loooong weekend goooone
i needed to post this link as it made me laugh for a while on friday courtesy of fark...
alex_victory and
gina met up with us friday nite for some la bottega before hitting the road to escondido where they had booked a couple of nites via their timeshare at the welk resort which they so graciously had invited us to attend. it rained on and off all the way down as we rocked out to gina's memorial weekend mix on her ipod and was raining pretty hardcore when we finally arrived, but we checked into a villa that had two bedrooms with large bathrooms separated by a living room, full kitchen, and laundry closet. we celebrated with a bottle of wine before crashing. the next morning we awoke to alex and gina making us all breakfast. we gorged on bacon, eggs, and donuts before playing timetripper, the game that we won when we played the "save our city" scavenger hunt last dec. i liked it - it is basically trivial pursuit with years as answers (how easy for the inventor), and i won as "the red menace" after what seemed like forever playing. we then napped, and alex and gina napped longer b/c they had to get up so early that day to negate a presentation. shelby and i checked out the grounds, playing some theatre of magic pinball in the rec room (shelby only beat me by 20K pts!) and checking out the visitor info, convenience store, and shop as well as passing by the pools/jacuzzis for our part of the resort.
we watched an old couple walk VERY SLOWLY across the plaza to the resort theatre. the man was about 10 ft in front of his wife. she commented that maybe she should get a jacket, and he called back over his shoulder, "it's in the car." they continued on without resolution to that particular concern, and i later told shelby i hope i'm not that way physically when i'm that old although i can totally see myself in a very similar situation since i already concern myself every time i leave my car whether i should take a jacket.
we relaxed on the back patio when a duck walked up to us and gazed rather expectantly. i grabbed an english muffin and threw pieces at it which it hungrily gobbled. it hung around for quite a while and was very brazen in its trek around the patio. we could only deduce that people who stay in this villa regularly feed, as alex called it, "a fat duck." gina had some muffin time with it later while alex called mattzog for dinner, and we caught the champions league game btwn man u & chelsea on espn classic (awesome first half!). we left the duck standing just outside the patio door looking in as we headed to old town for some grub w/ matt.
it was cold in sd, as usual, and we got lucky with a little place off the main strip called new orleans creole cafe. their sweet tea RULED. i had the mac 'n cheese with andouille sausage which was pretty dang tasty too. shelby and i grabbed dessert at coldstone before leaving the chaos, dropping matt off and heading back to welk where we played loaded questions before bedtime.
checkout was 10am sunday, so we piled into the car and headed to temecula for some wine tasting before back to la. we stuffed ourselves at claim jumper then started the day at an exceptionally busy wilson's creek. i had kinda forgotten the whole holiday weekend thing, but i can say that temecula has not changed as far as basically being what sideways made los olivos ($10 fees for 5 tastings + glass).
next on the list was wiens which i really fell in love with - probably b/c all of their vines are from the central and northern region of cali. i decided to get the discount on the overpriced bottles, i would join as a club member now, then after they send their new release in june (a 6 varietal blend called "crowded") i will cancel. don't worry - it'll be easy to cancel. i'd prefer to be a member of jewel or montevina or even karly (all up in amador county) more than paying $30 a btl for wiens (shelby does that enough w/ chumeia, 4v, and gelfand). we picked up the tempranillo, the franc, and the primitivo. she refunded both ours and gina's tastings, so we have to pop open one of these guys with them as thanks for paving the cheap way for bri. i am looking forward to that day b/c them was tasty wines.
the 2 for 1 special was la cereza and maurice car'rie. unfortunately for both, they were no good. cereza had a pretty nifty glass with a cobalt stem, but the cup was too small and wide. the maurice glass was boring. apparently the new mgmt for both ain't helping.
then we hit a gem, and i remember i had been there before, only last time, the bar wasn't open. bella vista is off the beaten path and set up like a sports bar. we had to buy two zinfandels b/c they were the spicy peppery versions we haven't had for a few years (yay 2002 zin!) with all the fruit forwards rolling around since 2003. apparently, according to our wise winemaker @ chumeia, the 2006 zin is very much like the early 2000s ( are we doing the allocation, shelby?). the price was totally right at bella vista too - we likey the under $20 bottles!
