Categotry Archives: Entertainment

Sulfite Free Wine SUCKS!

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Today I educated myself on sulfite free wines, and I think I’ll pass on buying any in the future. We don’t have any allergies in our family to the stuff, so no need to drink it anyways.

Side note, one of the interesting things I learned is that wine has less sulfites than most dried fruit.

Main reason is because we maintain a pretty large collection of wine at any given time. Until today, I didn’t realize the stuff only has about a 6 month shelf life, even when it’s stored properly. And you have no idea how it’s been stored before you buy it. So, every time we buy sulfite free, we never drink it before it goes bad. I opened another bottle tonight with “suck your lips right off your face” pucker power. It’s even hard to keep the stuff around for guests with allergies who drop by unexpected.

Yeah, going forward, BYO sulfite-free wine to my house . . . and one with sulfites for Michael and me.

Twitt

Wine, Women & Shoes

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Today I did a search for wine women shoes and found an organization I just had to volunteer to help. It was kismet! Wine, Women & Shoes has been around for 8 years and I had no idea they existed. What a great way for women to get together and do some good for the community.

Now in its eighth year, the WW&S® team has produced over 120 events, which have helped net an astounding $12 million for various women’s and family-related causes.

I’m so excited about helping this organization I might wear heels while I sip wine and cook dinner tonight. I doubt the hubby will object.

Oh, and I got to thinking about a name for a charity for Beer, Men & . . . Hmmm? How might you name it?

Twitt

My New Toy, Vivino

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This week I’m sharing my thoughts about my new toy, Vivino. Jeff Hollar turned me on to it Monday. What exactly is Vivino? This video explains it.

The app was easy enough to set up and I added 7 wines right away. At first it was so much fun I had to stop myself before I went through the entire wine cabinet.

The app allows you to manage wines from both your phone and the web, a plus. I downloaded the free app, so what I can do on my phone is limited at the moment. I’ve promised myself I’ll try other apps before buying one.

Taking pictures of wine label is a snap. It then scans the label and, in most cases, finds the wine in their database. If it doesn’t find the exact wine, it’s easy enough to change the year and type, or you can search by text for the right wine. The wine info page provides a decent amount of information about the wine and plenty of places to add your own thoughts and opinions. Tonight I learned about our wine choice before we opened it, paired it with the right meat and chilled it to the best temperature. Doing a happy dance. I’m not overly happy with the way you view lists of wines on your phone. I want more flexibility to create my own lists for shopping trips and parties. I guess maybe I could use the wish list. There is a nice section for wine pairing.

You can do a lot more with wine on the app than on the website. Viewing the wines on the website is easy enough though. They provide a list of your wines and the ability to sort them by categories. If a wine is missing information, it will drop off a category sort though. Plus, there is no heading for certain categories, so you can’t quickly find a grouping of a certain grape. The information about wines on the website is equivalent to the app, plus there’s additional vineyard and winery information with a map. I also like that you can look up a varietal and get suggestions. This wasn’t accessible from a wine page on the app. Maybe it’s in the Pro version.


Here’s a link to my page on Vivino at http://www.vivino.com/users/WinO-Wendy. They originally set my account up with the extension wendy-ho, which luckily I was allowed to change.

Last but not least, I have to add a link to The Ultimate List of Beer Apps for Blaze and our beer drinking friends—even though I’m pretty sure Blaze still uses a candlestick style phone.

Twitt

Werewolves & Wine & Beer & Coffee

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So sorry I’ve missed about a month of wine posts. I’ve been mismanaging my time lately. Time management is something I know so well I could write a book on it, but you gotta actually follow the practice. So I can’t even come up with a good excuse.

Werewolf with Wne by Michele Irving, an artist who works mainly with fabric, combining this with embroidery, paint and beads.

Anyways, if you’re on Twitter, you know that every day seems to have a theme or two or three. Being a writer, we try to support each other with #WriterWednesday promotions, although most just spam the twitter world with their own stuff. Don’t get me started.

There’s also #WineWednesday, obviously one of my favorite hashtags to search for on Wednesdays. Brings up some really cool blogs about wine I’ll save for another week’s post.

And . . . there’s #WerewolfWednesday. So I had to ask, what do you get when you combine wine with werewolves. First thing I found was the cute pin to the left. I thought about ordering one until I saw the $95 price tag. Seriously, these should be mass produced for $10. She’d be a millionaire. Well, maybe.

The next thing to catch my eye was a wine label. YAY! I love that wine makers have gone wild with labels, so why not name a wine ‘Werewolf.’ Heck, there’s a Vampire label. Comes in the usual Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio varietals. Perfect choices for any Halloween party is my thought.

The bad news is I found this post on Werewolves.com about the damage to the liver from excessive drinking of alcohol. Man Turned Into Werewolf From Drinking Too Much Wine.

“He developed one of many different varieties of porphyria after being exposed to sunlight for a long period of time on vacation with his wife. At first, he thought it was just tan. Then his fingernails, and the skin on his hands started er.. coming off. Not to mention the excessive hair growth.”

