sean brendan

After a nice weekend of winetasting, grilling, and enjoying friends and family in Lake Chelan, I have the following wine of the week to report on. 
Luna Merlot 2002
According to our friends at Luna: The 2002 Merlot has a deep, inviting nose of ripe cherries and brambleberry.  There is an underlying smokiness and spice, redolent of […]

This summer I plan to post more pictures that tell the story of my summer of 2006.  Here is the first one.
 

Coltibuono Chianti Classico 2004
According to them: Brilliant and deep ruby-red in colour.
On the nose it has notes of blackberries. It is full, soft and well-structured on the palate. It has a well-balanced acidity and a clean and persistent aftertaste.
According to me:  Up front this wine smelt like a mushroom patch, but as the wine opened […]

Last night Liz and I ventured up to our favorite place to enjoy a glass of wine in Seattle - Maple Leaf Cellar.  Owners Jill and Paul were hosting a “Sideways” party with a bunch of folks geeking out on 5 very different Pinot Noir’s benifiting Relay for Life.  My pick among the 5 for wine […]

I recently discovered, through iTunes, this great podcast for learning Italian, LearnItalianpod.com.    Italian is such a beautiful language, I could listen to it all day.

Photo by Ryan O’Connor
Edited: Turns out this bike hasn’t move for at least five years.  Sam Howard took the same picture five years ago when we were living in Florence.  Great eyes see the same thing.

The view from Club Med in Ixtapa, Mexico. For more pics click on this - Mexico 2006 Pictures.

I’ve had enough of this Seattle winter… enough… I’m going to where its warm, I’ll send a postcard.

Is there a more beautiful mountainous region in the world than the Alps? Ryan went and had fun in the snow in France last weekend, check out his pictures here.

Aix en Provence is a college town with quaint narrow streets that empty into fountain filled squares in southern France just north of Marseille. It was also the home of Cezanne for many years. Aix has that old world charm that small towns in the US just can’t come close to, where charm […]

What a nightmare for the United States Ski Team, and United States Olympics efforts next month in Torino. What a boost for NBC’s Olympics ratings next month. Did CBS really did NBC a favor here?
The upcoming winter Olympics were lacking any Kerrigan/Harding type soap opera/controvery until Bode decided 60 Minutes was […]

Happy New Years everybody! Thanks for a great 2005 and cheers to a happy, healthy, and rewarding 2006!
I put together a best of 2005 list last week on the flight back from San Diego. What were your “best of’s” and what did I miss?
Best Restaurant Experience - Il Latini in Firenze
Best Camping Trip […]

Here is an interesting excerpt from my brother Brett’s blog. He is teaching in China this year, and this is part of the Christmas Eve experience.
Anyway, we had to go to the downtown of my district and the streets were absolutely flooded with people… the whole city was out - probably what it […]