Stephanie A. Kesler: Wine of the Night

A Great Saturday in Denver

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 17:23:58 GMT

After my late Friday night Denver arrival, I spent Saturday morning basically sleeping and moving very slowly. Which is quite easy to do when one is staying at the most fabulous Brown Palace Hotel, lounging is definitely de rigeur! I will say though, that I was awakened at 9:30 AM by the sound of a dog barking right ouside my door. Ooooh - The Brown is pet friendly!!!! I heard the dog again at 11:30 AM and this time went zipping out of my room to meet the pooch. She was a very cute weimaranar puppy named Haley.

I spent yesterday afternoon and early evening furiously geocaching. I want to get my 200th cache on this trip and my count was at 189. I managed to polish off 7 caches yesterday and by the time I finished it was pitch black.

I also set a cache in the park right across the street from where we lived until I was six years old - that's when Mom and I moved to Alaska. Of course, when one sets a cache outside of one's home area, one needs someone in the area to monitor the cache. But the great thing about geocaching is that finding a babysitter is easy - even if you don't know any cachers in the area. I just looked at who had set a bunch of caches in the area of my new cache and sent them an email asking them if they would babysit my cache. They were thrilled and immediately agreed! Isn't that nifty?!!!!

After my hard day of geocaching, Lucy and I met for dinner at Barolo - probably my favorite Northern Italian restaurant of all time. Man - their food is exquisite. We ended up sitting at the bar which was the icing on the cake. Our bartender was great and on the house, she poured us each of glass of La Villa by Gigliardo. The la Villa is an Asti Muscat. OMIGOD - the perfect combination of a late harvest Muscat and a sparkling Asti. It was absolutely astounding. Big time yum!

The perfect topper to a great day!

Now for Pictures.

This is the old Elitch's Carousel Pavillion. The old Elitch's was just six blocks from our home. I loved Elitch's fabulous gardens. The new development that is now where Elitch's used to be is really depressing. No hint at all of the grand style that had occupied that same area.

Our old house on Wolff Street.

Pferdestellar Park - right across the street from our house.

14th Annual New Year's Eve Government Hill Progressive Dinner

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 07:29:25 GMT

Last night was an absolute blast. These dinners are just so much fun and at 14 years into the game, we're a well oiled machine - we all know we're doing the dinner so we don't make other plans for New Year's Eve. The only question is, who is responsible for which course? This year, a week before New Year's, Kathryn called and informed Peter and me of our assignment - the main course - in celebration of our engagement. Oh boy..

So, starting with the appetizers, here is a pictoral story of last night's fun-ness:

Me with my buddy, The Penguin at Kathleen and Kevin's.

The sublime salad course was at Kathryn and Steve's. Kathryn and Steve also poured the wine of the night: the Lurton 2005 Torrontes from Argentina. Omigod it was good - the most intesting white wine I've had in a very long time. And it is incredibly inexpensive: $8/bottle. It gets my vote here and now for the best wine value in the world.

Anyhoo, here we are getting ready to dig in.

We then trundled off to our house for the main course: Paella accompanied by a fabulous challah (baked by Peter). I chose this very traditional paella recipe and was in the kitchen most of the day. However, the work was fun and worth it - the paella was really fabulous.

Here we are just sitting down. Peter did a magnificient job setting the table.

The final stop was dessert and fireworks at Bernie and Sharon's. Here's Sam (in his Russian Army outfit) standing out back waiting for the fireworks to start. You can also see Steve crawling under the picnic table to grab some fireworks.

After Midnight, we headed home. However, we stopped by a few houses for some more fun. One set of neighbors tramped down the snow their front yard for their annual New Year's Eve Bocci Ball tournament.

The Bocci Ball Revelers:

Other neighbors who held a big outdoor party around a fire pit. You have to agree, that we Alaskans know how to have fun in the winter!

Wine and Flying Pigs

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 06:32:28 GMT

Tonight at the Crow's Nest bar, Jim, John, Peter, and I had the most fabulous, and rare, bottle of wine. The 2001 Cayuse Flying Pig. The Pig is a boutique red wine made by Christophe Baron - the only way one can purchase the wine is via futures. We just happened to be very very lucky that the Crow's Nest has excellent relations with Christophe.

