66 posts tagged “the aerie”

So, for the last week or so, Penny's been dealing with the after effects of picking up an infection after having worms (ick).  But after a couple of days of antibiotics, she seemed to be doing pretty well.  And today was the first day back on the mountain after having had her put on a steady diet of bland food, antibiotics (which she will eat disguised in Gruyere cheese --- that's right --- not cheese slices, not cheese sticks, not peanut butter, Gruyere) and boring old leash walks.

She had a great time and ran and ran and ran.  As we were heading home, she still had plenty of energy and ran way ahead and I called her back.  She came running with something being lightly chewed in her mouth.  I think -- oh great, worm-filled coyote poop.  She comes up and I tell her, "Drop It!" and (somewhat surprisingly) she does.  Expecting to see some half-masticated turd, I look down and there is what is pretty clearly something's liver.  About 3" by 2" with what I was pretty sure was the gall bladder port still attached.  Mmmmm....yummy!

I think maybe it was a rabbit's -- though it seemed a little big (though honestly I don't know how big a rabbit's liver is...) -- maybe it was from a raccoon?

Anyway, Penny got some treats for dropping on command -- which I doubt were as appetizing as that liver, and she seemed quite pleased with herself all morning.

Happy Friday!

We turned what might have been a lazy Sunday into a very industrious one, getting The Aerie all decked out for Christmastime.   We had the Christmas music playing from the office while we decked the halls and trimmed the trees (our big Christmas tree and our little Monterey pine out back). Speaking of trees, we even added some Christmas cheer to the palm trees outside of our home.

Penny again wasn’t quite so sure about what this was all about, but she enjoyed snuffing the different decorations.  Certainly, all the breakable ones are out of snout and tail range.  We hope.

We finished right as the sun was setting – a perfect cap to a great day of decorating and feeling those first tinges of the Holiday Spirit… :D

This week's warm weather and clear-sky Santa Ana was ushered out today in a big way with rain showers (and even hail!) and a cold wind from the north.

The change in weather was a good demarcation point to change from Thanksgiving into Christmas, which we're getting an early start on this year.  Of course, the first course of action is to get the tree.

Now Penny has never had a tree in the house, and I'm not sure she entirely knows what to think about it.  Wait until we put the lights and decorations on tomorrow!

After a couple of days of feeling out of sorts, it seems that Penny’s puppy pharmaceutical treatment has helped out immensely and that there was a very energetic and eager pointer ready for a big mountain hike this morning.

Local mild Santa Anas brought in warm temperatures and clear skies, so it made for a great morning to bring the camera along.

We took a great long hike down and then up to the top of the mountain The Aerie rests on.  There were great views out to the ocean and even down to Point Loma.

Penny sure did seem Thankful to get a chance to run around!  And we were Thankful to see her feeling more like herself.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

So, anyone that spends time here probably knows that we like a good cocktail from time to time here at The Aerie.  But as hard as it is to believe, a good stiff drink isn’t always the right accompaniment for every occasion.  Sometimes you just have to have a good glass of wine.

Wine (as opposed to booze) is something that I’ve come to a little later in life.  When I was younger, I was intimidated by the somewhat snooty air that went along with the growing “wine culture” in America.  I mean, could I really taste “ripe berries” and “burnt oak” and “hints of melon” in the chianti being served at my local Italian joint?  Hardly.

And then I moved to California.

Wine is of course a huge industry here and for good reason – there are a lot of really good California wines.  And so, when I moved here, I started trying some and learned how to say “Pinot Noir” correctly so that I felt better about myself.  And two things happened, a) I began to know what I liked and b) I began not to care what other people (read: wine snobs) thought.

So, about the time we moved into The Aerie, the Beloved and I started taking more of an interest in wine – traveling to Sonoma County several times over the last couple of years.  There, we were able start finding some places that we liked and buying their wines, and over time, we built up a good little stash.

Which bring me to today’s timewaster: CellarTracker.  This is a free (though they ask for a donation) website where you can input the wines you have (and even the wines you want to have…) so that you know exactly what you’ve got, how it’s rated (both by the CellarTracker community and in major publications) and in cases of wines that need to be “laid-down”, when you should drink it.  

I have to say that the website is very easy to use, has a great searching algorithm (so that you don’t have to enter in everything precisely, it will find the wine for you from its database…) and if you’re a data-nerd like me, you can sort and sub-sort your wines in all sorts of interesting ways.

