A New Leaf

I plead guilty; I’ve been neglecting the blog. So I’m resolving to write more regularly. And really, there is lot to write about. The baseball season is approaching the All-Star break and there is much to discuss: the tight race in the AL East; Boston’s league leading offensive production; growing concerns about injury woes; our patchwork rotation; bullpen inconsistency; Papi’s re-emergence; Gonzalez’ monster year; and on and on. How about that fight last night? It reminded me in ways of the famous brawl that began with Tek and A-Rod jawing. And anything that reminds me of 2004 is, by definition, a good thing. So anyway, I should be writing more about the RedSox.

And there is whisky news as well. Susan got me a wonderful malt for our recent anniversary, but that deserves its own posting, and I won’t spoil the surprise. But the news is that this past spring, as we did some renovation work in the kitchen, we built a whisky bar for the family room. Now the malts have a classier and more comfortable place in which to reside. Check it out.

Also, as it’s finally summertime around here, we’ve fired up the bullet, and have been grilling regularly. Last weekend, when the boys were home, we smoked fish, and reaffirmed that steelhead is just about the best thing on the planet to smoke.

Lastly, I think I’ve got to begin posting about wine. I’ve been reluctant to do that in the past, with rare exceptions (for example, the mind-blowing Italian wine dinner last fall), because there are almost thirty million wine blogs already. Who needs another? But ever since Janine persuaded me that one can only drink good wine on this side of the grass, thus allowing me to escape from my life long aversion to pricey wine -- I’ll get into that one later as well -- we’ve been drinking some pretty special stuff. And so, even if millions of other wine-lovers are posting about their love affairs with Rhones or Bordeaux or Barbaresco, why not add my own two cents?

The blog has been around for almost six years. Manny is long gone; and it’s been ages since we were reading Montaigne. But I like the idea of keeping this thing going, and I’m hoping (pledging or resolving is probably too strong for right now; let’s see how I can do over the next month or so) to post more frequently. In the meantime, I’ve got some quail marinating, because I’m trying out a recipe for the upcoming whisky lovers ball. And that will deserve a couple posts in itself. So stay tuned.