The Pig blend is that of a claret - Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. But the nose screams rhone/shiraz - not claret. It has to be the best nose I've experienced. Heavenly pepper. Heck - you don't even need to drink the wine. You can be happy just smelling it! Yum!

The taste is drop dead rhone - peppers with a little bit of fruit. I was actually surprised to discover the wine was a claret and not a syrah. Very very good - my only complaint is that I thought it was a little thin - it did not have a super full body. But, relative to the nose and flavor, that is a very minor complaint!

I just wish I could find a good picture of the label on-line. But alas. I can't...The jet pack propelled pigs are quite cute!

A Very Nice Birthday

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 07:01:05 GMT

We just got in from the traditional birthday dinner at the Marx Brothers. It was great fun - the attendees were Mom, the Ski Boy, and Pooh ( who was celebrating his Bar exam results).

As I type, I'm pretty much a beached whale - with a ton of added garlic as a result of Van's famous Ceasar salad. We had a wonderful time and I received some very cool presents. Mom and the Ski Boy are the absolute best!

We had fun with the wine order - I couldn't decide on a good Cab, so I told our waitperson to "just surprise me". She rolled her eyes - and then said, "Great - I'll decant it and you can do a blind tasting". Well the wine was a marvelous 2001 Washington Cab. And I can't believe I didn't write the name down - it began with a "D". But I'll darned - I just can't find it on-line. Grrr....

A very big and smooth cab. Totally drinkable. Very high end.

The Best News of the Day

Tue, 17 May 2005 05:33:54 GMT

Oooooh - the Supreme Court got it right!

The Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for states to prohibit consumers from ordering wine from out of state!

Big Yea!!!!

Those laws drive me nuts. They're right up there with state owned liquor stores. For example, it is beyond hypocritical that Utah (which for all intensive purposes is a Mormon state) liquor stores are state owned. The state disapproves of drinking but yet decides it wants to make money off of it. Oh - and those state liquor stores stock absolute swill on the wine front.

New Year's Eve Progressive Dinner

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 05:28:59 GMT

As promised, I've got several pictures from our 13th Annual Government Hill New Year's Eve progressive dinner. This year's shots aren't as eclectic as last year's pics. I was sort of fading as a result of the flu and just wasn't as aggressive on the photog front as usual.

However, Steve more than made up for my lackadasical effort. He took a bazillion pictures. Hopefully he'll send some of them my way.

Speaking of Steve, you're going to see a lot of him. For some unknown reason, he was in most of my shots.

Appetizers!

First up was the Appetizer Course, which was held at Chez Ski Boy. Kathryn G. and I teamed up to serve: Crab Slather on Toasted Baguette, a Caribbean Guacamole, Shrimp Skewers, and the piece de resistance, a killer Caribbean pizza topped with Boursin, ricotta, mozzarella, and provolone cheeses, garlic, shrimp, and papaya. It was over the top incredible. The libations consisted of beer or Gloria Ferrer Extra Brut.

Here's Steve and Peter. Steve is thumbing through the calendar that he had just received from Kathryn E. Bernie, and Allison.

Salad Course

The salad course locale was at Kevin and Kathleen's (home of the penguin). We had a delightful mesculen green salad with prosciutto, fruit, and candied walnuts. I drank the wonderful Kim Crawford Sauvingnon Blanc.

Kevin and Kathleen also arranged for easy fireworks viewing right outside their dining room window. As we ate, we had a great view of the annual fireworks display set off in the small boat harbour. We didn't even have to stand outside in the cold! It was perfect.

The Main Event!

We tromped our way through the snow and over the hills to Kathryn, Allison's and Bernie's for the main course. And what a main course it was - it was exquisite. It was delectable. It was the best ever.

Baked bananas and mangos. A rice pilaf with dried cranberries and other goodies. And an amazing marinated grilled chicken. Kathryn's cooking philosophy was to cook with alcohol in each dish and wow! Was it amazing. Those bananas and mangos were amazing. And the chicken. The chicken may be my favorite grilled chicken of all time. I've got to get the recipes!!!! The wines were also stupendous - two Steph total favs in the blended white wine category: Evolution and the Caymus Conundrum I was a completely happy camper!

