The day began with Zooey disguising herself and trying to make a break for it.  Both Sonja and I had a few calls we had to be on, and I emailed my students, made a video for them, and started playing Words With Friends with a couple of them as well. Sonja and I both did a spin class during nap, though she worked harder at it than I did.

We are, for now, settling into quarantine life.  The kids got a few tattoos after lunch, then watched Frozen 2 again.  After dinner, we Skyped with grandma and grandpa, then Titus and I read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  In all, it was a pretty great day, and the kids only rarely indicate that they realize something is amiss.

Early in the day, I had pulled a special bottle out for date night. A 2012 Volker Eisele Family Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s a wine Sonja and I love, that comes from a place and from people we really enjoy.  Volker Eisele is one of those special Napa wineries that was founded pre-1976. Those that came after the Judgement of Paris were making a business decision, but those who came before were pioneers and I admire them all the more for it. Volker was a pioneer, and his wines, made from fruit harvested way off of the valley floor, are a study in consistency and a terrific example of why we covet good mountain fruit. Since the video went over so well yesterday, we took your feedback and made another one. We’re having fun with this.  Let us know what you think of it:

After we finished our wine and our talk and I got to get a few good expletive-laden political rants in, I retrieved a bottle of Sauternes I’d been chilling for dessert. I know very little about Sauternes, save that I enjoy them and that, generally speaking, .375 is more than enough.  Oh, and it paired really well with brie and apples, but, well, most things do.

The fire roared in the background and I entertained Sonja with my Bernie Sanders impression. We made a few difficult financial decisions today. We’re cancelling our gym memberships and weekly chiropractic visits for now, in part so that we can continue to pay our in-home daycare provider as our two kids are 25% of her income. These are definitely strange times, but in strange times especially it is nice to have the comfort of a great bottle of wine.  As we got ready for bed, Sonja pointed out that our tickets to Dear Evan Hansen were for Saturday night. We’d been looking forward to that show all year, and it has, of course, like so many things, been cancelled. You can probably expect another video in tomorrow’s post.  As ever, thanks for reading, and stay safe my friends!

Warmly,

Mark & Sonja