I'm Not A Connoisseur: Middle Sister Mischief Maker

Scroll down to listen to Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood before you read. The last half is the best part, but it wouldn't be worth it without listening the whole way through.

Rating: 74/100

Tonight I'm taking down some of a bottle of Middle Sister Mischief Maker, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon* from California. Middle Sister is specifically from Santa Rosa. I somewhat regret buying this wine as it seems a little emasculating. Unfortunately I try to keep my price point at about $10 a bottle, because I'm cheap. As a result, when I buy at my very local liquor shop, the selection becomes very limited. I do however enjoy Cabernet Sauvignon, so I'll just ignore the femininity of the label and get on to the wine.

Never Let Me Go Left Me Wanting

After reading such raving reviews, and seeing phrases like "Edge-of-your-seat mystery," I suppose I was going into this expecting Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro to be a gripping read. That's not what I got at all. It's about some kids brought up in a boarding school, and slowly and methodically more and more details are revealed by the author. Very methodically.

I wouldn't say I struggled to get through this, because I read it relatively quickly relative to myself. I thought it was a little too drawn out. The beginning was quite slow and there wasn't any quick connection to the characters, but overall Ishiguro did a good job of introducing a new element at just the right time to keep you reading. By "just the right time" I really mean if it was any later, I would have been pretty frustrated.

I kept reading though and by the end of the book it feels as if you grew up with the characters and it was a more rewarding experience than I would have guessed I would have had after the first 50 pages or so. I suppose would give this about a 3 of 5. Honestly though, it wasn't much mystery as to what was going on, and it really didn't seem that profound. It was a decent read, and left me touched by what these characters endured, but not to any notable power.

I'm Not a Connoisseur: Ironstone Old Vine Zinfandel

Rating: 84/100

I'm Not A Connoisseur: The Velvet Devil

Rating: 50/100

As The Tomato Grows

Tomatoes. What are they? Fruit? Botanically. Vegetable? Culinarily. Delicious? Absolutely. Sliced on a plate with a little bit of salt and pepper, they make a tremendous light snack. It is something you can feel good about. So why not grow and harvest your own? Well that is exactly what Maggie wanted to do. And so we did. Since we don't have a good place to grow them, we tried the hanging growers. We got a couple of tomato plants from Whole Foods and a few bags of soil and went to work. My pick was named "Jaga." Maggie's was "Big Rainbow." Planting was a little bit of a chore, but we eventually got them situated in the potters and hung them on a couple of screws that were already drilled into the beam on the ceiling of our patio. Then we played the waiting game.