Here's The Ski Boy, me, Melissa, and the Flamingos at dinner. This is before the fabulous eats have arrived. But we're very happily sipping the Evolution.

Steve and Kathleen. I told you Steve was going nuts with his camera!

The Finale!

We staggered our way down to Mike and Melissa's for dessert, a few very tame fireworks (sparklers), and a toasting of the new year. By this point in the game we were all pretty beached and not necessarily inebriated, but we could perhaps see it from there. But we rallied for the Death by Chocolate cake and the Apple Pie pizza. Peter is going to propose to Melissa - he died and went to heaven over the apple pie. By this time, I was pretty much done in on the libation front. So I have no idea what wine was served at dessert. I believe there was a port and a late harvest reisling of some ilk. But the fabulous desserts themselves would have certainly outshone the wine!

All in all, it was another wonderful New Year's Eve. I think our New Year's Eve tradition is the best in the whole world!

A Ski Boy Birthday Dinner at Sullivans!

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 07:34:15 GMT

Oooooh - Peter and I just got back from his birthday dinner at Sullivan's and Hewey's LCD is still functional! Yipeee!

We had the most fabulous dinner at Sullivan's - one of our big time buddies, Jim Dunlap joined us. A very fun night of steak, fabulous wine, gifts, and totally entertaining conversation. Jim and I are so going to Hell - but at least all the fun people will be there.

The Ski Boy raked in quite a gift haul: custom handmade cards (including one made by Clemmie), snowmen to whazooo, Red Sox books and CD's from son Pooh, and a very handsome Italian sweater from the Slat Rat.

We were also visited by a fellow diner/GCI'er bearing a mystery glass of wine. One sniff told us that it was a truly special wine. The Slat Rat schnozz correctly identified it as a high California Cab. But I couldn't get beyond that point. As it turns out, it was an exquisite Chalk Hill Cab - vintage unknown. Oh my - it was sublime. And we were already drinking another wonderful wine, the 1999 Dominus Napanook. We were definitely completely happy campers on the fermented grape front.

The perfect capper to the evening was coming home to two inches of fresh white snow and taking the Clemster out for a late night constitutional in the new snow.

Only special people get two inches of wonderful new snow on their birthdays!

Sideways

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 05:06:04 GMT

Peter and I saw the flick Sideways last night. Obstensibly, Sideways is a road/buddy picture set in California's wine country. However, at its core, it is really a mash note to wine.

I think, hands down, it has to be the best wine movie ever made.

Although, as I type, I have to ask, are there other wine movies?

There's a scene midway through the movie where Paul Giamatti (Bart's son! Can you believe it?) and Virginia Madsen are talking about what attracts them to wine. Giamatti's character has a masterful monologue about Pinot Noir - the grape's thin skin, the difficulty in nurturing the grape. And Madsen's monologue about the seductiveness and intellectual challenge of wine is amazing.

Of course my favorite bit of dialog was the following:

Thomas Haden Church: If the girls like Merlot, you will drink Merlot!

Paul Giamatti: I will NOT drink fucking Merlot!!!!!!

I believe I've used that very phrase myself on several occasions.

A Halloween Eve Wine Tasting Dinner

Mon, 01 Nov 2004 02:33:47 GMT

Last night, the Ski Boy and I joined several other friends for an absolutely fabulous Italian Wine Tasting dinner hosted by our good buddy, Mary L.

Mary outdid herself - the main course was a spectacular lamb Osso Bucco (my mouth is watering all over again). Gordon and Blythe provided an excellent antipasto plate, Ramzi whipped up a gourmet Ceasar salad, and Joe finished us off with the most wonderful homemade almond strawberry tort. o.k. - I'm dying here just recounting all the great food!

And the wine - well, it was really wonderful. Mary's nephew, Trajan played professional basketball in Italy two years ago. As such, she has access to Italian wines that we simply cannot get up here.

There were two wines that really stood out: a 2000 Pierre Sauvignon Blanc and 1998 Masottina Colli di Conegliano Rosso. Both wines were exceptional.

