Friday Fill in's

1. Enough with the new president.
2. children who don't nap causes me to be conflicted.
3. I've been craving Taco Time.
4. JayB talking often makes me laugh.

5. I wish I could go to the Ocean next week.

6. Teaching young children about money has been on my mind lately.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a quite house,

tomorrow my plans include Scrapbooking with mom

and Sunday, I want to Scrapbook some more!

A list of firsts

Some of My Firsts tagged by wholarmor

1. Who was your FIRST prom date? It wasn't called prom at private school but I went with Seth to both his and to mine. I was going to post a photo, but decided I really didn't want one here.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love? As in the first person I dated and said I loved? Nope, last time I spoke to him was at a mutal friends wedding, I'd been married about a year.

4. What was your FIRST job? ,I refused to work grill.

5. What was your FIRST car?

Does that say Nova there on the side?

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today? I don't text, and I haven't checked e-mail yet. Shocking, I know.

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning? This little man,

his crying woke me up.

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher? I've been thinking and thinking. . . I wonder if it was Miss. Russell. I bet my mom would know. Or hey, my best friend mentioned below would know too. :)

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane? Hawaii - my ears hurt so very much I was terrified to fly home. I was a High School Freshman.

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them? Pamela and yes, we are still very good friends.

She takes me as I am and loves me despite my flaws.

11. What was your FIRST sport played? Hum, I played soccer in 3rd grade.

12. Where was your FIRST sleep over? I have no idea, probably my grandmothers, however, I did have a number of sleep overs and above mentioned best friends house.

13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today? I said good morning sweet stuff to this little man.

14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time? to my knowledge the only wedding I've been in is my own.

17. FIRST tattoo or piercing? Ears, first and only.

18. FIRST foreign country you went to? First and only, Canada.

19. What was your FIRST run in with the law? Hum, I think I'd rather not try to explain it, completly innocent, I assure you!

20. When was your FIRST detention? First and only was an unexcused tardy to school which started out as my fault because I didn't make the bus but was really my brothers fault
because I'd found us a ride but he wasn't ready.

21. What was the FIRST state you lived in? Washington

22. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart? hum, what constitutes a broken heart? I think an incident that broke what I thought was a very good friendship broke my heart.

23. Who was your FIRST roommate? Honestly, I don't really remember her name. I wonder if it's written down anywhere?

24. Where did you go on your FIRST limo ride? Honeymoon

So, now that I've spent all morning working on this silly list, I'm not sure I want to post it.

IT"S FRIDAY!!!

Blog title makes me think of the song title: It's 5:00 Somewhere

Having to much fun with blogs this morning:

http://aherncentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/f-f-f-friday.html

Just found a new blog called Friday Fill-Ins.

Add will one of the 4 of you who read my blog teach me how to post a link in just a word?



Here goes.

1. The last band I saw live: I'm not sure I've ever seen a live band - my brother in HS?

2. What I look forward to most on Thanksgiving: sitting down at the table as a family

3. My Christmas/holiday shopping: will be non-existent this year

4. Thoughts of this fill my head: trying to motivate myself to clean

5. I wish I could wear: all this size 12 and/or 14 clothes in my attic

6. Bagpipes: a dying art

7. And as for the weekend, tonight: I'm taking the little man birthday bowling

tomorrow my plans include: His birthday party

and Sunday: I'm going to miss the cousin birthday



And because no blogpost should be without a picture...

you get the last photo I've got uploaded from Camera to computer about a month ago:

Quick tag

A Tag...
by http://georganahall.typepad.com/listen_in/
you have to type in the first thing that comes to your mind to make it fun:

I am: sitting on the couch
I know: my feet are cold
I have: a headache
I hate: having a headache
I miss: my pre-1st pregnancy figure
I feel: ready to start the day
I hear: shoes in the dryer
I smell: laundry
I crave: something flavorerful I can sink my teeth into
I search: for my keys constantly
I love: alone time
I care: about political issues
I always: take my vitimens (okay, it's a new thing for me, but it's been several weeks now)
I believe: in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
I sing: when I hear a song I know
I write: rarely these days
I lose: my keys (even when I know right where they are)
I win: veggie pirates, a new game my son showed me on line
I never: remember which way my camera cord fits into my computer
I listen: to kids talk all day, all day, all day
I am scared: of the unknown
I need: a job
I'm working on: this blog post
I am happy about: having some alone time in my house

Now it's your turn, I tag whoever wants to do this.

California Day 9 -- last day

So, we left San Francisco about 2:30 or so in the afternoon, headed North to the Napa Valley.


Hit the Visitors Center in Oakville to find a hotel -- end up in really nice hotel that didn't belong a busy hwy type street. Quaint little place.

We had a vineyard tour scheduled at Robert Mondavi Winery for 10am.

Do you know why you'll always see roses growing near grapes? Roses are a sensitive grower but its easy to tell when there are bugs or disease on roses, and if they are visible on the roses then the grower knows they are in the vineyard.

