TampaBLAB

My daughter Alicia has applied to be an official sponsor for Prilosec and needs your votes please. Alicia is a hard worker, very determined and has never gotten a hand out for anything. Since middle school, she’s taken on extra classes so she could graduate early. In high school, she took college classes along with her regular class work.

She earned a full scholarship for college because of her excellent grades and graduated with her Bachelors Degree at the age of 20. She accomplished this while working full time. She’s currently in Graduate School and will graduate this May at the age of 23. Again, while working full time.

Vote Here
Knowledge is important to her and sharing that knowledge makes her happy. Choosing the career of a Librarian suits her perfectly. She is considering working in a public library. I can just picture her smiling, helping all ages find answers, get the resources they need and especially working with children. She would be in her element.

Right now because of working, recently getting married and dealing with day to day life, she is asking Prilosec to sponsor her to a conference for librarians in Washington DC. She wants to learn as much as possible about how to use her skills to better the community at large. She and her husband are considering moving to a low income area that needs help building up their local library. One of the places on their list is New Orleans.

Yes, I’m her mother and I’m biased, but if you knew her, you’d agree that she deserves this. Help spread the word on Twitter, Facebook and forums. And vote! Please let me know if you have any questions about my daughter and her goal to become an official sponsor for Prilosec.

Vote Here

Edit to add: You can also help by Tweeting this: RT @ConnieFoggles Please, please vote for my daughter. She deserves this and has worked hard. http://ow.ly/1cZqJ PL RT

You can vote for her every day, but you must be a resident of the US. Please vote daily. Thanks.

The trade deadline is Wednesday and one cog that has been listed as an area of need for the Tampa Bay Lightning is on defense.  A puck-moving defenseman, a guy with the ability to move the puck up ice, out of their own zone, with speed and accuracy.

One scenario that has been brought up a few times over the course of the season is just waiting for defenseman Paul Ranger to return from his extended and enigmatic leave-of-absence from the team.  Once he returns, the role would be filled.

The problem is, it's too late in the game now to expect anything from Ranger.  Even if he returned tomorrow, he becomes more of a liability than an asset on ice.

With little explanation to the fans, the Lightning announced that Ranger had left the team in October for personal reasons.  He's not suspended, he is not AWOL.  This has been blessed and approved by the powers-that-be. 

Why he left, we don't know.  Out of respect of privacy, even publicly wondering what the story is just seems wrong.  Give him his space and respect his  privacy as you'd want for yourself.

But multiple times over the past two months, we had been given casual encouragement from beat-reports that Ranger was nearing his return to the Lightning.  Good news for him personally and professionally.  We'll all be glad when he can move forward with his life and his career.

But nothing has happened.  Nothing has transpired.  No announcement from the team, no press conference with Paul appearing to announce his return.  The status-quo has remained the status-quo on the Ranger front. 

And when the roster freeze went into effect, when the Olympic break started and news had not broken that Ranger was returning to pro-hockey, time officially expired on believing Ranger would be the answer when addressing the team's need on the blue-line. 

This is not doubting Paul Ranger's abilities.  This is trying to address the situation realistically:  Ranger has not played professional hockey for four months now.  Before that, he had not played for months on end and was rehabbing from shoulder surgery.  The Lightning's need is too absolute to bestow it on a player who needs to recondition and get back in game shape on the job.  There's too little season left to afford it and still make a push for the playoffs.

If Ranger had announced his return before the break, he could have been sent by the team to the Norfolk Admirals on a conditioning stint to help get his head and body back into the game.  The break would have bought both the team and Ranger time to assess if he's up for the challenge of returning to NHL action this season. 

As was said already, though, time has expired.  At 12:01 AM Monday morning, the NHL officially springs back to life, and the Lightning have a mere 63 hours until the NHL trade deadline  to obtain a puck-moving defenseman from another team.

With only 21 games left until the end of the season, if the playoffs are the destination this team is aiming for, Ranger is no longer a potential answer for a missing role player on the roster.  

He remains the enigmatic question, though, of what happened and when will he return to the game.