The Pierre is perhaps the best Sauvignon Blanc I've ever had. I was absolutely floored by its complexity and stunning flavor. The wine is made in the French Fume style which means that sulfer is a big component of the both the nose and the palate. The French style is in marked contrast to the very good New Zealand grapefruity style. Hard to believe both styles of wine are made from the same grape! Anyhoo, the Pierre had a great nose - complex with a great undercurrent of sulfer. The tast was magnificient - sulfer with a nice steely aftertaste. Now, I know all the non-wine folks are asking incrediously - "sulfer and steel?" Well, it does sound bizarre, but trust me - it works great in a well made wine!

The other wine that I adored was the '98 Masottina - a cab-merlot blend. It had a great barnyard nose that really resonated. It was a young wine that could have cellared for a few more years. As such - it was a bit tight and needed some time to open up. But, even so, it was a total yum. It was very big and jammy, with that wonderful barnyard flavor coming through. According to Mary, this is Trajan's favorite wine and I can see why!!!!!!

Zombies!!!!!!!

Sun, 03 Oct 2004 06:25:30 GMT

Peter, Mary, and I braved Shaun of the Dead this evening.

Mary and I thought it was a complete hoot. Peter may never forgive me. "Shaun" is an absolutely hysterical romantic comedy/zombie flick. And it sure delivers on the wry zombie comedy front. (Who knew the words wry, zombie, comedy would ever go together as a phrase!).

However, the movie is pretty gory in a wry zombie sort of way. And that's where the Ski Boy had issues. A surging mob of zombies diembowling one of our heros is not for the faint of tummy. But, trust me. It was funny - in a British sort of zombie way.

After the movie, we fled to Southside Bistro for dinner and a great bottle of wine, the 2000 Treana Red a very spicy, well made red blend. Somehow, drowning one's zombie fears in a bottle of red wine seems appropriate.

The Annual Fabulous Dinner at Barolo

Sat, 07 Aug 2004 05:22:53 GMT

Tonight, my great buddy Lucy and I had our now traditional yearly dinner at Barolo. This is the 4th year in a row that we've done Barolo and as always, it was just exquisite.

Fabulous Northern Italian food and an Italian wine list to die and go to heaven for.

Tonight's wine was a 2000 Oltre (Red Tuscan Wine) by Roberto Cosimi. A wonderful bottle of wine - big, chewy, and tarry. Just the way I like my Italian!!!!!

This evening, I am definitely a happy, albeit somewhat sloshy slat rat.

The 12th Annual Government Hill New Year's Eve Progressive Dinner

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 06:45:40 GMT

Last night's dinner was so much fun - this is such a great tradition. Long time fabulous friends, gourmet food, great wine, fireworks, and a winter wonderland!

Dinner consisted of four courses: appetizers, salad course, main course, and dessert. Each course is at a different house - all within one block of each other.

Appetizers

These little tiki torches stuck in the snow in front of Kathryn, Allison, and Bernie's bungalow (inside pun) were the absolute perfect touch - very welcoming and festive. I think the tiki torches were a little confused - they thought they were supposed to be in the warm sand somewhere in Hawaii, not in a snowbank in cold cold cold Alaska.

The appetizer course was beyond amazing - staggering even. Unfortunately, I left my printed appetizer menu behind at KAB's so I'll have to wing it from memory: Kalamata olives, some great little rib thingies, crab, avocado, black beans in large homemade taco crisps, lamb in small Indian pastries, and a yam roll pastry thing. I have just totally butchered the names, but omigod, everything was exquisite.

And the wine - or in this case - Champagne, the ever popular Gloria Ferrer Brut. Simply the best value ever in Sparkling Wine.

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 06:38:46 GMT

The Salad Course

Both the salad and main course were at the Gerleks. Because I was the salad chef, the salad course should have been at our house, but I was still too wiped by bronchitis to actually entertain. So we combined salad and main course locales.

The salad was Arugula with Prosciutto and Mangos in Marsala. However, because of the holiday airfreight overload into Alaska, the arugula order got bumped - there is simply no arugula anywhere in Anchorage right now. So faux arugala it was - baby spinach.

The wine was a drop dead fabulous white blend: 2002 Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas blanc - perhaps the best white wine I've had this year. It's a blend of rhone varietals and was just stunning. The initial flavor is dry and mineral like. Then the fruit goes roaring by. This is a must drink wine.

