It's very sunny right now - light is streaming through my ooooh shiny stained glass pieces.

Kids downstairs are doing the skateboard & bike chase in the backyard - also playing red light/green light

G im'd me late Thursday night that I could take the kids to auntie's on christmas. Yay!



Thursday, met andreal for a chat and lunch. Bit of a mix up - there are 4 building at Noah's new work place and I went to the wrong one. Oops. Walked from his office to the restaurant - a bit further than we had thought - but it was a gorgeous day and very enjoyable.

Thursday night, herefox and I went to see TheatreWorks' The Fourth Wall. Lots of political digs - especially at the president - some very funny. Was never sure where the play was going and though it was funny in parts, I did catch myself nodding off. Not really sure I liked it.

Heather Concert last Friday night! Foxy trained up to Redwood City and there was enough time for a quick trip to Costco. Then we went to the CA Ave. station to pick up tealfox, rikoshi and lilacfairy. It was Lee's first trip via BART/Caltrain down to Palo Alto and she said it was no problem at all. Heather's concert wasn't too rowdy - more mellow - she did a lot of new songs and I especially like the Columbia River one. Had a dinner afterwards at Denny's (there's got to be something better that's open late *sigh*).

Saturday, spent the day wine tasting with trektone. Went to the log cabin on San Pablo - Sam's Place. We both had the egg scramble with chicken apple sausage and scones. Not sure what was in the scone - well currants, lemon and we think mango - but they were delicious.

Hit Sattui's first. Was finally able to recycle the 14 mailers that had been accumulating in the apartment. Go Me! Sattui pays a dollar for each mailer returned. I'm glad somebody recycles - I could easily recycle the cardboard boxes - it the styrofoam inserts that make me crazy. We tried a bunch of wines - love da madeira. I needed to pick up a bunch of the muscat for certain friends' christmas prezzies and also picked up a bottle of the angelica. Had retasted it and enjoyed it.

Went down to the cellars and found the (new???) members only tasting room. Got to try a bunch more cabernet sauvignons. Didn't buy anything as I had a few of them already.

Before leaving, I tried to call my sisters as I knew they had wanted mt pick some stuff up for them. Left a message at Karen's and tried to talk to Steve, but a CERTAIN person was making all kinds of SOUNDS and NOISES which meant he was going to get royally bapped. I was already red faced from the bit of wine I had tasted (ah, the joys of being allergic to alcohol) and after listening to him, I was a lot more. Karen is going to kill me when she listens to the message. *grin*

Up the road to Calistoga and Clos Pegase. Joey went ahead and did the Hommage series of wine tasting - $25 got you tastings plus a Riedel wine glass. Got to taste a bunch of other stuff which I had received in one of my quarterly mailings - mainly the Pegaso which was less zin like than I had thought it would be. Good thing for me. *grin*

Stopped at Stonegate - only it's not Stonegate any more. They had sold the tasting rooms and moved to Napa. It's now the tasting rooms of Twomey. They only had a merlot to taste and it was quite good but at $60/bottle, not in my budget for this trip.

Stopped at Frank Family winery - I think I had had enough wine at this point. Did try some, but nothing struck my fancy. Joey bought half a case of the cabernet sauvignon.

Next stop, Prager's. They were packed. Had to wait a bit until we could go in an taste. Still not fond of their cabernet sauvignon. They had sold out of Sweet Claire. As I had just gotten my port club shipment from them, I didn't need to buy anything. I did get a Christmas hug from the elder Mr. Prager!

Stopped at one last winery - Flora something or other - I definitely had had enough tasting, but did try a bit of Joey's. Had nice chat with wine person and she let Joey sample a lot of different wines. Oy, the 1999 Rutherford Hills cabernet sauvingnon was wonderful, though at $100/bottle, it was not that wonderful, but it came pretty dang close. Did a wee bit of shopping at Dean and Deluca's next door. Was seriously tempted by the shropshire cheese, but didn't get any. Oh well. Did see some Yunnan tea - but have no idea if it was the kind that Rainy wants.

Went to dinner at a chinese restaurant called Daimo. Joey ordered fresh boiled shrimp (you had to peel yourself), steamed black bass with ginger and green onions, duck, guylan, and scallop with sweet peapod chowfun. Oy much food and ooooh leftovers! Shrimp was much work and very hot (as in just boiled).

Got home and just crashed. It definitely poured during the night. Was awakened by the wind and sound of rain pounding against the windows.