Congratulations to Team Canada. Though the U.S. had a better goaltender in both match-ups, the Canadians were the better team in both games. That being said, what a final game! Great saves, great goals, last second heroics and a game winner from someone who could have been the goat if the US would have won.

While the entire nation of Canada drinks itself into a Molson-fueled slumber I figure it’s to get back into NHL-mode, and that means trading deadline talk! The Bolts have three days (till 3:00pm Wednesday) to find the final pieces to solve the playoff race puzzle.

So what are the pieces that the Lightning need? Like everyone else fighting for a spot they would like a puck moving defenseman. They would also like a top six forward that jells on Vincent’s line. The Lightning do have a problem with acquiring either resource. And it’s not money.

Simply put Tampa Bay doesn’t have much in the cupboard when it comes to offering prospects. Outside of goaltending there isn’t much that they can offer a rebuilding organization when it comes to A+ prospects. Carter Ashton and Dana Tyrell are probably the two best offensive prospects and I wouldn’t consider them NHL-ready at this point.

Possible dance partners for the next couple of days could be Edmonton, Florida and Columbus. Toronto is looking to continue their overhaul, but the big name, Tomas Kaberle, is going to be pursued by a lot of teams that have a better chance of competing for the Stanley Cup, and have more to offer the Leafs. He also holds the keys to any deal by having a no trade clause and I doubt he would choose the Lightning as his best shot at winning a cup.

Carolina has been pegged as another team that should be busy over the next week, but do the Bolts have a use for an aging Ray Whitney? Although another go-round with Jussi Jokinen would be intriguing. Joni Pitkanen is currently a -14, but he also has 15 power play assists. Could the Bolts put a package together that would be enticing enough for the Hurricanes to deal within the division?

Before the madness begins, lets check out a couple of factors with the Lightning.

Who is untouchable? If a GM calls about Steven Stamkos or Victor Hedman then Brian Lawton should hang up the phone. If teams call about any other name on the roster he should at least listen to what they have to say.

Who would they like to move? Without a doubt they are listening to any and all offers on Andrej Meszaros. Draft picks, fringe prospects, bags of pucks, extra hamburgers, cases of beer – anything should be on the table. He hasn’t lived up to his contract and it would probably be best for him to move on.

Who do other teams want the most? You think Vincent would be high on this list, but the successful teams won’t want to handicap themselves with his contract. I vote Marty St Louis as the number one player on the board. He’s a proven scorer who seems to integrate himself on any line and he’s affordable (one more year at $4 million, $5.25 cap hit).

What are the odds that the Lightning pull of a major deal? I would say 1-in-10. I don’t see the factors aligning right now for them to put together a blockbuster deal. They will be more active in the off-season.

[Alternate Title: "If I have to talk about the Scrum Alliance any more, I'm going to vomit"]

Yes, I want this to die. But Jesse Fewell has posted some thoughts around the Scrum Alliance that in fact what they are doing is right, and correct, and they should fix the leaks and stay the course.

I’ll try to be brief with his arguments:

1) “The 75% failure rate of Scrum is one man’s hunch” – Um, no it’s not:

• “Why there is such widespread failure is no mystery to us. We’ve been studying why Scrum works and doesn’t work for years”
• “I’ve mentioned Scrum because when we see this problem, Scrum seems to be particularly common as the nominative process the team is following. “
• “Now many people who call me already have Agile in place (they say), but they’re struggling. They’re having trouble meeting their iteration commitments, they’re experiencing a lot of technical debt, and testing takes too long.”
• “Does Scrum really fail to achieve its promise 3 out of 4 times? I am afraid so. I have heard that at the last Scrum gathering this number was bandied about and although it was somewhat arbitrarily selected, seems to have won general acceptance.”
• “As XP / Agile / Scrum have become more popular, many teams and individuals have wanted to do them, or “be” them. This has led to a school of Agile methods that wants to be called “context dependent”. The idea is that whatever brand of Agile is under discussion is “too rigid” and “doesn’t fit our context”. So we have to modify Agile because God knows we can’t modify our context.”

