less than 1000 cases and often less than 100 cases.  I first heard about the Scholium wines as I followed the wine chatter on Twitter.  I signed up for their mailing list to see if I could get my hands on a few bottles to try.  The mailing list effort was successful and I was able to directly order a few bottles from the 2009 release (wines produced in 2007 & 2008).

The first bottle I opened was the 2007 Dulcissima Camilla California White — a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Verdelho, and Chardonnay.  The wine just blew me away — one of the most enjoyable white wines that I’ve had in many years.   A night or so later, I opened a bottle of the 2008 Lost Slough Vineyards Naucratis, a 100% Verdelho varietal.  Again, I was blown away — for my taste and for my preference, maybe the best white wine I have ever had.

I have a couple of bottles of the 2008 Lost Slough Vineyards Riquewihr a 100% Gewurztraminer varietal.  I haven’t tried it yet, and can’t wait.  I have also since ordered the 2007 Farina Vineyards La Saverita Di Bruto – a 100% Sauvignon Blanc Varietal.  They also have made several red wines and I’m very anxious to give them a try when the opportunity presents itself.

All of the above only represents my personal opinion and nothing more.  As far as wine goes, If you like it – it’s good and if you don’t like it – it’s not  – and then on occasion it’s “Exceptional & Memorable”!

Posted by DRHamp as Wine-Wine-Wine at 12:30 PM MDT

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Well after many, many years of using exclusively Microsoft applications for office and email;  I’ve finally started making the break-away.

I’ve used MS Outlook as my email client for years and it has been an excellent product.  It had some great features, but became cumbersome and extremely difficult to migrate to a new pc system when that became necessary.  There was no intuitive, automated way to backup and restore the outlook installation when that became necesssary.  Outlook over time also became a significant resource hog and began to contribute to the erosion of  overall system performance.

I began to look for alternatives and finally settled on Mozilla Thunderbird.  After three months of exclusive use, I have found Thunderbird to be reliable, fast and with virtually all of the functions of MS Outlook.  It’s not quite as professional looking and polished as Outlook, but with a number of third-party addons, can look pretty good.  It’s clean, lean, easy to backup and restore —- I like it!

Now, I’m asking myself the question:  “Why didn’t you just transition all your email to GMail”?  GMail is the excellent browser-based email application from Google.  I’ve used it for years, as a supplement to my PC based email client.   I still use Gmail and really like that it’s an anywhere, anytime email capability and only a web browser is required.   I’m still struggling a bit with some of the functionality that I’ve grown accustomed to in Outlook and Thunderbird that is lacking in Gmail.   One example is Folders — Outlook and Thunderbird have them, and GMail doesn’t.  I really like to organize my email into folders, or categories like:  Family, Friends, Finance …… etc.

I’ll keep playing with GMail functionality and suspect that one day Gmail, or some other Browser-based email application will be the only one I use exclusively

Office applications are next — hello Open Office!

Posted by DRHamp as Hmmmm!, Uncategorized at 9:02 AM MDT

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And, one of my all-time favorite websites and apparently, a successful internet business.

Woot decribes themselves this way:  “Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap.”

Wikipedia defines Woot this way: “Woot is an Internet retailer based in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, Texas. It was founded by electronics wholesaler Matt Rutledge and debuted on July 12, 2004.   Woot was the pioneer of the “one deal a day” business model on the internet. Woot’s main website generally offers only one discounted product each day, often a piece of computer hardware or an electronic gadget. Other Woot sites offer one original t-shirt per day, two selections of wine per week, and one closeout deal per day.

One of my initial daily tasks is to check out Woot and see it the daily sale item is one that I can’t live without, or a pass. More often than not, it’s a pass but I do average about one Woot purchase a month. As mentioned in Wikipedia, there is also Wine.woot which I seldom visit, and shirt.woot which I never visit.
As a wine fanatic, I should check out Wine.woot more often and vow to do so going forward.

The main draw to Woot for me stems from the fact that I am a non-recovered gadget addict!  Over time, I’ve purchased MP3 players, Noise cancelling headphones, LED flashlights, “Squid” power distributors, and even a food processor/blender.   That only begins the list of Woot purchases made over the years.

Usually, there is “Two For” Tuesday – where you get two of the listed items for the stated price. Approximately once monthly they hold a “Woot-Off” where an item goes up for sale for a period of time(usually about an hour) or until the item sells out. This is likely their way of moving stale or low stock items from their inventory.

I know many (maybe most) people are familiar with Woot.com, but for the few who aren’t, it’s worth your time to check it out.

