SAILING, METAL FATIGUE OR JUST A COINCIDENCE?

It was a busy week at work for the General, so I let my blogging lag a bit. I will endeavor to dedicate at least a few hours per week to writing. I also feel strongly that if I have nothing to say, I should do just that: say nothing. That being said, I do have a few updates on the happenings at this magical place just East of the Equator.

Last Sunday (8/2), Deirdre's colleague Dorothy invited us to go sailing with them for a few hours. Dorothy and her husband Daryl own a 30 foot Catalina. The weather was perfect for sailing, with a strong southern wind, little to no chop in Lake Muskegon, and a clear blue sky. We drove to Muskegon where they keep their boat, and soon after we arrived, we got on board and left for a few hours of sailing. Growing up, I learned to sail at the Detroit Yacht Club, and I kept sailing on and off, ever since. I suppose my 22 years in the Navy helped a little, too! Dorthy and Daryl's son, Braden asked me to take the helm, which I happily obliged. In addition to ourselves, there were some of Deirdre's co-workers aboard, and none of them had any experience sailing, so it was up to me and Braden to keep on an "even keel" and allow the land lubbers to enjoy themselves.

Most of the 90 minutes or so we spent sailing were uneventful. With the strong southern winds, I was able to guide the boat to a respectable 4-5 knot speed through the water, and only once did things get a little interesting. I was in a broad reach heading west when a gust of wind filled the sails and in a matter of a few seconds, the sailboat went from having 0 degrees of heel to 25 degrees of starboard heel. This gust was unexpected, and my aforementioned land lubber passengers were a little startled when the boat suddenly heeled over. I steered the bow into the wind to right the sailboat, and as quickly as the heel came, it went. However, it was fun to see the look on the faces of the people in the cockpit with me as a few of them thought that the boat was going to capsize. I tacked back and forth a few times, gave Braden some lessons about the Nautical Rules of the Road and generally had a great time. We returned to the boat slip, and we then settled in for some grilled burgers and conversation. It was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon and evening.

The next issue of the week had to deal with our corkscrew. On Wednesday night, I made Chicken Cordon Bleu, and I wanted to serve a bottle of Chardonnay with the meal. I cut the foil off the top of the bottle and proceeded to work the corkscrew into the cork so I could pull it out. While I was inserting the corkscrew into the cork, I noticed that the corkscrew seemed to be twisting in an unexpected way. Undaunted, I then tried to extract the cork, but instead of removing it, the corkscrew broke off inside the cork. Thankfully, I had a back up corkscrew, so the cork was removed without incident a few moments later and we enjoyed the Chardonnay with our meal.

However, I was deeply troubled by the failure of the corkscrew. Was this failure attributable to operator error, metal fatigue from use, or was it all just a cosmic coincidence? Upon further review, I determined that the corkscrew failed due to metal fatigue. The corkscrew failed due to repeated cyclic loading. Of course, I needed to find a scapegoat, so during our visit to see Amy at Art of the Table, I confronted her with the failed corkscrew and said to her, "It is because of all of the wonderful wines you have sold to us that my corkscrew failed!" We all got quite a laugh out of it, and Amy handed me a brand spanking new corkscrew, emblazoned with the Art of the Table logo. All in all, it has been a good week.

New Kitchen, Art of the Table and other ramblings...

We are literally counting down the days until the professionals at HWC begin the demolition and then construction of our new kitchen. As you can see by the counter to the right of this post, we are just a scant week away from the start of the project. Last week, I went on line and ordered all of our new appliances, using the GE Employee Store to purchase a range, fridge, dishwasher, microwave and a beverage fridge. Needless to say, life will get a little messy and challenging for us for the 3-4 weeks it will take for the new kitchen to be finished. Dee and I are expecting to be eating a lot of take out and visiting local eateries for most of the month of August. Thus, I am trying to make the most of the days remaining, cooking meals at each opportunity. Last night was no exception. Dee and I went to Sam's Club to fill up her car (the last time we got gas for her car was on May 28th!) and to look for some bargains. We came upon a three pack of ribeye steaks that were on sale, so we snapped that package right up.

So the next question facing us was what kind of wine should we get for the meal? Dee received a gift certificate for the Art of the Table for some freelance photography work she did a few weeks ago. As I have posted here in the past, Art of the Table is a favorite place to spend our disposable income. When we got there, our friend Amy was working and she said to Dee, "We had a wine tasting the other night and I realized that I should have called you! We will not make that mistake again." It is nice to be missed.

We told Amy what we were planning on making for dinner on Saturday night and she recommended a Spanish wine called Vizcarro. She did not need to tell us twice. We snapped up a bottle of the 2004 vintage for our meal. About an hour before I fired up the grill, I seasoned the steaks with a little salt & pepper, plus some pressed garlic. I covered the steaks with some foil, cracked an oat pop, and waited for the seasoning to do its magic with the meat. Half an hour later, I opened the wine, decanted it and waited for the the process of oxidation to bring out the best in this vintage. About two beers later, I prepared a fire and put the steaks the grill. Sixteen or so minutes after the steaks went onto the grill, they were done and after a few minutes of resting, we began our meal. To say that the wine was perfect would be an understatement. This potent potable was smooth as silk and stood up to the ribeyes like a champ.

The morale of this story is simple: Life is too short to drink cheap wine... or beer!