Patianna is the company formed by Patti Fetzer Burke, one of the Fetzer family that created Fetzer Vineyards. After selling that brand to Brown-Forman, none of the Fetzer siblings was allowed to sell any kind of beverage for eight years. With that prohibition lifted, Burke and several of her siblings got right back into the wine business with a focus on organic and biodynamic farming.

Few wines actually taste organic, but this one does. In a good way. It smells like fresh, healthy green plants, along with some garden soil, Granny Smith apple and fresh lettuce. On the palate, the strongest sensation is one of greenness. Usually that's a slur in the wine world, but in this case, it's a healthy, vibrant green that tastes of rain-country-grown fruit. The primary flavors are Granny Smith apple, underripe mango and fresh lettuce. This wine has a long, long finish. Vegetarians couldn't ask for a better accompaniment to green salads or any other autumn dishes based on green vegetables; it's also very nice with fresh fish cooked simply. This is a wine that makes you feel closer to the Earth.

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Thursday, October 13

Getting Old(er)

posted by Brad at 10/13/2005 01:26:00 PM | permalink | 4 comments

4 Comments:

• In honor of your birthday, I ate bobo Os for breakfast!
  
  Happy birthday buddy, we'll see you in two weeks.
  
  Vogts

  By  Anonymous, at 10/13/2005 4:54 PM 

• Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Brad - happy birthday to you.
  I hope your day improved - you are not getting older, just more sophisicated, wiser, cuter, etc etc. Jan and Rich

  By  Anonymous, at 10/13/2005 6:52 PM 

• It would help if I could spell or if the blog had spellcheck but you know what I mean.
  Jan

  By  Anonymous, at 10/13/2005 6:53 PM 

• We wish we could have been there, I know you miss the confetti! Love ya, Mom & Dad

  By  Anonymous, at 10/14/2005 5:59 AM 

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Wednesday, October 12

Oh, Apple

Thanks to Steve Jobs, I need to add a Video iPod and new iMac G5 to my wishlist. Anyone got a couple grand I can borrow?

posted by Brad at 10/12/2005 11:34:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

1 Comments:

• The federal government will loan it to you when you go off to b-school. Low interest rates too!

  By  Anonymous, at 10/17/2005 7:21 PM 

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Tuesday, October 11

Candlestick Point

After I got us lost looking for the Mission district in San Francisco, Dan and I were wondering why the peninsula where Monster "Candlestick" Park is called Candlestick Point.



Turns out the early settlers would burn ships off the point, and the last part sinking into the water resembled a candlestick. Now you know.

posted by Brad at 10/11/2005 06:29:00 PM | permalink | 2 comments

2 Comments:

• Brad,
  
  I was entertained with the "Brad Needs" GIS, so I did my own.
  
  Here was my results:
  Chris needs your sex talk
  
  Apparently the website is called culture kitchen. Anyways, it turned up on the first page of the search. Fun times.

  By  Anonymous, at 10/12/2005 2:17 PM 

• Interesting story about candlestick park...I am sure when I get on 'Jeopardy' it will come in handy when I am breaking Ken Jennings record.
  Jason

  By  Anonymous, at 10/12/2005 7:30 PM 

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Money Bags

The 2nd result in a Google Image search for US Tresurer:



Anna Escobedo Cabral spoke at work today, she was quite a good speaker but (surprise) spent the entire time pushing Bush's Social Security agenda. I was hoping she would pass out dollar bills - no luck there but the fruit & scones were plentiful...

posted by Brad at 10/11/2005 02:31:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Monday, October 10

Meredith Grey, I'm Coming

Sounds like the trip home was the highlight of the weekend for Rebecca & Dan, we had a great time and I've got a boatload of pictures from yesterday to post.

But first, we must make time for sushi and my first ever Tivo viewing experience (since we missed ABC last night...)

posted by Brad at 10/10/2005 08:12:00 PM | permalink | 2 comments

2 Comments:

• Did you get Tivo? Everyone I work with has Tivo or DVR from their cable company. I'm jealous. I want to hear all the dets of Tivo, if you indeed have it. It looks like you can get a "unit" for $50, then $13/month or $300/life of unit. But you sortof need a home phone line?

  By  Laura, at 10/12/2005 12:57 AM 

• No, we just use our friend Brie for her Tivo.

