Month: August 2009

Categories
Living

Make mine a cold one

A wine teacher of mine once said that every wine would be a red wine if it could be. I don’t necessarily agree with him, but then again, I tend to like appetizers better than main courses, sunrises better than sunsets, and kissing better than, well, you get the drift.

However, for those of you saying hallelujah! to my teacher’s sentiment, spring and summer may represent a reluctant hibernation for the wine lover in you. Your turtleneck sweaters, short ribs and Gigondas snooze away while you impatiently await the first autumn leaf to change its hue and drop to the ground. But don’t wish these carefree days of summer away, and most importantly, don’t spend them without wine; rather, slip on some shorts, fire up the grill, and throw your red wine on ice!

Ideal chilled red temperature is between 55 and 60 degrees.

Ironically, there are still a few rules to this seemingly unruly idea, and the first relates to temperature. Ideal chilled red temperature is between 55 and 60 degrees. Too much above 60 degrees and you won’t be refreshed and too much below 55 degrees and you won’t taste a thing. Chilling wine hides a multitude of sins in a bad wine, but will, conversely, hide a multitude of graces in a good wine. Too cold and a red wine loses its fruit and flaunts its tannins, which is just not the point of this little experiment. Not sure you are in the zone? Plunge the red into an ice bucket for 15 minutes or keep it in the fridge for 15-30 minutes. 

The next rule pertains to type. Not just any red is suitable for chilling—let’s start with what will work. France’s Loire Valley and Beaujolais regions are a good first stop. Loire’s Sancerre Rouge (made from Pinot Noir grapes), Chinon (made from Cabernet Franc grapes), and Côtes Roannaise (made from Gamay grapes); and Beaujolais’ Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages, or Beaujolais crus (made from Gamay grapes) all benefit from a dip in the ice bucket. Italy boasts chill-worthy reds from all over its sunny peninsula. My favorites include Piedmont’s Grignolino, Veneto’s Bardolino, and Sicily’s Frappato. The key is a young, fruit-forward wine with light structure and lower alcohol. Chilled reds are like cranberry juice with a sprig of mint and a cocktail umbrella. 

Four ways to chill out:

Domaine Robert Sérol Les Vieilles Vignes Côtes Roannaise 2008. Wine Warehouse, $14.99

Vincent Pinard Sancerre Rouge 2006. Tastings of Charlottesville, $36.99

Corte Gardoni Bardolino 2007. Market Street Wineshop, $15.99

Crivelli Grignolino 2008. Special order from your favorite local wine retailer, $14.99

Wondering if any of your beloved Cabs, Syrahs and Nebbiolos can wake from their long summer’s rest? I would let these sleeping bears lie—their big, brawny tannins are liable to clobber you in the mouth. Besides, what will you have to look forward to during the doldrums of winter when you haven’t seen sunlight in 12 days straight? 

Other candidates with chilling potential (and conveniently all perfect pairings with summer’s grilled goodies) are Oregon Pinot Noirs, Spanish Grenaches, and California Zinfandels, though remember that cold temperatures also mask alcohol. Bear that in mind before slurping down that whole water-beaded bottle of 15.5 percent alcohol Zin with your organic beef hotdog (or three). I don’t want to be to blame when you suggest naked slip-n-slide or wake up face down in the kid’s turtle-shaped sandbox.

Not that I would judge you if did either though, because that’s what summer is for—having fun and keeping cool with minimal clothing, cheap thrills, and a cold beverage in your Bordeaux glass.

Categories
Living

August 2009: One fine day

Worth the wait

Kisha Young sits outside Bluegrass Grill & Bakery, your pick for Best Place for Brunch. She wears a Michael Kors top ($89.50) and sterling ring ($98) from Posh; Elizabeth & James black pants ($264) from Eloise, your pick for Best Boutique; Paige tall riding boots by Frye ($348) from Bittersweet; and Brooksilver Designs silver sunburst earrings ($57) from Chloe. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy rider

Kisha takes a break from mountain biking at Walnut Creek Park, your choice for Best Place to Mountain Bike. She wears a Sugoi Betty jersey ($79.99) and Essence wrap skirt ($54.99), Sock Guy Argyle socks ($8.99), BG Ridge gloves ($32.99) and a Giro helmet ($119.99) from C’ville Bike & Tri. The Gary Fisher Piranha bike ($749) from Blue Wheel Bicycles, your choice for Best Bike Shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book worm