we ended the afternoon at callaway. they really know how to make good cabs. again though, too expensive for our tastes.
we slept for about an hour after we returned to west la. then we grabbed little hong kong and headed back to my place for a nite of wii action. shelby despises dwts, so i will have to go it alone...unless mom wants to come out and help me open everything back up on my box.;)
sunday i told kent if he wanted me to pay the entirety of the amt agreed upon for the fridge, he would have to find an alternate method for cooking his food. we had come in to my apartment again smelling like a grease pit even with the window in the living room wide open, so i had to show him all of the splatters on the stove, the fridge, the baker's rack, the floor, and the film that has settled on every possible piece of out in the open anything. he nodded dejectedly, made a half hearted attempt to salvage his frying by saying he could 409 everything before he left which i told him i'd have to clean again anyways if he doesn't do it after every time before. i suggested the microwave as an alternative since i'm going to have to clean the 7 yrs of sludge out of that too, but at least it was all contained in one little box. the fun fact of this convo is that after i showed him all of the splatters, he left the kitchen still not bothering to clean them up, which i then did later that evening as i made brownies and poor man's primavera for dinner. i still need to wipe down the fridge though. i also noticed the front burner on high only goes medium flame, so i'll have to get the gas man out to clear the burners too (or do it myself), which is fine b/c he needs to come out and check them again (been 2 years). i need to clean all the burner covers anyways that sit on the stove right now glistening in their oily sheen.
i really need to settle on a steam mop.
so we also watched the number 23 and recount. i am certain laura dern will at least get an emmy nom for katherine harris. i recommend recount over 23. how sadly ironic that no more than an hour after i watched recount, i heard the news of pollack's death. the movie makes you angry, sad, disgusted, unnerved, and reminds you of the ohio debacle 4 years later as well as how seemingly carefree our country was in 1999. oh to be in an alternate universe to know what would've happened if our country had been run by gore. shelby and i were both in agreement that the world would not hate us and the oil prices would not be so high - or at least that's our idealistic hope in the what if category.
alex_victory and
gina met up with us friday nite for some la bottega before hitting the road to escondido where they had booked a couple of nites via their timeshare at the welk resort which they so graciously had invited us to attend. it rained on and off all the way down as we rocked out to gina's memorial weekend mix on her ipod and was raining pretty hardcore when we finally arrived, but we checked into a villa that had two bedrooms with large bathrooms separated by a living room, full kitchen, and laundry closet. we celebrated with a bottle of wine before crashing. the next morning we awoke to alex and gina making us all breakfast. we gorged on bacon, eggs, and donuts before playing timetripper, the game that we won when we played the "save our city" scavenger hunt last dec. i liked it - it is basically trivial pursuit with years as answers (how easy for the inventor), and i won as "the red menace" after what seemed like forever playing. we then napped, and alex and gina napped longer b/c they had to get up so early that day to negate a presentation. shelby and i checked out the grounds, playing some theatre of magic pinball in the rec room (shelby only beat me by 20K pts!) and checking out the visitor info, convenience store, and shop as well as passing by the pools/jacuzzis for our part of the resort.
we watched an old couple walk VERY SLOWLY across the plaza to the resort theatre. the man was about 10 ft in front of his wife. she commented that maybe she should get a jacket, and he called back over his shoulder, "it's in the car." they continued on without resolution to that particular concern, and i later told shelby i hope i'm not that way physically when i'm that old although i can totally see myself in a very similar situation since i already concern myself every time i leave my car whether i should take a jacket.
we relaxed on the back patio when a duck walked up to us and gazed rather expectantly. i grabbed an english muffin and threw pieces at it which it hungrily gobbled. it hung around for quite a while and was very brazen in its trek around the patio. we could only deduce that people who stay in this villa regularly feed, as alex called it, "a fat duck." gina had some muffin time with it later while alex called mattzog for dinner, and we caught the champions league game btwn man u & chelsea on espn classic (awesome first half!). we left the duck standing just outside the patio door looking in as we headed to old town for some grub w/ matt.
