Wine Blogger Conference 3/ 50th

Sunday, Day 3, began as before, at 9am at the Flaming-O.
This was the meat of the conference, with sessions actually pertaining to wine blogging, both from the "citizen" perspective, and from the industry perspective. Between 9 and 12, we rushed through three sessions. There was so much information that we were only able to skim the surface. The final session was about "vlogging", the newest frontier of staying alive in the era of nanocasting.
Well, I'm proud to say that we're at the forefront , or at least among the early adopters of video logging. I've got one video log on the web. I'll get Kristin to link it - I'm so lucky to have her helping me out, along with Michael, who shot, edited and posted the video. Now we've got to get the time down from about three minutes to a manageable 12-20 seconds. I think I'll start each one with me playing some signature guitar riff, then going on about some tidbit of minutae regarding viticulture or winemaking or the wine business or whatever.
A lot of 12 second spots can cover a lot of minutae!
After leaving the Flaming-O at mid-day (the conference went on with vineyard tours... Ho-hum!), I stopped off at Dan Dutra's house for a bit more wine and conversation. We watched video of Dan's son winning a teen bodybuilding contest the night before - I didn't know those muscles existed! Dan brought out a couple of very-old bottles of Gallo cab, an '85 that tasted of acetone to me, and a '94 that was quite good. We also opened bottles of my '06 Pinot and Syrah, and my '03 Syrah. Dan disappeared out into the cellar, and reappeared with a bottle of '06 Kosta Browne RRV Pinot. We compared it to my Pinot, and I'll be damned if mine didn't stand up VERY favorably to the Kosta Browne!
I had to leave at 2:30 - I missed out on the abalone! - and went home to get my kids for their week with me. Cathy brought them to my house at about 3:30, and Patrick immediately urged me to get on the road to get to dinner with my parents in Marin at 4:20. Now, I had spoken to my Mom, and she told me that we had dinner reservations at 4:20, but how did Patrick know?
I asked him if he had talked to his grandma...
When we got to Marin Joe's in Corte Madera, my Mom met us at the entrance and led us back to a banquet room, where a rousing "SURPRISE!!" greeted me. My parents and my sisters & their families had all gathered to celebrate my 50th birthday!
I am blessed!