Turns out there are other beverages dedicated to werewolves. Blaze will be happy to hear about Newcastle Werewolf, although it was only available in 2011. Maybe they’ll bring it back.

“Legend has it that a beast roams the moors and plains of Newcastle Upon Tyne. It’s part man, part wolf, and more than a little wild— the perfect inspiration for a Limited Edition ale. Newcastle Werewolf comes at you with a dark, startling aroma, a roasty flavor, and a final taste of hops that leaves you howling for more.”

And another one of my favorite hot beverages, that I can’t do without every morning, has a Wicked Wolf label by Reven’s Brew Gourmet. It’s more fairy tale but I’m counting it here as one I’ve gotta try.

“Got big eyes, big ears, big teeth? Are you cross-dressing? No one will notice when you serve this blend of highly select and exotic origins.

Intense, vibrant flavor in a balanced cup with a superb finish. Superlative after-meal coffee with awesome applications as accompaniment to chocolate desserts! Also available in Certified Organic form. Dark Roast.”

And speaking of coffee, it’s only 8:00 A.M., so I think I’ll go get me another cup.

Twitt

A Chance Encounter on Twitter

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I’ve been trying to decide on another feature for the blog and the lightbulb went on this morning.

If you spend any amount of time on Twitter or Facebook, you’re inundated daily with random posts of ‘try this INSERT PRODUCT’ whether it be books, films, or other products, which I’ve learned to gloss over like most people. I’m terrible about only paying attention to recommendations from my own little world, as I believe word of mouth from trusted friends is still the best method of networking. Doesn’t stop all the people with something to sell from flooding social media with spam they post themselves or allow some app to post to their account from someone/something elses account—scary!

I’ve decided to lighten up and think of all the advertising as displays in a shop window. Once a week I’ll search using a hashtag and randomly choose a tweet that catches my eye. I’ll follow the link and try out whatever the tweeter’s advertising, then provide an honest review of product. Let me repeat, honest. This may get me in serious trouble. ;-)

This week I chose the #SciFi hashtag because we opened up to Science Fiction submissions over at Visionary Press last week. Here’s the random tweet.

Well-developed characters. Unique paranormal twist RED NIGHT by Michele Callahan #SciFi #Romance http://amzn.to/JrdbQ8 

Red Night ((Book 1) Timewalker Chronicles)

Deception…Luke Lawson is walking into a trap. Brilliant, dedicated, and haunted by strange visions, he guards his mistake well, determined to eliminate anyone or anything that threatens to unleash…

This book is only around a hundred pages. I bought the book, will read it by next Monday and post my review along with the next random tweet I find. This should be fun!

Twitt

To Wine or Not To Wine

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I’ve had two down days of feeling like a cold or flu is coming on. So I’ve had to contemplate canceling Wine Wednesday in between popping zink tablets. Then, in my cloudy state of mind, I wondered if a glass or two will actually be harmful or helpful. After all, wine is good for the heart. Off I went to Google and found this.

It has been found that those who drink a glass of red wine daily are about 20% less likely to contract the flu. It is believed that this may be related to the vitamins and antioxidants, like resveratrol, present in red wine (but largely absent in white or blush wines). Although alcohol tends to depress the immune system, drinking a glass or two of red wine when sick with a cold or flu is probably not detrimental and may prove beneficial. Other studies have shown a daily glass of red wine is beneficial to the heart, and lowers the odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other types of age-related dementia (probably due to the resveratrol). Excessive alcohol use, however, is definitely detrimental to health.

I found a number of other articles on the subject, agreeing that red wine can help combat a virus, especially a cold. One article said a study showed that 14 glasses of wine a week decreases your changes of getting a cold by 40%. Well, I’m a wino, but that’s even too much for me to drink. So, HELL YEAH, we’re having red wine tonight!

Twitt

Sexy Wine Lables

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As Valentines day quickly approaches and considering my hubby pulled out a bottle of The Watchers from Fetish Wines for tonight, this post was a given. Hmmm . . . I wonder what he has planned this evening?

Let’s face it, we’re all suckers for a sexy wine label whether it’s the name of the wine or the picture on front. I can’t argue with all the articles I’ve read today, sex sells! And so I searched the Internet for the best of the best of the sexy wine labels and here are just a few that I found.

This is about the funniest one I’ve found today. I’m assuming they’re talking about the way the grapes hang on the vine, right?

I’ve seen this label everywhere. Who doesn’t appreciate pin up girls?

Gentlemen, I’d be a little careful of what this ladies got between her legs.

My passion for pulp fiction would have me snatching this one off the shelf.

And just in case you’re not stimulating enough of your senses while watching porn.

I could go on all night with this post, but we’re almost finished with the Fetish wine and I’m getting the, “are you done with that post yet” look from the hubby. I’m off to put on a pair of boots similar to the ones on this label.

