PlayOnLinux wizard install window-click to enlarge
A piece of software called Wine lets linux users run a small number of software applications that ordinarily require the Windows operating system. PlayOnLinux is a free application that puts an easy to follow wizard style interface on top of wine and contains some pre-installed scripts to help load a number of compatible applications.
Since our Mac got fried by a lightning pulse I’ve returned to using Linux Mint full time but did want to access our saved iTunes library. PlayOn Linux has enabled me to easily install a working version of iTunes on linux. I’ve even managed to get a legacy music composition prog installed and working.
So if anyone’s using linux on the desktop or on their netbook like I am and would rather install a few choice supported Windows applications for use directly within Linux rather than dual booting another OS or using virtualization technologies (the last two requiring a a legal installation OS disc and enough memory and hard space to accommodate the install) then I can heartily recommend looking to see if PlayOnLinux would suit your own needs.
Other alternatives are Wine-doors (though in need of an update with regard to the available application install scripts) and the commercial (paid for) Crossover Office from Codeweavers.
The big scary 4-0 is lurking, like a shadow in a dark corner. It is only weeks away, and I have spent considerable time deciding how I would like to mark the passing of such a milestone. My ultimate birthday wish, what I want more than anything is to spend it with my family, as they are the single most important things in my life and, without them, 40 would just be a number in the chronology of my life. The big day happens to fall on a Monday, and I’ll be damned if I’m working on my 40th birthday, so I’ve already requested it off….as a matter of fact, I requested it off last year when I realized I’d have a Monday birthday this year. It would be a blast if my entire family was off that day!
I’ve been setting goals for myself over the last few years, and really starting to dig into them this year. One of those was to run a half marathon by my 40th birthday. As I do not consider myself a runner, this is a rather impressive goal. I’ve started on it, and am now hooked. I ran my first 5K last weekend, and am looking ahead to more running, training, and races. I’m on track to do a 10K in late October, and cool off with a 5K the following week . I checked my training schedule and I will be ready to go for the half by 11/22/09…the day BEFORE my birthday.
How awesome is that?!? The downside is that there are no half marathons in Chicago on that day, nor near that day, nor near Chicago near that day. If I wait until 2010’s schedule, I will be in a new age bracket which, I suppose could be an advantage, but takes the “I ran a half marathon by my 40th birthday,” right out of the mix. So, for fun, I started looking to see if there were any half-marathons anywhere in Illinois. Nada, but according to Marathon Rookie, there is one the week before my birthday, on 11/15 through the vineyards in Paso Robles called the Wine Vine Run.
MMMmmmmm....fermented grapes......
My husband and I have developed quite a palette for wine. We changed our diets about a year ago and cut out the calories and carbs of beer. Shortly thereafter, Mike began working at a wine bar, so our exposure to, and love of wine increased vastly. We have a wonderful love affair with wine, particularly reds. So, how perfect is it that there is a race that begins and ends at a vineyard. Sure I have to fly to CA, but if I work a couple extra jobs I can probably come up with air fare and entry fee. Of course, I couldn’t bring my entire family which would be kind of stinky, but we could have a big bash when I get back.
Yes, yes. I do believe I have wished for one of the most ultimate 40th birthday wishes. Wine, half marathon before birthday, my husband, and heck….I know people in CA, maybe we could have a birthday party after I recover from passing out at the finish line….OOOOOOOHHHH…a birthday party AT THE VINEYARD!!!!! Let’s do it!
As I mentioned, the weather has turned a bit cooler, thankfully. I need a reprieve from the heat! Along with cool weather comes changing leaves, crisp apples, warm cider, and of course, glasses of Port by the fire. This evening we opened the 2006 Teldeschi Zinfandel Port from Dry Creek Valley, CA. I actually purchased this for my dad back in the spring when Matt and I visited Teldeschi again. Whenever we go to wine country I make a point to buy my dad some sort of Port as he loves the stuff! But he never wants to open the bottles when we aren’t visiting, so he had stockpiled a few we opened on our last trip to CT. I want to say I paid about $25 for this 375mL bottle, it had a real cork closure, and clocked in at 16.8% alcohol by volume…sometimes you see regular Zin clocking in at that or higher, so that’s pretty tame for a Port wine!
Everyone loved this bottle. On the nose it had raspberries, chocolate, vanilla, blackberries, and spice. In the mouth I found blackberries, black currants, black fruit, spice, raspberries, and chocolate. It’s really smooth and almost silky in the mouth and made for a perfect dessert on its own. I’ll have to get another bottle for dad next time we are out in CA!