it was cold in sd, as usual, and we got lucky with a little place off the main strip called new orleans creole cafe. their sweet tea RULED. i had the mac 'n cheese with andouille sausage which was pretty dang tasty too. shelby and i grabbed dessert at coldstone before leaving the chaos, dropping matt off and heading back to welk where we played loaded questions before bedtime.
checkout was 10am sunday, so we piled into the car and headed to temecula for some wine tasting before back to la. we stuffed ourselves at claim jumper then started the day at an exceptionally busy wilson's creek. i had kinda forgotten the whole holiday weekend thing, but i can say that temecula has not changed as far as basically being what sideways made los olivos ($10 fees for 5 tastings + glass).
next on the list was wiens which i really fell in love with - probably b/c all of their vines are from the central and northern region of cali. i decided to get the discount on the overpriced bottles, i would join as a club member now, then after they send their new release in june (a 6 varietal blend called "crowded") i will cancel. don't worry - it'll be easy to cancel. i'd prefer to be a member of jewel or montevina or even karly (all up in amador county) more than paying $30 a btl for wiens (shelby does that enough w/ chumeia, 4v, and gelfand). we picked up the tempranillo, the franc, and the primitivo. she refunded both ours and gina's tastings, so we have to pop open one of these guys with them as thanks for paving the cheap way for bri. i am looking forward to that day b/c them was tasty wines.
the 2 for 1 special was la cereza and maurice car'rie. unfortunately for both, they were no good. cereza had a pretty nifty glass with a cobalt stem, but the cup was too small and wide. the maurice glass was boring. apparently the new mgmt for both ain't helping.
then we hit a gem, and i remember i had been there before, only last time, the bar wasn't open. bella vista is off the beaten path and set up like a sports bar. we had to buy two zinfandels b/c they were the spicy peppery versions we haven't had for a few years (yay 2002 zin!) with all the fruit forwards rolling around since 2003. apparently, according to our wise winemaker @ chumeia, the 2006 zin is very much like the early 2000s ( are we doing the allocation, shelby?). the price was totally right at bella vista too - we likey the under $20 bottles!
we ended the afternoon at callaway. they really know how to make good cabs. again though, too expensive for our tastes.
we slept for about an hour after we returned to west la. then we grabbed little hong kong and headed back to my place for a nite of wii action. shelby despises dwts, so i will have to go it alone...unless mom wants to come out and help me open everything back up on my box.;)
sunday i told kent if he wanted me to pay the entirety of the amt agreed upon for the fridge, he would have to find an alternate method for cooking his food. we had come in to my apartment again smelling like a grease pit even with the window in the living room wide open, so i had to show him all of the splatters on the stove, the fridge, the baker's rack, the floor, and the film that has settled on every possible piece of out in the open anything. he nodded dejectedly, made a half hearted attempt to salvage his frying by saying he could 409 everything before he left which i told him i'd have to clean again anyways if he doesn't do it after every time before. i suggested the microwave as an alternative since i'm going to have to clean the 7 yrs of sludge out of that too, but at least it was all contained in one little box. the fun fact of this convo is that after i showed him all of the splatters, he left the kitchen still not bothering to clean them up, which i then did later that evening as i made brownies and poor man's primavera for dinner. i still need to wipe down the fridge though. i also noticed the front burner on high only goes medium flame, so i'll have to get the gas man out to clear the burners too (or do it myself), which is fine b/c he needs to come out and check them again (been 2 years). i need to clean all the burner covers anyways that sit on the stove right now glistening in their oily sheen.
i really need to settle on a steam mop.
so we also watched the number 23 and recount. i am certain laura dern will at least get an emmy nom for katherine harris. i recommend recount over 23. how sadly ironic that no more than an hour after i watched recount, i heard the news of pollack's death. the movie makes you angry, sad, disgusted, unnerved, and reminds you of the ohio debacle 4 years later as well as how seemingly carefree our country was in 1999. oh to be in an alternate universe to know what would've happened if our country had been run by gore. shelby and i were both in agreement that the world would not hate us and the oil prices would not be so high - or at least that's our idealistic hope in the what if category.