If the 75% number was way off-mark, there would be many CSTs jumping to counter it. Heck, even the Scrum Alliance doesn’t counter it. It’s an accepted fact of life. And that’s the troubling thing – it isn’t the number, but the reaction to the number – one of, “Oh, yeah, well, we know”. (And yes, I know some of the quotes above mention agile. I’ll deal with that in a minute)

2) “But what if we instead asked “How many of those who tried Scrum or Agile techniques saw at least some positive improvement?” or “How many teams were in on the whole at least a little bit better off for exploring Scrum?” I bet the answer would be much different.”

Read this. Go on. If you don’t want to read it, look at this quote:

What does a high touch Scrum team do? A high touch Scrum team does
many things to incorporate touch into its daily practice. High touch
Scrum teams:

1. Hold hands during the Daily Scrum.
2. Give each other standing backrubs at the start of the Sprint
   planning meeting.
3. Hug each other at the end of the retrospective

How many teams would be, on the whole, a little better off for exploring that? I bet most would be. And what does that tell us?

Nothing.

Because Scrum isn’t about making people “a little better off”:

• “Over fifty organizations have successfully used Scrum in thousands of projects to manage and control work, always with significant productivity improvements.” (from Control Chaos)
• “With Scrum, these impediments are prioritized and systematically removed, further increasing productivity and quality. Well-run Scrums achieve the Toyota effect: four times industry average productivity and twelve times better quality.” (from Scrum Alliance)

(emphasis mine)

But wait. That last quote is so great, because of what is on that page.

Successful Scrum implementations have many benefits for teams and management. Scrum does, however, require a change from the status quo.

then

These results can only happen, though, when leadership commits to the required changes: teams that adopt Scrum must move away from command-control and wishful-thinking-predictive management.

then

“On the surface, Scrum appears to be simple, but its emphasis on continuing inspect-adapt improvement cycles and self-organizing systems has subtle implications.”

And what are those implications?

Oh. Yeah. That’s the end of the page. Guess you have to figure that out on your own.

3) “The Scrum Alliance is NOT a company that has to choose between a narrow vertical industry or a very specific generic offering. Rather, it is a formalized body that supports an organic movement to “transform the world of work”. It is a big tent that provides tools and products to equip any one person’s niche within that movement. Whether offering an article for how to interact with a large company PMO, or supporting a local user group consisting mostly of GUI designers, the SA responds to what its members ask for.”

I covered that in my last post.

4) “However, I do not think the SA’s execution issues point to having the wrong mission.” – Unfortunately he doesn’t say what it does point to. But I can tell you.

Let’s say I create a new digital camera. People who use it are blown away at how much better it is than every other camera out there. But some people, in fact, many people, aren’t seeing the same results. And when they go to my company’s web site, I tell them:

“The CFmera is a revolution in camera design. However, to use it, note that you have to rethink what it means to be a photographer. The way you shoot pictures has to change, and everything you know about what constitutes being a good photographer is applied differently. If you don’t do these things, then you won’t get the results from the CFmera. Sorry about that.”

Is that their problem, or mine? I don’t offer them any guidance, any pointers, any suggestions. If my goal is to transform the way people capture memories, well, that doesn’t really seem to help, does it?

Scrum does good in the world. Even Alan Shalloway admits that. I’m not saying that Scrum is at fault.

What I am saying is that the Scrum Alliance is at fault. They say themselves that to adopt Scrum you have to alter the fundamental tenants of management and organizational behavior. Right there, on their web site. But I’m not seeing trainers updated with the latest advancements in Organizational Behavior, or Change Adoption. CSMs aren’t getting paths to how to adopt it in their organization and how to deal with the fallout (some CSTs do this, I know). And this is all in the context of software development, where we have a very strong base, and a fairly good understanding of the issues involved.

But Jesse’s key point was that the Scrum Alliance can do both a Depth and Breadth approach. I disagree. It needs to choose. Either it’s about Scrum, the framework, with no underpinnings in software, or it’s about software and helping build that out. I actually prefer the former, and having industry-specific groups split out, each that can control the requirements for their subsegment.

Scrum is a good framework. And it’s a stable one – it doesn’t change. That means that the Scrum Alliance mission isn’t to make Scrum better, but help organizations adopt it. And since they say that to adopt Scrum you have to change things – fundamental things – about your organization, doesn’t it make sense that most of their work would be in enabling people to understand how to make that change?