Kisha browses the shelves at Daedalus Bookshop, your pick for Best Place for Used Books. She wears a Bentley a. jacket ($240) from Levy’s; a Velvet pink dressy tank-top ($102) from EG, a LuLu Lame pink floral skirt ($168) from Duo; Miz Mooz black June heels ($109) from Shoe Store Next Door; Cassidy & Cassidy sterling silver flower earrings ($148) from Boutique Boutique; and a Melie Bianco bag ($88) from Finch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Triple the fun

Kisha stops at Arch’s Frozen Yogurt, your pick for Best Frozen Treat, and shares three cones of vanilla bean. She wears a green Nelli dress ($210) from Posh; a Greek leaf headband ($16) and rhinestone ring ($10) from Cha Cha’s; teal Re-mix Piazza heels ($229.50) from Pearl; and a gold belt ($15) from Antics, your choice for Best Place to Buy Vintage Clothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful presentation

Every great day should end with a movie! Kisha takes in a film at Vinegar Hill Theatre, your choice for Best Movie Theater. She wears a Marimekko black cocktail dress ($469) from EG, a Santi bag ($211) from Levy’s and copper platform heels ($12.99) from Rugged Wearhouse.

Categories
News

Darden students get their Kindle

“Give it a shot,” said Michael Koenig, Darden’s director of MBA programs, to a packed room of new MBA students. They are the first students to receive the new Kindle DX as part of a pilot program Amazon is sponsoring.

Back in May, Amazon announced its plans to begin a pilot program in five colleges and universities and Darden was the first and sole business school chosen. One more business school was added later.

 

The Kindle DX is a wireless reading device that was given to 62 Darden students to try out for two semesters. At the end of the pilot program, they can chose whether they want to buy it for $200.

The Kindle DX, a slim, wireless reading device, has a 10’’ screen and can be flipped sideways and upside down, much like the iPhone, for better handling. It also has search and highlighting features.

For Melvyn Han, having the chance to try the Kindle DX was “fantastic.” “I am incredibly excited to try it and see where it goes,” he says. Han said that because the new generations are “always wired,” learning to study on the Kindle DX may not be a stretch. “I use my iPhone everywhere I go,” he says. “It’s great to be able to learn new skills.”

For others, the new way of learning may take some getting used to.

There is, however, another dimension to Han’s excitement.

“I am environmentally conscious, and with the Kindle we don’t have to use all that paper,” he says. Koenig, who has been at the forefront of the partnership with Amazon since the beginning, says that sustainability is a major factor that played into the decision to be part of the program. Unlike the other schools who may be using only a couple of textbooks the entire semester, says Koenig, “our students will have 80 or 90 separate documents, most of which are business cases, and that’s not even all the readings they have for the first semester.” In all, Koenig says, the students will have to read more than 300 cases. And that’s a big saving in paper costs.

The pilot program will end in May of next year and after that, students have a choice. “We didn’t feel it was appropriate at the end of the one-year assessment to give it to them in lieu of their other colleagues,” says Koenig. The students will be able to purchase the Kindle DX they have worked with for $200.

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

Categories
News

Community garden part of the sustainability agenda

For quite some time now, Charlottesville has been the fulcrum of all things local: food, farms, local and sustainable businesses. Recently, the University of Virginia has taken up the local food discourse and integrated it into its curricula with practical instruction.

Last March, a group of students began thinking about creating a sustainable, community garden on campus.

 

Professor Tim Beatley is the faculty mentor for the UVA Community Garden, a project that began with a couple of students and was later embraced by faculty and UVA administrators. “In a way it’s just a natural part of the sustainability agenda,” says Beatley. “We are thinking about how we live lightly on the planet … Food has to be a really important part of it.”

“At the beginning of last year, we had just a couple of students who were really interested in having a garden of some kind going here,” says Ben Chrisinger, a senior Urban and Environmental Planning major. “They were kind of working independently, but realized that it would be better if we unified our efforts.”

The students presented their idea to the Student Council Environmental Sustainability Committee and soon after, a task force was formed. For academic support, the students went to the Urban and Environmental Planning Department in the School of Architecture.

“It just made sense,” says Professor Tim Beatley. “In a way it’s just a natural part of the sustainability agenda. We are thinking about how we live lightly on the planet; we are thinking about how do you sustain, how do you support a growing global population on fewer resources, less land, and how do you do it in a way that will protect the resource base, and that’s essentially what sustainability is about. Food has to be a really important part of it.”

