Other hobbies?

For things that don't fit into the other categories.

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Rich Greenberg
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Other hobbies?

Post by Rich Greenberg »

I did a half-hearted search to see if a thread like this one had come before, but didn't see one. Since the membership here has grown quite a bit, even if one has, maybe time for another go?

So, everyone here obviously has a thing for port. What are your other hobbies? How about, your top three non-port (or wine) things that you do with your "me" time?

When I'm not working or spending time with the family, here's what I like to do:

1. Grill and BBQ: Yes, they are two different things. I won't get all snobbish, but grilling uses high heat (say 300+ degrees -- yes, Fahrenheit!), and BBQ uses low heat (usually under 250 degrees or so.) I have done some competing, but mostly I just love cooking over charcoal in the backyard. My specialties are ribs (pork spares or babybacks), pork butt (that's shoulder for those unfamiliar with butcher speak), and steaks (ribeye or porterhouse are my favorites.)

2. Tennis: Been playing since I was about five years old, and still going. I play competitive USTA league tennis at the 4.5 level, and hope my body will allow me to continue to play for a very long time.

3. Coffee Roasting: This is a relatively new one for me. Started when I got a roaster for my birthday this spring, and love it. It's very easy with a good roaster, and it's fun to try small batches of lots of different beans. I have settled on Central American coffees as being most consistenly my favorites (mostly roasted to Vienna or French stage), with the occasional pound or two of pure Kona as a bonus for being good (to myself.)

So, anyone want to jump in on this one? I think I know what Todd will put down as at least one of his.....

Rich
Moses Botbol
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Re: Other hobbies?

Post by Moses Botbol »

Rich Greenberg wrote: When I'm not working or spending time with the family, here's what I like to do:

1. Grill and BBQ: Yes, they are two different things.
I am into BBQ too. Just scored a huge supply of maple, pear, ash, apple, and white oak logs last week! I am going full bore this winter now that I have found an endless supply of wood.

2. F1 - Formula 1. My girlfriend is thankful that I bought a Tivo; no more getting up at some awful hour to watch qualifying or the Grand Prix. I know a few others are into F1 in the port circles as well.

3. Cycling- Be it watching professional racing or just riding my road bike. I have been into cycling since an early teen.
Welsh Corgis | F1 |British Cars
Moses Botbol
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Re: Other hobbies?

Post by Moses Botbol »

Rich Greenberg wrote: When I'm not working or spending time with the family, here's what I like to do:

1. Grill and BBQ: Yes, they are two different things.
I am into BBQ too. Just scored a huge supply of maple, pear, ash, apple, and white oak logs last week! I am going full bore this winter now that I have found an endless supply of wood.

2. F1 - Formula 1. My girlfriend is thankful that I bought a Tivo; no more getting up at some awful hour to watch qualifying or the Grand Prix. I know a few others are into F1 in the port circles as well.

3. Cycling- Be it watching professional racing or just riding my road bike. I have been into cycling since an early teen.

4. Espresso Machine. Tinkering around with my Rancillio has been a daily hobby for the last decade. Been a real workhorse!
Welsh Corgis | F1 |British Cars
Frederick Blais
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Post by Frederick Blais »

When I'm not spending time into port/wine

1- Photo/Outdoors I think both come togheter, I just love to enjoy the small beauties around us and I try to capture it in photo.

2- Gaming, I'm not a hardcore gamer but I like to play some games on my PC

3- Cooking, I like to try new receipes
Living the dream and now working for a Port company
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Andy Velebil
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Post by Andy Velebil »

CYCLING: not that wimpy MTB stuff :wink: but Road racing. Been racing since I was 13 and although the body doesn't recover quite as fast as it used to, I still race at the Category 2 level. I love being outdoors on two wheels. Not only does it keep me in great shape, it allows me to drink lots of Port and keep the pounds off :mrgreen:

Between Port and cycling that pretty much takes all my free time. Although I love hiking in the mountains. Its so peacefull, clean air, no traffic, I just love it. Luckily I have a good friend who lets me use his cabin as a base when ever I want.

Anyone notice there are a number of us cyclist on here 8--)
Andy Velebil Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used. William Shakespeare http://www.fortheloveofport.com
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Erik Wiechers
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Post by Erik Wiechers »

Beekeeping

for 4 years now i am keeping bees, i followed my fathers footsteps and he followed his father. One of my hives belonged original to my grandfather.