It does to me. Because if we want to “Transform the World of Work” we ain’t gonna do it by sticking people who have no authority to make change or understand of how to introduce change through a 2-day class and collecting some fees. We do it by a concerted effort to change how businesses think about delivering software, interacting with customers, and running their entire company. That’s change, and that’s power, and that’s something that could theoretically be within the grasp of a money-making machine like the Scrum Alliance.

And an organization doing work like that can gladly have my fifty bucks.

Stovall tendered at 3rd round level

Not much to write other than it’s been a bit of a crappy weekend.

We were due to go to a bonfire party on Saturday night and to my mum’s for Sunday dinner, but had to pass on both because the dreaded lurgy is alive and well again in our house.

The oldest, the youngest and myself have all been sick and I’m surviving on barely any slumber.  I just can’t sleep when any of my children have a fever and usually end up spending the wee hours of the night sticking thermometers in their ears to check their temperatures and then plying them with necessary meds and cold cloths to keep said fevers at bay.

Thankfully, both their fevers are gone, the big guy is back at school and the wee one is doing lord knows what on his brother’s World of Warcraft account, but the mummy is T-I-R-E-D!

*yawn*

So, just to wake cheer me up, I’ve picked a nice, catchy, upbeat song … Love Generation by Bob Sinclair.

Just look to the rainbow, you will see
Sun will shine till eternity
I’ve got so much love in my heart
No one can tear it apart, yeah

Feel the love generation
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Feel the love generation
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, yeah

So, what feel good song helps wake you up?

Canada leads 2-1 over the USA after two periods. Scoring:  Perry and Kesler with goals. Each team had 15 shots on goal in the period. Total shots:  Canada 25 USA 24. Have your cardiologist on call for the third period!

Ryan Kesler scores from Patrick Kane to put the USA on the board. Canada 2 USA 1.

Corey Perry scores from Getzlaf and Whitney at 7:13 of the second period to make the score 2-0 Canada.

I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day, so took a walk with my camera. It has been an unusually colder winter here in Florida. Lots of people who have lived here a long time have been saying that. It was in the low to mid 50s on my walk.

Scoring:  Canada goal by Jonathon Toews from Mike Richards at 12:50. Shots on goal:  Canada 10 USA 8. It has been a very physical game.

Many of you may or may not know that I am a mom to 5 children.  Three of those are teens and we all know how teens can eat! With this in mind, my goal was to cook and serve healthy meals but on a budget. For many years, we purchased food items and ingredients as [...]

Jonathon Toews scores first for Canada at 12:50 of the first period Toews is now the leading point scorer in the Olympics, tied with Brian Rafalski. The USA is behind for the first time in the tournament. Canada 1 USA 0.

About the show: Bureau For Awesome Movies & Film Podcast, aka the B.A.M.F. Cast, is a weekly recorded podcast hosted by Evan West and Rob Heath, which focuses on discussing the latest movie…

MovieCrematorium.com | Movie Trailers, First Look, News, Reviews, Forums, and Podcast.

USA Vs. Canada: Chat With Other Fans SB Nation's official game thread

About a year ago, I published an article about my first customized planner.  With the new year, I designed an updated version with a few improvements to the layout of the pages.  Originally I kept my monthly calendar and monthly goal sheets in the front of the planner, followed by a series of different logs (i.e. Health/Fitness, Home Maintenance, etc.).  After all of these various sections I listed my weekly goal sheets.  While I like the idea of keeping the monthly pages nicely organized together, I found that I didn’t utilize the monthly goals sheets after a couple of months. I never even looked at the home maintenance section, and the health/fitness section design wasn’t used as much either.  While in theory it sounded like a great layout, I found out in that practice that I needed to revamp the layout.

