I guess a quirk of my personality is that if I like someone, I tend to razz them and some people don’t get it. Thankfully one of my nephews for sure gets it and he gets a kick out of his crazy uncle (I guess). Some people just can’t appreciate my humor or that it is just my way of letting someone know that I like them, or I can just be totally social, but the warmth is not there. The honoree of the day takes it all in stride, in fact when I saw him earlier before the party, as my Bride was there to help with some of the food arrangements, I kidded with him, that he must have forgotten to shave for his party. Sure, enough when he returned after going with his parents to get some more stuff for the party, he took the time to shave, and then I got a chance to razz him about that as well.

The graduation party was a joint venture with another family who had a son in the same class as our nephew, so there was a lot of hub-bub in the kitchen area of the hall that was rented. There were multiple women in the kitchen each working on the dishes that they had brought for the party. There was one long table that was set up as a buffet style with all of the assorted dishes laid out it in a logical order. I kind of cheated that day, under the guise of checking how the ham was heating up, I kept liberating some slices, but there was so much ham there, it was never noticed, except perhaps to Commandant Bride. I am such a picky eater, that when the time came to make a plate of food, I just had the ham and the Armenian Pilaf that my Bride had made for the party.

The day was an unusually hot day so we took two bottles of white wine and one bottle of red, as I especially wanted the Louisville clan try the red, before they took off to go home. The white wines were a no-brainer for the day. The Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay 2014 from the Sonoma County has been a crowd pleaser from the first time that I tried it, and they have been making it since 1973. The maritime section of the Sonoma County is perfect for Pinot Noir and for Chardonnay, and when I think of Sonoma-Cutrer I automatically think of their Chardonnay. The red wine that I took was one that I had bought from a wine tasting event that I had attended. The J Pinot Noir 2015 was a wine that I really enjoyed and the J is for Judy Jordan who got her start from her father Tom Jordan of Jordan Vineyard & Winery. J Vineyards & Winery began only making their sparkling wine and have just recently begun making some still wines and Pinot Noir is a natural, considering that it is used in their sparkling wine. The wine carries a California AVA, but there was considerable quality and coordination on the fruit. The lion’s share comes from the Olson Ranch from the Santa Lucia Highlands (and I am very partial to the Pinot Noir wines that I have had from there) and then twenty-six percent comes from the Russian River Valley, while four percent comes from the Santa Maria Valley; none of which are shabby. Alas, I could not get a comment from the Louisville clan about the wine, because they did not want any more wine to try, because of the long drive home, and I totally understand that. As for the honoree of the day, he had a grand time, along with all the people that came to enjoy the moment with him.