Sonoma Smiles

We spent last weekend up in Healdsburg / Sonoma, and tried the wines along the Russian River and Dry Creek areas with our friend Mark, and his friend Christina. We had a great time and enjoyed tasting at a variety of new wineries. We'll definitely be back, as we didn't hit 1/2 of them! One of our favorites was White Oak Winery, but there were many others, each unique in their own way. It was SO nice to get away!!!

The amazing part was, it stopped raining that weekend!!! The rain stopped mid-afternoon on Friday and the weather was gorgeous the rest of the weekend--sunny and in the upper 60's. Perfect convertible weather. It rained again on Monday, and was so cold it snowed in the Santa Cruz mountains! So we completely lucked out on a beautiful weekend sandwiched between rain.

We went to a Korean BBQ on Friday, which was fun. (Christina had only had Korean food once in her life, so we thought since our town has a number of Korean places we would take her to a place that you can BBQ the meat right at your table.) It was a lot of fun, but after trying most of the different meats and sides we were really full when we left. We went home and played “Pig Pile” a game that was given to us by Tim’s sister & family. It was a lot of fun once we learned the rules. The ones that didn’t listen attentively, or take the game seriously were the ones that won. It was rather funny.

After a full day of wine tasting on Saturday, we had dinner in Geyserville, and at dinner Tim told the infamous wolf spider story. (In short he had an elaborate plan to scare me with a spider one year, but decided against it when he had a vision of my heart stopping when I woke up to a spider attached to me with fake blood on its fangs.) Christina wasn't amused as she's allergic to spider bites, they become painful lumps. She told a story about how she vacuumed up a spider and its babies one time because it was blocking her way up the stairs and she didn’t want to be attached while she was sleeping. Tim said that she had bad spider karma and the “Healdsburg blue spider would get its revenge". Ironically that night, she was bit by something. (She thought it was a spider, but it only had one puncture wound.) Whatever it was, it bit her multiple times, poor thing. Of course Tim was deemed ruler of the spiders.

It was a great weekend, and just what we needed after days upon days of dismal/rainy weather!

Karma update

Well, I got my ticket from the infamous Friday. They mailed it to me via certified mail, and we got it on Saturday. They didn't put my last name on the ticket! Which makes me wonder if it's even legally binding.

I just received the 'courtesy notice' today, telling me what my options are... which essentially is to fork over $173.00 and then spend a day in traffic school to keep my record 'clean' and then pray I don't get pulled over for something serious in the next 18 months. Or pay $159 to forfeit the bail (which if the ticket is reportable--I'm figuring it is--then it will go on my insurance.) or pay $159 to contest it in court. I have until mid-May to decide. Oh the joys.... All because a cop thought I didn't stop long enough at a stop sign.

Shamrock Shakes

Once upon a time, in a land far far away (ok, Iowa) McDonald made Shamrock Shakes for Saint Patrick Day. As a child I remember going to Mc D's yearly for these 'Irish' shakes. Although I rarely go to fast food restaurants, I sometimes wonder if the minty green shake of my childhood memories is as good as I remember it. When mid-March rolls around I find myself slowing down to see if there are green shakes in the Mc Donald's windows.

A few years ago, I made the mistake of actually stopping at a Mc D's and trying to order a Shamrock Shake.
I got a perplexed look from the person behind the counter. "Vanilla?"
'No, Shamrock Shake. It's Green. Mint. Uh..Verde...'
Then they really look at me crazy, "Green? No...you want vanilla."
When I calmly insisted I did NOT want vanilla, and just forget it, they said 'No, wait..." and they called out their Asian manager to try and understand what the crazy white girl wanted. The manager had no clue what a Shamrock Shake was either. Needless to say, I haven't tried this year, but since I don't see them listed on the McDonald's web page, I think they are a thing of the past.

I guess I'll have to start a new tradition, I wonder if Krispy Kreme makes green glazed donuts...

Burning Breakfast

I'm feeling a bit better this week. We went out for Thai food on Friday, and had some GREAT spicy dishes. Including a spicy calamari dish (Not fried) that even at Thai medium, was hot enough to create some color in our complexion when eating it. It was delish.

That started a pepper kick, and Sunday I decided to make eggs for breakfast, and thought I'd put a couple of peppers in the eggs. I could have sworn I didn't have any more hot peppers in the freezer and what I grabbed were mild. I probably should have expected something might be up when my eyes started watering while cooking the peppers with the onions, but I figured it was the onions. Poor Tim, he took the first bite of peppery eggs, and turned bright red they were so spicy! The cat wouldn't even come in the house the fumes were so strong! It was pretty funny, and it felt really good to laugh, even if it was at my attempts at a gourmet breakfast for two. You couldn't taste eggs, just hot pepper. Tim said that I might want to think about brushing up on my egg cooking skills.

March Madness

For some bizarre reason I'm fighting depression! My job is stressful, but nothing out of the ordinary, my acupuncturist said that I am responding to the herbs and treatments well, and I'm exercising and loosing weight. Yet I am an emotional basket case, and unfortunately I can't blame pregnancy or PMS.

Tim thinks it's either the herbs I've been taking or that I may be coming to terms with the fact we may not have kids. He's usually pretty astute about these kinds of things, so perhaps he's right. The fact it seems to rain all the time lately, probably does not help my mood. I definitely am a sun person; the murkily dark days seem to mirror my melancholy mood. Hopefully I'll get over it soon and move on...

Not a lion in sight...

Well, after thunderstorms yesterday, March came in like a Lamb--it was gorgeous today. I went out and saw my horses at lunch, and I almost didn't want to go back to work! With the sunny 60 degree temps, it was almost hot out!

I've been discussing my lack of children more openly lately, and I have heard more stories about how people have had problems with fertility! It's surprising how many people I have met that have struggled with infertility issues. It's also funny how many people say that going on vacation helped them. Hawaii seems to be a favorite. The next in line has been camping. I don't think I'm up for Hawaii since the flight's so long, and the weather is a bit too unpredictable for camping, but Mexico might be ok for a weekend get away...