On our drive to San Jose several days ago we saw a semi truck full of something, it didn't look like apples and yet it looked like apples.

Turns out it was grapefruit. who'd of thunk?

Aren't grape leaves beautiful?? They turn a burnt orange, more brown actually and fall off. Often you'll see some with red leaves, but that means the tree is sick.


Here he is showing us how to tell how old the vine is. I think this one was around 7 seasons old. There is no sure tell way to grow grapes, to decide how long to grow on a vine or when exactly to harvest.

It's all in taste and how much wine you hope to produce with that tract of land. There are some vines out there that in in there 65Th year of production. They produce a lot less and a lot smaller of a grape, but the flavor is what you're after. The less you are able to produce the higher you get to charge for the wine.

It was interesting to hear how to read a label and relate it to the rarity of the wine and therefore the price.

He's showing us that their is a seed in the grape, however, you can't plant the seed and grow a tree. Something about long ago diseases in the ground and you have to graft a tree onto a root system or something or another. It was interesting at the time, but it didn't stick.

Wine grapes grow with yeast on them. I'm dying to tour the Welches grape factory or something and learn something about juice grapes and table grapes and how they differ.


Okay, so wine is all about the flavor, and where the flavor comes from and what can effect the flavor. It's Fascinating. Anyway one of the effects of the flavor is the barrels the wine is kept in.

I forget how many places create wine barrels, but the flavor that comes from the wood depends on where they harvested the trees from. Really fascinating, but hard to hold onto.


They had wine tasting. . . didn't interest me, but I got learn a whole lot of interesting info. on why a wine is served warm or cold and how to open up the flavor of the wine. Why you let some wine's breath and others not. The smell of a wine changes the longer you let it sit. It's fascinating.

Oh, and I'm shocked I tasted it, but this taste treat was wonderful!! They gave us the recipe but. . . Hum. . .

Our tour was amazing and full of fascinating information, it was really a lot of fun. Our tour guide is from Hawaii and wanted to enter the industry to he comes to the Napa Valley 6 months of the year to work at the winery and then is back in Hawaii 6 months of the year. He was an amazing tour guide. He didn't stall when you asked him a question and he always answered the question completely but with a simple language that was easy to understand the answer. There wasn't a single question that stumped him.


From there we headed a few miles up the road to the Grgich Hills Estate so I could stomp some grapes.

It was a BLAST!!! They all thought I was strange. Apparently most folks who stomp grapes stand in there for a minute or two and move on to the wine tasting. I was in there probably 20 minutes. It was so much fun.

The gal that was managing the area was a real sweetheart and took lots of photos for me, even though she thought I was strange.

Oh and no one really knows how long you have to stomp grapes, once the grape breaks you pretty much have it done, but in the winery now, the machine breaks them from juice but then all the excess stuff -- skins and what have you go into a press. It takes 6 hours for the press to extract out all of the juice which is later used to top off barrels and to flavor some. Then the excess what have you gets spread into the fields.

There is a winery in New York that will bottle your stompings for you and label it up. Here in California they never heard anyone wanting to take their stompings. If you decide to take your stomps go prepared with a wine bottle and cork. A) They can't give you one until the end of the day when they've handled there tasting inventory and B) if they give you a water bottle, just say no.

I brought mine home in a water bottle, it smelled nasty and then two days later, it blew its top, we had a nasty, sticky mess

Aren't the grapes pretty?

They taste pretty yummy also, especially when they've been warmed by the sun.

Harvest was finished by the time we arrived, however Grgich Hills is a stop for the train so they have a small section out front they live for the ambiance.

Grapes are mostly hand harvested in the wee hours of the morning -- 2 and 3 am. Part of that has to do with the heat of the day for the workers, but part of it has to do with the frailness of the grape.

Anyway, from our grape tour we headed back east to I-5 and North toward home. We got tired fairly early on did end up sleeping in California again before starting early for home.

What an amazing trip. I small now as I think about all the amazing things I got to see, do and experience. An amazing gift.

California Day 8

So we got up at around 4 am, maybe before and drove 45 minutes into the city. We weren't sure what time to leave, not knowing anything about commuter traffic, we need not have worried. We got the lay of the land without another car in site and had to sit around waiting for Starbucks to open. (Fran needs coffee), we even got to read our books for awhile with the aid of a street lamp.

However, sunrise in San Francisco was pretty neat. (Even if most of my pictures stink.)

Walking out there with the sun coming up all quite, peaceful and private was pretty amazing.

This is Alcatraz, clueless Kelli had to be told, It certainly doesn't interest me.

It's amazing that once the sun comes up how quickly the world wakes up.

So, we were waiting for the Golden Gate Bridge gift shop to open and as we waited I decided to walk a ways on the bridge. I had planned to walk it, but had talked myself out of it, but I'm not very patient so needed something to do because we wanted a postcard from inside.

