Jay Lee – Page 48 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

The Great Meyer Lemon Harvest Of ’09

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We went ahead and harvested the lemons from our Meyer Lemon Tree. The dry conditions seem to be causing the lemons not to fully ripen. We’ll see if we can get any usable lemon juice from them and also see if they will ripen off the tree.

Can you say lemon meringue pie?

Ballunar Festival

I always seem to miss the annual Ballunar Liftoff Festival held each year down at the Johnson Space Center but this year I heard about it in time to get down there for a look see. I was really only interested in the balloon glow which is where they use the burners to illuminate all the hot air balloons they have gathered for the festival. And this only happens the first night of the festival.

I wanted to set up the tripod and use the Sigma 12-24mm wide angle lens and shoot a few shots. Cynthia and I arrived just as this was underway and I did manage to get a few shots. The “glow” only lasted about 30 minutes and then it was over. We didn’t hang around after that, opting instead to head back to Houston.

Backyard Birding Report Oct. 25th, 2009

A murder of very large, very loud and very clever crows have taken up station at the end of the block. Apparently there’s a pecan tree down there yielding some nuts. The crows are flying to the top of the neighbor’s house and attempting to crack the nuts using their beaks. When this fails they let the nut roll down the roof and into the street to be crushed by oncoming cars. It’s quite a site to see. At one point there were about 7 or 8 crows lining the peak of the roof and all had pecans they were working on. One by one they let skitter to the street below. I can only imagine what it sounds like inside the house.

Westchase Park

Out here on the west side of Houston, most of the developers seem to lack any sense of style or creativity. One ugly uninspired office park after another lines Beltway 8 from I-45 South to I-45 North with a smattering of cheesy chain restaurants and extended stay motels sprinkled in for extra yawn appeal. It is fairly bleak and only inspires you to press a little harder on the accelerator to move on through. The one and only reason to intentionally go near the beltway (other than using it to flee the west side) was the Cinemark Tinseltown movie theater but even that became a place to avoid and was eventually closed down.

Recently I noticed that the Tinseltown had been demolished and construction had started up for a new building. Swamplot reported that they had received a demolition permit in January of 2008 so it wasn’t a total surprise. I didn’t pay much attention as it was going up but over the last few weeks I did see that it was nearing completion. From what I can tell, it’s called the Westchase Park and it looks like it is nearly ready for its first tenant.

There’s a water feature in the front of the building that sports a metallic sculpture which sort of reminds me of the contraption from the movie “Contact.” It’s by far the most interesting piece of architecture I have seen out here on the west beltway.

The building itself is glass and chrome and glints in the daylight. I was kind of hoping the sculpture was a corporate logo of some kind and that this was going to be to world headquarters of some up and coming conglomerate or something. Alas, it is simply a business park and will soon be selling office space to those looking to setup shop in the Westchase District.

On the plus side, it looks pretty cool at night.

#7 Sacred Stone Master’s Red Blend

Wine #7 in the $100 Wine Challenge

Winery: Sacred Stone
Type: Blend
Vitnage: 2007
Price: $9.49

Cynthia’s Review

The label on this wine indicates that “it makes every meal magical”. In my opinion, it could only be black magic ! I thought it had a very sour taste. At least the sourness was consistent- it was consistently sour on its own, with wine and cheese, and with a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. The label goes on to say that the wine is “ideal for pairing with your favorite outdoor and other casual cuisine”. Perhaps spaghetti and meatballs does not fall under the heading of casual cuisine, but I honestly can’t think of any meal that I think would be good paired with this wine. After a first bad glass of wine, I typically would have just used the rest for cooking with, but I have to admit that we drank the whole bottle. To be fair, that is just because it was Friday evening and I had a really hideous and craptacular week at work. So I guess you can say that this wine is better than no wine- but not by much ! This is my first fully resounding NAY !

Jay’s Review

This wine was quite bold. I found it to be very robust in its flavor, but not very sophisticated in its blend. I liked the way the wine came on, but as Cynthia mentioned it had a rather sour finish. It held out the promise of being a deep, full bodied red wine with rich textures and flavors but just didn’t deliver. The wine mellowed a bit after it had been open for a while and had a chance to decant, but it was too little, too late. It wasn’t horrible and I did do my part to finish off the bottle, but its not a wine I will likely purchase again. I have to give it a “nay.”

Here Be Dragons

Trip To The Zoo

Weather was great so we headed to the zoo on Sunday. Always nice to see the animals. All these were shot with the new Sony A850 and the Sony 70-300G lens.

#6 – 2008 Uma Colección Cabernet Sauvignon

Wine #6 in the $100 Wine Challenge

Winery: Uma
Type: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: Argentina
Vitnage: 2008
Price: $9.98

Cynthia’s Review

This was definitely not a shy wine. We paired this wine with a fairly strongly flavored meal of teriyaki salmon fillets and cous cous with roasted garlic and pine nuts, and I enjoyed it. Because the wine was so strong, it did border on the edge of having a sour aftertaste, but that might just be my uneducated palate mistaking the strength of the wine for something else. It definitely had a nice aroma, and a deep color. I don’t have much experience at all with wines from Argentina (other than a few tasty Malbecs!) but was happy to be back in the Land of Corks after the California Screw Top experience. (Call me crazy- a bottle of wine should have a cork- it just should!) If we serve this wine again, I think it might best go with a full-on Jay-style Red Meat and Potatoes meal. Although this was not my favorite wine in the challenge, it was good, and deserves a “yay” vote from me.

Jay’s Review

I am not shy about my love of a good Malbec. And I have had my share of more than one very tasy Malbec from Argentina, even one from Uma Colección so I guess my expectations may have been set high coming out the shoot. Sadly, my initial impression of this wine was that it was too sour/bitter. It just really seemed to have a lot going in, none of it too pleasant. When taken with food, it seemed to settle a bit and by the time I was finishing my last glass the wine seemed to have mellowed from having been decanted for a little while. This wine just didn’t suit my tastes at all. I haven’t thrown in the towel on Cabernet Sauvignon’s all together, but I will ask our wine Sherpa to steer us down another path when we make our way back to the Cabs. Sorry say, it’s a “nay” from Jay.