The department supports the concept of the garden and helps financially. Dana Smith is a second-year graduate student who has a work-study position to be garden manager. Smith will spend from 10 to 15 hours a week in the garden, watering, weeding, but, most importantly, educating and engaging undergraduate students who are interested in becoming part of a growing family. “This is definitely a teaching garden,” says Smith. “Thomas Jefferson was such an agrarian that we are trying to get back to his roots,” she says, by asking what it was like when the University was first built.

Today’s UVA Community Garden sits on the corner of Alderman and McCormick roads at the north edge of campus. Tall green beans and corn plants, red hot peppers and tiny eggplants decorate the 400-square-foot plot students have been working on the entire summer. In addition to being a practical learning tool, a “laboratory” for exploring different ways to grow peas, corn and other vegetables in tight spaces, the garden has a much broader goal.

“I think the intention was never to sell the food, to make a profit,” says Chrisinger. “It’s definitely not economically based; it’s more of a learning experiment.” The produce that was harvested during the summer was either taken by the hundreds of volunteers or donated to the Charlottesville Community Food Project, a nonprofit organization that provides fresh produce to low-income families.

Although faculty and administrators were instrumental in making the idea become a reality, the road hasn’t been without a few difficulties. As part of the agreement with administrators, the physical piece of land that the students were permitted to grow food on is defined by coordinates. Finding the right location for the garden was the toughest part of the project.

“It was very hard to find this spot,” says Beatley. “The students very much didn’t want a peripheral site, they wanted a spot that was close and central … it’s a perfect location.” The main concern that the University administrators had was what the garden would look like. “This has to look neat, it has to look tidy all the time, even during summer when students may not be here,” says Chrisinger.

Other sites around campus were also considered: a patch of land behind Gilmer Hall, a plot by the School of Architecture, among others. But, in the end, the current location was chosen for its visibility and proximity to student life.

“Food is high on the social agenda at the moment,” says Beatley. “Moons are lining up and that is helpful. Students reflect that broader social concern about food.”

Smith says that among the few ideas she has for the future of the garden, increasing the diversity of garden volunteers is at the top. “We need to figure out how to get students involved. It’s a unique opportunity and we have so many international students and I think it would be great to grow some things that are native to their countries,” she says.

Future expansion, says Beatley, is something that should be considered thinking outside of the box. His vision is to think of a garden as a collection of small plots around the University.

“We start to think about a farm in a more decentralized sort of form, spaces here and there. That’s really what a city is about,” he says.

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

Orange County Supervisors approve Wilderness Wal-Mart

Just a few days after the Orange County Planning Commission voted to recommend to not grant a permit for a Wal-Mart on the site of the Wilderness Battlefield, the Board of Supervisors voted favorably to allow for the construction of the superstore.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the 4-1 vote happened around 1am today. About 400 people attended the public hearing and about 100 spoke up either for or against Wal-Mart coming to Orange County.

The site, called Wilderness, was witness to one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War. At the intersection of Routes 3 and 20, Wal-Mart intends to build a 130,000 square-foot Supercenter.

If everything goes according to plan, the store could open by Christmas of next year.

 

Categories
News

Twenty years of local news and arts in the spotlight

It’s amazing to us that a little less than 13 years ago, we sent a reporter to investigate a pending facelift in Belmont and he came back writing about the neighborhood’s “P.R. problem.” Sheesh, where did that go? These days, the place has an image too hip for its own good. At least that’s what it seems like when residents start yelling about yet another damn restaurant near the intersection of Monticello Road and Hinton Avenue, the same juncture where our reporter formerly discovered that “signs of life are few.” $55,200 houses? A dearth of white-collar residents? Not anymore, honey.

Nine years after that Belmont story, in December 2005, we brought you a different kind of development news: 18,725 new houses in the pipeline for Charlottesville and Albemarle. When it comes to growth, it’s just as we noted then: “The word alone is enough to start an argument. We need more! We need less! Hardly anyone seems to think things are just right as they are.”

Then again, as the intervening years have made clear, the real estate market always has the last laugh.