For this year’s  improved design, I’ve merged the various documents so that most everything flows throughout the year together.  For example, here’s how a standard month of documents flow:

• Monthly Calendar (2 pages): When it comes to printing calendar pages, I use Dynamic Template v2.05 software designed by the folks over at DIY Planner.  It’s completely free to download.  In addition to printing monthly calendars this software is flexible, having settings that can be modified to print daily, weekly, and even yearly pages.  Simply select your paper size, choose the calendar type, and tweak the settings to come up with your own printable set of calendars that perfectly fit your planner and your lifestyle.
• Monthly Goals:  A template I designed to help stay focused on health, creative, relationship, financial, and spiritual goals as well as ideas, notes, errands, projects, and home maintenance tasks all on one page.

• Goal Refocus template:  While searching for various tools and templates, I came across the Goal Refocus template created by Daryl Furuyama who shares experiences in what works in life at WhiteHat BlackBox.  It’s a great template to track your progress on five goals over the course of a month on one page.  Since I created my planner at the beginning of the year, I’m finding this template is very useful in tracking how much progress I’m making when it comes to two of my health goals: taking vitamins daily and making exercise a priority.  As Daryl recommends, you fill in the circle completely if you made a lot of progress on the goal (for example a full 30 minute to hour workout) as compared to some progress (such as fitting in just 10 minutes of stretching when I’m super busy with other priorities).  The template is also great since there is space to jot down a quick note by each day and a full side of the page can be dedicated to brainstorming notes to help you stay focused on what’s important.
• 4-5 Weekly Goal pages:  A template I designed to that is very similar to the monthly goals sheet.

Now I still have some sections that I keep separate in the back:

• Project Meeting template: Another great template found via DIY Planner that was created from a user using their form widget software.  While you can tell that the original designer of the template created it mind for the office since there are spots to log the conference room and conference call information, I use for tracking meeting notes for my various projects outside of work.   I particularly liked this meeting template more than other ones I have seen since the layout makes a good use of space to track important details on just one page.  Some of the features include spots to keep track of the meeting agenda as well as a graph area for notes.  About the only drawback is that there wasn’t a spot to track follow-up items.  However, I find myself tracking the action items in the meeting notes section.
• Ideas: basically alternating blank and lined pages for brainstorming on various ideas/projects
• Web Design
• Wish List
• Prayers/Affirmations

In a future post, I’ll share the monthly and weekly goal templates I designed, but in the interim if you looking for templates for your planner, I highly recommend DIY Planner since they include a wide range templates created both their core team of designers as well as contributions from guest designers.  You can also use their free DIY Planner Widget Kit software to design your own templates.

The Sports Banter attempted to rank the off-season improvements of every MLB team. Despite the Rays filling their one hole (closer) with a proven commodity (Rafael Soriano) and only having to pay for the player with a four-A pitcher, the Rays are near the bottom of the rankings…

(25) Rays: I was critical of Tampa Bay last offseason and have no reason to ease off the gas here (insert lame Toyota joke here). The Rays – essentially – traded Akinori Iwamura for Rafael Soriano and his $7.25m salary. They also acquired C Kelly Shoppach from the Indians for a PTBNL… and that’s about it.

Solidifying the back end of the bullpen will help (albeit at a hefty cost), but for a team on the cusp of competing, more could have and should have been done. Now, the Rays need to depend on their farm system to produce, and to produce quickly, if they have any hopes of playing deep into October.

Rule #1 for any writer: Research is your friend! Try it some time.

First of all, Aki Iwamura was traded because Ben Zobrist can do the second base job much better (8.6 WAR vs 1.3 WAR) at a fraction of the cost ($450K vs $4.25M). Considering the alternative was declining Aki’s option, getting anything for him was a “win.”

(...)
Read the rest of Why People Shouldn’t Write About Things They Know Nothing About (207 words)

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http://ow.ly/i/B4m. Live from Davis Islands Garden Club Bridal Showcase!

I have over 10 years professional event planning experience where I had to work with various law enforcement agencies on logistics. Concerts, sporting events, political functions, religious events. I understand and respect the challenges they face, not only in the performance of their regular duties but especially when it comes to working large scale special events. And not for nothing, my dad was a cop. I present this background to (hopefully) illustrate that I'm not someone who gets bent out of shape and starts screaming at police officers when something doesn't go my way.
With that, I'd like to present a series of interactions with Tampa police officers this morning that can best be described as highly disappointing.

