Well, I’m finally leaving my beloved Spanish Reds for a bit and turning to Italy. As usual, my wine selections often reflect my future or recent travels, and Italy may be next wine country on the agenda. Historically if I drink Italian wines, I gravitate to Chianti wines (minus any fava beans of course!)
Review: Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen
As a computer geek, I’ve never been much of a “pen” person. If I wanted to write something, I would type it on my laptop, that’s why they invented keyboards. However, in this fast-paced, email/social media world in which we live, I’ve found that I needed to slow down and think about what I was writing. My already meager writing skills were atrophying because I was writing too fast.
Discovering Stockholm
I recently attended a business conference in Stockholm, Sweden. I had never been to Stockholm before. Neither had my wife, and since the trip overlapped our wedding anniversary, she decided to come with me. I extended my trip a couple of days once the conference was over so we could explore the city of Stockholm, often called “the Capital of Scandinavia”.
Raul Pérez Bierzo Ultreia St. Jacques
Note: I haven’t written one of these wine tasting posts in a while. It isn’t that I’m not drinking wine (perish the thought!) but we have been consuming a lot of the Baron de Ley stock we have. It has become my wife’s “go-to” wines of choice. However, we finally broke out of that “rut”, but we still haven’t left Spain. Instead of Rioja Tempranillo, we moved to Mencia grape wine from Bierzo region with the Raul Pérez Bierzo Ultreia St. Jacques.
Review of the Viking River Cruise
I HATE Cruises
I’m not a fan of the concept of an ocean cruise. It goes against my idea about what travel is about. In my mind, travel is about going to different places, interacting with people, and experiencing things unique to that location. The thought of being packed in a huge ship with 5000 of my fellow citizens, surrounded 80% of the time by the same view (water, lots of water; as far as the eye can see), was enough to send an introvert like me screaming into the abyss. In addition, I also worry about that one “Typhoid Mary” passenger or crew member who can turn the whole voyage into “Nightmare on the S.S. Rotavirus”.
Review of Leuchtturm1917 A5 notebook
I have been a computer geek most of my adult life. There are few things in my professional life that a computer couldn’t make better, easier and faster. However, during the holidays late last year, my wife and I stumbled upon a small ink and paper shop in Asheville, NC. On a lark, we each decided to purchase an entry level fountain pen. I immediately fell in love with the concept of writing with this pen. After decades of typing everything, the nostalgia of writing things down with a fountain pen, of taking time to compose my thoughts, became almost an obsession for me. I began handwriting meeting notes again, then I started journaling. All because of this darned, inexpensive fountain pen!