january 2, 2009

Normally, the second day of the year of 2009 would not be so high on my "looking forward to" list.

First of all, the day after New Year's Day is always something of a bust. Everyone's still vaguely hung over -- if not from alcohol, then at least from the enormous depressive influence of finally realizing the holiday season, with all its concomitant celebrating, has come to a definitive end. Moreover, it's often the first day back at work after the aforementioned extended holiday stretch, and that in and of itself is always at least vaguely disheartening.

It's also my birthday.

And in 2009, it's not merely my birthday. It will be my thirtieth birthday.

(Those of you who have already passed this benchmark, just...shut up. And, oh, congratulations. Whatever.)

I'm not that inordinately focused on turning thirty. What, a blog post nearly two years in advance belies the truth? Ha. I beg to differ.

See, what I'm really doing is giving ample warning, because I have discovered the most brilliant invention ever to find purchase here in life, the universe, and everything.

And it is neither a whale nor a bowl of peonies.

No. It is the Enomatic wine-tasting system.

The Enomatic is awesome. Just the other night, Laura and I were discussing how difficult it is to become knowledgeable about wine, because one must buy it in full bottles -- the mini-bottles are generally not of high quality -- which is prohibitive in terms of risk if not in terms of price. That is to say, sure, you could get through the bottle eventually, but if you hate it, then you're sort of stuck, and you're not going to take that risk on a $50 bottle of wine most of the time. Whereas with beer, you can often buy a single bottle (also known as "a serving, or part of one, depending on how good the beer is and how late into the evening you are drinking it"), and if it's terrible, your wallet is generally none the worse for wear.

The Enomatic solves this by dispensing individual tastings and keeping the rest of the bottle fresh with nitrogen -- or something; I'm not really sure what the nitrogen has to do with it, but I take their word for it. So one can go and taste a wine without the investment, and hence, learn.

Basically, it's like a 24/7 wine-tasting event. Without the spitting. (Or, as Jim just said: "It's like...wine on tap.")

Granted, the Enomatic does not actually seem to come in a model for home usage. Oh, it says it does, on one of the (less than perfectly) translated pages on the website, but I'm definitely not someone who resides in a home that could accomodate the device. So, for my thirtieth birthday, I request a trip to any (or all!) of the locations that do currently host the Enomatic.

(See why I'm giving y'all advance notice, here? You have eighteen months plus. Get cracking.)

In other news, my husband has asked that he receive no presents this year. However, he has also conceded that, if pressed, he would not turn down a second Wii remote, a supremely large and expensive* plasma-screen television, or a pink (color, not necessarily label) dress shirt for his twenty-fifth birthday. Let me know if you want more info, such as sizes. Or wall measurements.



*Please, for the love of all that is holy, do not get us a gigantic plasma-screen television. Any of you. Or all of you together. There is nothing we need less right now as Jim heads off to law school. He was totally kidding.

But for his thirtieth...we'll talk.