Like almost everyone even when I buy a wine I’m pretty careful about what I spend. Not many wines worth spending between 30 and 40 € (50 bucks more less) but surely Cervaro della Sala Antinori is one of those wines that you can spend this amount. This wine is composed for 80% Chardonnay and 20% from Grechetto, a vine native to the Umbria. Shows a beautiful golden color. The nose is an explosion of scents ranging from notes of fresh citrus, vanilla and hazelnut, I think mainly due to the aging in cask, which however is well integrated into the complex olfactory. Has a full flavor and fruity but not cloying like many Chardonnays, well balanced, a great wine.
Do you still think the price is high? trust me it’s worth.
Calories in alcohol. Check the website for more information, and some extracts are shown below:
Pure alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, which is almost twice the calories of carbohydrate or protein (both contain about 4 calories per gram), but its not quite as bad as the calories in fat (9 calories per gram). Therefore, a standard drink that contains 14 grams of alcohol, will contain at least 98 calories. The difference in calories between these drinks is the result of their carb level.
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east amount of calories. But are there any diet or light wines available? Wines can be made light by decreasing either one or both sources of calories, that is alcohol or sugar. Most commonly, the calories are reduced by picking the grapes very early, before full maturity, or by removing the alcohol in a finished wine through a vacuum distillation process.
A typical example is White Lie by Beringer Blass (which is marketed specifically to women). Beringer Blass developed a unique technique for making this Californian wine that involved harvesting the grapes earlier in the picking season when they have lower sugar content (brix) and fermenting the juice all the way to dryness before blending. This technique, dubbed Early Season and trademarked by Beringer Blass, results in a wine that tastes crisp and fruity but is also low in sugar, naturally making it low in alcohol and calories.
A more recent example is Slender Wines by Chateau Thomas Winery of Indiana (that’s right Indiana!). This line of diet wines (white, blush and red) was recently included in the 81st Annual Academy Awards Oscar Baskets, and at $10 per bottle, it’s very high-end indeed. Its claim to fame: “The World’s Only Naturally-Sweetened Sugar-Free Wine”. Slender Wine is sweetened with Zerose, a natural non-caloric sweetener that has no calories, no carbs, no fats and apparently no aftertaste (or just taste?). But, at a healthy 12% alcohol it’s at least 100 calories per standard serving. This wine is the brain child of Dr. Charles Thomas, a no-longer practicing Obstetrician-Gynecologist, and is targeted at women (surprise!) and diabetics.
Through the little I’ve read/watched about keeping a wine journal, I’ve learned that marking down the vintage (year) of the wine is just as important as noting the winery and kind of wine you drank. Also, it doesn’t hurt to put down where you drank it with and with whom. Wine, like food, is just as much about what’s around the table as what’s on it.
So here we go. My first wine entered into my digital wine journal comes all the way from Beamsville, Ontario in the Niagara region. Please be gentle, I don’t speak “wine.”
Cave Spring
Chenin Blanc (Estate Bottled)
2007
We first had this wine at Oyster Boy more than a year ago. We were celebrating our first anniversary, I think. This may have made it special, but it’s also the first (and so far, the only) white wine my partner and I both love. She doesn’t like sweet wines and I dislike anything very dry, but this Chenin Blanc was the perfect balance.
Notes: Sweet like honey at first, and smooth, not very acidic which I think gives it a nice, soft mouth feel.
After the dinner, I looked up the wine online. I was sad to discover the bottle is only available at restaurants and at the winery. We returned to Oyster Boy a second time and ordered the Chenin Blanc but our meal was far less enjoyable. Despite our favourite wine, we decided not to return. Thankfully, Cave Spring is just an hour and a half (with traffic) from Toronto. We stopped in to pick up a couple of bottles last month. We’re done with bottle number one, but we’re saving the second for a special occasion. I just hope my taste buds can wait.
New term: As you can see from the photo above, Cave Spring’s Chenin Blanc is estate bottled. This means 100% of the grapes used come from vineyards controlled (but not necessarily owned) by the winery, in this case, Cave Spring. Cave Spring describes its estate bottled wines:
In addition, to ensure that our Estate Bottled wines display power, purity and elegance, considerable focus is put on using fruit from some of our oldest vines, planted as far back as 1974.
Questions: Do you like Chenin Blanc wines? Can you recommend one you think I might like?