  By  Brad, at 10/12/2005 9:46 PM 

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Saturday, October 8

Go Gophers

19 years, 'bout time.

posted by Brad at 10/08/2005 07:48:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

0 Comments:

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Friday, October 7

Apple Caramel Bars

Becca & Dan are here, and man does she make some delicious bars...

3 apples; peel, core, slice thin
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

In 2 quart saucepan, cook apples and sugar until transparent (about 2 mins). Take off heat.

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup quick rolled oats
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional if your sister is allergic)
2 cups flour

Center Mixture:
20 caramels
14 oz can sweetened, condensed milk

Preheat oven 350°. In large bowl, cream brown sugar and butter. Stir in oats, baking soda, salt, walnuts and flour. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crumbly mixture; press remaining crumbly mixture on the bottom of 13x9 pan, bake 15 minutes. Melt caramels with milk in microwave bowl, stir after 1-2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Add cooked apple mixture. Spoon the mixture over partially baked crust. Top with reserved crumbly mixture, sprinkling evenly. Return to oven and bake 20 minutes.

16 bars, mmm.

posted by Brad at 10/07/2005 11:46:00 PM | permalink | 2 comments

2 Comments:

• I did know your full name was Bradley Peter Martha Stewart Johnson....impressive

  By  Anonymous, at 10/09/2005 5:43 PM 

• LOL at this comment. From Vogtman? Derek? Funny.

  By  Laura, at 10/10/2005 11:30 AM 

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Greader

Google launched an aggregator today, I imported my OPML from NewsGator and saw a whole lot of this...

"Oops...an error occurred. Please try again in a few seconds."

Growing pains, I guess.

posted by Brad at 10/07/2005 08:06:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Thursday, October 6

Almost Home

If you've got 1.75 minutes to spare and don't mind downloading 4.552 megabytes of WMV, maybe you'll enjoy this video as much as I enjoyed making it.

Playing it back at double speed turns an otherwise mellow rendition of La Fiesta into a cross between Riverdance and the theme song from Sesame Street...

posted by Brad at 10/06/2005 11:57:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

1 Comments:

• sorry i have not checked the blog in a few days---it sure was sweet reliving the "driving to bejota and susan's place" via video. I look forward to the next tape.
  Jason
  ps--where can i get the sound track?

  By  Anonymous, at 10/08/2005 5:25 PM 

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Differential

No wonder Becca & Dan are coming to visit...

Eagan:

Stockton:

posted by Brad at 10/06/2005 02:54:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

0 Comments:

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Elusive Sleep

Likely due to the fact that I napped for 4 hours this morning, falling asleep tonight has been difficult. So I decided to recap the day's events...

There was an older guy who saw the doctor before I did today - he was getting wheeled into the "procedure room" as I was brought back to start getting ready. The nurse taking my medical history kept getting interrupted by the rather audible groans coming from said room. She assured me that he was having something other than a colonoscopy, so I was left to assume that they were pulling large pieces of furniture from his ass.

They didn't find any furniture in my ass, so I guess I'm okay. The whole thing really wasn't that bad, they just asked me to roll over on my side and the next thing I remember was Susan at my bedside. I did get some rather detailed pictures from the doctor, but resisted the temptation to Flickr them. You're welcome.

The first pane of today's Dilbert is somewhat ironic-looking:

posted by Brad at 10/06/2005 01:11:00 AM | permalink | 1 comments

1 Comments:

• What the hell is that thing on your hairy body part? Mom

  By  Anonymous, at 10/06/2005 6:44 AM 

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Wednesday, October 5

Jeezzzz

It's noon already? I wouldn't be able to stay awake if my life depended on it. Time for my third attempt at finishing Kamp Krusty...

posted by Brad at 10/05/2005 02:14:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

0 Comments:

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I'm Home

Definitely a bit out of it due to the sedatives they gave me, but I managed to find a computer and seem to be typing OK. I thinkI will stp using the delete key foraminute here , justto see what I am truly capable of twriting.

Susan (leess here heart) stopped at McDonaldys on the ay home and let me get 2 sausaga mcmuffing with egg - yum. I'm not really in any pain but they said that it woudllnt be abnormal for me to experiene lbloating at some poing.

