Of Bachelors and Ocnology Degrees

Taking a break from database programming to hang out on the back porch and blog.  It's a GORGEOUS day in the ATX, y'all. If you're at the office, you should leave now.

In honor of The Bachelor finale last night, Jeff brought me home a red rose. So cute!

As far as the results went, Nick and Vanessa will never make it to the altar. I think at this point that he is probably as sick of her constant "relationship talks" as we are. They spent more of their time together on the show discussing the status of their relationship than they did actually getting to know each other. You're supposed to have those deep talks once in a blue moon, not every single time you cross paths. And they don't usually even start until you've been dating a while. So annoying. That girl is needy, man. Contrast her to Raven, who is superfun and attentive and kept her insecurities to herself. You can't create chemistry where there isn't any though. Understandable. Raven will meet someone on Bachelor in Paradise, I'm sure. She's adorable.

For Kathy's birthday, her mom bought her a wine tour through a car service that takes you to any wineries you choose. We spent Sunday afternoon in the Johnson City/Fredericksburg area, hanging out at Becker Vineyards, Torre de Pietra Vineyards and Pedernales Cellars.

Becker was my favorite of the three, with its fabulous wines and large, Napa winery feel. It was packed to the gills with people, but we didn't have much trouble cozying in at the bar to do our tasting. Definitely take the tour there, because you'll see their beautiful wine cellar, where they host private events. There is one of those long wooden tables down there with twenty or so chairs. Very nice. The wines were all delicious. My favorite was probably the Clementine, a white port style wine, but all the wines I tasted were honestly outstanding.

Next was Torre de Pietra. The grounds are really pretty there and the server for our tasting was very nice. We enjoyed talking with her. The wines weren't our favorite. There was something about them that had an artificial taste to me. Also, they tasted almost watery, without any sort of body to them. I don't know. Just very different from anything I've had before.

Last was Pedernales. They have a splendid view of the hills out the front porch. Their wines were very good. They do tastings from a specific list, so you purchase one of two lists of wines. At the other two wineries, we picked our own wines. I liked all the Pedernales wines I tried, not quite as much as my Becker wines, but I chose sweeter wines at Becker, so that was likely the difference. Kathy joined the Wine Club, so we'll be going back for quarterly tastings.

At every winery, Kathy asked about the history of the winery and whether or not the vintner went to wine school. She mentioned that there is a renowned winemaking certification program at UC Davis. I noticed at the Pedernales winery on the brochure it said that the owner went to UC Davis.

Me: Look! The owner went has a degree in oncology from UC Davis. That's a coincidence.
Kathy: Oncology? Hmm. Maybe oenology?
Me: Nope. Oncology. See?
Kathy(reading): Oenology.
Me (rechecking): Oh.  No, it's OCNOlogy.
Kathy (laughing): That's an E! Oenology is the winemaking program I've been talking about!
Me: That's an E??

We were giggling up a storm over that whole exchange. Maybe it's time for reading glasses. Or maybe I just had too much wine tasting at that point. Hey, Dr. Becker from Becker Vineyards is an endocrinologist, so it seems a reasonable idea that an oncologist could set up shop down the road. Or an oenologist.

Well, it's nice to learn new words anyway.