May 11, 2023 Lunch - East Ocean. Drinks - Los Poblanos and Vara Winery, Dinner - PPI Sautéed Salmon and Rice with diced Asparagus.

May 11, 2023 Lunch - East Ocean. Drinks - Los Poblanos and Vara Winery, Dinner - PPI Sautéed Salmon and Rice with diced Asparagus.

I road 2 miles on the bike at 4;30. 

I ate a bowl of granola for breakfast with yogurt and milk, and strawberries and blueberries.

Then at 11:00 I drove the mini to East Ocean for lunch with Robert.  We discussed a knotty real estate issue while consuming a pile of Fried Tofu with Mixed Vegetables, which is the dish we always order because Robert is a vegetarian.

I then went to the post office to post the default notice I prepared in the morning and bought several sheets of stamps. I make a distinction between sheets with duplications and those with no multiples on them.

I arrived home at 2:00 just in time to discover I had had another bad day in the Market.

I worked for a while and then tried to rest but was unable to get to sleep.

At 4:00 Suzette arrived and we drove to Los Poblanos to join Peg and Shiela for drinks at 4:30 and to discuss aging. I received a call from Rahim that his transaction was going forward, which was great news and returned to the table with the girls.  We mostly talked of personal antidotes and not the nitty gritty stuff of adjusting to aging but it was fun to get outdoors for a drink with friends.

At 6:30 we parted and drove to Costco. I waited in the Highlander while Suzette dashed in and bought fresh trout for the smokes trout we will serve with tomorrow’s dinner.

We then drove to Vara Winery to pick up our quarterly allotment.  This time I changed the allotment to include 2 brut sparkling, 2 rose sparkling, and 2 Grenache roses. Vara imports most of its grape juice from Spain and ferments and bottles it here, although since Laurent Gruet has joined Vara, he has started making some wines with American grown grapes, such as the Brut.

We tasted the newly released Chardonnay and it was terrible.

I then noticed that there were three Brandie’s and I ordered a flight of the three Brandie’s.

The wine maker who served us told me they do not age the brandied. Instead they blend stuff with them and treat them to develop an aged taste.

The first clear brandy did no pot seem to have any taste. It was like a joven tequila.  The second Alambic brandy tasted like a decent young un-aged Brandty, and the third Spanish brandy tasted musty on the front end and had a bitter after taste.  I was afraid to ask what they added to the Spanish brandy.

We then drove home. I was hungry so I ate two slices of brie and poured us glasses of the Chianti left in the corked three liter bottle. Suzette thought it had begun to oxidize. I did not.

Suzette whipped up a wonderful sauté of some of the PPI teriyaki salmon, PPI rice with seaweed and 1 or two fresh diced asparagus which we washed down with the Chianti.

We arrived home at 8:00 so I turned on Midsomer Mysteries and we watched it with and after dinner.

Later Suzette fetched the gluten free chocolate cake and we had a slice of it.

We both went to bed at 10:00 and I slept through the night until 7:25 a.m., a new record.

 I am wearing compression socks and elevating my legs at night, which seems to be reducing the swelling in my right calf.  Suzette opines that there may have been a tiny clot that is working it’s way out.

Bon Appetit