Posted by DRHamp as Gadgets & Stuff, Hmmmm! at 9:23 AM MDT

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My Son, a fairly recent retiree from the U.S Army, is currently working for an international security company and his latest assignment was in Najaf, Iraq.  He sent me a link to “Iraq Updates” to allow me to stay more up to date with the current happenings in Iraq.  “Iraq Updates” is an English language news website.  This morning, there was an interesting headline:

Basra, 13 March 2009
The tourist office of the Babil Governorate in Iraq is offering former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s bedroom in the Al-Hillah Presidential Palace.   The director of the Al-Hillah Presidential Palace resort informed journalists yesterday that “the bedroom of former President Saddam Hussein is available for rent to newlyweds for 200,000 Iraqi Dinars [IQD], which is equivalent to $180 dollars, per night.”

I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t sound particularly romantic to me ………… Hmmmmm!

Posted by DRHamp as Hmmmm! at 7:30 AM MDT

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I’ve had at least four emails this week alerting me that my wine club selection would be shipping soon.  Four emails communicating the same information — well sorta, but not quite.

You see, I belong to five wine clubs and they are all about to release their winter/spring selections.

Got an email from Janie at Brooks Winery notifying me that my four bottles had been shipped.  The Brooks selection consists of two reds — their “Janus” Pinot Noir and their”Rastaban” the premium Pinot Noir.  We’ve had the Janus which is outstanding, so I can only imagine(for now) what the Rastaban is like.  Also included in the Brooks shipment is two bottles of their white blend, “Amycas”.  We’ve never had the Amycas and are anxious to try it.  The Amycas is an interesting blend of 37% Pinot Blanc, 22% Pinot Gris, 21% Riesling, 18% Gewürztraminer, and 2% Muscat – sounds delicious.  As soon as I have access to the Brooks images, I will update this post. The images should be available shortly.

Also heard from Toby Hill of  Phillips Hill.  I receive a smaller allocation from Phillips Hill (my choice) so will get three bottles in the next few days.  All Pinot Noirs — the 2007 Oppenlander Vineyard, the 2007 Toulouse Vineyard(my favorite) and a new one, the 2007 Corby.   Phillips Hill is a fairly low-production winery in the Anderson Valley of Northern California.  I fell in love with their Pinot Noir when I tried the 2005 Toulouse Vineyard release.  They only made 150 cases of the Toulouse in 2005, and 175 cases in 2007.   It continues to be one of my all-time favorite Pinots.   I debated joining this club, but at 3 bottles twice a year, I can manage it and I can still order more with a nice discount as a club member.

….

….

….

Tablas Creek has also notified me of their upcoming club shipment.   It will include one bottle of their elite flagship red, the 2006 Panoplie.  This wine is only made in great years and available only to club members. Also included is a bottle of 2006 Cote de Tablas, a blend primarily of Grenache, but with 11% Syrah, 9% Mourvedre, and 8% Counoise.  Four additional wines are included in this six-bottle shipment, they are: a bottle of their  2006 Grenache, their first ever production of a varietal Grenache;  a bottle of 2008 Rose, a Mourvedre based wine; a bottle of their 2007 Grenache Blanc, another 100% varietal; and last but not least, a bottle of their 2007 Roussanne – only 350 cases made and scored in the 90’s by both Parker and Tanzer (for what that’s worth).  Needless to say, I have never had a Tablas Creek wine that I did not consider excellent to outstanding so we are looking forward to receiving this shipment.

Oregon has become one of my most favored domestic wine regions (Brooks, Chehalem, Amity ….) and Chehalem is one of my all time favorite producers.  While they make some excellent Pinot Noir, my most favorite are their Pinot Gris and their Chardonnay – they are to die for in my opinion.  The Chehalem shipment will include four wines:  The 2006 Reserve Pinot Noir, the 2006 Ian’s Reserve Chardonnay,  the 2007 Reserve Pinot Gris (yum yum) and a bottle of 2007 Corral Creek vineyards Riesling (only 107 cases produced).  From past experience, I can tell you that the Reserve Pinot Gris and the Ian’s Reserve Chardonnay are outstanding.

That’s four up-coming shipments from my five wine clubs.  So, where’s the fifth — well Amity is a little  more laid-back than the others.  They may not be the first to arrive, but when they do arrive I fully expect them to be great.  Very “cool” wines from the cool folks at Amity Vineyards in Amity, Oregon.

I’ve often thought about cutting back on this “Wine Club” business, but when it gets down to paring the list, I just can’t seem to make the cut.  They all produce excellent wine and they represent our current favorites, so I’m going to hang in there for another year – if one of them dissappoints, slash they’re gone — but I don’t expect that to happen.

