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After another rendition of a goose being killed by a golf ball at Burke Lake, I was searching for pictures of geese at Burke Lake. Found this picture. I didn’t know Burke Lake could look so nice. Much different than I remember it when I worked at the Ice Cream Parlor.

Last night we did the Notaviva wine & music pairing that I mentioned earlier.  First of all the building that we did the tasting in was awesome.  Set at the end of a gravel road, almost the entire building was exposed wood.  There were three levels to the building, and the top level was a recording/production studio.  As I mentioned before, they played 10 clips of songs for each wine and we rated them based on a 1-10 scale.  There was a wide range of music genres from organ music, to Metallica, to country and so on.  It was much harder than I thought it was going to be.  I ended up trying to think of the wine I was drinking, and what kind of music I would like to be hearing when I was drinking it.  Others tried to think of the subtleties of the wine (bitter, long finish, etc.) and if that went with the wine.  I would say by the 3rd or 4th wine (out of 5) – we trailed off and were just feeling good to be drinking wine.  Notaviva said that they were going to release the results of the ratings and also the raw data to us, so I’m wondering what that will look like.  Either way, a fun way to spend some time with friends.

With the winemaker from Notaviva

Update, check out the picture set on Flickr: Notaviva Music & Wine Pairing

Jasmine Bloom

In my last home, I got barely any sunlight and the Jasmine plant that my Grandma gave me nearly 6 years ago only had about 3 blooms total – and that was when my A/C unit died for a long weekend.  In my new house, it is starting to thrive.  With an Eastern facing window, plenty of morning sunlight and more attention and water from me – there should be about 20-25 blooms in the next two weeks.  It’s hard to tell from these pictures, but you can see how much healthier the plant is compared to a few years ago (it just looked like a growing twig).  My grandma would be proud.

Jasmine Plant over the years on Flickr.

I didn’t make it downtown but managed to get on the roof to catch a glance from Arlington…

Rooftop Inauguration View