So I met up with Lilli, who is looking pretty good,
only to find that we would misconnect in Charlotte
for our flight back to San Diego. Urgent negotiations
with the offending airline (American) after they
couldn't get us both on the same replacement flight
until the next evening, which they would do, in
first class, which we'd been booked in in the first
place, but they still wouldn't front the cost of a
hotel. Whatever, the Four Points has a shuttle to
the airport and isn't too expensive, so we made a
reservation for that.

One good thing is that across the highway is this
funky beer joint called McKoy's, a bar-restaurant
that serves large portions of pretty good food for
just a little more than it should. We had a burger
and a pot roast plate, with fries for her and fried
okra for me. Baked beans, not very sweet, flavored
with barbecue trimmings, were pretty moreish.
Everything was decent or better - the burger quite
unspectaacular, the pot roast tasty and almost fatty
enough. The okra was irregularly cut, a little overage
and stringy but cooked crisp, no doubt prepared in
house. I think the fries were out of a bag, but what
would I know or care. Standard beers at competitive
prices and wines at milk the yuppies prices.

Our flight itself was insignificant and probably
pretty much the same as it would have been the day
before, only we were over $100 the poorer. We landed
pretty much on time, had a drink at the Admiral's club,
and checked in with Rob and Chrhs; Rob was busy, but
Chris wanted to go check out the soon-to-die Salerno
winery (now open under different management), I must
say that it's a nice setting, the restaurant/tasting
facility on a hilltop overlooking the owner's pretty
interesting sculpture garden.

The wines were by and large worthy of an about-to-die
establishment. All were I believe '14 or '15, but the
details are kind of irrelevant.

Elegante, a blend of Cabernet and Petite Sirah, was
by no means elegante, rather clumsy in fact but still
lacking in richness.

Malbec was okay, but you could have fooled me on the
varietal. It was more like a Rhone taste with overripe
fruit and some earthiness, but there was a touch of
mint also.

Petite Syrah was the best of the lot but less Rhony
than it ought to be. A fragrant, decent wine, the only
one I'd have considered buying.

Serenade - similar to Elegante but with Cabernet Franc;
a little drier and, I thought, a little better.

Ruby Cabernet was nowhere near as awful as the name
implies: it was almost wine, a little thin in a not
bad way and not nearly so overripe as the only other
wine I recall having had by that name (Paul Masson).

Sangria - a good way to use up the above wines. I thought
there was a touch of Muscatty something. Good fruit and
a lot of it.

Riesling was a surprise. It was coarse and oversweet,
with less acid than it should, so the balance was off.
Flavors of apple, peach, pineapple, and, strangely,
coconut. I really rather liked it, more as a sort of
uber-soft drink than a wine. I wondered what a few
years' aging would do to it, but I wasn't about to
spend over $30 a bottle to find out.

We ended up going home for dinner, where I made a
chicken Parm, using up some white meat tfrom the freezer
hat I otherwise was at loose ends to use up. A mixture
of mozzarella and Cheddar, a heavily doctored bottled
too sweet tomato sauce, bound with Kirkland olive oil.
We had odds and ends of pasta, so those who wanted angel
hair (moi) could have that, and those who wanted thick
tubes (everyone else) could have those.

Lilli came up with a salad.

Rob's son Richard brought a tri-tip that had been somewhat
pastramized with a rub of salt, coriander, pepper, and
smoke flavoring to round things out. It was as everything
he cooks cooked medium to medium-well. It didn't have
enough fat but tasted okay anyhow.

Two kinds of vanilla ice cream from Costco for dessert,
a hastily whipped up sauce of strawberries, sugar, and a
splash of orange juice; or one could have Hershey's
Special Dark sauce.
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