As it turns out, we have ~75 bottles of wine and I was able to get them all entered in maybe an hour and half.  Pretty cool.

There are also fields for you to enter private and/or public tasting notes (which I think would be useful for wines you have in restaurants and would like to jot something down before the next time you go to the store…) – though I give everyone free rein to come smack me if I write one with language like “overtones of ripe plums with hints of chocolate and coffee…”

Bottoms up!

It was a busy morning for our little pack -- with Family Dog I, a trip to dog beach with her best pal Roxy and then a walk through Del Mar (for us) to get a late brunch.

Since then, it's been reading and lying around.  Some folks were even happy to lie on my chest in the late afternoon sun.

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been a number of posts here and on fb by parents about their child’s first day of school.  For a parent, this can be a traumatic day – a sense of time passing too quickly and anxiety about whether their fledgling can handle the classroom.  Of course, there’s also a feeling of pride seeing your little one move on to the next level.

And so it was at The Aerie this morning as Penny began taking her first class – Family Dog I.  She had never taken  “Puppy Kindergarten” because of her age when we got her and when she finished getting her shots.  Now, she’s done pretty good around the house and on walks, but we wondered how she’d do in a more formalized setting.

We stopped off at the dog park on our way over to class to let her burn off some steam.  It was a foggy early morning and we certainly appreciated how quickly one can lose a white dog in a fog bank.

Soon we were at our class (held at a great local pet-store) with about seven other really nice seeming dogs, aged a few months to a couple of years.  Penny seemed to be right in the middle age-wise.

The early lessons – including “sit”, which she’d already gotten pretty early in her stay here  -- were pretty easy and Penny did pretty well.  She was pretty easily distracted by the other dogs and passersby, but could usually be called back to attention.  After some time, she began to whine a bit – being on a short leash and not being able to play with her new friends seemed to be the issue.  Oh, the drama of growing up!

Afterwards, we were off to dog-beach so she could really run out some of her excitement/frustration.  And someone even got a Texas Toothpick treat after her big first day of school.

Good job, Penny!

Just spent 90 minutes out in our backyard with my neighbors and two excellent county animal control people -- corralling and causing the ultimate demise of two rattlesnakes that were in the hedges between our two yards.

We think there's one that got away.  And more unfortunately, yesterday one had bitten their dog -- a small dog -- that's still under observation after receiving three anti-venom shots.

So, last week I showed how Penny has been more than willing to help out while I play the piano, and the other day she decided that she could help out with Happy Hour.

Now, without opposable thumbs, she’s not very good with a cocktail shaker, but she did show a lot of interest in “helping” me while the Beloved and I were playing a few hands of gin rummy…

… looks like I had a good hand.

I feel badly for champagne.*  It’s fizzy. It’s tasty. It’s very refreshing on a summer’s day.  It does a wonderful job of picking up autumnal fruit flavors.  It is smashing with dessert.

And the only time people seem to drink it is during the last hour of the year and the first hour of a wedding reception.

What a waste.

And I think waste is the problem.  If your house is like mine, not everyone likes champagne (e.g. it's too sweet, I don't like the bubbles, it always gives me a headache**).  And if you open a bottle – pop! – you better finish it (which is probably a bad idea if you’re the only one having champagne).  Because it’s well known that champagnes don’t keep, right?   Wrong.

Enter the champagne bottle stopper – which is designed to re-seal the bottle so it can go back in the refrigerator to please another day.  A re-sealed bottle will easily last for a week or more – allowing plenty of time to finish off a bottle at an easy pace.  I got this little beauty at Amazon.  Set me back a whole $7.50.

Having champagne on-hand also opens up a whole world of champagne cocktails that go way beyond the mimosa.   One of my first attempts was “The Ritz”

The Ritz
¾ oz orange juice
½ oz cognac
¼ oz citronage (or cointreau, or triple-sec)

Mix these three together briskly and add to the bottom of a flute.  Top with champagne.  The cognac mellows out the sweetness of champagne and the citrus adds a nice tang, creating a well-balanced and refreshing drink on a warm summer’s evening.  I had two – and was considering a third, when I thought better of it…

*and for sparkling wine, as it’s called outside the Champagne region of France, and being a global citizen, I will refer to all of them as champagne.
**in order, don't buy "very dry" buy "brut" instead, nothing to do about that, don't buy really cheap stuff.