Guess What?!

I'm gonna have my very first ever guest blogger! I'm so excited! I've already seen it and can't wait for you to check it out tomorrow. :) I really think you're gonna love it. I met the guest poster at SFWC and he's an amazing person and writer. Hopefully the other friends I made will take me up on doing a guest post as well. You interested in writing one? Email me and let me know.

On another note, just downloaded Adele's new album, 21. It's ridonculous. Serious.

--Me

Time to Tell You About My Trip!

 Now that life has somewhat settled down and gotten back into the easy groove of my normal routine (and now that I’ve somewhat caught up on the sleep I missed out on while in San Fran), I have the sense of mind to sit down and write a half-way decent post about my trip.

Since it’s also Freebee Friday!, I will include lots and lots of pictures. :)

The town of Occidental

How can you NOT fall in love?

After stopping at my beloved In-N-Out, The first part of my trip was spent in Occidental (a BEAUTIFUL small town in Northern California, nestled in the hills and a short trip from Bodega Bay) at my aunt and uncle’s house. That was probably the highlight of my trip, to be honest. The area of California they live in is breathtaking, their house is gorgeous--with a Japanese theme throughout, and everything was so laidback and peaceful. The town is quaint with only a 5 square mile area and a population of around 1,200. It sprang up from the railroad that passed through back in 1876 (and of course, I have to mention the Bohemian Grove. We did try to find it, but were unsuccessful. Although, food was a more important item on my list than the secret club was).

I ran in this everyday.
So beautiful.

Bodega Bay

While we were there, I went running on the old, hilly roads, realizing that I might die when I do my half marathon in April and my relay marathon in June. We took a trip to Bodega Bay (where they filmed Hitchcock’s The Birds), I scaled the bluffs with the only sensible shoes in the entire bunch (guess which ones they are), and we ate some pretty good fish and chips on the wharf. My aunt took me to winetasting at Lynmar and Iron Horse. I spent a lot of time with my grandma (who I hadn’t seen since I got married), my aunt and uncle, and my two little second cousins, who are in one word: Fantabulous!

The San Fran Bridge from
the back window of the car

After a couple of days in Occidental, it was time to head to San Fran, which in itself was an adventure. It had been raining the entire time we were there (which is awesome – I love the rain, especially in a place that is in the hills, and green, with copious amounts of trees), so all the back roads into the city were flooded. But we made it.

The front of our hotel from

across the street

I felt like a movie star staying at the Mark Hopkins. Everyone was dressed in double-breasted uniforms with white gloves. They pressed the elevator buttons for you and put the napkin on your lap for you at breakfast and lunch. It was AMAZING. The staff at The Mark went above and beyond at all times. After we dropped off our luggage, the skies had cleared for a little bit so we went for a stroll through Chinatown. I bought Hubby a kimono and myself a hand-painted silk robe. The Chinese New Year was that week, so Chinatown was a buzz of activity and people. We were going to go to the parade on Sunday, but our energy petered out and we stayed in the room instead.

High Tea

Thursday afternoon we took High Tea at Top of the Mark with yummy pasteries and iced coffee and then returned that evening for a swing band in full costume and professional swing dancers. It was so much fun. I even had an older gentleman (79, but didn't look a day over 65) teach me how to dance.



View from Top of the Mark



Friday, Saturday and half of Sunday was spent, from 7:30 AM to 11PM with classes and workshops. I was exhausted but pleasantly so, the whole time. Sunday was only a half day and ended at 1pm after Speed Dating with Agents (which was a fun experience—I’ll tell you about in another post), and I made some fast and valuable friends at the conference that I think I will keep for a long time (you know who you are).

Sunday, Madre and I explored the Wharf, Pier 39, the Ferry Building, street performers, and Ghirardelli Square. I bought Boudin Sourdough bread, a chocolate sundae, and amazing cheese by the Cowgirl Creamery called Red Hawk. It smells like the inside of a ripe diaper, but tastes amazing. Although Hubby tends to disagree with me since our whole house currently smells like Red Hawk. :)



The lobby at The Mark where
Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson
were spotted



While at the Mark Hopkins, two movie stars were spotted in our hotel – Liam Neeson (Why couldn’t I have been there to tackle him????) and Samuel L. Jackson. Oh, the stories & memories this trip has given me!! Okay, this has been a far too long Freebee Friday! Post, so I must end it now.

Happy Friday, all, and I hope your weekend is vundabar!

--Me





 

Sensible shoes at Bodega Bay




The tasting bar was outside over a covered

awning with heaters. It was pouring rain outside.

A completely different experience and

vibe from the other vineyard we visited,

Lynmar, with it's manicured estate.



Vineyards at Iron Horse



Our wine tasting guide, Damien

and my aunt (There's an official title,

but I can't remember it. I think it

starts with an R or an S)



A display in the SEATAC devoted to
Twilight and Forks, WA. Thought this
was amusing and that I would
share. :) It even had
"Forks Sparkle Lotion"

View from the hotel room at night







Follow...Fol-low...Folow...

Ever notice that saying a certain word enough times makes it start to not make sense?

Take “follow” for example. At first glance, it’s a normal word, but as you start flipping through hundreds of “follow me” Twitter buttons for your blog, it becomes strange and foreign. You start to question the existential meaning of the word. Where did it come from? What does "to follow" truly mean?
I don’t really care; I just thought it was an interesting phenomenon.

I’m "fashionably" late to the whole Twitter craze. At SFWC, I had someone ask me if I was tweeting, since I was at the lunch table and on my phone. I explained that Twitter wasn’t on my radar at the moment and that I was texting. I got a very informative mini-lecture that Twitter is all-important and it should be on my radar. Roger that.

