Lame!

Two days ago, after I got my manbrows fixed, I went over to Redwood Middle School to stalk the Raiders. They've been here for weeks and weeks and weeks and I decided to go check it out on the last practice. Big mistake. There was no way to watch them that I could see! I wandered around like the true stalker that I am, listened to them practice and get fired up, and couldn't see a thing. Lame. This turned out to be just like my decision to go to The Price is Right.

When I was 12, I was watching TPIR. I loved it. Still do. I swore that when I turned 18, I would drive down to LA and get on that show. My grandma had been on TPIR before Bob Barker even was, so it's in my blood. Well, I turned 18. 19. 20. 21. Took a trip to Anaheim. Then another to San Diego. 22. 23. 24. 25. Can't even tell you how many times I'd been to LA over the years. 26. 27. 28. Find out that Bob Barker is retiring. 29. He retired. I never went. I'll regret that for the rest of my life. I was destined to be crazy and spazzy enough to wear the silly t-shirt and jump up and down and kiss Bob Barker's cheek and play the dicegame and spin the big wheel and win the Showcase Showdown. I just never made the 7-hour drive south. Next year, when the Raiders are here again for training camp, I vow on this day, August 18, 2007, that I will watch training camp. And take photos. And try to get an autograph or two. Yay Daunte Culpepper.

Cheers to following through!

Ode to Camping

I had forgotten how much I love to camp! Kellogg and I took Wenis and Cornbread camping this weekend as a joint surprise birthday present. Now some people, like Wenis and Cornbread for example, may not think that camping is that great of a present. At least not at first. After a couple of hours, a Mike's Hard Lemonade, and a passionate game of Cranium, they were hooked. Ok, maybe not hooked, but at least enjoying themselves.

On Saturday we woke up frozen solid, defrosted for a bit and made breakfast (yes, the kind with bacon) and then headed out to Pt. Reyes cliffs to check out the ocean. It was extremely foggy so we didn't waste time walking to the lighthouse, instead we headed straight for Pt. Reyes Vineyards for a little wine tasting. We saw on the list a bunch of wines with "Quail Hill" in the name. I thought to myself, that's odd, I know there's a street in Terra Linda called Quail Hill...sure enough, those Cabs were from a vineyard behind Kaiser in Terra Linda, about a half mile from my high school. Cornbread and I just about flipped, and we spent $31 on a 1996 (yep - the year we graduated) Quail Hill Cab*. It was the first wine that I had ever purchased in a tasting room that I hadn't yet tried. We took the risk because of its sentimental value to us!

The vino consumption continued back at the campsite, as did another hilarious game of Cranium, as well as hamburgers and corn on the cob on the grill. After dinner, we headed for the bar in Olema just to checki t out. It was really fun - good music on the juke box (sidenote - I am a Juke Box Hero), a hardcore game of Liar's Dice, and then back to the campsite we walked. We decided it was time to meet some neighbors...we met a huge group of partiers who took picture after picture with Kellogg in the hot dog costume as if it were something they'd never seen before, then Kellogg gave the costume to Wenis and we crashed a bachelor party. I scored a bottle of Joel Gott wine which I have yet to crack open, got some perfectly roasted marshmallows in, and cracked jokes all night with strangers and my girls.

Sunday, Wenis and I played the Bubblicious game (more later on this one...) and then I went to Silverado Country Club for the Napa Valley Wine Library event. I was pouring at a table, but did get to check out some of the other wines there. They were top Cabs mostly, pretty much all delicious. My two favorites were Groth and Buehler**.

Cheers to camping and free vino!


*Pt. Reyes Vineyard 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon - deep red with touches of chestnut (it IS 11 years old...), heavy and rich in flavor, tannic but not overwhelmingly so. All in all, a good bottle of wine, with an even better story.
**Groth Cab - round, full, luscious. YUM. Didn't even ask how much the bottle was.
**Buehler Cab (Estate? '04?) - gorgeous label, spicy, big, seems like it'll just get better with time; Page Buehler was extremely friendly and great to talk to! Definitely a winery I'd like to visit soon.

Small, Small World

...but I'm starting to like it...?? I went to a wine event this evening at Benziger and it was really cool! The tour was short but good, ran into a current coworker, an ex-coworker, and my old Sonoma neighbor (if it's random and you love it clap your hands! clap! clap!) and met some really great people. Can't wait for more of these!

This coming weekend is a surprise for Cornbread and Wenis - Kellogg and I are taking them somewhere to do something. I can't say because they may read this and then it wouldn't be a suprise now, would it?

