Lonsome Dove Western Bistro

While in Ft. Worth, Candice made sure that we dined at the Lonesome Dove Bistro, and boy am I glad she did.  I addition to some amazingly creative food, we tasted their jalapeno-cucumber margaritas which were fantastic.

Ft. Worth Round-Up

Just returned from the Texas Jack Assn. biennial "Round-Up" held this year in Ft. Worth, TX.  It was the first (and likely last) round-up that I organized....or master-minded, anyway.  Candice did much of the work of making the arrangements.

Every thing went smoothly, thankfully.  We were subjected to a loud thunderstorm on one night and some rain showers, which helped to cool things down a bit.  Although it was a small round-up, many people told me how much they enjoyed it.

Meantime, California was on fire... The Trabing fire broke out near our house, several miles away, but still too close for comfort.  Poor Jason, who was housesitting, called in a panic wanting to find the cat carriers.  He had to fight two hours of traffic to get down here from Scotts Valley (Beulah Park, actually), which is normally about a 15 minute drive.  Fortunately, no evacuation was necessary.

Wine

Yes, I'm an oenophile...or a wino, if you prefer.  I used to be an avowed beer drinker, but as I got older I came to prefer the subtlety and complexity of fine red wines, and to a lesser extent white wines.  I not only enjoy the olfactory and gustatory pleasures of the drink, as well as the cheering influence of the alcohol, naturally, but I'm fond of the wealth of lore and history behind wines and winemaking.  Since classical times, wine has been an integral part of culture, and the variety of modern wines is never-ending. 

I particularly enjoy the great red wines of the Rhone valley, and of course Bordeaux.  I've enjoyed some Burgundies, but am generally put off by the minerality and lack of fruit.  I guess I prefer New World pinot noirs.  I'm quite fond of good zinfandels, which are in abundance here in California, and of course, I live in the middle of one of the oldest wine areas of California, the Santa Cruz Mountains, where we get very nice pinot, chardonnay, and even some good zins in the hotter areas.

We belong to five winery "wine clubs," whence we get several bottles a year:

• Hahn Estates (where we were married)
• Bonny Doon
• Deux Amis
• Armida
• Chalone (used to be a shareholder, before they sold to Diageo)

Texas

Heading to Texas week after next for the Texas Jack Association Round-Up got me to thinking about the great state of Texas and the role it has played in my life. My family moved to Ft. Worth when I was about four, for my dad's job as Dean of Tarrant County Junior College (he later became president and had that post for twenty years). So, I spent my childhood and formative years in Ft. Worth, until 1978, when my mom and I moved to Santa Barbara. I've been back many times, and it still has a special place in my heart.

It is an incredibly diverse state that defies that stereotype that many people have of cowboys and oilmen. In addition to deserts and plains (which it has in abundance), it also has hundreds of miles of beaches, beautiful hill country, swamps and piney woods, and several of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation. Like the state tourism board's slogan: "It's a whole 'nother country."

Games

My love affair with boardgames began in the early 1970s with the Avalon Hill military strategy games. I think I got D-Day as a present, and quickly moved on to Blitzkrieg, France 1940, and SPI games. I remember being blown away by the complexity and novelty of SPI's StarForce, one of the earliest science fiction simulation boardgames.

Over the years, I played probably hundreds of different titles, and even got involved in miniatures gaming, including 7 years war, with my friend Jon Southard, and WWII micro-miniatures.

I also played various role-playing games, the progenitors of todays MMOGs. In a sense, they were the first virtual worlds, because they created rule sets to define the operation of an entirely fictional world. Later I gravitated to multiplayer games for their social aspects.

So, going to work for Multiverse, was sort of coming full circle for me.