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 06:23:42 GMT

In the Holiday Spirit

The Gerlek's walrus skull is definitely getting down for the Holidays!

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 06:05:00 GMT

The Intermezzo

At 9:00 PM we all trooped a block west to Brown's Point Park to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks. The fireworks are lit off in Anchorage's small boat harbour and Brown's Point park, high up on the bluff over the Inlet, is the best viewing location. There were probably a 100 people in the little park. It was a total blast (so to speak).

It was also quite cold: 5 degrees. There is something so fun about standing outside in the snow and cold, in a friendly crowd, on New Year's Eve and ooohing and aahing over fireworks. The fireworks warming libation of choice was Tesoro (I think) tequilla. I am not a tequilla drinker so I did not partake. What I wanted was hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 05:51:46 GMT

The Main Course

Here we are getting ready to settle in for the Main Course - Curried Shrimp Masala with Coconut Milk prepared by Kathryn Gerlek and Melissa Abbott. Total Yum!!!

The main course wines were both white - of course - because of the (totally fabulous) curry: a 2001 Kenwood Sonoma Gewurztraminer and the 2001 EXP Viogner.

The Kenwood Gewurtz was nice - a good bit of fizz on the tongue and then a tart, not overly sweet taste.

I did not get a change to sample the EXP. However, I had the same wine in Septmeber.

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 05:33:07 GMT

Heading off to the Dessert Course

Kathryn Easley plieing in her Bunny Boots - the ultimate in Alaskan footwear.

Check out those red bootlaces!

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 05:30:49 GMT

The Dessert Course

By this point, 11:30 PM, things are definitely out of hand.

This is me making out with The Penguin.

The dessert was pretty fabulous - a chocolate gateau that was probably pure 24 carat chocolate and a bread pudding with a deadly whiskey sauce. The chefs du dessert were Kathleen and Kevin.

Instead of wine, we had liqueurs - I indulged in a little Chambord.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Thu, 01 Jan 2004 03:47:55 GMT

The Ski Boy and I are getting ready to head off to the 12th annual Government Hill New Year's Eve Progressive dinner. A year end celebratory bacchanalia of gourmet food and wine. Appetizers are served at one home, we then walk to the next home for salad, and so on through dessert and fireworks.

The very first year, I did not pace myself well, became a tad soused, and tipped over into a snow bank between the salad and main course.

Last year, I blogged the dinner as it happened. However, this year, I'm going to relax and not do a live blogaroo. But I'll take lots of pictures and copious notes on all the various wines and post everything tomorrow.

Wine of the Night: Elyse d'Adventure

Mon, 29 Dec 2003 05:54:01 GMT

In a show of support for beef, Pooh, the Ski Boy, and myself dined at Sullivan's Steakhouse this evening. We asked the wine steward to recommend a hidden gem on the wine list. He selected Elyse's 2000 d'Adventure, which turned out to be a great recommendation.

The d'Adventure is a Rhone blend - seven(!) different Rhone varietals. The wine took a bit of time to open up - it was at cellar temperature and definitely needed to warm up. But once it reached room temperature - Wow! Big, but extremely well blended - this wine did not fall apart on the palette. Pepper and spice with a good nose. And it really went well with food. Big, but a definite team player kind of wine.

Too bad it's so hard to find...

Croak

Tue, 23 Dec 2003 07:38:04 GMT

I have completely lost my voice. I really can't even muster up a croak.

And of course, Peter and I had a holiday dinner party for eleven friends tonight. The party was actually pretty fabulous and I managed to hold my own with a lot of emphatic whispering and elaborate charades. But what stupid timing on my part - losing one's voice three days before Christmas is totally lame

However, I attempted to lube up my throat with several generous applications of of Cosentino's Cigar Zin. Man - is that one smooth wine. It was very popular with our guests - we went through three bottles of it..

Martini's and a Warm Fire

Thu, 27 Nov 2003 05:00:32 GMT

Ah, it's Thanksgiving Eve!

As I type, we're watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", there's a fire in the fireplace and Peter's sister, Susie, who is up visiting, is mixing a Vodka martini. I've just had a glass of a very nice Treana red, so I'm punting on the martini front.

Peter and Alix are off at the Shootout.