And no, tonight I don’t mean a Dairy Queen! I’ve been enjoying some frozen fruit this week, specifically grapes and now cherries. Girlfriend and her addiction turned me on to the cherries
Last week’s produce pact worked out well, and I ran out of fresh goodies on Friday. Although I ate more fresh produce, I also had too much other food Overeating at dinner out, throwing in a DQ Blizzard, and drinking a lot probably counteracted the good feelings that eating produce created :| Anywho…
This month’s Gourmet Magazine had a great roasted cauliflower recipe. I didn’t add the kalamata vinaigrette, but all was well I don’t like the cauli raw (the man prefers it raw), and roasted is now my favorite. Give ‘er a try! I like how this recipe called for the cauli to be sliced into big 1″ sections, rather than florets.
Lily was so cute at dinner tonight!!
Since I was a bad girl and didn’t do the rest of my grocery shopping yesterday, I had no lettuce today for lunch. So, I had a lettuce-less salad of carrot, tomato, avocado, bell pepper, mushroom, and some leftover multi-grain rice from Saturday’s dinner.
Yesterday was WillaKenzie’s Day in the Vineyard, a private event for members with wine classes and a wonderful catered lunch at the top of the vineyard. So gorgeous! Here’s the spread from the wine & food pairing class. I didn’t eat but the wild mushroom and chevre tart b/c of the shrimp and fish the other bites contained, and as I ate it the chef casually mentioned it had bacon in it. :shocked: *^%$%$#*&^%*&(*)????!!!!! Why do ya gotta add bacon??
Daniel, the vineyard manager, raises longhorn cattle and keeps many of them on the vineyard property. Here’s Chris getting up close and personal with a friendly cow (she licked his hand!).
This is the big daddy of the pack—Rodeo Maximus. His horn span is a whopping 72 inches. Whoa!! Better not get too close to that bad boy!
This little darling was checking her reflection out in the truck. So cute! She nosed and licked the truck, and almost took out the mirror with her horn.
Lunch was a green and lima (??) bean salad with a citrus vinaigrette, a quinoa salad with squash, tomato, red pepper, onion, a mixed green salad with caramelized hazelnuts and sundried tomatoes, and yummy olive bread. Not pictured are my four desserts: two oatmeal raisin cookies, one chocolate-chocolate chip cookie, and one almond biscotti.
These two cattle have the optimal longhorns—rather straight out, and possibly a little corkscrew type curvature. Aren’t they perty!!??
Speaking of perty…here I am! We walked up to lunch rather than taking the shuttle van.
Compare this pic with the one from last year:
Andrea and her hubby, Chris, had a party Saturday for their 30th birthdays. I got snuggly with their baby, Basil. He’s such a sweetie, and so darn cute!!
Dinner before the party was an inspired creation: stuffed white acorn squash with multi grain rice, sautéed tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, and garlic, seasoned with s&p, Nature’s Seasons, and Italian herbs. I roasted the squash for ~45m at 325, scooped out some flesh to make more room, then stuffed it with the cooked filling and baked another 15 minutes. Sadly the squash itself was rather bland What can I do to amp it up a bit?
Lily had a vet appointment in Oregon City Saturday morning, and on the way back we stopped at Spicer Brothers Produce. They had tons of great items, with about half of them being local and super fresh. Fresh apples! FINALLY! Although none of the items were labeled organic, Andrea had a great point in that many local growers use organic and sustainable methods, they just aren’t certified. Spicer’s had great prices on most items, and the guys seemed to smile at me a lot. This sexy bitch got her bananas at the “overripe” price rather than the regular price. That’s what I’m talking about.
I got three new items: golden delicious apples, white acorn squash, and donut peaches. After washing everything thoroughly I dug into a peach. WHOA! SUPER sweet taste, with only a mild peachiness. Ideal for mixing in with less sweet fruits, or used in cereal and other applications. The apples are great! Might be a new fave of mine.
I thought Friday’s salad looked especially pretty:
After hitting up DQ for a Tagalong Blizzard Tuesday night, we treated Lily to a doggy cone again She gets excited when we pull in to DQ now cuz she knows what’s coming. Oops!
And that just about sums up the last week. I’ve still been a less-than-stellar worker bee and am still having trouble getting back in to busy mode at work. I’m rather like obstinant-non-worker bee :|
So, I guess I’ll officially announce that Chris and I are buying my grandmother’s house. This month we’ll be getting quotes for updating the house (gotta green the place up a bit, repaint some, remove wallpaper, change out carpet, add a fence, ya know). After family is in town for my grandmother’s Celebration of Life party in late Sept. I think we can clear out the unwanted furniture/etc., and then in October the work can be done. We anticipate taking possession and moving around Nov. 1. Holy moley—can’t believe it’s really gonna happen!! It’s kind of surreal, frankly, and rather stressful. But exciting nonetheless
