What to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon

On Saturday, January 29th, 2011, I had a blast pouring wine for the Edmonds Winery Release party for their 2008 Bentley and Syrah.  Bentley is a scrumptious red blend of 82% Merlot and 18% Malbec named after the winery dog a very friendly black Cockapoo. Bentley was there and greeted all the folks who ventured out in the rain to experience these new wines.  The winemaker, Doug Petersen, made his world famous Chili that really warmed the soul. The 2008 Syrah is a 100% Syrah from Destiny Ridge in Horse Heaven Hills area of eastern Washington.  Both wines are ready to drink and full bodied.  To celebrate this release May Palmer “Queen of Ivory Soul” belted out a 2 hour set and kept the crowd happy with her music. The crowd ranged from regulars and wine club members to folks who had just read about it that day in the Everett Herald.  I was also honored to meet the video blogger Antoine Pin and founder of Underground Winos of Seattle.  Author Peter Ghavami and his wife also visited; his book "Lean, Agile and Six Sigma Information Technology Management" is an IT Manager’s bible. Over all it was a great way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon and this free event was enjoyed by many.

Don’t Bother,

                I had seen quite a bit of hype about one of the newest Asian restaurants in Marysville, Asian 1. Tonight the Twidow and I decided to give it a try, not our brightest idea it seems. The young man that greeted us was very pleasant, but sat us in the bar area when the place was almost empty. Menus were provided that were jam packed with lots of small Asian style print with very poor lighting. As we tried to grab the best light and squint at the menu, our server showed up and seemed in a bit of a rush. We were torn between two Thai style soups and were told the only difference between the two was coconut milk. We chose the one with the coconut milk. This bought us a little more time to try to read the menu. The Twidow chose the Yellow Curry Chicken and I went with the Spicy Basil Chicken. The soup was the highlight of the evening; the entrees were so sweet they could almost have been deserts. The Curry was the better of the two, but only slightly. The Spicy Basil Chicken was so sweet it overshadowed all other flavors and the chicken was like breaded and fried chicken nuggets not at all impressive. The brown rice had an off taste and the white rice was tasteless. Our server passed by once asking how things tasted as I had a mouth full and did not even pause so I could answer. When she picked up my almost full plate, she did not even ask if there was something wrong. This is one place I will not be back to.