Today was the 2010 Gasparilla Distance Classic, a marathon that winds through the streets of downtown Tampa. I had a work assignment this morning, to pick up guests staying at a hotel and drive them in a courtesy shuttle to the start point of the race. I arrived at the hotel at 5:00AM and transported one load of passengers (approximately 10 people) from the hotel with no problem. Here's what happened next:

1. I drove north on Florida, turned left on Kay, left on Tampa and attempted to access the hotel again from Laurel Street, which is the access point the hotel had been allowed to use in the past. An officer stopped me and said Laurel was closed. I explained to him what I was trying to do and he advised me to try Ashley. I told him Ashley was closed because of the run. He told me it was still open at that point and that the police would let me through.
2. I drove south on Tampa and was unable to turn on any streets that would let me cross Ashley due to barricades. No police officers were present to talk to.
3. I drove north on Florida again and stopped at the (blocked) entrance to I-275 South and spoke to the officer who was stationed there. I explained my dilemma and asked for assistance. His reply: "I don't know what's going on anywhere else. I'm just responsible for here". This would be the first officer to use the words "not my problem".
4. I went back to Laurel Street and talked to the first officer I had spoken to. He called someone on the radio who gave him clearance to allow me to go through.
5. When I got to the intersection of Laurel and Doyle Carlton, an officer told me he would let me through, "but once you're inside, you stay inside". I told the officer that inside was a sold-out hotel, where guests would be attempting to come and go, many of whom were participants in the race who were expecting shuttle service. This was was the second one to say the words "not my problem" and advised me to call the Tampa police department.
6. I called the Tampa PD non-emergency line and asked to speak to someone coordinating traffic control for the run. I was transferred to an operator who told me to speak to officers on site. I tried to explain I had done that and that I had been told to call. I was then told to stop yelling. There was some back and forth where we argued whether or not I was yelling. Those calls are supposed to be recorded. I would love for a supervisor to listen to the recording and let me know if I was yelling...at least initially. Eventually, after lowering my voice to barely above a whisper and still being interrupted and told to stop yelling I did become frustrated and did indeed yell. It was obvious I was getting nowhere with this person and if I'm going to be accused of something, I might as well earn it. I was hung up on.
7. I called back and spoke to a different operator who apologized, saying they had no info and that a supervisor would be in at 6:00AM and that they would ask the supervisor to call the hotel to offer some assistance. In the meantime, I was advised to talk to the officers on site.
8. I drove to the corner of McInnes Place and Tyler and spoke to the officer there. He told me to go back to the corner of Laurel and Doyle Carlton and ask them to contact Corporal Atkins (it may have been Adkins).
9. I drove back to the corner of Laurel and Doyle Carlton and encountered a different officer who said "I don't know a Corporal Atkins (Adkins) so I don't know how to call them" and that I should call the Tampa PD non-emergency line and ask for assistance. I attempted to explain the situation, including the run-around I was getting and was told "I don't know what to tell you" and "not my problem" for the third time. I was also told "this happens every year, you shouldn't be surprised". When I answered that yes, the race happens every year and streets are blocked off every year, previously an access point, specifically Laurel Street, had been made available, I was told, "things change". These two statements, at least to me, would seem to contradict each other.
10. I gave up, parked the van, told guests that I was not allowed to leave the property via Laurel Street (the officers let me pass through in my personal vehicle without even flagging me down to ask me where I was going) and I went home.

I understand police officers have instructions to follow that make things inconvenient for some people in order to maintain control and safety for the benefit of the greater good. And as I stated before, I'm not someone who gets upset with police officers for doing their job, even if I happen to be one of those inconvenienced. What's troubling about this situation is that in addition to following orders, I know that cops are also trained to use their own common sense and discretion when necessary. I suppose it can be argued both ways whether or not that took place here. What can't be argued, and what is truly upsetting and disappointing is the complete lack of cooperation on behalf of so many that I encountered. Keep in mind, I wasn't demanding some sort of immediate action to resolve my personal problem and being refused. I was asking for some kind of help on behalf of several people to resolve a situation and being refused. I was shocked to hear "not my problem" the first time. I couldn't believe I heard it three different times from three different cops. Not your greatest moment, TPD.

