J and I are very happy to finally announce that we will be changing jobs and moving to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia sometime in the next few months. We will be supporting this project as employees of Battelle Malaysia.

We've been sitting on this announcement for weeks, and that's after sitting on knowing that it was a very strong possibility since the first of the year. It feels good to be able to tell people now that all the negotiation is complete and the paperwork has been signed.

If you need details, email me. You may have already received an email from me about it, in fact.

Two separate items of note this week related to gaming.

First off, I have to mention the passing of E. Gary Gygax. I can still remember when I first discovered Dungeons and Dragons and role-playing gaming with the first edition of the blue box set and the Temple of Elemental Evil dungeon. No RPG game that I've ever played has ever matched the sheer joy of discovery that first adventure supplied. Gygax, it seems, was "one of us," a fellow who loved games and gaming, not to mention science fiction and fantasy, much of which he incorporated into the game, albeit with credit only, rather than royalty payments, which got him in trouble when TSR released the Dieties and Demigods book with entire pantheons lifted from Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock. I don't know what happened to my first edition of that book; J had her Advanced D&D books stolen at a garage sale, which is like adding insult to injury.

Second, the Agitator mentions a new Chicago ban on "self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width," ostensibly a new front in the never-ending "war on drugs." That's most unfortunate for Chicago gamers, who will have to use larger ziplocks to bag and separate all those little chits that profligate in nearly every wargame ever released from Avalon Hill or SPI, but we all must make sacrifices.

The first indication I had that something was wrong with my 43things account was that I couldn't log in. I can't remember now when that first occurred, although it was probably last September or October. I have so many logins for so many sites, I tried a couple of my normal passwords and when none of those worked, I clicked the forgot password button and promptly forgot the site. A few months later, I realized I still had never gotten that password reminder, so I tried again. Hrmph. Something must be wrong with their site, I thought. So I waited another month and tried again. Still no response from the forgot password doodad. Time to send a note to the contact list. I do so, and finally got a response today from the Robot Coop folks who run 43things.

43 Things users administer the site and suspend accounts that they believe violate the terms of service. More reading on that here: http://www.43things.com/city_hall/doc/guidelines

If after reading the community guidelines you believe your account has been suspended in error, please send us your username and an explanation so we can further investigate.

Suspension? Moi? Did I do something against the terms of service? Upload content that wasn't mine? Don't think so, but maybe I uploaded a picture I found on the web...if so, I only did it once. Surely that wouldn't have been enough to garner a suspension? Spam the site? Nope, wasn't trying to sell viagra 43 ways. Be creepy? As if.

I wrote back, stating that I would have been surprised to find myself in violation of their terms of service, and that I thought it was in error. And the response was:

Thanks for replying. In this case people are likely reacting to the repeated URLs pointing to a blog with ads on it. Lots of spammers do this to promote their site, drive up traffic and generate ad income. Users also see this as an issue if an account doesn't have a lot of other activity (other goals, cheering of other users, commenting earnestly on other entries, etc.). I'm basically describing to you how your account was suspended ... hope it helps demystify things.

Well, that flabbergasted me. Sure, my posts that went along with some of my 43things goals pointed back to my own blog, and my blog does have ads on it. I have a small Google Ads account that basically pays back the hosting fees for engel-cox.org. I think the ads are pretty innocuous, though, and take less than 5% of the page space on any given page load. Was I not supposed to link back to my own blog? That seems kind of anti-Web, doesn't it, especially given that one of my 43things goals was "Write 52 album reviews in 2007." I had been posting the links back to my blog for every review written to show my progress on the goal (which hadn't been going very well in 2007, after a good start, but that's the way with most of my 43things goals).

And then I started to get annoyed. Some idiot 43things user had viewed my posts as spam, as opposed to, say, what I get from Trackbacks and Comments that link to sites which scrape their content off Wikipedia or Amazon and repurpose it with a page that is over 50% ads. What crazy draconian moderation is that? I wrote back saying that if that was the issue, then I guess I was better off without 43things. And what the hell was with a suspension that never sent a message saying, "You are in violation, etc."?

So that's the story of why I no longer have a 43things account. You can find me at plenty of other Web 2.0 places that don't mind me pointing you back to this spot.

(And, yes, I didn't link 43things on purpose. Hell if I'm going to give them a link back after this.)

As I mentioned last post, we stopped by Barboursville Vineyards on our way to Charlottesville. While I am normally annoyed by any charge for a wine tasting, and at $4 the charge at Barboursville is quite high, at least they give you a glass for that, and future tastings are free if you remember to bring the glass back. Plus, we tasted twelve different wines, and could have tasted an additional four to that.

Most everything we tasted we liked (as we skipped the sweeter wines which we knew wouldn't be to our particular tastes), but some were real standouts. Here's my notes from the session:

Sauvignon Blanc 2007 - good dry finish, very citrus bouquet, sweet beginning but not cloying. Would drink a glass of this, but not a bottle.

Pinot Grigio 2006 - nice, slightly bitter (almond?), clean finish. Another that a single glass would be sufficient.

