For Mrs. Geek and me, one of the more charming stories of our wedding day relates to our two flower girls, A. and S. A. was refined and lady-like in her behavior. S. was a little spitfire who perpetually wanted to do and see everything. At more than one point, S. tried to involve A. in her activities. A. would have none of it. Finally, Mrs. Geek tried to reign in S. a little bit, at which time S. told her "She! will! not! play! with! me!"
There were times last week that I felt like saying that as well. Mrs. Geek and I were attending a "Fall Harvest" event put on by one of the wine clubs to which I belong on Saturday. This event generally involves a "blending competition" -- people get together in teams of about six and create their own blended red wine from components provided by the club. Whoever makes the best blend gets a LARGE bottle of wine (and presumably, bragging rights for the next year.) It's the sort of event that is best shared with friends, preferably friends who know something about wine.
After a less than stellar experience at this event two years ago (we missed last year because we were getting ready to move into our newly purchased house), we decided that we needed to invite friends and get up a team of our own this year. We first broached this subject with friends last May, after the wine club's Spring Event. Everyone was happy to put this on the calendar back then, but that didn't translate into actual attendance as the day approached. One couple (with small kids) could not arrange a babysitter. Another couple could not attend because the husband had some job-related responsibilities to take care of. The wife of a third couple, the people who got us involved with this wine club to begin with, said that they also could not attend because of job-related duties. It looked like we would be there all by our lonesome selves.
Fortunately, a second round of invitations panned out. M., one of Mrs. Geek's cousins, turned out to be available. We hadn't seen her in a while, and we carpooled to the event together. Two other friends, A. and B., also turned out to be eager to attend, once the nature of the event was explained to them. So, we had a blending team of at least five.... which was supplemented by two strangers, S. and N., once the competition started.
Good fun was had by all. M., A., and B. are all reasonably informed about wine... which made all the tasting and mixing a pleasure. Our blend lost, miserably. That didn't matter much though... winning the competition one of these years would be a wonderful thing, but for me, this is one of those things that's "not what you do, but who you do it with". Our team was great fun this year.
said drgeek
on 2008-09-30 at 4:15 p.m.
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