By the time you get to the first pillar you think, wow, this is so amazing, so exhilarating, and I wonder what those tiny little animals are all they down there in the water. (my zoom lens wouldn't get close enough). You think it's a pretty day, I might as well go the whole way so I can say I did it.

The little animals are ducks -- certainly couldn't tell, I had to ask someone.

Oh, there are 14 or more of these signs as you cross the bridge.


If you can't read it, it says "the consequences of jumping from this bridge are fatal and tragic" The first time you read it, its kinda oh, ya, you think.

The fourth time you read it, it strikes you as pretty funny.

The 10th time you read it you start to realize what a huge problem this must be for there to be so many of this sign and it starts to get pathetically sad.

Then as you read them coming back it gets sad and funny all at the same time.

By the time you get to the second pillar your thinking, whose dumb idea was it to take this three mile walk today? Seriously, it's just a bridge with a pretty view.

Then as you think, we'll I'm practically there, I may as well finish your feeling SERIOUSLY stupid because you still have to walk back.

So, you see me up there with the wind in my face. I started my walk with that sweater and rain coat on. The wind up there is something and yes, it can get fairly cold. However, when your hot footing it back because your travel companion doesn't exactly know what happened to you . . . you get a lot warmer.

I HIGHLY recommend that if you find yourself foolish enough to want to go across the Golden Gate Bridge, rent a bicycle!

From there we headed into the city to look for some lunch.

I really don't have any "good" pictures of the city, but if you've never been there. . . it is a lot of steep ups and steep downs in city traffic.

We did end up at Pier 39 for lunch.
We did not head up Telegraph Hill to the Coit Tower -- we wanted out of the city.

My travel companion wanted out so much that we missed Lombard street.

Oh and don't try to get your sourdough starter at the sourdough store, they don't have any. We weren't headed BACK down the pier to get some, so we missed out.

San Francisco is actually fairly small. Take a look at our map, it shows EVERY street.

(just found out from someone who was raised there it's 7 x 7 miles)

We came the bridge on the right, follow the water front, fisherman's wharf and such is around where the yellow spot is but on the water. . . continue following the water to the green section and as it goes off the point of the green section is the golden gate bridge.

Napa Valley here we come, we have a vineyard tour scheduled for tomorrow. . .

California Day 6 and 7

So, the white dot as you get a little closer. . .

Can you say excessive --- that about sums up the Hearst Castle that your not allowed to photograph with flash, and yet they have all the natural light in such a way as the photos don't turn out so great. They are trying to preserve it. . . to what end I'm not sure. Lots of stairs, everywhere stairs. Very narrow stairs and watch your head.

It was a dream realized, although never finished and now it sits as a museum to a time all but forgotten. . . can you say excessive. At the time the house was put on the market for sale, including all it's furnishings it was listed for 15 million. One interested buyer decided it was to far from LA. At the time that it became a state historical museum they spent 3 years logging the contents for value, but never accomplished the job.

It's quite elaborate and beautiful and perhaps during the time when it was actually used it held something, but now, looking at it and touring it all I could think was excessive. There really isn't even a good view as the house is so far back and to high up to have a decent view.

So this is a photo of the picnic dishes.

Oh, and an awesome - huge, huge, huge kitchen. Lots of counter and work space. Several refrigerators, lots of floor space, just a great kitchen -- seperate baking area.

And here is a portion of the pool room. . .

The entire room -- all the walls, ALL the floor, the whole 10 feet deep pool, diving platform and some of the ceiling is covered in tiles about an inch square. It took 8 men 3 and a half years just to lay the tiles. Can you say extreme? Pretty and all, but still. . .




Okay, so from Hearst tour we drove north 3 and a half hours to San Jose. Again with no hotel reservations. Thankful for the On Star as we didn't see anything near the Winchester House. Eventually found a nice hotel that included discount tickets to the next days stop.

In comparison. . . this home is much brighter -- WINDOWS EVERYWHERE! All four sides of a room.



Not trying to preserve anything as none of the original furniture is still in the house. The furniture and items inside the house were part of a will, however, the 160 room house itself was not mentioned. Oh, three kitchens in the house.

Although the story behind the home and the life of Mrs. Winchester is really, really sad, I really like the house. Eccentric to be sure -- excessive yes, but unique and downright fun.

I seriously would have been tired of all the workmen and tool noises of 24 hour a day work for 38 years. Crazy.

Excessive door hinges. . .

Beautiful front door. . . never used. . . mostly due to superstition, also due to the fact that the whole front of the house was closed off shortly after they were hung, again due to superstition. The tour guides like to tell the story of how even the president of the US was denied entry through the front door.

These are very pretty windows that grace the daisy room. Does anyone put stained glass into their homes anymore these days. We were told that every 10 years the windows have to be removed, and disassembled in order to be cleaned. Strange, I can't quite figure out why they can't just be washed.

From here we head and hour and half north to San Francisco area. Although the drive took us longer as we looped and drove to decide where outside of the city we should stay.

Looking forward to day 8? We got up in order to leave the hotel by 4:30, yes, AM. Crazy.