Running

3 times a week you can find me on the track. Did run several half-marathons and am in training now for the real marathon. PB on the half marathon (21.1km, or 13.1 miles) is 1:34:12

Gaming

just finished Bioshock and waiting eagerly for Crysis

Movies and TV-series

I just LOVE the Sopranos, dead like me, six feet under and so on.
Todd Pettinger
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Post by Todd Pettinger »

Okay, yes Rich, sorry, I have to chip in with running, cycling, and even to some extent, swimming (I hate it, it is is a technical sport that demands more of my time than I can devote to it in order to be decent at it... but I do (strangely) find myself enjoying an open water swim of 2-4 miles length in a clean lake.

Yeah, watching cycling... the bomb baby. Unfortunately, coverage of international cycling events here in Canada is limited to, uh... the Tour de France... Tour de France... and uh... Tour de France. Most of the time the internet is a guy's best friend.

Port drinking... kinda goes without saying.

Spending time with my kids. Yup, count me in. Whether it is running around in the park behind my house with them, racing them around the block (they get to bike, I have to run) or just chillin and watching Curious George (about the only half hour of TV I'll let them watch) it is always a good time. Love them to death...

This one may set me apart as the "geek" but developing my skills as a computer geek. I administer servers (x86-based for those of you that know/care) and really dig developing my skills with brand new technologies and determining how exactly I could make my company's network a better place if I was only in charge... yes, very geeky, but true.

Reading. Sadly, I devote too little time to this, but it is a true hobby of mine.

Uh, much more, but those are the major ones.....

Todd
Luc Gauthier
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Post by Luc Gauthier »

- Reading political biographies
My 2 kids ( 6yrs & 4 yrs ) take up a good chunk of the time . . .
Vintage avant jeunesse/or the other way around . . .
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Roy Hersh
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Post by Roy Hersh »

1. Fine Dining: I was classically trained as a chef and worked in restaurants and hotels for many years. I still love to cook, but only when I can do so for wine dinners. I really enjoy putting on the occasional dinner party.

2. Skiing - my favorite sport ... and I have not gone in the past couple of seasons but absolutely love it and will be taking my daughter up for the first time this year, possibly in CO where my brother and his family live.

3. Organizing wine dinners - I do lots of these each year that have nothing to do with Port and Madeira. So if it sounds like I drink a lot of Port and Madeira, let me just say that my consumption of those two, is about 10% of what I typically wind up tasting.

4. Movies - I have been an amateur movie critic in the past and used to love writing up the better movies I got to see. This is inherited as my parents were both big movie fans and my mother as fanatical about film as I am about Portuguese dessert wine. We were going to a friend's home in the 1960s who had a home theater and he used to purchase original films to show to his friends. Now my daughter has caught the bug as my wife is also a mega movie fan too. We discuss what wine would pair well with a movie we are going to watch. Yes, totally insane!
Last edited by Roy Hersh on Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ambition driven by passion, rather than money, is as strong an elixir as is Port. http://www.fortheloveofport.com
Jay Powers
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Post by Jay Powers »

1) I am fortunate that one of my hobbies is also my job, namely the study of organic and biochemistry.

2) Reading. Fiction and history, particularly ancient history and science fiction.

3) Snowboarding

4) Searching for that great deal on wine and port.

Jay
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Andy Velebil
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Post by Andy Velebil »

Jay Powers wrote: 3) Snowboarding

Jay
Jay,

My first time snowboarding is a long story. It involved being in college, in a fraternity, visiting another fraternity chapter in Reno, getting snowed in, a jeep, tow rope, and a high school parking lot...I'll let you fill in the rest and I'll tell you the story when I see you next. Great memories 8--)
Andy Velebil Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used. William Shakespeare http://www.fortheloveofport.com
Jay Powers
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Post by Jay Powers »

Good stuff Andy, we will have to meet up and shred it up a little. And after all, can you think of a better time for some VP than in front of a fire in a cabin in Tahoe, Mammoth, or Whistler after a day of shredding up the freshies?