I think I want to pop in a movie and relax a bit, back soon.

posted by Brad at 10/05/2005 11:46:00 AM | permalink | 2 comments

2 Comments:

• So you're bloated and can't type. I'd say you're back to 100%! Seriously though, please be on sedatives every time you post from now on...pure hilarity.

  By  Anonymous, at 10/05/2005 2:08 PM 

• Glad you are home and feeling no or little pain. I'll call after school. You two are sure getting to do a lot of nursing for each other! Hope the grease
  (from the mc donalds) went down well!
  
  Love ya, Mom

  By  Anonymous, at 10/05/2005 2:39 PM 

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Tuesday, October 4

Pre Med

Many of you probably don't know that I'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow. Now you do.

No need to be alarmed, as we are just "investigating" a possible cause of my low hemoglobin. I'm not going to get all Katie Couric on you and bring the videocamera or anything, but I do anticipate having some downtime tomorrow and might have some interesting tales to spin.

I'm currently in the preparation (a.k.a. laxative) stage, which is a hoot. A man can only drink so much water without eating something, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow...

posted by Brad at 10/04/2005 02:46:00 PM | permalink | 2 comments

2 Comments:

• Good luck with all that tomorrow....and I thought I was gonna have a rough day
  Jason

  By  Anonymous, at 10/04/2005 5:26 PM 

• Hey Peter man...watch out for you cornhole buddy.
  
  Vogts

  By  Anonymous, at 10/05/2005 8:48 AM 

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Monday, October 3

Marlborough Monday

I was thirsty after Week 3 of dog training at Petsmart, and anxious to try the stemless wine glasses Susan picked up at Target. I shocked myself and actually felt like having a white wine, so I pulled out a 2002 single vineyard Riesling from Clifford Bay Estate.

It's actually pretty good, about as complex as I've ever seen in a Riesling. I think it cost me $6 at Michael David in Lodi, so you better come visit us quick and get a case for yourself - I think I will.

Oh wait, Susan doesn't like it.

posted by Brad at 10/03/2005 11:28:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

0 Comments:

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And they lost.

posted by Brad at 10/03/2005 11:23:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

1 Comments:

• That is too bad about the Packers lossing...a brighter note Farve did get me 34 points in Fantasy Football League

  By  Anonymous, at 10/04/2005 5:24 PM 

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29-32

1:58 left. Packers have the ball with the chance to tie or win. I'm going to write now because I'm still excited/hopeful...

posted by Brad at 10/03/2005 11:21:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Sunday, October 2

Greetings From the Foot of the Bed

We're almost asleep, but Grey's Anatomy has to end first. Matt left for Yosemite this morning, hopefully he hasn't been eaten by a bear or anything, but I get his wine if he does. Susan and I took advantage of having nothing better to do and started tile-ing the backsplash in the kitchen today.

I spent the obligatory day in San Francisco yesterday with Matt. We started with Amoeba Music on Haight, I could spent hours there cruisin' for new music. Eventually made our way over to Vino Venue on Market, a neat concept where you buy a debit card and use it in machines that dispense 1 oz. samples of wines. $20 went fast.

After joining the throngs of amateur photographers snapping pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, we picked up a Canadian couple who had been left behind by their tour bus. The woman had marched in the Pride of the Lions Marching Band from Regina, Saskatchewan - small world since I've actually been to Regina before with the (Lighthouse) Brigade of Racine.

posted by Brad at 10/02/2005 11:56:00 PM | permalink | 3 comments

3 Comments:

• What exactly did you do with the Canadian couple? mom

  By  Anonymous, at 10/03/2005 6:57 AM 

• So now you have Pekoe AND a Canadian Couple? That sounds like a lot of work!

  By  Anonymous, at 10/03/2005 8:35 AM 

• We just drove them from Vista Point to Fisherman's Wharf, I should have made them sing a song or something. They did force me to take $10 for the ride, half of which covered the bridge toll...

  By  Brad, at 10/03/2005 4:12 PM 

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Saturday, October 1

Union Squared

I'm posting from the Apple Store in San Francisco.

The iPod Nano is really cool.

posted by Brad at 10/01/2005 06:44:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

1 Comments:

• entertaining someone or not--I am concerned with the lack of effort being up into this blog.
  jason
  p.s. I got to booze with Vogts yesterday at Octoberfest--good times

  By  Anonymous, at 10/02/2005 3:48 PM 

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