Napa's Siren Song

Is Napa calling to me? Perhaps to say, hey, you don’t need no stinkin French wine….good stuff is here in your country and a lot easier to get?

Why do I think Napa is calling to me, you ask?

In the past few days I’ve been lightly researching Yosemite Park – next year is Mr. Lush’s vacation pick and he does like “outdoorsy” vacations, so I thought perhaps we might look at a week in California – a few days in Yosemite and you know, maybe, just maybe, since we’re RIGHT THERE, go to Napa or someplace else in Cali Wine Country. Some could say that I'm trying to take over "his" vacation by making it mine, but others could say that I'm trying to make it a vacation we'll both enjoy. (I couldn't handle a week of outdoorsy vacation!)Like I said, some light research, nothing big, since the earliest we would go would be March.

Well, last night I got a “save the date” / invite to my aunt’s reception over Labor Day Weekend in California. (a little backhistory - my aunt is only 4 years older than me, so much closer to a sister/cousin than a typical aunt/authority figure and we were very close in my pre-teens. She got married last year in a very small ceremony (just parents)) Anyway, the reception is in Davis, California.

The first thing Mr. Lush says is “is it close to Napa?”. I look it up, and why yes, yes it is. Its just outside Sacramento and is a short 45 miles from Napa.

What to do? What to do? I priced flights and they are about $500-550 total. I have some miles, but of course because its over a holiday weekend so in order to use them we’d have to stay a whole week (or somehow find a way to earn 70,000 miles in the next month) but that's a little too long - we may not have that much vacation time. But, certainly IF we go to the reception, we couldn’t just IGNORE that lovely wine country is calling to us – in September, no less! We just don't know what to do.

Napa, oh Napa, why are you such a siren?

Vineyard pics

Ok, here's some vineyard pics. I purposely didn't post them in previous pics, so if you don't care about vineyard pics, feel free to skip this entire post, as its only vineyard pics!

This one is probably my favorite....although its hard to say!

My Cardinals and their ‘staches

Not sure if you have noticed, but many of my beloved Cardinals fans have had a growing shadow on their upper lip. Yep, they’ve been growing mustaches. Mr. Lush and I laughed about it last night, as the mustache growing-in phase isn’t always the most attractive. (and in truth, not sure if I'm crazy about Rick Ankiel in a 'stache either - too 1970's for me!)

Of course, being the curious dork I am, I looked it up. It appears its for fun to mix things up and, now for luck. Here’s some snippets from the local paper:

“The decision was made June 30, the day Chris Carpenter absorbed his roughest beating of the season in a 6-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants. That day, third baseman Mark DeRosa left the game with a torn tendon sheath near his left wrist.

"It's just something to do, to make guys laugh and have some fun," said Piñeiro, the first to emerge with the new look. "It's something where you can make fun of each other."

Since Carpenter signed on the following day, the rotation carried a 2.06 ERA (10 ER, 43 2/3 innings) into Wednesday's game.

Wainwright surrendered one run in nine innings in a no-decision July 1. Wellemeyer followed with his best start of the season. Carpenter bounced back with a dominant performance in Sunday's 10-1 win in Cincinnati. Wainwright then came within two outs of his first career shutout Tuesday.
…….
Brad Thompson suffered the only hiccup during the run, allowing four earned runs in five innings Saturday. Thompson is also the only starter without facial hair.
"Look at me. Two swipes of the razor and I'm done shaving," pleaded the boyish, follicularly challenged Thompson.
……….

"I will grow a mustache bigger than Wyatt Earp's if we keep winning," insisted Wainwright.”

I hear that!

Quit manhandling my microwaved food

Yesterday, I was warming up some lunch in the work microwave. I set it for 1 minute 45 and walked around the corner to tell the receptionist something. I was maybe 30-60 seconds “past the beep” and I walked back around the corner to see that someone had taken my food out and already tarted warming theirs up. (This person was not waiting in line or anything when I put mine in, BTW)

Now, I have a question. While I agree that leaving your food in there for an extended period of time, particularly during lunch, is pretty rude, what’s the time limit before you can start manhandling someone else’s food? 30 seconds? 1 minute? 5 minutes? Shorter or longer depending on the line situation and time? I personally think greater than 2-3 minutes during lunch is “rude” and if there is a line then anything past a minute is rude, although in NEITHER instance would I actually remove someone’s food. (I would just give a sideways dirty look ;)

Thoughts?

Boxers can't swim.....or can they???

Mr. Lush has always said that boxers can not swim- “their chests are too heavy….they will sink like a rock”.

Hogwash I’ve said.

A tidbit from Americanboxerclub.org, which I just read for the tongue-in-cheek benefit of the post….

“Precautions must be taken to ensure your dog's safety. Being deep-chested and tailless, our Boxers need plenty of instruction learning to turn and maneuver in the water.”

Hmm. Well, this last weekend we went to visit my parents at a lake. Someone suggested putting her in a life jacket. Which of course this is evidently not a new idea:

“Boxer's do not have the benefit of a rudder (tail) to help them steer, for example. Invest in a good quality canine life jacket.”

As you can see she didn’t like the life jacket much.

“Do not expect your dog to be a "natural". Starting to swim will require your patience and encouragement. It takes more than a few times in the pool or the lake before your Boxer starts to really enjoy himself.”

Hmm. Oh really???? Here she is with no instruction, no life jacket.....



It took her about 15 minutes of being locked off the boat with all of us in the water for her to swim on out to us. ALL ON HER OWN.

And here she is, sitting naturally in a floatie. Just like her mamma...well, minus the drink of course. ;) Yep. Boxers can't swim. Nope. Not at all.