Paging through the archives

“It’s mid-morning in Charlottesville’s Belmont neighborhood, and signs of life are few at the intersection of Monticello Road and Hinton Avenue, an area nicknamed ‘Downtown Belmont.’ The buzz of an air drill can be heard in a nearby garage, while a few cars move down the narrow road lined with somewhat rickety mini-marts and frame houses…

 

“Still, Belmont’s disrepair has a gritty charm—a charm that many residents want to preserve, albeit with less grit. This year, City officials are spending more than $300,000 for a Belmont facelift…

“‘I’m excited about these improvements,” says architect Joe Celentano, a Belmont resident for 10 years and owner of a stucco and wood frame house on Belmont Avenue for the last two. ‘Belmont has a lot to offer in the sense of a neighborhood.’

“Celentano, a member of a City task force to improve Belmont, is just the type of person City officials want more of in the stucco-fied neighborhood.

“They want white-collar folks with families who see opportunity in rickety old houses; folks who enjoy a front-porch culture, where neighbors visit each other; and folks who don’t mind when the smell from Moore’s Creek Sewage Treatment plant wafts up every so often from the valley…

“Better yet, cool housing is affordable in Belmont for low- to mid-income folk: the median value of a house —mostly proud but repair-hungry frame houses dating from the 1890s and onward—is $55,200, compared to an average of $84,000 for the entire City, according to a local study.”—Jonathan Fox, October 29, 1996

Getting covered

 

“Recently Charlottesville has seen 477 new residential units go up, with places like Coran Capshaw’s Walker Square Apartments on W. Main Street, or Frank Stoner’s Belmont Lofts setting the tone for the thousands of new units that are on the way. Much of the city’s new commercial space will be combined with residential space, a trend known as ‘mixed-use’ development. Part of the City’s plan is for suburban refugees and Wahoos to be able to walk instead of driving their cars.

“In Albemarle, C-VILLE’s development forecast points to the designated growth areas: Pantops, Crozet and Route 29N will continue exploding with new apartment buildings, subdivisions and big-box shopping centers…

“The brew is percolating, so to speak, with recent news of one of the area’s biggest land deals ever. Last month the Breeden family sold its 1,353-acre farm, known as Forest Lodge [or Biscuit Run], for more than $46 million. Developer Hunter Craig, rumored to be backed by the giant Toll Brothers homebuilding company, purchased the parcel and could put nearly 5,000 homes just south of Charlottesville.”—John Borgmeyer and Nell Boeschenstein, December 6, 2005

Categories
News

A New Hope

Ace, help a fanboy out. Ever since Daniel Jordan abdicated his executive post at Monticello and was replaced by some lady named Bowman, my fellow Jefferson geeks and I have been petitioning the writers to have him retconned back into the picture. Because let’s face it—DJ was Monticello. And forgive us, but in this post-Battlestar era, isn’t the “strong female president” storyline kind of stale? I tell ya, Ace, the canon ain’t what it used to be.—Hans Haatfurst

Ace feels you, Hans. Ten years ago, when R.A. Salvatore killed off Chewbacca in his novel Vector Prime, Ace was so disconsolate that he nearly abandoned the Expanded Universe altogether. But that would have meant throwing out all the good things that came with it. Like the Thrawn Trilogy, and Dash Rendar. Even the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special has a place in Ace’s heart.

Part of being a true fan means taking the good along with the rest, Hans. Daniel Jordan accomplished a lot during his 24-year tenure as the head of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation: Among other things, he established a $100 million endowment fund, purchased Montalto, and secured Monticello’s inclusion on the U.N. World Heritage List. But Jordan, in his 70s, has no intention of returning. Like Luke, dangling over an abyss on Bespin after losing his hand and meeting his daddy, his fans are going to have to let go.

Besides, Monticello’s new madam president Leslie Green Bowman has plenty going for her. As director, Bowman helped Delaware’s Winterthur Museum achieve national distinction through an acclaimed series of traveling exhibitions. Between 1980 and 1997, she curated the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and currently, she serves on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. Sound familiar, Hans? Of course it does—Bowman’s career arc brings nothing to mind if not the gradual ascent of Leia Organa Solo, whose successes as a leader of the ragtag Rebel Alliance lead to an executive appointment on Coruscant. Which, for the uninitiated, is basically the New Republic’s planet-sized Beltway equivalent.

You can ask Ace yourself. Intrepid investigative reporter Ace Atkins has been chasing readers’ leads for 20 years. If you have a question for Ace, e-mail it to ace@c-ville.com.

