I know it's been suspenseful, but I'm still here. My brother arrived Friday without incident, and we immediately started trekking towards Woodinville to get some lunch and check out wineries. After much direction-misreading (and useless conversations with winery employees), we arrived in Woodinville, and promptly checked out the Red Hook Brewery for lunch. The place is pretty ridiculous, a large complex of buildings whose rooflines are like coniferous minarets - an interesting design. In any case, they make a mean summer ale and a commendable bacon cheeseburger, after which we were out the door - for thirty seconds, to Chateau Ste. Michelle winery across the street.

We happened upon Cheateau Ste. Michelle just as a tour was leaving, so we gathered our tickets and checked it out. Winery tours are basically all the same, a very rough outline of the winemaking process, followed by looking at a lot of barrels, but Chateau Ste. Michelle has a bottling line, which was operating at the time, and very exciting. The tour was followed by a tasting of three wines conducted by our tour guide as though everyone tasting was about six years old. Plus, the wines were pretty mediocre. We considered checking out their reserve tasting, but decided our money would be better spent across the street (next to Red Hook) at Columbia Winery, and we were right.

For $5, we got the reserve tasting menu, which was a Chardonnay, a Merlot, two Cabernets, and a Syrah. Both of the Cabernets were good, as was the Syrah - but we noticed that the regular, free menu had some bonuses: A Washington Sangiovese (a varietal popular in Italy, notably made into Brunello di Montalcino), and a reserve Syrah which appeared to be even better than the one on the reserve tasting menu. So they were. The Sangiovese was very good - not quite Italian in taste, but among the best American Sangiovese I've had, and the best (and only) from Washington. The Syrah was also excellent, easily beating his elder brother who I had to pay $5 to taste. As a bonus, we persuaded the clerk that even if my Dad and I both bought a half-case and he had to process them entirely differently and ship one to him, it was still worthy of the case discount - so we did that. If you're in the Seattle area and carrying around a hunk of cheese or a steak, drop by, and I think we can make arrangements.

After that, we headed back to the city for dinner at Wild Ginger, the Thai place everyone talks about - badly. It gets rave reviews from many reviewers, but it seems like every Seattleite I've spoken to about it bitches about the price and quality. Well, I dunno what they're on about - sure, it's pricey, but the food was delicious. Maybe not strictly Thai, but very very good. We had many many pieces of meat en brochette from the Satay bar, all of which were delicious, followed by a refreshing soup - the Wandering Sage soup. It's a simple consomme with pork dumplings, and it was fairly good - until the waiter recommended that we add a little bit of chile puree, and then it was *awesome*. Highly recommended.

Afterwards, my brother and I ventured up to Fremont to hang out with a couple people he went to college with and one of his friends since elementary school from St. Louis - we went to the Triangle Lounge, which was a fine time, and then the George and Dragon Pub, where everything starts to get a little hazy. Fine times were had by all.

Saturday morning started slowly, and indeed progressed that way. Ben went to watch the Oregon vs. Oklahoma game with friends (check out ESPN for the news about that one), and I played Scrabble at my house with my Mom. We walked down Broadway at about 4 and happened upon a charity hot-dog sales event, so we contributed to society a little and walked back. I still don't know what the charity was, but they make a decent dog. As long as you don't let them put cream cheese on it, which is apparently the custom here.

More Scrabble, then dinner at Salty's on Alki - a restaurant reviewed primarily for its views of downtown Seattle from the West Seattle peninsula, which is awesome, and secondarily for its food, which is competent, but certainly not rave-worthy. Actually, they do have a very good seafood chowder, which I'd recommend. I had seared tuna on sticky rice with a balsamic reduction, and it was good, but no need to gush. After dinner (which, after being reserved at an already late-ish 7:30, actually commenced closer to 8:30), I dropped my brother off at his friends' house and went home and went to bed.

Today, up at 9, breakfast at the Corner Cafe again (same meal, this time with Italian sausage rather than bacon), and then dropping the family off at the airport. Now, I'm just relaxing. It's very nice.

On a side note, I'm listening to John Mayer's new album, Continuum - it's pretty good. I don't like it quite as much as Try!, but then, it's a more subdued, poppy studio album. It's still got some good stuff on it.

Man, that's the most eventful weekend I've had in a while. Now you can go about your business.