Makes me sleepy, so does NOT loosen the floodgates holding back my creativity. Maybe because I wound up with a Pinot Noir instead of a Burgundy. I like Burgundy more; it's not as gentle and more like a wine ought to be. Not as dry as a Cabernet, but not a wine cooler, either. This red I'm drinking is just two steps removed from Sangria.
I'm not really a wine snob. Normally I only drink it with a steak of some kind. Fact is, I prefer beer. Once this is gone, I think I'll get some Guinness. The bottles are acceptable...but I would really love to hit Ireland, again, and have it room temperature as I dig into a decent Irish stew. There's a pub right by Connelly train station in Dublin that served both up right...and the brewery, itself, has a lovely stew, too.
What's so funny about my obsession with Ireland is, I have no Irish blood in me, from what I can tell. My main lineage is French-Norwegian with Dutch and maybe some Scots, depending on how the name was spelled when the family first came over to the States. My mother remarried and my step-father, who was full-blood Irish, adopted me so I could get military benefits...so my last name became my middle one -- Michel.
But I was raised around his mother, who was full blood Irish...of the lace-curtain variety. VERY Catholic. Lots of children who went on to marry other good Roman Catholics. Not so different from the side of my family in Pennsylvania, who are half Lithuanian and also Catholic but are more Russian Orthodox, albeit mingled in with the Roman kind.
My step-grandmother and step-grandfather owned a liquor store in San Antonio and did well with it. Had a nice two-story house on nearly an acre of land on the city's East Side. Their children went to Catholic schools, for which they had to pay; religious schools didn't get taxpayer funds, back then. And Mummo (what we called that grandmother; my mother's mother was Nana), she ran everyone's life. I was around that side so much, I pretty much adopted the persona. Didn't hurt I look Irish Catholic, and with a last name like Sullivan, who was going to question it? Gave me a foundation, even if it was built on a falsehood.
Made for quite a mess, tho', in so many ways...mainly Catholic...
(PS -- the photo is actually of Scotland, but it looks Irish enough, just like I do...)
I'm not really a wine snob. Normally I only drink it with a steak of some kind. Fact is, I prefer beer. Once this is gone, I think I'll get some Guinness. The bottles are acceptable...but I would really love to hit Ireland, again, and have it room temperature as I dig into a decent Irish stew. There's a pub right by Connelly train station in Dublin that served both up right...and the brewery, itself, has a lovely stew, too.
But I was raised around his mother, who was full blood Irish...of the lace-curtain variety. VERY Catholic. Lots of children who went on to marry other good Roman Catholics. Not so different from the side of my family in Pennsylvania, who are half Lithuanian and also Catholic but are more Russian Orthodox, albeit mingled in with the Roman kind.
My step-grandmother and step-grandfather owned a liquor store in San Antonio and did well with it. Had a nice two-story house on nearly an acre of land on the city's East Side. Their children went to Catholic schools, for which they had to pay; religious schools didn't get taxpayer funds, back then. And Mummo (what we called that grandmother; my mother's mother was Nana), she ran everyone's life. I was around that side so much, I pretty much adopted the persona. Didn't hurt I look Irish Catholic, and with a last name like Sullivan, who was going to question it? Gave me a foundation, even if it was built on a falsehood.
Made for quite a mess, tho', in so many ways...mainly Catholic...
(PS -- the photo is actually of Scotland, but it looks Irish enough, just like I do...)
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