After Baling Hay? A Whip
Most of us spent the day baling hay. We may get one more chance to bale hay, but we doubt it, but pretty much we've got plenty of stock to get us through until spring. Doing this when it's 80 degrees but very humid really makes you look forward to the cocktail hour with your friends and neighbors, good conversation, and good food. Sitting under the fans on the porch, sipping violently powerful (read: only one!) Whips. Try one sometime, but do be cautious, the Whip is a pretty powerful little cocktail because it combines both vermouth and cognac.

Mr. Piggy
A.J. threw this one word out at us, and it started quite an interesting train of thought, free-association. Porcine. One whose cheeks look just like the ones that he sits on. Words just spilled all around the porch, lickety-split: porcine, boarish, boorish, hoggish, loutish, piggish, piggy, swine, swinish. And from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: "They tried to groan and beg for mercy, but forthwith emitted the most awful grunting and squealing that ever came out of swinish throats." And finally, and best, this from H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau: "Each of these creatures, despite its human form, its rag of clothing, and the rough humanity of its bodily form, had woven into it - into its movements, into the expression of its countenance, into its whole presence - some now irresistible suggestions of a hog, a swinish taint, the unmistakable mark of the beast." A.J. closed by saying: bottom-feeder, and Liz chimed in: opportunist, self-seeker, and opportunist who profits from the misfortunes of others, a person who places expediency above principle.
"I didn't divulge the name of Valerie Plame."

It depends on what the meaning of "is" is. And the Butcher of Huntsville promised us a White House with more dignity. Kind of like the Nixon administration, isn't it? This one. And we still have to go through the hell of the Downing Street Memos and another impeachment (you don't drag your country into a war of hissy fit, based on lies.) Rovianesque politics are similar to the slop some feed their hogs. Back in the good old days, we used to call such people "the nurk" or the worst pig in the litter. We suppose, also, that Rovianesque can also be labeled steatopygic, like his cheeks; you see, you need those cheeks to hold all that venom you're going to use against someone, maybe Mr. and Mrs. Wilson?
Oh, and really, a guy in his position and he didn't know you couldn't claim TWO homestead exemptions, yeah sure. Got caught, didn't you Piggy?

Charlotte, Shelley and Cathy Cook!
But, let's take a break and go in to dinner. Charlotte, Shelley and Cathy have been busy for two days getting it ready, and you know that when this trio gets together to cook, the dinner is going to be great. Max, of course, pitched in too. First, we were served individual little puff pastry tarts of porcini mushrooms and Fontina cheese. Cathy served them with a good Spanish dry sparkling wine. After those delicious little tarts, we had Basil-Zucchini Soup that they served with an un-oaked Chardonnay, though we usually like our soups with Port, Cream Sherry, or a late harvest Riesling. Charlotte, Shelley and Cathy shared their efforts to serve us an excellent Roast Salmon with Lime Salsa. Taking into consideration that we were eating salmon and serving it with the tangy lime, they chose a Burgundy, this one a Louis Jadot Chorey-lès-Beaune. The simply prepared haricots verts and shallots from Art and Terry's farm were pretty close to sublime. After dollops of nectarine sorbet, Max served us a rib roast he had marinated in vodka. This dish needed a pretty complex wine, so he chose a Barolo Vigna Rionda Massolino from 1993 (we are blessed that Max and Charlotte have such a great wine cellar.) Max served a medley of just-cooked vegetables picked at the peak of ripeness. For the close of our meal, Charlotte had prepared Blueberry and Peach Tartlets, simple but scrumptious.

We headed to the great room to have our after-dinner coffee and see how the kids had spent their day. Some are glad to be back in school, others wish they could still stay at home playing with their horses.