Posted by DRHamp as Wine-Wine-Wine at 10:04 AM MST

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A few weeks back I made a post on our current family dog situation.  We lost Toby this past June and now that the holidays are behind us and we are somewhat settled, we’ve intensified the search for a companion for JoJo.   We had finally reached the conclusion that we would go back to the local Golden Retriever Rescue organizations locally and see what we could come up with.  Our requirements were fairly broad, but we did have some preferences.  We preferred a female, somewhere between two and five years of age. 

Well, meet Allie Mae, a very pretty and well mannered red Golden Retriever.  Allie will be four years old this month.  She has a beautiful head as you can see in the profile picture below – otherwise, physically, she would definitely not win any breed conformance beauty contests.  She is unusually tall and lanky, with rounded hind quarters much like a German Sheppard.

She is AKC registered and was bred locally.  She was released to the rescue organization  by her owners and apparently had been bounced around to several family members.  She had obviously received good care, just not a lot of love and attention.  The prior owners did invest in some obedience training and she does an excellent job with the basics of sit, down, come, and stay.  She is a dream on leash and Kay is really enjoying walks with her.  With Allie Mae’s tall lanky carriage, Kay is getting a good workout on their walks.

She is extremely mild mannered to the point of being submissive.  Part of that shyness seems to be a result of the new environment as she is gaining in confidence every day.

As with most rescue dogs, Allie Mae brings along some baggage, but surprisingly little.  She has a few apparenty minor health issues (hotspots & infected ears) but I’m confident those will clear up quickly with the treatment she is receiving and ongoing maintenance.

We know little of the details of her prior life, but it appears that while she was physically well taken care of – it appears that she received little love and attention.  She is very anxious to please and takes direction well.  She is very attentive, making good eye contact and learns very quickly.

There is always the question of compatibility with other dogs and in our case with JoJo.  As you can see in the picture at lower left — that’s not an issue.  While JoJo is a little old and frail to be physically playful companion, they are getting along well and I even think JoJo is enjoying the company.

JoJo, at twelve years of age probably won’t be with us a lot longer so we will be keeping our eyes open for Golden # seven and it is possible, if not likely, that we will have three dogs in the house for a period of time

Welcome Allie Mae, an absolute sweetheart.

Posted by DRHamp as We Love Dogs at 11:00 AM MST

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On Tuesday February 9, Amazon announced the second generation Kindle – called appropriately the Kindle 2.  On the surface, the changes appear to be somewhat subtle, but to us died-in-the-wool Kindle freaks the differences are significant.  The Kindle 2 is slightly larger than it’s predecessor, but thinner and lighter(by an ounce).  Here’s a picture of the two, side by side:  One on my major complaints with the original Kindle was the “Next Page” / “Prev Page” button placement.  Almost the whole right and left sides of the original Kindle were “Next Page” and “Prev Page” buttons which made it difficult to hold without inadvertently turning the page.  It took me several weeks, but I did adapt to in and eventually learned to hold it with the random page turns.  The Kindle 2 has smaller descreet buttons on each side and it should be much easier to hold without the unwanted page turns.

While the screen appears to be the same size, there is a major difference.  The Kindle 2 boasts 16 shades of gray where the original Kindle only could muster 4.   This improvement should yield sharper text and much crisper images.

New battery technology is supposed to provide 25% longer battery life.   Storage is increased to 2GB – seven times more than the original.  They say you can keep 1500 books on the new Kindle but who would really want to?  Page turns are supposedly 20% faster and I hadn’t noticed them being slow on the original Kindle.

Now here’s a new feature – the Kindle 2 can supposedly read every book, blog, and newspaper out loud to you at a variety of different speeds.  I’m curious to see how this really works.

The new Kindle uses the same wireless 3G network which continues to be fast, reliable, and Free.

So the release announcement was yesterday and I waited as long as I could to order one – yeah, I ordered it last night.  Now we will be a 2 Kindle family; I’ll have mine and Kay will have hers and what pushed me over the edge is confirmation that since the two kindles are under the same account, we can share books and other content between the two.  Hey, thet’s just like we’ve always done with paper backs.  Kay’s new Kindle ships on Feb 24 and I she should have it by the 26th (and free shipping).  I love Amazon!

Posted by DRHamp as Gadgets & Stuff at 3:16 PM MST

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Our friend Jill at  Domaine547 included a bottle of 2007 Pere Guardiola Empordà Floresta, a Spanish white blend in our last order.  While we didn’t necessarily fall in love with the wine, we did like it and it has an excellent QPR (Quality-Price ratio).

What stood out for us with this wine is its makeup – 50% Macabeo, 42% Chardonnay, and 8% Muscat.   Why is this special to us — it’s  the Macabeo, a variety we had not had before and it becomes #82 on our quest for qualification in the Wine Century Club.

Posted by DRHamp as Wine-Wine-Wine at 10:32 PM MST

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