The Wine:
Bivio Italia Chianti 2007

The Affair:
Yesterday was one of those days... you know the ones where you wake up, it's raining, cold, windy, and you think to yourself that you are probably better off just staying in bed?



Well, this time, I'm glad that I pulled on a uncomfortable combination several layers of mismatched clothing including shirts, sweaters, and a jacket, got into my car, and drove through the rain to the golf course. As if someone planned it this way, the rain stopped the second I turned off the ignition and the sun came out to kiss me hello as I stepped out of the car. Unfortunately, my golf game wasn't so lucky to have been blessed by this divine intervention. But hey, you can't win 'em all, right?

18 holes later, I packing up my clubs and heading home. Looking in the rear-view mirror, I realized that I'm one of the few people who can get a suntan while basking in overcast, forty degree weather. It's amazing how much a round of 18 holes can take it out of you. Well, maybe the golf wasn't entirely to blame. Smuggling in a case of beer to the golf course and getting rid of the evidence in less than four hours sure didn't help.

After stepping in the front door, taking a quick shower, and organizing my collection, I was faced with that tough decision yet again. Which bottle should I open for tonight's affair. While there was nothing exciting about the leftover chili that I was about to heat up in the microwave for the fourth time this week, I wanted to open something different. There was one bottle that caught my eye, this was my chance to try it out.

This particular bottle of Chianti from Bivio showed up just before I left for my cruise. Selling at around $10-$13 for a bottle, the Italian/English packaging seemed to reflect more of an Italian wine for American dummies than a solid Italian wine. The labeling and bottle appeared imported but also seemed to have been defiled by that American marketing feel. Hopefully not all of the features I love about Italian wine had been destroyed in the process.



While the body of the wine was as thin as many of it's "value" CA counterparts, its finish was a bit different. Unlike the obnoxious metallic, led pencil taste I get from many wines from the US, this wine ended with a musty, schweaty finish. It was almost like wringing out the sweat of a wife-beater tank top from one of those black and white striped Venetian gondola drivers into a cup and drinking it. Although I'm not particularly fond of either aftertaste, I'll take the schweaty one over eating led any day... but hey, that's just me!

This bottle by far was NOT my favorite bottle of Italian wine. There are just so many better examples of what this country can do however they usually cost more than $10/bottle. If you haven't been spoiled by these "other" bottles yet, and you are looking for a nice table wine, or everyday sipper, this one will work just fine. Otherwise, I'd save up my pennies for something better.

What's your favorite Italian wine?

For this and other affairs, check out the summary of scores, map, or even choose my next bottle.



(This message brought to you by The Wine Whore)

By BOB ANDELMAN

Andrea Gabriel has appeared in every season of the ABC television smash hit, “Lost.”

But if her real name doesn’t ring a bell, I’ll bet her character will: she is Nadia, Sayid’s long lost love.

And like a lot of characters making a return to the series in this, it’s final season, Nadia is sure to play an important part in nailing down the show’s twisted storyline. She returns in the Tuesday, March 2 episode--and at least once more after that, as you'll learn.

You can learn more about actress Andrea Gabriel at her website.

ANDREA GABRIEL AUDIO EXCERPT: "There were three brunettes in a purple frock involved. There was me, my stunt double, and a dummy. I thought my part was going to minimal. Turns out, I was in a harness and they actually yanked me from a crane. There's no car involved in that point. They yanked me upwards, quite energetically. Anyone who wants to freeze frame on me the second I get hit, that is my funky face. All put together, it looks like a bad day for Nadia." 

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You can LISTEN to this interview with ANDREA GABRIEL, co-star of LOST, by clicking the audio player above!

Copyright 2010 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

The press release read, “The International Olympic Committee will investigate the behavior of the Canadian women’s hockey players who celebrated their gold medal at the Vancouver Games by drinking alcohol on the ice.”
 
The IOC director, Gilbert Felli stated, “”I don’t think it’s a good promotion of sport values. If they celebrate in the changing room, that’s one thing, but not in public. We will investigate what happened.”

Investigate what? Read more at Hockey Independent.