2004 Pierre Usseglio Chateauneuf-du-Pape "Cuvee Imperiale"

Today was my 10,000th day walking this planet. Yeah, I know it sounds sort of arbitrary, maybe a little ridiculous, maybe even morbid or fatalistic, but I truly feel like it's a significant milestone. First, It really marks a point in your life that you rarely see. A couple of generations ago, the average life expectancy was only about 47 years for a white American male. So that means that by the time you hit "10k Day," you were already more than half-way through your life. Even today, hitting a 10K milestone is something that will only happen twice on average, three times if you're pretty healthy, and if you're some kind of crazy long-tail anomaly, you'll see 40k days (almost 110 years!). 10000 days also marks some significant life events--27, 54, and 82--basically, adulthood, end of adult hood, and end of life.

I set out to do something to mark this day. I heard about a guy who ate 10,000 mini marshmallows...cool...but not really me. Instead, I ran a 10k yesterday, which was something that I'd never done. Actually a lot easier than I anticipated, even though I regularly run 4.5 miles three times a week.


I also decided that I wanted eat something really good for dinner and spend 10,000 pennies on a bottle of wine. I decided on Joe's in Venice Beach. Since there were no 100$ bottles of wine, we had to pick something else, so I went with what I really like--Chateauneuf-du-Pape. This was slightly more, but it was absolutely stunning. Raspberry, cherry, spice, and fig, with an awesome depth, awesome balance and a spicy, almost cinnamony finish. This was an excellent wine, and we both enjoyed it. A


We had a few things to eat as well, all of which were great...mushroom ravioli's, foie gras with tuna and a potato cake, and we both had a prime pork loin with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and a vinegar sauce. Lastly, we had a chocolate souffle for two with passion-fruit cream, ice cream, a rice-crispy, and port. Joe came over and talked to us too, which I really like just because the chef doesn't just come by most of the time, and he seemed stoked that we like his restaurant. We do. And we'll keep coming back because everything is great.

We drove home, and then, we jumped in the ocean. Because I don't know of anything more life-affirming than realizing that the water is cold and the Earth has powerful tides. So I have to ask myself: what am I going to do on 20k day???