Last night, El Jefe and I went to a vendor fair for one of our customers. I do have to say that I miss events and being a booth babe, for lack of a better term. I love talking to people and repeating myself.

I didn't really have anything to say this evening, I just felt like blogging. Sorry if you fell asleep.

Cheers to wine events and surprise b-day weekends!!

Why Are Weekends So Short?

It's a great mystery of life...

This weekend was my first in a little over 3 weeks that I spent at home. It was SO NICE. I miss my home. I had a random day yesterday - a brunch date (how WASPy of us...) at Boon Fly Cafe which was great, followed by some bocce, yes bocce, which everyone knows I love, and then some good conversation on some beautiful chairs. Playing bocce just makes me inspired to create mine in the backyard! Bocce and wine parties..........just imagine the fun.

Last night, the crew came over to BBQ which was so great. I love entertaining, and wish everyone lived closer so we could do it all the time. I'd love for friends to stop by, even unannounced! I'll work on that. We then hit up the oh-so-classy bowling alley for some blacklight bowling. I believe I was a superstar...oh wait, that wasn't me, that was Cornbread. I suck. I almost broke 100 the first game - I think it was a 92 - and the second game...well I sort of lost my touch. A whoppin' 66. Yay me.

Today was nice - hung out, spent time in my own house doing nothing. That's all.

I know this was a posting of substance...ok, not so much. But that's ok! It's my blog and I'll blog what I want to...blog what I want to...blog what I want to. You would blog too if it happened to you.

Cheers to dorkiness!

A Thought or Two on Life

Work has been crazy busy for me lately, partially because I was out of the office a lot over the past few weeks and partially because, well, clients want things. A specific account has taken over my week, but I'm happy that it's the client that it is. They do really fun projects and I love that copy that I write may actually be on a wine bottle or a sign! I think this little fact will always thrill me.

I have been online dating for almost six months now, using it as just one more place to meet people in this world, but it just isn't going as planned. Not that anything really goes as planned - my thought on life numero uno. At 16, I remember telling my posse, in the quad at lunch, that I was going to be married at 26 and have my first kid at 28. I didn't want to be "old" like my mom was when she had me - 30. For some reason, 16-year-olds think that the difference between 28 and 30 is ginormous. Now that I'm 29, right smack dab in the middle, it's not different at all. Anyway, my plan obviously didn't happen or this blog would be not about how I work in the wine industry and moved to Wine Country in a cool house, but it would be "New Mommy's Online Baby Album for All to Read and Love!" Yeah, not me. Not yet, anyway. Back to the online dating world, I think it's time that I unsubscribe, focus on my life in the Wine Country, and see what comes my way.

I don't really have a second thought on life at the moment - I just woke up and not all the pistons are firing.

Cheers to Saturdays!

I'll Stay in NorCal, Thanks.

Cornbread and I went to lovely LA this past weekend for a much needed and much deserved mini-vacation. Flying from Sacto to Mr. Bob Hope's aeropuerto is just about the smoothest flying experience I've ever had. There are no lines, everyone's nice, it's trashy and small and there's something to said for trashy and small. It's cool.

Harad Hishimi picked us up on Thursday night and we headed back to his house. On the way through Santa Monica, we drove down Main Street (which is so cute, by the way, lined with white bistro lights), and there were people on the streets, my window is down, I'm lovin' the warm weather and different scene. I look over onto the street (remember my window is down) and I see Vince Vaughn. Yeah, that's right Mr. Money Baby Money Vaughn. For those who are not aware, my heart is divided into approximately 5 sections - one for Office Space, one for Little Miss Sunshine, one for Napoleon Dynamite and 40-Year-Old Virgin (they share a space), one for all the other movies I like, and one for Swingers. I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie. So in my excitement, I yell to Cornbread who is in the backseat - "IS THAT VINCE VAUGHN???" Like I don't know that it is. I'm sure he heard me, though we sped through Santa Monica quickly enough that I was spared any embarrassment. I texted Wenis about this and she wrote back - "Your fates are intertwined." Yes, yes they are. He was my blackjack partner in Vegas once, but that's a completely different story and this is not the time nor the place.

Harad lives with JStag and Alice (yes, it's her real name, but it was my Oma's name, so I'm using it) in Venice Beach. Their pad is pimpin' and the roof deck is just sweet (except that it caused me to have 20 moquito bites on my legs. Gross.) We pretty much did this: walked, watched the weirdos, walked, went to the beach, walked, ate, walked, ate, went out, walked, and ate. It rocked.

Tonight at the gym, I went to my first ever Kung Fu class. I am Jackie Chan. HiiiiiYAH.

Cheers to new martial arts classes and mini-vacations!