Severely Misunderstood was playing at the Gig on Melrose Ave. I’ve not been to that strip of Melrose and it looks like some pretty cool things would go down there on a Friday or Saturday or Thursday night. But it was Sunday.

The club was actually really cozy and I could see how it would appeal to musicians. They had a pretty well stocked bar, comfy sofas and drink tables against the walls and a prominent stage with curtains and all.

This was my first time catching Severly Misunderstood. I’m not a big punk rock fan but I have to give it up to Kevin and Bob for putting on a sizzling show.

I took a personal day to go watch the second round of the Mercedez Open with Herbie. It really felt unreal seeing Kuerten, Safin and Haas on a tennis court, in flesh and blood and not just as electrons bouncing off the TV screen.

To start the day, I almost bumped into Taylor Dent as he was making his way to play Max Mirnyi on one of the outer courts. Because I had never seen him before on TV, my initial impression when I first saw him was that he was some no name doubles player. Anyway, we were able to catch Dent-Mirnyi 6 rows from courtside, so close that you could here the ball whizzing through the air after they hit it.

We scurried over to stadium court afterwards to catch World #1 Guga, dressed in his signature yellow, walking behind the baseline between points like a flimsy piece of melty rubber. I think this guy is made of just tendons and bones, just like the skeleton dummy in biology class.

After the Kuerten match, we caught Safin-Malisse where Malisse upset Safin in two sets. A lot of baseline groundstroke brilliance in that one.

This was the last time Hui Chin and I were going to walk into this shop. This year anyway. Unless we were to run out of wine labels.

Bottling day. After sitting at the Wine Making store for two months, our wine was finally ready for bottling. 30 bottles of Merlot.

We started by extracting a wine sample using the siphoning beaker a.k.a. the wine thief so that we could determine the alcohol level of the wine. I believe it was 11%. Or was it 19%. Oh, never mind. I think I sometimes give out too much information.

The next step in bottling involved a device that pumped the wine out of the vat into the bottle. The device works a little like a gas pump as it stops pumping once it detects that wine has reached the neck of the bottle. Having as little bubbles on the surface wins you the distinction of good pumper.

Next, we cork the bottles. I would have to say that this was my favorite part. This is what the corking machine looks like, it has a long lever, a base on which to put the bottle, and a slot in which to put the cork. You start by putting the bottle on the base, insert the cork into the cork holder and pull the lever. Pulling the lever does two things; the cork gets squeezed in the cork hold, and a rod like thing comes along and pushes the cork into the bottle.

The final part of the bottling process involved sealing the bottle. Hui Chin and I had a field time picking from the store’s wide selection of seals. Bottles are sealed by putting the seal over bottle and turning it 360 degrees with the neck of the bottle sitting in a heating coil. Sealing was really tricky as you had 2 seconds to put the bottle in, twist it and pull it out.

And voila. 29 and a half bottles of wine. It’s a pity Hui Chin and don’t drink wine.