Categories
Living

Friendly local franchise

Ray Sellers owns 13 Domino’s Pizza franchises in Charlottesville and in Augusta, Rockingham and Shenandoah Counties. Does that make him a mogul? Maybe. He’s just a blip in the massive machine that is the Domino’s brand, which lays claim to 6,000 franchises in the United States and 9,000 throughout the world, but he’s certainly an important part of the community here. The truth is he spends almost as much time giving away free pizzas as he does selling them.

 

Ray Sellers, left, could have started Ray’s Pizza, but he opened 13 branches of Domino’s instead, and does his best to earn a place in the local community. On the right is Steve Ambrosi, owner of a Domino’s at Lake Monticello.

Whether it’s a free pie for a middle school student redeeming his “Reward Card” for good grades or 20 free pies for a local race or athletic event, the guy gives back with a lot of dough. Actual cash too. “We get approached all the time for money or time or pizzas. I don’t think we ever say no,” Sellers tells Restaurantarama with a chuckle. “It’s just part of the Domino’s culture.”

As a brand, Domino’s Pizza has, in fact, institutionalized many community outreach and philanthropic programs, and the cynical among us might say it’s just another marketing tactic, a cost of doing business. The Domino’s stores locally owned and operated by Sellers, however, have taken up their own causes. For example, when one of Sellers’ employees died in a tragic accident, the manager of the store came up with the idea to honor the deceased employee with an annual food drive in his name. Taking donations from Domino’s customers, some of whom handed over their nonperishables straight to the drivers who’d delivered them a pizza, the drive provided enough meals for over 100 needy families last year.

“There’s a big push to shop at local companies, but people forget that we are local,” Sellers says. “Most of the franchises around here are owned by local people.”

Sellers started as a Domino’s delivery driver during college at Virginia Tech and then proceeded through the internal ranks, managing a few stores and serving as a franchise consultant and then an operations director before acquiring his first three franchises in 1992. It’s a typical Domino’s story of climbing the professional ladder—franchises are only awarded to former employees. Two of Sellers’ former employees are already franchise owners in the Lake Monticello area and in Lexington, respectively. Any one of Sellers’ current staff of 250 could very likely be a small business owner in the near future too.  

Sellers says, “After managing a store, I’d learned so much, I could have started Ray’s Pizza,” but he says he’d grown to respect and admire the systems that Domino’s had already perfected regarding food safety, preparation and delivery. That online Domino’s delivery tracker is pretty neat even if it does bring up the whole thing about a watched pot never boiling. You can see exactly where your virtual pizza is in the process, including the first name of the person making it and the person delivering it. 

But what about the food, the ingredients? No pizza place around here—independent or otherwise—can subsist on Virginia tomatoes unless it’s only open July-August, but still. Where does that stuff for the Philly Cheese Steak Pizza or the Memphis BBQ Chicken Pizza actually come from? Philly? Memphis? California?

“We do very little prep. We get food deliveries three times a week from a distribution center in Maryland,” says Sellers, who adds: “They get product from close by in Maryland as much as possible.”

Categories
Arts

Shorts: Bigger than you'd expect

You might say that writer-producer-director-cinematographer-co-editor-composer-visual-effects-supervisor-re-recording-mixer Robert Rodriguez has a lot of energy when it comes to making movies. You might use words other than “restrained” to describe him. And if you already figured there’s a special place in the Spy Kids superintendent’s heart for tales of children who find themselves unbuckled from reality and tossed around on special effects-intensive thrill rides, well, the new Rodriguez film, Shorts, isn’t about to tell you you’re wrong.

Kids wish for the darnedest things! Child’s play runs wild in the latest Robert Rodriguez flick, Shorts. (Warning: Not for fans of Rodriguez’s From Dusk ’til Dawn, sadly.)

Starring Jon Cryer, Kat Dennings, William H. Macy, Leslie Mann and James Spader, along with several thrill-seeking kids, Shorts is a zippy, slapsticky comedy about a suburban company town going bonkers when a wish-granting, rainbow-colored rock falls out of the sky. Importantly, it’s a town of technology-dependent dullards who aren’t exactly the best parents ever, and a company presided over by a ruthless techno-gadget tycoon. There is the sense that mayhem was just waiting to ensue.

