For my 43rd birthday this year, I was able to spread it over 2 weekends at the house in Szalonna. The first weekend I celebrated with John G., Rich and Tara. We cooked an awesome bogracs with pulyka kolbasz and later sat out under the stars by the campfire smoking strawberry tobacco in a Turkish water pipe. We also visited weaver Jolankaneni in Perupa and walked around the pictuesque village of Josvafo. Of course, everyone had to try Lennard and Jeroen's wooden shoes. The following weekend I spent with Lennard and Jeroen. Jeroen made some yummy chicken and potatoes baked with garlic and lemon, and I made some turkey meatballs. Wines included:
- Sparga Bor: "dry quality white wine for asparagus dishes." An unremarkable 2009 zoldveltelini from Tolnai.
- Rafale: a 2007 French cabernet sauvignon we found in the Penny Market in Edeleny for 600 huf. Barely drinkable.
- Tuzko Pinot Noir Rose 2008: a very good rose from the Tolna region near Mocseny
- Tramini 2008: from the Tamas Vineyard in Csopak whose Syrah I loved last summer. good/very good
- Hedonist: a strange Chardonay-Pinot Noir 2009 from Gradowszki in Etyek. woody/pear/peach
- Stassen Belgian Apple Cider with litchi, very good
- Funfuirchen Champagne 1991: from the Cezar Vineyard in Pecs, produced in honor of Pope John Paul II's visit to the city in 1991. Very good.

The John Paul II champagne brought up memories of when I was helping set up the eco-utopian village of Gyurufu (near Ibafa, and yes it does have a very interesting small fapipa museum) in the summer of 1991. There was only one road from Pecs to Budapest, through the city. But since the Pope was holding mass, we had to park outside the city for several hours before they let traffic through again. Finally arriving in Budapest, I was again prevented by police from reaching my destination because I lived near Hosok tere on Chazar Andras u. Only people with valid address registration cards were allowed to enter the street. Some choice words followed, but the champagne made in his honor was very good.

Saturday afternoon my neighbor Attila and his girlfriend Iren came over for a visit and we had the cider and champagne in the sunny courtyard, along with Jeroen's homemade plum Dutch vlaai (pie from Limburg). Jeroen and Lennard gave me a gorgeous fire engine-red toaster to match my kitchen. Sunday was spent doing temporary repairs to the buboskemece until the insurance pays for its demolition and restoration, and the making of apple juice from my wild green apples.

I read the book book of Steig Larson's Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, and found it the weakest of the series, but am now enjoying Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard's Let My People Go Surfing (The Education of a Reluctant Businessman).