Mikro Mart has a neat little collection of miniature fold out metal sculptures — created by Designer of the Year nominee Sam Buxton. They are all supplied flat and come with fold out instructions. Neat! Ooh, and in addition to Man03 (AKA Bicycle!) there’s also wheels. Now, if they only thought in twos, we’d have a nice tandem popout.
Contrary to Mike Doughty’s song, “Laundrytown” from the great album Rockity Roll, most people don’t “[want] to get fat and live above a laundromat.” Rismedia, importing content from MSN, who imported the content from Sherman’s Travel, has a list of the top 10 destinations and packages for getting in shape while on vacation.
Most of the time, here at WineandWheels, we have to get in shape to go on vacation, so we’re quite pleased with their top choice: the Tour des Vins:
1. Alsace Looking for your inner Lance but not quite ready for the Tour de France? No sweat (just yet): Pack up your bicyclette (or rent one there) and head to France’s Alsace region, near the Swiss and German borders. With designated bike routes throughout the area, it’s a pure delight to pedal beside the beautiful Vosges mountains, through charming villages, and past the fantastic vineyards that lie along the 170km-long Route des Vins (wine route) where crisp Rieslings and Gewurztraminers are born—after all, you can’t go all the way to France and not indulge at least a little.
Check out the rest of their list over here, and for credit where credit is due — that great farm tribute image is from Anduze-Traveller’s photostream.
On opening day we wrote about Serious Eats as a site to watch for important food content. Aside from their snazzy layout, complete with comic-like balloons linking “conversations” to their “speakers,” there is an abundance of truly great topics on the webpage.
Recently a question was posed as to the effect of, shall we say, snazzy wine glasses versus the 12-pack from Target in the blue box (ahem, not that we would stoop so low, cough cough):
Does laying out the money (and bar space) for specialty wine glasses make a difference to the average wine drinker? I’m a wine novice but I’m enrolling myself in “self-taught wine appreciation 101.” Will my not-too-sophisticated palate detect any subtle difference between a nice Cabernet Sauvignon sipped from a regular wine glasses and one from a Riedel Vinum Bordeaux glass?
I love any excuse to go shopping for stemware but the next earthquake to roll through L.A. is going to produce one heck of a glistening, crunchy mess around my bar!
One commenter noted that the more pricey wine glasses allow you to fit your entire nose inside the glass. Now, I don’t know what size nose you have, but outside of the dessert-wine arena, what glasses can’t you fit your nose in?!
Seriously.
While not as interesting as a Valentine’s wreath made out of wine corks (c’mon, what’s interesting that’s not made of wine corks?), this wreath made from paint chips is worth a mention.
Speaking of hearts, a few of us here at Wine and Wheels will be riding in the Triple Bypass this year. Stay tuned for training tips on going from your office cube to over 10,000 feet in less than 12 hours.
I found this in the $4.99 bin tonight.
To answer your inquires in chronological order: 1) Yes, I purchased this bottle of wine because it was in the bargain bin. 2) Yes, I also purchased it because there is a bicycle on the label. 3) Yes, I know that I should stop buying wine simply because the labels are neat looking. 4) Yes, I am a pawn to the ploy of wheel marketing. 5) No, this wine is not really very good at all.
There, are you happy now!
While the rest of the office is out getting their burritos (well, here in Denver, anyway), you’re there working diligently at your cube-space. What, you’re not? You need something to read, here’s the second edition of a “whenever I get around to it” lunchtime (for those of us west of the Mississippi) roundup on Wine and Wheels:
Don’t mix your wine and your Viagra (and, better still, don’t work too hard):
An Italian man keeled over with a heart attack and almost died after his wife slipped Viagra pills into his wine hoping it would improve his performance in bed.
The bottle is the equivalent of 387 regular bottles and is sealed with a cork worth $3,500. It cost $11,000 to fly the bottle to and from its home in Australia. The bottles was shipped to the U.S. as part of G’day USA: Australian Week. The idea was conceived by Kim Bullock a liquor store owner and the Shiraz was created using grapes from five different winemakers
These instructions on how to build a bicycle hoist might come in handy, especially if your “few bikes” turn into a full-blown fleet.
This is a pretty simple and quick way to build a bike hoist that will lift a bike evenly and easily out of your way. The neat trick is that it uses one rope to lift the bike evenly from two points which helps it lift easily and uses pulley magic to reduce the weight of the bike for the hoister. No power tools required although a drill is handy.
This setup is a little iffy on the security (are you parking your automobile underneath it?) but I would tackle this one before I decided to make a recumbent bicycle from garage refuse!
If you are one of the thousands of people not lucky like me, you celebrate Valentine’s Day. If you are one of the people like me you have quite a few wine corks laying around the house, that is, corks that haven’t been used for parking brakes, door knobs, or door knob stoppers. Grab your old corks and get to it.
For this heart wreath, start with a standard foam, wire or wicker frame that you’ve put into the shape of a heart. Now, using a strong glue, glue each cork into place against that backing. Be sure to give it adequate time to dry!
Time to dry? Good call. That is why, my friends, I’m posting the one and only (hopefully) Valentine’s Day posting far in advance.
Now, are you unsure of whether your valentine will be your valentine? Might I recommend the ole glass half full or empty test. Ok, I made that test up.
Look at your glass NOW. Right now. If it’s above halfway full, you’re set. Pleasant Valentine’s nights.
The New York Times reports on the Silicon Valley wine theft today, via the Houston Chronicle:
It was perhaps the most Californian of crimes. Behind the electronic gates and freshly clipped hedges of an exclusive cul-de-sac, the thieves worked in the dead of night, ignoring watches, laptops and other ho-hum booty to cart away the ultimate prize: 450 bottles of wine, including a rare, $11,000 1959 magnum from the Chateau Petrus in Bordeaux, France.
Over $100,000 in wine was stolen! I’m not sure which fact reported is more strange: that thieves passed up laptops, watches and other ‘typical’ thievery, or that “An 18-year-old girl was shot point-blank in the head and I received no calls about it,” says Detective Sgt. Joseph C. Wade. “The wine theft? A gazillion. [Speaking of two separate incidents] It kind of shows you where people’s values lie.” The photo above is of bottles similar to the $11,000 Bordeaux reported stolen.
Researchers at “Louie Uni” (Universite Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg) have decided that grape juice is just as good for your heart as wine.
Grape juice can have a similar effect (against heart disease) as red wine but without the alcohol. That is a very important message,” said Dr Valerie Schini-Kerth, lead author of the study published in the journal Cardiovascular Research.
Not all grape juices are high in polyphenol levels, just like wine, so choose your juices wisely. Oh yeah, and guess who is funding this study? Welch Foods Inc. Yes, that Welch’s