I never was one to stand up to peer pressure, and this is no different. So, I re-activated my Twitter account and now have a grand total of TWO tweets. :)

I don't promise I'll have anything overly interesting to say, but I have added a rather cute “Follow me” button on the top right of my blog. Feel free to click on it and become one of the first followers!

The End.

--Me

Updates, Updates, Updates!

Ohmygosh!

This is what I get for going on hiatus for a week to try to enrich myself! So much has happened this past week! I made it back home by the skin of my teeth, and only two hours after the time I was supposed to be. Not bad for flying standby on a holiday after the Chinese New Year celebration in San Fran.

Okay, so ARC Alerts!!! Three came in the mail while I was out (yay). Exit the Actress by Priya Parmar, Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli, and The Land of the Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel (that one’s 757 pages! *gulp*).

Just Read…Death Cloud, the Young Sherlock Holmes by Andrew Lane (and I like the Amercian cover art so much better than the Brittish one I got), so I’ll have a Book Report on that one, soon, as well. Here it is!!

I’m still working on The Internet is a Playground by David Thorne, too. That one will be finished soon, as well.

Reading Challenge: Random.org helped me choose First Grave on the Right by Darnda Jones, so I’ll get started on that one sometime this week (hopefully) and finished it oober fast.

I’ll be typing until my fingers are bloody nubs in order to crank out posts about the conference and what I learned so that I can keep you lot entertained. They’ll be Adventures at Sbux and so much more!

Back to life and work. I now understand and appreciate the saying, “I need a vacation from my vacation.”

--Me

**UPDATE!

No sooner had I typed this, than today's mail came and with it TWO more ARCs! Emily and Einstein by Linda Francis Lee (it looks amazing) and The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark. My "unread" list is growing in leaps and bounds. :)

   

The Joys of Flying Standby

Our flight is scheduled for 9:30AM.

It's 8:45 and I'm watching everyone else board the plane and I'm on standby.

It's the Chinese New Year celebration( the year of the rabbit, in case you wanted to know) in SanFran.

It's President's Day.

It looks like the stars may not be aligning in my favor today.

The gal at the ticket counter said there may be a chance I don't even get home today, which sucks beacause all I can think about is the hug I know is waiting for me at home from Hubby.

"Napa Makes Auto Parts, Sonoma Makes Wine"

I think for this week, I might make this a food blog, showcasing all the wonderful and fattening foods I plan to eat while I’m on vacation. Of course I’ll still tell you what’s going on, but I need to share the pictures.


Wine is everywhere this part of California. Sonoma County (Occidental to be exact) is a beautiful part of Northern California. Everything is green. The roads are lined with vineyards (thousands in the area, I’m told), beech, oak and redwood trees, plants and flowers. The winding roads that take you through the area and neighboring small towns are amazing. If I could live anywhere other than where I do, I would choose this area of California (join me in convincing Hubby).

I’m happy to finally be here again and am glad it will last a week. I’ll fill you in on the journey here.

AM
3:45 – woke up, drank coffee, ate yogurt, took taxi to airport
6:50 – Plane to Seattle
9:00 – Plane to Santa Rosa

PM
12:30 – Arrive at airport and picked up by Auntie (sidebar: Santa Rosa airport is the smallest I’ve ever been in)
1:00 – Stop by In-n-Out Burger, inhale a cheeseburger with grilled onion and fries; get offered a paper hat by a waitress to ease my sorrow of not having an In-n-Out in my home town

1:30 – Stop by Lynmar Estate Winery to do some wine tasting (first time!!). Lynmar was a beautifully manicured/maintained winery with sophistication and class. Awesome (Ate some more food, too, btw). Check it out if you’re in the area.

2:30 – Stop by Iron Horse Vinyard to do more wine tasting. BEAUTIFUL location. Damon told me all I could ever want to know about wine – hil-ar-ious guy. Definitely stop by for some great wine.

3:30 – back to airport to pick up our luggage (it was put on a later flight). Flight delayed to 4:40
3:30 – Stopped at restaurant in the airport to kill an hour. Ate a BLT
4:40 – Went to pick up luggage. Luggage not there. Mom and I freak out. Talked to guy at front desk. Looked for our luggage. “Huh, I have no idea where they are. Here, fill out these missing luggage forms.” This is not a good sign. Right about now, I’m replaying the scene from Meet the Fockers where Ben Stiller’s luggage is lost. Then the guy says, “Let me check in back, just in case.” He comes back with our luggage. Apparently, they came in on our first flight, but they neglected to inform us of that, so we wasted an hour of our day. But at least I have my luggage!
5:30 – More eating of crackers, cheese, and olives
7:00 – Dinner is served. Salad, asparagus, and crab. Fresh, wonderful, Dungeness crab. Followed by amazing cookies from Trader Joe’s.
8:00 – Passed out from food overload (happily, might I add)

FUN THING TO DO: My Uncle has a radio show and asked me if I wanted to join him. Talk about F-U-N!! If you’re looking for something fun to listen to, check it out. Reggae music from 7 – 9 pacific time!! KOWS Community Radio (http://www.kows.fm/). I’m not promising I’ll be a good DJ, but I’ll be a DJ - with limited talking.

I hope to give more details later, but right now I’m tired and all I want to do is go to bed. Especially with the knowledge that I’m going to have to run at least five miles tomorrow morning before I start my day in order to burn a quarter of the calories I ate today.

Ugh.

--Me