Barrel aging is one of the most essential parts of making red wine and many chardonnays.

Scotts Valley Rotary

Elise Claire Garrahan was born to Paige Budrow (Hutchins) and Patrick Allen Garrahan of Boulder Creek at 9:23 a.m. Oct. 5, 2010, at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center in Santa Cruz. She weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

“The earth is made of butterfly wings, dinosaur teeth, pumpkin seeds, lizard skins and fallen leaves. Put your hands in the soil and touch yesterday; and all that will be left of tomorrow shall return so that new life can celebrate this day.”

It’s the nastiest fruit on the planet, and my mom loved to make cookies out of it.

Catching white sea bass in Monterey Bay has been a great bet lately and may continue through the next full moon. Meanwhile, the red tide has established itself along the southern beaches of Santa Cruz, and water watchers wonder why it occurs.

“Chronic underfunding is slowly starving California state parks.”

Allow me to shed some light on wine judging and competition.

OK, I’ll admit it. Much as I love being outdoors, and nice as the weather has been, I’ve already started the transition to one important part of my winter routine: hanging out around the TV on Sunday and Monday nights. It’s football. I’d intended to resist until the weather changed, but then the 49ers were on the Monday night broadcast a few weeks back, and that was it.

In the past couple of years, it seems as if the political pundits and media have done a good job of alerting us to the ballooning federal budget deficits, with little focus on our collective retirement deficit — the shortfall of our present savings to meet our future retirement income requirements.