I actually started snowboarding at the ripe old age of 37, and now tear it up all over the place. Just show me a 20 foot drop off a lip and I'm heading down. I love being in my 40's...still young enough to do stuff and doing well enough to afford it. That being said, I could tell you similar stories about my first three days on the board that would make an orthopedic surgeon cringe! My neck still hurts!

Jay
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Eric Ifune
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Post by Eric Ifune »

I'm a snow boarder also. I switched from skiing after trying on the boots for the first time. I've been doing it for about 12 year now.
I'm also into Oriental art and crafts. Have subscribed to an oriental rug journal for 15 or so years and am a member of the Textile Museum.
Todd Pettinger
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Post by Todd Pettinger »

Have yet to do the 'board' thing... was an almost-competitive downhill skier until family financials forced me out of the sport... Too bad... at the time I was good and fearless (not necessarily in that order.) Now I have learned a healthy respect for my body. Kind of ;)

Still hit the slopes when I get the chance, but with two young'uns, it's tough baby... it's tough.
Marc J.
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Post by Marc J. »

1. Mountaineering - I love climbing mountains all over the world. During most of the year I climb in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, but I'm also working on the Seven Summits. So far I've knocked Mt. Elbrus & Kilimanjaro off the list. Aconcagua is next....

2. Skiing - I love to ski. I've been very active in ski racing and I have also worked as a ski instructor. Currently I'm getting in about 20 days a year on the slopes, but I wish that I could get up more often.

3. Golfing - When I'm not skiing, I'm golfing. I used to play competitive golf, but now its all for pleasure. I'm constantly working on my game - fine tuning, tweaking & adjusting...its a never ending process!

4. Backpacking - Last summer I backpacked across the Sierra and this upcoming summer I'm think of doing another long-range backpacking trip somewhere in the Sierra.
Jay Powers
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Post by Jay Powers »

Wow, another Mountaineer! I used to do quite a bit of climbing, rock and alpine. I must have been to the top of devils tower 30 times, but my alpine climbing is a bit more limited...Tetons (Grand, by three routes on three occasions), Ranier, and so on. Have not made it to anything outside the US, although I would love to do the Andes, India/Pakistan, Russia, or even just Mckinley. Not much time these days and woefully out of shape. The last climb I did was Bear Creek Spire on the east side of the Sierras a couple of years ago. I once had a dream of doing the "50 classics" but only knocked off a dozen or so. The seven summits would be another, although I would happily settle for some of the less traveled peaks in the Himilaya like Cho Oyo or something like that. One can only dream!

Jay
Santo Roman
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Post by Santo Roman »

I guess I'll break the mold on these then,

1) In my off time back in Seattle I drag VW Bugs in Renton and Edmonds drag racing strips. Spent about 3 years building my car and it only took 11 seconds to get down the 1/4 mile and 11 seconds to blow the motor. Wife was not amused! All done for the season so i have plenty of time to build a new motor and piss off my wife with it.

2) I fly fish a lot! If not on the Yakima River or Raging/Snoqualmie Rivers it will be on any water that looks like it might hold a fish. Hell I've tossed my fly into a mud puddle in hopes that I'd catch a brown trout. Ok bad joke.

3) Tie flies

4) Pipe collector, For some years I was a Tobacconist (5 years) i began smoking pipes at a young age and found that I was in love with pipes that were made from the 20's and before. I have about 200 pipes and try to smoke all of them at least once a year. Well not as much anymore but I still buy them just to collect.
Gary Banker
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Post by Gary Banker »

Tai Chi

Yoga

Reading
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Eric Ifune
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Post by Eric Ifune »

4) Pipe collector, For some years I was a Tobacconist (5 years) i began smoking pipes at a young age and found that I was in love with pipes that were made from the 20's and before. I have about 200 pipes and try to smoke all of them at least once a year. Well not as much anymore but I still buy them just to collect.
What kind of pipes do you like to smoke the most? Briar, meercheeum? I knew a guy who swears by plain clay pipes.
Nikolaj Winther
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Post by Nikolaj Winther »

Designer furniture. A vice that's even more expensive than port. Especially the great danish designers of the 40-50's and forward. In fact there are few designers outside of denmark who have made anything worth mentioning.

TV, friends (not the show), movies, cooking, motorsports and last but not least, history.
Last edited by Nikolaj Winther on Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
What I lack in size I make up for in obnoxiousness.
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