Personally, I cannot wait to crawl into the big warm bed. It's positiviely Arctic outside: ten degrees with a 25 mile an hour North wind. I'm not sure I'm going to get out of bed tomorrow! Well, maybe I will rout out for some turkey.

Mon, 22 Sep 2003 01:56:35 GMT

Wine of the Night - a Viognier Tasting

Last night, the Ski Boy and I headed off to Mary Langdon's for a Viognier tasting/dinner party. It was a total blast. Great food, a wide range of interesting wines, and best of all - great company. We tasted six different Viogniers (listed below in order of tasing with my tasting notes ):

R.H. Phillips EXP 2001
Not much nose. Flavor is a little sweet - underwhelming. Definitely the weak sister of the bunch. However, rumor has it that it had a real shot of acidity upon opening. But I didn't taste it until it had been open for about 30 minutes.
Jaffurs 2000
Good metallic sulpher nose. Good body although not thick. Taste is metallic with some fruit. Reminds me of a good California Sauvignon Blanc. Very well made.
Calera Mt. Harlan 2000
Little nose. Little to no fruit taste - very dry. Almost like a French Vouvray. This is a well made but unruly wine. It takes a chance. It's harsh and aggressive - but in a good way. After about an hour, the fruit started coming out. My favorite wine of the bunch.
Guigal Condrieu 1999
A french wine. Hints of metal and sulpher in the nose. However, this wine is too old and has lots its spunk. Very very faint hints of the fruit that was once there. We thought that it was probably a very good wine before it petered out.
Yalumba 2002
An Aussie wine. This wine is just like a New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc without the grapefruit taste. Big time acid.
Arrowood 2000
A very well made wine. The best made wine of the bunch. Very smooth with the right mix of acid and fruit.

3 - Arrowood
3 - Calera
1 - Yalumba
1 - Jaffurs

Sun, 14 Sep 2003 06:49:53 GMT

Wine of the Night - Actually Two(!) Wines of Night

Peter and I had dinner at Mic's with Alex and Marcie. Mic's is now one of our favorite Anchorage Restaurants - which given its surroundings, is pretty hilarious. Mic's is located in an Anchorage landmark - the Inlet View Towers Hotel, which up until a month ago was sort of an off aqua blue, slightly skanky, ten story building. The Inlet View Towers was one of the few large buildings in Anchorage that survived the 1964 earthquake (9.2 on the open ended Richter Scale) .

Well, our somewhat comfy, somewhat seedy, landmark was purchased by a hotel group specializing in small upscale hotels. And the transition is definitely underway. Mic's is a part of that transition - and boy is the food fabulous. Inventive, challenging, flavorful, etc.

And the wine list matches right up with the food. Tonight we had a 2002 Brancott Sauvignon Blanc. Currently the New Zealand's Marlborough region rules in the Sauvignon Blanc world and this wine is no exception. It is very crisp with a strong grapefruit flavor. However, it has a little more body than other Sauvignon Blancs - definite heavier fruit overtones. A very good wine.

Solomon, Mic's wine steward, also poured us a complimentary glass of Barton & Guestier 1999 Sauternes Tradition. Barton & Guestier is more commonly known as B&G. Yup - that B&G. The B&G of cheap swill. Well, evidently they also make high end wines. And this Sauternes was a real treat. Very heavy body, sweet with a ton of acid that cuts right through it all. But it also had a very interesting back palate taste that I just can't identify. That flavor really added an aggressive positive kick. Who knew that B&G actually made good wine?!

Thu, 04 Sep 2003 05:42:32 GMT

The Ski Boy and I had a great time last evening. John, Jim, and Susannah, my GCI Seattle-based work, wine, food, and fun buddies, came over for lasagna (I got to use my new All-Clad lasagna pan!), Peter's drop dead Ceasar salad, Cosentino wines (Cigar Zin and The Zin), cheescake, and a Sex in the City view-a-thon. A total hoot was had by all.

What made it extra special is that for the past six weeks, Jim, John, and Susannah have been pedal-to-the-metal immersed in the new GCI-ALaska Airlines mileage partnership. Yesterday was rollout day. So, several times during the evening, we'd run up to the computer and check out the real time counter to see how many new customers we'd gained.