1975. It Was a Very Good Year.

No. Not for Long Island wine (the first commercial vines were only two years old at that point). 1975 was a very good year for people...particularly those born in Pittsburgh, PA and who eventually move to Long Island, fall in love with a girl and fall in love with a wine region.

Yes. I turn 31 today. Not nearly as filled with fanfare as the big three-oh from last year, but a birthday nonetheless.

As I mentioned a while ago, Nena and my parents bought me a smoker for my birthday. And last night Ben (yes, our beagle) gave me Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork and The Bakyard Vintner. I have a suspicious feeling that Nena may have been involved in the purchase.

This Saturday, with some advice from Robert, I'll be firing up my smoker for the first time. The target meat? Spare ribs.

Beyond that, it promises to be a quiet birthday. Nena has dress rehearsal tonight for her group's performance of more Aaron Copland Friday night, so it will just be me, Ben and my laptop tonight...which is good because I have a lot of writing projects to get caught up on.

A quiet birthday also means that I've successfully avoided the corporate cake/small talk festival that everyone gets here around 3 p.m. Luckily, my friends here at the office know that I dislike such activities and have kept my birthday somewhat on the down low today. I'm thankful.

Comments

[Andrew]

Happy Birthday chap! Smoking your own food... another incentive to hope across the pond.

[Andrew]

obviously they should say hop not hope...

[WhiteTrash]

Happy Birthday Buddy.

[Bill]

Happy Birthday! Oh, I forgot, you like it low key. Well then, happy b'day.

[Chris]

enjoy...thirties move at a rapid pace...
low key office gig? what no elaine singing
"get well get well soon?" festivities...bah humbug

[Jared S.]

Ya know, the number of ways we cross paths is getting scary. Let's count them - from this post alone...

1. My birthday is April 24th - two days off from yours, but sharing the Taurus sign nonetheless.

2. I hate office birthday cake, which must be universally legislated as, "to be served at 3:00 PM local time."

3. I avoided my office cake, too. Well, I THOUGHT I had, but they served it up a day late since I was still jetlagged on Monday.

4. The Backyard Vintner? Yup - I own it and I'm reading it now. I'm deep in the detailed wine making portion of the book. Much less exciting than planting the vines - until you have the vines to harvest from that you planted in the early chapters. :)

And, of course, while I am not from anywhere in PA, we're both Steelers fans.

So, when do we get to meet?

Happy Birthday, Bizaro Buddy.

[Trish]

Happy birthday, Lenn!

[Tammy]

Happye belated birthday!