But before I zip up the boots, I’d like to include one sexy beer label for Blaze McRob. Considering all the hard work he does for the Press, I think he deserves a screaming Double Wench tonight.

I’d like to recognize a few of the websites that did a much better job than me, talking about these wines and beers. I suggest you check out these articles for more of the saucy labels:

Is It Ever Too Early for Wine??

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This is going to be a short post this week, because I want to hear from your instead.

I had spent most of today editing The Courier and other Visionary Press authors, which was a bit tiring, so I opened a bottle at 4:00 today. As I twisted the stelvin closure of the 2008, The Footbolt Shiraz by d’Arenberg, I remembered it’s Wine Wednesday and next thought, what to write about.

We try really hard to wait until 5:00 P.M. to open the wine, but some days . . . . I’m sure you understand what I’m saying. So I’m opening this up to all the readers this week.

From special events to stressful events,
share your stories about the times
you’ve opened the bottle early.

Any liquor type applies to this one. I’ll add mine to the comments as well. No surprise, quite a few come to mind right off the bat.

By the way, the wine I’m drinking tonight won a gold metal at the 2010 China Wine Challenge. It’s definitely worthy.

 

Twitt

Blogs on the Go

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Recently I posted that I cleaned up my NetNewsWire feed on my Mac. I had subscribed to way to many blogs that I wasn’t reading, and half of them were not being kept up by bloggers anymore. My buddy Blaze McRob joined the discussion and it got me to thinking. Why not move my blog reading experience to my phone and Nook.

I went out to do a Google search for RSS readers for Android phones, my cell phone preference. I’m not surprised that most of the readers were related to Google Reader. Well, there’s a reason I use NetNewsWire. I hate the Google Reader and really don’t want to go back to maintaining it. Never the less, I checked out the various mobile Google Readers for phones and found that the only one available that I might consider, PressReader, is not compatible with my phone’s Android version. *SIGH* I happened to have lunch with a friend that day and she suggested Zite, also incompatible with my phone. **SIGH**

So I looked instead for reader apps for the Nook and found two: Pulse and Taptu. I then found out they are both available for Android phones including my Android version. YAY! I installed them both on both devices and was pretty happy with what I saw . . . at first.

What I love most is that both readers started me out with a whole bunch of news feeds based on a wide variety of categories. I then added and deleted a few feeds easily enough. I was happy to find that they sync up between my phone and Nook. And they both integrate with social media quite nicely. What I wasn’t sure about was which interface I prefer. So I spent some time playing around with both and comparing the two:

  • Both segregate feeds into categories. Pulse has a main page with a menu that lists all your categories. You have to select a category to see the articles. Taptu opens to shelves of categories with the latest articles under each. You have to scroll up/down and left/right to see all the content. Personally I prefer the menu list of categories, so Pulse won this one. Besides that, managing and merging the categories on Taptu is frustrating, because new sources/feeds I added wouldn’t always merge into categories for various reasons. Managing categories is a bit frustrating on both. I’ll get over it as I better learn navigaton. I want more flexibility to manage and name my own categories though, like I have in NetNewsWire.
  • Viewing feeds is completely different on both. This is where I had the hardest time deciding which viewer to choose. When you select a category on Pulse, it opens a page with rows for each individual news source that links to the latest articles. The pages are easily manipulated and you can order the news sources from top to bottom however you like, big plus. On Taptu, like I was saying about the categories, you scroll up and down and side to side through merged news sources on the main page. Articles are ordered according to publication date and viewing settings are limited. In my opinion, both need to evolve to allow toggling between each view type, because I can’t say I like one more than the other. I found that when I’m mobile and looking for quick reads, I go to Taptu. When I’m at home and leisurely reading, prefer to I browse Pulse.
  • Reading an article is slightly different on each. Pulse displays most of an article’s content for you, and if it doesn’t, it has a built in browser to go to the source’s website. I like this! Taptu sends you to the device’s default web browser. Don’t like this. Also, some blog posts on Taptu have all the text merged into one giant paragraph. A bug I’ll have to report.
  • Managing settings on Pulse is a bit less frustrating than on Taptu. Pulse is buggy on the Nook though. I quickly gave up and manage all the settings on my phone instead. Nice thing is changing settings on one device changes it on the other device. Although this can be a drawback as well.

So which one did I choose? I don’t know. I’m still not sure which I prefer to read blogs on, or if I’ll even read blogs on either reader. I’m off to check out a few of the Google Reader apps. Yes, you heard me right.

Twitt

Back to Reading Blogs

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Last year I not only neglected my own blogs, but reading the many blogs I’ve subscribed to over the past several years using  my preferred viewer, NetNewsWire.

I opened NetNewsWire for the first time in months and what a mess. I had no idea who most of the blogs belonged to. More than half of the bloggers hadn’t posted in months themselves. So I did a little house cleaning and unsubscribed to 90% of the blogs.

Then I thought, Why did I do that?

I’m now searching for new blogs to read. Got any suggestions?

 

 

Twitt
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