The last concert of the year:

Band. Middle School. Lauren. Jazz Band, in this picture:

Lauren's infamous "tapping foot". It doesn't necessarily even keep time, but it keeps on tapping all throughout.

Congratulations

For my wife, Misty:

Congratulations, official RN!!!

Last Beer.

The last of the brown bitter, anyway.

A Musical Week

5-18, Kevin's Band Concert (Drums):



5-22, Lauren's Orchestra Concert (Violin):




And she's got a band concert (Flute) next week, too!

I've seen this sign for the last 4 years: "Rosa Fiorelli Winery 14 miles".

Misty and I went with some fellow H.A.M.S. club members to Rosa Fiorelli Winery this afternoon.

We were given this tasting sheet to go by. As you can see, I felt the best was #9, followed by #4, then #5. Strange thing about #9 was this: it was supposed to be a dessert wine, but Antonio (we're on a first name basis with sr. Fiorelli now LOL) forgot to back-sweeten it before bottling. We also tried it fully sweetened, but preferred the mistake! My notes got cut off, but it says re #9: "deep, big grape".
On the back I made notes about tasting #5 and #7 chilled. The server made a production out of drinking the Conquistador Gold just right so as to flush the cheeks and produce goosebumps. I think it worked. The illustration at the bottom references the dessert in a photo below.






Most of the tasting room pics came out blurry because of the low light, but I thought this one of dessert preparation was OK.

Our two favorites:
After tasting, we toured. First up, the 55 degree room:

I love that he uses the same airlock that homebrewers do!

Bottle filler:
Crusher/destemmer, and bladder press:

Then we went outside to visit with the grapes for a while.

New plantings:
Antonio:

When he was young, in Sicily, he didn't like picking grapes and making wine but was made to do it by his family. Now, he says, "it is the passion".

Clois du Bois:
The entrance/exit:

Sarasota Reds vs. Daytona Cubs

A pre-Mothers' day event!


Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any blog-acceptable pix of Kevin, Misty, or my Mom. You get the two girls, though.

And he was... SAFE!

This was a serious grounder, went all the way to the wall, if I remember correctly.

Funny, as the sun went down and the shadows began to creep onto the grass, I was reminded of...

...Busch Stadium (the elder) and this picture from our return trip from Uncle Steve's funeral.

Lauren, having a generally pleasant time:

Devin, eagerly awaiting a foul ball:

The pitcher, quite noteably not a "belly itcher":

Devin running the bases after the game (it was a 12 and under thing, sorry Lauren):

The final score: