Smarter, Funnier, and so grown up!

Hi everyone! I've just returned from Florida, where I had a blast hanging out with Ty, Jake and Alli for a few days. My visit was free but hanging with the kids always makes me feel like a million bucks.




Ty is starting the 2nd grade this year and he is really looking forward to starting school (and seeing his favorite gal pal, Victoria!). Ty is reading a lot and is always intensely-focused on whatever he is doing. During my visit, Ty asked me to play video games with him and Jake ... I obliged and they were very disappointed when I beat them... twice! I have to say I was pretty happy with my performance at NBA All Star Hoops given I had a) never played the game before, b) really dislike video games, and c) showed them aunt sarah isn't as old as they might think!




Jake is starting the 1st grade this year, and quite frankly, dreading the entire back to school thing. At the school orientation, I asked Jake if he liked where his desk was, and he answered "No, I just want to sit somewhere else all by myself." OK.... good luck with getting his homework done every night, Holly! Speaking of which, Jake and I worked on his summer project together and had a lot of fun - he even decided to do extra decorating after we had done all of the required elements. We made a mobile featuring scenes from an Arthur book, including a lobster with googly eyes, holding a feather. Sometimes Jake seems lost in his own little world, but every 30 minutes or so he will say something that makes you realize he's been listening all along. He's a smart - and very clever - little boy and loves to make faces at the camera and make everyone around him laugh (hello, middle child!!).

Alli.... well, where do I start? She is raring to go... to school, to dance class, to shop at the mall, you name it! Alli is SO excited to start school this year. She'll go three days a week and will have the same teacher Ty and Jake had. She is also signed up for dance lessons and has already started practicing with her Bella Ballerina video tape. She's probably also the most articulate of the three... actually, on any given day i think she could out-talk anyone in the family (even Mom!), Ha!

All in all, a very fun trip! We managed to see March of the Penguins, go to Busch Gardens, go to Channelside for bowling and the Aquarium, and spend plenty of time in the pool! A very busy five days!

Home Sweet (new!) Home

Hello! Thanks so much to everyone who's called and sent well-wishes on the closing and the move! And for those we haven't gotten to yet.... Jason and I just bought a house! The new place is in Pacifica, at the top of a hill on the Ocean side, just south of SF. After closing on July 6, we began prepping the house for our arrival.... which basically meant painting the white walls something more appealing, a lot of indecision around where things would go, and much anxiety over whether the homeowners association would allow us to have a satellite dish (... Jason living without the Steelers games!? the horror!). We are now officially moved in but only slightly settled! It was a looong moving day.... We finished painting the downstairs rooms, and are now faced with painting the bedrooms whilst surrounded by boxes and furniture (and lots of Jason's engineering books which he claims he still needs b/c he uses them "all the time"). We have two master bedrooms & full baths upstairs (luckily ours has an ocean view!) plus a laundry room - which oddly also has an ocean view (consolation prize for doing laundry I suppose!). Downstairs is a half bath, kitchen, living room, dining room and patio. We also have two garages now which means that if we ever get ahead of that mortgage payment, we can buy (and have a place to store!) kayaks.

One other quick note on our move - for our friends in the Bay Area - next time you have to move, make sure you check out the Delancey Street Foundation moving company. They are incredible! Between the two of us, Jason and I have used them five times. They really do an amazing job (have you ever seen a mover RUN back and forth from the truck to finish your job as quickly as possible?!) and the rates are the most reasonable in town, AND they are a non-profit so it's tax deductible. Check them out, highly recommended!

OK, so on to the pictures.... we're still working on a lot of things (the brass lighting fixtures MUST be eliminated!!) but we figured some pictures were better than no pictures. You can kind of see the "before" and "after" effects of the downstairs rooms in the pics below, but we still have a long ways to go on the upstairs so those "after" shots will come (much) later!

We hope that we will have more visitors now that we have an official guest room... and, we live really, really close to the ocean and a great surfing beach. You may want to come for FogFest!! It's Pacifica's annual city-wide festival.... Pacifica is known for heavy fog during July-August but the rest of the year is pretty darn nice and we're looking forward to some sunny days on our patio! www.pacificcoastfogfest.com/

We hope everyone is doing well and we welcome any advice on merging two distinctly different "styles" into one house... otherwise, we might just be pitching a few things and starting from scratch, in order to keep the peace around here :-)

Dining Room before:















Dining Room in progress:














Dining Room after!















Kitchen Before & After

Front entrance, looking toward back door:

More pictures to come soon!

Pinnacles National Monument

In our never-ending quest to spot the elusive California Condor (population: 156 captive, 118 wild), we took a trip to Pinnacles National Monument this past weekend (June 10-12).

But, before we get to the story, we bet that you're wondering about the differences between a National Monument and a National Park. Basically, a Nat'l Park must be approved by Congress, while a Nat'l Monument can be declared solely by the President. Here is a good explanation, if you're interested.

Sarah was in lovely Houston for work, so Jay picked her up at the airport around 8:30 PM on Friday, and we continued south on the 140-ish mile drive. We were quite tired, but managed to get the tent up and get to sleep by 11 PM or so. (We'll skip the story about the campground gate being locked at 9 PM, and us having to lay down a piece of wood and drive over the "severe tire damage" spikes in the exit lane.)

During the night, there was quite a bit of wildlife out and about. It was just like being in San Fran, except the fire engines and the police sirens were replaced with strange squeals and various rodent-types rooting around our tent. Sarah commented that, "those things sound like pigs!?!?" To which Jay replied, "Whatever. It's probably just a big 'possum."

The next morning, as we went to the bathroom, we were both confronted with signs on the doors that read: "Please pack all food in your car. Wild pigs are in the area." Well, not only was Jay disgusted at the fact that Sarah was right about the animals outside and he was wrong, he was equally disgusted at the fact that these signs weren't placed at the entrance to the campground! That would have been a good fact to know before morning...

Anyway, we headed to the park in hopes of seeing the elusive California Condor. The weather was beautiful, with the temp around 85 and one tiny, lonely cloud off in the distance, but otherwise "Enchanting Crystal Blue" skies. (Sarah brought paint chips along, so the normal Roy G. Biv colors no longer have meaning in our world!) While paying our fee, we asked the ranger where to go to see the elusive California Condor. She gave us a look and replied something like, "Oh, you never know where you can see them. They like to ride the thermals." Gee, thanks for the detailed info.

At the tiny visitor's center, we asked the other ranger where we might have the best chance to see the elusive California Condor. (Mind you, the combined age of these two ranger chicks was about 35.) Her reply was something like, "Oh, they're around. They like it high up." Two rangers and a visitor's center and we're no closer to seeing the elusive California Condor than we were in San Fran.

So, we headed off on the High Peaks trail - a ~5-mile loop through the volcanic pinnacles and spires, hoping to get at least a glimpse of the elusive California Condor. The rangers did point out one tidbit about identifying the birds, which was very evident in the photos in the visitor's center: look for the giant red number tags on each wing!

As you can see from the pictures below, Pinnacles is quite a sight. It looks like a rock climber's dream, and even though there were a few trails marked with a carabiner logo (evidently a sign of good climbing), we only spotted one small group of climbers, and they were about 30 feet from the parking lot. We did see tons of birds, including a group of Violet-Green Swallows that gave us quite the entertainment during our lunch break, and a bunch of Turkey Vultures (for which Jay had to point and yell "Condor!" every time one flew over).

Probably the highlight of the trip - other than the stop at the Gilroy Factory Outlets - was the close encounter with a bobcat back at the campground. As we sat reviewing paint chips and debating our preferences between Rosemary Seafoam Mist and Garden Glow, watching a squirrel cavort about and a rabbit hopping 10 feet away (not to mention the woodpeckers pecking, the other birds chirping, and some other bird building a nest in a tree hole), Sarah jumped and screamed "MOUNTAIN LION!!!" as this bobcat came running between us and the tent, honed in on the unsuspecting rabbit.

As Sarah sprinted to the car and Jay jumped up on the picnic table, the rabbit ran away, the squirrel dove into his hole, and the bobcat never even noticed our presence. It just walked over to a tree about 30 feet from our picnic table, hopped up into a "V" in the split trunk, and proceeded to nap, yawn, clean it's paws, and pay absolutely no attention to us. You can see some good pictures below, but it was quite a scene for about an hour or so.

This marks our second venture in tracking the elusive California Condor, with the first being Big Sur back in February, '03. We'd like to get back to Big Sur, and maybe take a hike up into Ventana Wilderness in our continuing search for the elusive California Condor. But, maybe we'll head to the LA Zoo instead. They have 30 elusive California Condors, including 7 chicks! We're sure they'll be easier to spot there!

So, the bobcat and the wild pigs made for quite an interesting trip, not to mention the fabulous time reviewing paint chips. We're still sad that we didn't get to see the elusive California Condor, but the trip was pretty fun anyway.

Let us know how you like the pictures!!!

Thistle

and more views

and even more views - there is a lake at the valley in the center of this view

Another old man

Jay, reaching the summit of a rock

Pinnacles rock formations

Sarah taking a break in the shade

and more

more views

and East

The view south

The old man at Pinnacles

Sarah, trudging up the trail

Pinnacles National Monument - Looks like a big hand at the top of the rocks

Pinnacles National Monument

Pinnacles National Monument

Mission San Juan Bautista

Sarah, drinking away her troubles at the campsite...

Bobcat

Bobcat

Bobcat in tree, squirrel at base of tree

The Unveiling...

The Unveiling...

So, about a year ago, I moved into a new apartment and my mother came out to visit and help decorate. Being a good Catholic boy, I have a tiny Last Supper sculpture (OK, it's more of a mass-produced casting, but let's not nitpick...), and knowing that my mom is very artistic, I asked her if she could paint me an updated Last Supper to hang in my dining room.

Now, my concept was, "What if Jesus was doing his thing in 2004 San Francisco?" He would have been hanging out on Polk Street (OK, probably in the Tenderloin, but close enough), turning water into martinis or mojitos, and eating tapas instead of bread. So, I was thinking Jesus in a bar, maybe cigarette in hand, or cosmo, and definitely shaved and dressed in Banana Republic gear.

Well, Mom would have none of that. Sacrilege! She couldn't put a cigarette in Big J's hand; wouldn't put a martini in his hand. Even with my begging, she wouldn't follow through on my concept. I know that she wanted to beat Michaelangelo at his own game (and her and I both knew that she could!), but her parochial upbringing prevented her from doing it in a blasphemous fashion. Instead of Jesus + 12, she painted a central character + 14 as a ruse. Instead of Jesus as the center of attention with hands spread, she painted a karaoke singer with mike in hand. Instead of wine, cocktails. And, instead of bread, popcorn and olives.

My parents both visited last week - almost a year to the day after my mom and I discussed the "commission" and she began working on it. We had a formal unveiling, with the painting covered, everyone ready, and a quick lifting of the cover...

Damn! This is sooo cooooool! I was expecting it to be nice, but I had no idea that it was going to be so freakin' fantastic! The faces, the drinks, the background, the table, the menus... Everything was so beyond what I imagined, I was just floored! I love it! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!

It went right up on my dining room wall!

Thanks Mom!!!

Long Weekend Surprise!

So... this is my first official posting on our blog (any blog actually), and I hope this makes Jason very happy, b/c he's been after me to post for awhile now... but I finally have something really great to talk about so here I go!

Last Thursday Jason and I were discussing camping options for a long weekend getaway trip to Pinnacles NF. As it turned out, we did not go camping at all, but had a spectacular, luxurious trip to Sonoma wine country instead! Jason even prepared (and presented to me on Friday morning), a fancy brochure and "white paper" on what the weekend would bring, to introduce me to the details of the trip. (fyi, that's a very tech-y thing to do, for those of you who are - luckily - not immersed in the silicon valley culture...)

After an ultra-quick packing job on my part (possibly a record), we left the city Friday morning and hit several wineries along the way to our B&B in Occidental. The Inn at Occidental was quite a surprise - a really amazing, beautiful B&B in the heart of wine country and just a few miles from the Coast - I've heard about it for years now. Mom and Amy - you will flip when you see the pics of the wisteria at this place! Check it out here: http://www.innatoccidental.com/ - we were in the Safari room, which was huge and very private, with our own porch! We took advantage of the "free" wine and snacks provided by our hosts Jerry and Tina. The food was de-lish, and the wine flowed freely! We enjoyed all of this out on the wraparound porch of the Inn. We felt kind of old, but at the same time we had such good food and wine in front of us, that we really didn't care! We met some nice folks from Canada - why is it that we only meet Canadians everywhere we go?! :-) They asked if we had left children or other obligations behind for the trip and we felt a bit guilty that our answer was "no" but what can you do...

Friday night we enjoyed dinner at K&L Bistro in Sebastopol and had a superb Rose - our first of the season! It's made as a hobby by a local vintner (if you are interested in purchasing, you can contact him through this website: http://www.sonocino.com. Jason dined on fresh grilled sardines (he loved them but blech!!! they smelled!) and house-made sausage (even I have to admit it was yummy)... I had the tomato soup and crabcakes. Mmmm.

Saturday was fun and relaxing... after breakfast at the Inn (more goodness: baked french toast with peaches and blueberries), we waddled to the car and drove to Anderson State Park. The idea was to talk a walk among the redwoods but - it was scary. Very scary. Think Deliverance, California-Style. See the video of the dancing cardboard lemonade sign here: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jrushin/SonomaWeekend/Sonoma_0001.wmv - it gives you a pretty good idea of the weirdness that I'm referring to... So, all that weirdness was the perfect excuse to skip the secluded trail and hit a few more wineries before our afternoon appointment at Osmosis. After several wine purchases and a stop at Russian Hill (one of our favorites) - we made our way to Osmosis for a cedar enzyme bath (yes, seriously), facials, and massage. It was quite the indulgence!! I got a little claustrophobic during the cedar bath and had to pull both arms and eventually one leg out of the tub... just to be sure that if needed, I could get out from under the weight of the mulch! It was really hot in there too - the pictures can fool you, everyone looks so serene - we were sweating quite profusely. The cedar is heated naturally through decompostition, and we guessed it was around 140 degrees. Wild. Check out this place, it's really different and a terrific way to spend 4 hours of your life... highly recommended!! http://www.osmosis.com

Zazu, in Santa Rosa, was our dinner spot and was spectacular... we tried a little bit of everything and were not disappointed. For starters: razor clam fritters (best clams I've ever had - very different and sweet), eggplant carponata with fresh ricotta and grilled sourdough; mid-course shared entree: goat cheese gnocchi with rocket and mushrooms; entrees: slow-roasted pork shoulder w/carmelized onions & wild boar and juniper sausage; desserts: house-made nutter butters (amazing!) with chocolate fondue and blackberry cabarnet sorbet. Oh, and of course we had the Navarro Rose with dinner... if you haven't tried Navarro, they have some great whites (and they are cheap too, about $9-$11 each usually). Once again, we headed back to the Inn, completely stuffed and ready for some late-night reading under the mosquito nets (and did I mention that the "safari" room came complete with serengetti mural on the wall?!).

Sunday morning was a bit depressing - mostly just because I knew our fun was going to end soon and I'd have to go back to a very busy time at work - however, I overcame my grief after a few stops to wineries on the way out of town :-) We visited two other favorites, Roshambo and Lambert Bridge, and then headed back to SF.

Our pictures are posted on Jay's website: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jrushin/SonomaWeekend/index.html

We lucked out with amazing weather, and all of Jay's planning and preparations were obvious because it was one of our best trips ever, and we were only an hour from home!

I am a lucky, lucky girl.

Cheap Wine Review

A few months ago, Sarah and I decided to slum it a bit and drink only "extreme value" wine. With Two-Buck Chuck being such a great value (most of the time), we started wondering about the other sub-five-dollar wines offered at Trader Joes.

So, below is our "'04 Cheap Wine Review." (Stay tuned for the '05 version...)

Type	Brand	Price	Rating	Tasting Notes
Whites
Chardonnay	San Andre's	$ 2.99	4.0	Solid
Chardonnay	JW Morris	$ 2.99	4.0	Good, but not great
Chardonnay	Blue Fin	$ 2.99	4.0	Kinda harsh; solid flavor
Chardonnay	Bear's Lair	$ 3.99	4.0	Very buttery, good with food
Gewurtz	JW Morris	$ 2.99	1.0	So freaking sweet - yuck!
Sav Blanc	Callaway	$ 4.99	3.5	Crisp, clean, fruity and sweet; not much flavor
Sav Blanc	San Andre's	$ 2.99	3.0	Pucker! Not very flavorful
Sav Blanc	Barefoot	$ 3.99	4.0	Crisp, good
Reds
Cab	Santa Ema	$ 3.99	3.0	Fruity, almost sweet
Cab	Bear's Lair	$ 3.99	3.0	Alcohol, tannins, not much flavor
Cab	Tula Vista	$ 3.99	4.0	Dry but fruity; good flavor, hot
Cab/Merlot	San Andre's	$ 2.99	2.5	Smells like f&%$
Merlot	JW Morris	$ 2.99	4.5	Fruity, dry on front; solid, not too hot
Pinot Noir	Pepperwood Grove	$ 4.99	4.5	Dry, full bodied
Pinot Noir	JW Morris	$ 2.99	4.5	Tasty; too fruity/sweet
Zin	JW Morris	$ 2.99	3.0	Earthy, strawberries, pucker
Rating Methodology
Blech!	Yuck! We had to pour it out.
Bad	Not good at all, and not even worth the few dollars it cost.
Eh	Drinkable, but not worth buying again.
Good	Tasty and easy to drink. Good for an everyday or party wine.
Fantastic	Great all around and a value at twice the price. Worthy of the cellar.

More Wine Blogs

I'm definitely hooked on the blogs and the podcasts! Here are a few more that I've come across:

Vinography: a wine blog -Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world. Not bad, but much focus on European wines.

Spitton.biz - A fun blogger from the UK. He started "Wine Blogging Wednesdays," where he picks a date and a theme, and bloggers the world over post and link their reviews. The next is March 9th, and the theme is "Obscure Red Grape Varieties."

FERMENTATIONS: The Daily Wine Blog - a wine PR guy who focuses on the biz side of things.

Oh, I almost forgot! You have to check out the cool business at CrushPad. They source the grapes, then you make about 30 decisions about the creation of the wine, from barrel wood to aging time to bottle and label design. Really cool! Prices start at about $4,000 per barrel, which yields about 25 cases. They can even facilitate the selling of your wine.

In other news, it's a beautiful day today in San Francisco. Blue skies and probably in the 70s! I can't wait for summer!

Sloooow on Idahoooo

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I promised the Idaho download and pics a few days ago. But, I'm lame - and slow. Hopefully, Sarah will post her thoughts on Idaho as well. Now that she's a blogger too, she'd better get in the game.

So, thoughts on Idaho:

• Sun Valley was small. The mountain (Mt. Baldy) was small, the town (Ketchum) was tiny, the resort (Sun Valley) was small. That may be because my expectations were so high, but it was a really small town. I think that the population was in the 3,500 range, but I'm guessing that most of that is seasonal. If you've been to Holiday Valley in NY, or Hidden Valley in PA, it's about that size.
• A funny thing about the town was that the people seemed to think that it was overwhelmingly busy. Compared with Tahoe, Sun Valley was very uncrowded, even for a holiday weekend. At most of the bars and restaurants the we visited, the waitstaff and bartenders seemed swamped, even though the places weren't really all that busy. I'd like to see it on a slow night! Sarah even had trouble trying to take a snowboarding lesson because they were "short handed." Didn't they know it was a holiday weekend?
• Bruce Willis sucks as a singer.
• Idaho was once a hotbed of volcanic activity. Something about the earth's crust being really thin in Idaho. Anway, we took some pics of lava beds south of Sun Valley, near Shoshone. Pretty cool, I'm sure you'll agree, once we finally post some pictures...
• The people of Ketchum aren't very creative. There are probably 2o streets in the whole town, plotted like a grid. Well, running east to west, there's 1st through 8th Streets. Running north to south, there's 1st through 3rd AVENUE. Pretty lame. However, there is Leadville Avenue, to their credit.
• Boise was nice. Small, but nice. Lots of non-chain restaurants and stores. One microbrewery downtown, The Bardenay, also made their own Rum, Vodka and Gin. Pretty cool! Although, still being on the wagon, I was unable to partake. :-(

Alright, I promise, pictures ASAP!

Podcast Reviews

Alright! Well this podcasting thing is better than I thought!

On the plane this past weekend, I listened to the 5 podcasts that I downloaded last week. I really enjoyed 2 of them, thought 1 was pretty good but wasn't interested in the content, and decided that the last 2 really needed some work. All in all, these people take their podcasts seriously! I was expecting them to sound like someone recording their voice over their PCs built-in mic, with a lot of stammering, background noise, and general unprofessionalism. Man, was I wrong. All 5 were of great quality, both in DJ-ing ability and sound. It was like I was tuned into NPR!

Here's the rundown of my picks for last week:

Screwtops (www.screwtops.com) - It had the potential to be funny but never really hit the mark. It was basically a couple of guys sitting around and talking about wine and beer. Given that it was a bit over 60 minutes long, and that I couldn't take much more than 5 minutes of it, I'll rate it a "C -." I jumped around a bit, just to see if it got funnier as it went along, but it never happened. I'll have to give it another chance in a few weeks.

Wine Cast (www.winecast.net) - This guy is great. Definitely on my "favorites" list. I listened to his January 30th cast about Pinot Noir, along with a review of the movie "Sideways." Just a great, engaging personality, funny, and easy to listen to. Plus, some really good, really concise wine reviews.

Grape Radio (www.graperadio.com) - This was another good one! Basically, just a conversation with the owner of White Rose Wines. Very entertaining, light and funny. Although, the guest had a good presence, so that might have had something to do with its charm.

Talking About Wine (www.talkingaboutwine.com) - Well, the podcast was entitled "Chile Wine Tour Part 15," and I missed parts 1 through 14, so I guess that's why I wasn't too interested. But, it was only 3 or 4 minutes long, so short enough to tolerate. Again, I'll have to give it another chance.

Cooking on the Radio (www.cookingontheradio.com) - Um, I think I fell asleep after the first few minutes. Very monotone, and not really engaging.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to review some others in the weeks ahead.

Look for pictures and posts from our trip to Sun Valley as well!

Blogging, Podcasting and Idaho!

Blogging

So this blogging thing is really taking off. I don't mean my blog, because this is pretty lame. I mean the overall blogging revolution. OK, well maybe "revolution" is a bit of an overstatement. And maybe by my thinking that it's just now taking off makes me even more lame.

Anyway, the more I look around, the more blogs I find. It's like any swinging dick with an opinion on something has started their own blog! That pretty much includes everyone with an internet connection and some kind of tech/geek ability - even me! So, I'm finding that I need to specialize and find my niche. Should it be food? Wine? Quantum physics? Composting methods of pre-cambrian homo sapiens? Or, just my rants? I guess we'll see where it goes. In the meantime, look below for some blogs that I've recently stumbled upon...

Podcasting

Remember Adam Curry? You know, the long-haired VJ from '80s MTV. Anyway, I guess he's either bored or rich these days, so he decided to jump on the iPod Economy bandwagon and start a website called www.iPodder.org. iPodder is basically a directory for Podcasts. What's a Podcast? Well, a Podcast is a way for any swinging dick with an internet connection (and a sound card) and some tech/geek ability to record their musings to an mp3 file and then post them on the internet for people to download and listen to on their iPod.

It's like, all of a sudden, anyone can create their own quasi-radio-station on the internet. And, the best thing about it is that it's all pre-TiVo'd and waiting for you to have the time to listen to it. I've read quite a bit about it lately, and it seems to be pretty new, making blogs look like pencil and paper. So, being the geek that I am, I downloaded a few to listen to tonight on my flight to Idaho.

Idaho?

Idaho

That's right, baby! I - DA - HOE! Home of... Birthplace of... Um, home of potatoes? Yeah, potatoes. Um, home - or part-time home - of Ashton and Demi. And Bruce too. And, I think Hemingway was born there. Maybe.

Anyway (I like using that word), Sarah was stationed up in Boise this past week, so I'm heading up to meet her tonight. Tomorrow, we're heading off to Sun Valley! It should be fun. I'll fill in the details next week.

Wine Blogs/Podcasts:
www.screwtops.com
www.winecast.net
www.graperadio.com
www.talkingaboutwine.com

Food Blogs/Podcasts:
www.chezpim.com - this chick is getting a lot of press about being a new-wave restaurant and food critic - I'm undecided on her usefulness, but giving it a chance.
www.cookingontheradio.com


Later skater...

OK, so now it's been a full 7 days without alcohol or chocolate. Other than the bugs crawling all over me, I'm doing fine. Sarah has been taking it easy on the juice as well, but she's still drinking more than any 3 people I know! ;-)

So, here's the latest:

1. Alcohol is good. Maker's Mark is good. Beer is good. The lack of alcohol makes my head hurt. I think I'm going through detox.
2. Sarah is in Boise this week. She left on Sunday, so it's lonely here - especially with the rain. But, I'm flying up to meet her on Thursday night for a 4-day weekend! She's going to show me all around Boise, and then, 20 minutes later, we're heading to Sun Valley for a few days. We'll probably do some snowboarding, maybe hang out with Ashton and Demi, and hopefully see some spectacular views of the Sawtooth Range. Check back here for pictures next week.
3. We took a walk along the Richardson Bay on Sunday, up in Mill Valley. It was a pretty dismal day, but as you can see below, Sarah made the best of it. (OK, so I tweaked the picture a little bit. I had to edit out the rain!)

That's all for now. I gotta get back to watching television...

On the Wagon

Ash Wednesday, so no alcohol or chocolate for 40 days! Can I do it? Well, it's only noon and it's going OK so far.

Sarah goes down hard... Ouch!

Beautiful...

Riding the gondola to the top of Heavenly - 9,137' above sea level, about 3,000' above Lake Tahoe

Emerald Bay

Jay thinking, "I wish I could shred like that..."

Jay, getting some much-needed instruction!

Sarah takes the first of many falls...

Sarah all geared up for boarding!

Sarah shopping in Tahoe City

Sarah and Jason take snowboarding lessons!

Winter docks - no boating today!

The last day in Tahoe