Where am I?

The wines were a mix of Estate and Napa grapes, all 100% Zinfandel. Notes are mine, and sometimes I disagreed with the group ranking.

• 1987 Estate Reserve (13.5%): group rank 1; cedar-box nose, still has good tannic structure and a long finish.
• 1984 Estate Reserve (13.5%): group rank 3; rich and brambly.
• 1985 Napa (13.5%): group rank 7; seemed off to me, with a musty mocha character.
• 1983 Estate Reserve (13.5%): group rank 5; good minerality and some typical Zinfandel raisins.
• 1985 Estate Reserve (13.5%): group rank 6; some bottle-stink, which diminished with time.
• 1982 Estate Reserve (13.5%): group rank 2; some bottle-stink at first.
• 1987 Napa (13.5%): group rank 4; seemed to be drying out early, but still rewarding.

Every time California holds an election I have to hold my nose. This isn't so much about the candidates, but the propositions. The official voters guide includes commentary by the legislative analyst, which is pretty good, but after that has nothing but inane, pandering arguments from special-interest groups. Mostly they just disagree with each other at the top of their caps lock keys.

Yesterday I was reading through the guide for next Tuesday's election, and noticed the argument against 1F submitted by Pete Stahl. Just for a change it was well-written and sensible. His web site has analysis of each proposition in this and past elections.

Just a quick plug for the MarkLogic User Conference 2009, coming up on 12-14 May. I'm presenting a half-day architecture session before the conference, plus conference sessions on high availability and scalability. As usual there will be customer presentations and opportunities to hear about new product features directly from our engineers.

Here's the view from the 10th floor of the Embassy Suites.

After this week's class, I spent the weekend in London. There were a large number of tourists for mid-February, probably thanks to the weak pound. I was stopped on the street four or five times by people looking for directions to the British Museum - possibly for the exhibit on Shah 'Abbas?

I didn't go into any museums at all, on this trip; the weather was nice, so mostly I walked around and re-visited favorite pubs.