This whole week my wife was out of town so I have been simply trying to keep my head above water between all the work, kids’ school and athletics, and my increasing list of writing commitments. It has not gone all that swimmingly: yesterday, it was “Texas dress-up day” at Sebastian’s school , but I thought he meant “Texans dress-up day” so he went to school in a Texans (the name of the local professional American football team) t-shirt and jeans. While the rest of the school was clad in western garb, replete with flannel shirt, kerchief, cowboy boots and hat.

Oops.

Two other events snuck up on me this week as well. So that you do not suffer the same fate, I offer them up as reminders:

• Today is Open That Bottle Night (OTBN)! OTBN was started back in the 1990’s by the then wine writers for The Wall Street Journal, Dottie Gaiter and John Brecher. Their ingenious idea: Most wine lovers have (at least) one bottle of wine that they have been saving for an as yet undetermined “special occasion.” Inevitably, this bottle remains unopened year after year since we can not determine whether a given occasion is “special enough” to warrant the sacrificing of the prized bottle. Gaiter and Brecher proposed that once a year on the last Saturday in February, we create, in essence, a “special” occasion and Open That Bottle. What are you going to open?!?
• The newest Monthly Wine Writing Challenge (#MWWC31) was introduced a couple of weeks ago, and the deadline is already upon us (or close)! Be sure to get your entry in by next Monday (March 6th). All the information can be found HERE.
  

Have a Happy Saturday!