Chardonnay 2006 - nice, worth a bottle, but you really miss the oak which would have given it that additional dimension of flavor

Viognier Reserve 2006 - somewhat slight, acidic, but dry at least -- not sweet at all

Merlot 2006 - light but flavorful -- not heavy at all -- nice bit of pepper in the back of the tongue

Sangiovese Reserve 2006 - like it, but price/value not quite there, a little watery

Barbera Reserve 2006 - heavy, earthy, strong flavor throughout (STAR) [we ended up buying a bottle of this]

Cabernet Franc Reserve 2005 - "chewy," heavy flavor, nice and strong (STAR)

Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 - too light, might age well with time

Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005 - needs more time, potential is there, though

Nebbiolo Reserve 2004 - very wood, strong and flavorful! Full taste (STAR)

Octagon 2004 - 7th Edition - Incredible (TWO STARS) [we bought a bottle of this at the restaurant where we celebrated our twelve years of marriage--straight out of the uncorked bottle it wasn't as impressive, but after it breathed a while, it became heavenly]

You likely won't see too many of these outside of Virginia, although Barboursville's production run is growing. I was impressed overall by the strong range. Unlike some local wineries, which may have one decent wine, they had several that I would have purchased and nothing that I would have turned away had someone served it to me.

This past Friday, J and I celebrated the third "anniversary" of our wedding. We both took the day off from work and had a leisurely morning, sleeping in a bit, then going to visit J's horse, then working our way to Charlottesville, VA via Highway 20. Along the way we stopped off at James Madison's Montpelier (picture below), which is now open for viewing although the restoration work isn't set to be complete until September 17, Constitution Day. In many ways, seeing it in the middle of restoration was more interesting, as you could see the details of construction first hand as well as understand exactly what it took to "find" the original house after a century of renovations done to it by the duPonts, the last owners.

Our next stop was at Barboursville Vineyards, which I'll try to say a bit more about later, as I took fairly good notes on the twelve (!) tastings we had there.

For the night, we stayed at High Meadows Inn in Scottsville (picture below), about 20 miles south of Charlottesville, and had dinner at the Downtown Grill in Charlottesville. I'd highly recommend the B&B, and only recommend the Grill if you wanted "all midwestern, corn-fed beef." We managed to put together a dinner to our taste, but it was difficult, although we did get to enjoy a full bottle of the 2004 Barboursville Octagon, of which I stated on my tasting notes a single word: "Incredible."

Thanks to all who sent congratulations, including our parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and friends. Most people's wedding anniversaries seem to only be remembered by themselves or their parents/children, but it's fun to have ours be so memorable for more people that they send notes. That's the little village our marriage has created and we love to be a part of it.

Had some freshly brewed tea available last night when I was making drinks, so I thought I'd try it out with some gin and limoncello. The first sip was a bit surprising, but I quickly warmed to the drink, or maybe it was warming me on its way down. I thought about naming it the Sweet Gin Tea, except it really isn't that sweet, so when J suggested something more refined, what better name to christen it with but "The Genteel."

Recipe:
2 parts gin
1/4 part limoncello
1/2 part freshly brewed tea
shake with ice and serve in cocktail glass

(sing that to the tune, if you know it)

Our latest foster cat, Ziggy Stardust, is now available for adoption. When she joined us a couple of months ago, she was extremely scared and skittish, running under the couch and staying there for the entire day, only coming out when the house was dark. Since then, she's learned that people are not so bad, because they either feed her, pet her, make the "hot box" (our earthstove fireplace), or play with her. She first warmed to Jill, but in the last month she's even let me give her some attention, including being able to pick her up for short times.

PetConnect has placed an ad for her on Craigslist, which I think is a first for them. She's extremely photogenic, if you can get her to stay still long enough to take a picture.

The house next door to us at 601 Dartmouth Ave has just been placed on the market, with an Open House tomorrow. Since we share our driveway with this house, we're hoping for someone special to buy it.

I can truly recommend the location, as it is within walking distance of some nice shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and the Metro, not to mention convenient to the Beltway if you need to get somewhere not accessible by Metro. Plus, just think of your neighbors!

I'm disappointed that the Green Bay Packers didn't win this past weekend. Not that I care much about sports or football in general, or even the Superbowl, but because the Packers are the exception to the rule when it comes to sports. Unlike all the other professional teams (as far as I'm aware of), they are the only team to be owned by the fans rather than a private owner. That's the reason why they are still in Green Bay, instead of having moved to a larger advertising market.

Radley Balko, a libertarian blogger whom I like to read, covers why private ownership is bad in his review of conflicting claims by the Seattle basketball team, which wants to get out of its arena contract in Seattle so it can move to Oklahoma City, where it wants the city to build it a new arena. If teams were owned by the public in each city, these kinds of shenanigans wouldn't be commonplace--and there'd be a little more reason to root for the home team.

Just on the off-chance, since they have a new album coming out soon, I clicked on over to the Sons & Daughters web site to see if they were going touring in support of it. My day was made when I discovered not only were they touring, but they were coming to DC and playing a venue that hadn't yet pissed me off, the Rock and Roll Hotel. And tickets were inexpensive, only $12 each, and I didn't have to buy them from TicketBastard.

I quickly grabbed the wallet and ordered two tickets, pleased as punch.

After I completed the transaction, I thought, I should post this--those few people who read my blog might actually be interested in this show, too. And that's when it hit me.

I looked at the date again, and swore. March 19. When we'll be out of town on our trip to Chile and Easter Island.

Gah.

Does anyone want to buy two tickets to see a very cool Scottish band who sound like what you would get if you crossed X with Big Country?