One of the kids, played by Jimmy Bennett, is the movie’s narrator, whose enthusiasm for getting the story out sometimes gets in the way of getting it straight. Undaunted, he’ll just pause, rewind and fast-forward around to ferret out the best bits. That spastic nonlinearity has its charms, as do the bits themselves. A wife and husband become conjoined. Crocodiles walk upright and sail through the air. A huge, kid-eating booger attacks a small, booger-eating kid. An absentee boyfriend is forced to grow up, but not in a good way. Germs spread. Someone turns into a dung beetle. An infant becomes omniscient. Buildings get smashed. Power corrupts. And all of this goes unnoticed by a brother and sister who’ve locked each other into a staring contest for several days.

Shorts updates the antics of the Little Rascals with more volume, color, awkward acting, nudging music, improbabilities of character motivation, tedium, a girl (Jolie Vanier) who inevitably will be called “the next Christina Ricci,” some delightful hints of the giddy grotesquery Rodriguez brought to Planet Terror, and the most gratuitous candy-company product placement since E.T. (Not surprisingly, it’s the same candy company.)

Also, Shorts would like to stress the importance of good oral hygiene. And to suggest that, once in a while, you really ought to put away your mobile communication device and kiss your husband or wife. In fact, good oral hygiene will come in handy for that. But don’t worry so much about germs that you let life pass you by. Oh, and for the love of rainbow-colored rocks from space, be careful what you wish for.

So you can see how such an outing would require an indefatigable filmmaker. And perhaps an indefatigable audience.

Categories
Living

A decade of waiting, then at least a sweet ending

In an indirect way, you could say that none other than Thomas Jefferson brought Sahar Batmanghelidj and Sam Miotke together.

Sahar, 28, is Iranian. Her father, a longtime admirer and student of Thomas Jefferson, fled his native country after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979.  After settling with his family in Northern Virginia, he made a point of bringing his family to Monticello every Independence Day to partake in the celebrations.

 

Sahar Batmanghelidj and Sam Miotke
July 11, 2009
Photo by Sarah Cramer Shields

They were thrilled when Sahar eventually chose the University of Virginia for college.

Sam, also 28, grew up in Michigan. His mother was also a longtime admirer of the nation’s third president. It was she who first encouraged Sam, who is currently pursuing a medical degree at Georgetown University, to apply to UVA for college.

Sam and Sahar met their first year in the laundry room of their dorm. The first thing Sahar noticed about her future husband—aside from what she jokingly describes as his “boyish good looks”—was how abysmally he folded his clothes. “He just threw them in a pile,” the D.C.-based financial advisor recalls. “This bothered me.”

“She taught me to care about my clothes,” says Sam.

Pretty soon Sam was popping by Sahar’s dorm room to borrow her microwave, ostensibly. They began walking to and from class together…just as friends. Toward the end of freshman year during one of their friendly strolls to Sahar’s jazz history class, Sam reached for Sahar’s hand. They walked hand-in-hand in silence, each aware the moment marked a new beginning.

They fell in love. Four years went by. Then six. Then eight. They’d been together so long, Sahar’s father started calling Sam the “fiancé” even though they weren’t technically engaged.

But Sam was biding his time (and finishing up grad school in Oregon). He wanted a proposal to be perfect, so set about having a ring designed for Sahar—one that paid homage to her Iranian roots.

Sam’s grandmother gave him diamonds from one of her cherished rings, which he combined with stones given to him by Sahar’s mother. He then gave the stones to Sahar’s cousin to take back to Iran to have made into a ring.
 
But there was a glitch: Sahar’s cousin had difficulty returning to the States. Her travel plans were consistently postponed. “I thought I’d get the ring back in a month or two,” says Sam. “It ended up taking an entire year.”

By the time he had the ring in hand—nearly nine years after they started dating —he was so anxious to present it to Sahar, he ended up proposing to her…while she slept.

“I was taking a nap, and I could faintly hear Sam saying, ‘Sahar, Sahar, I think we should get married. Sahar!’” she says. “At first I was angry because I thought he was fooling around. But he held up this beautiful ring, and asked, ‘Well, well?’ I said, ‘of course!’”

The couple wed on July 11 in Keswick in a beautiful Persian ceremony that culminated with Sam and Sahar feeding each other honey. At one point during the ceremony, the bride was asked three times if she accepted the groom’s proposal, a Persian tradition meant to signify that it is the man who is anxious to marry, not the other way around.

Given Sam’s ring-making travails—not to mention their lengthy 10-year courtship—that part of the ceremony was decidedly apropos.