Wine Tasting in Sonoma

We enjoyed meeting up with Mike and Linda on a sunny Saturday in February for wine tasting at the St. Francis winery in Sonoma where they are club members for wine tasting and food pairing. We each brought our gourmet picnic baskets filled with fruit, cheese and bread for a delicious picnic of good food, good wine and wonderful company in a picturesque setting of vineyards and beautiful wineries. You can't beat Northern California for quick weekend getaways. Larry and I especially loved the "old vine" Zinfandel and Chardonnay.

Wine Tasting in Sonoma

Northern California is so rich in the variety of things to do on any given weekend. On Saturday February 9th we headed to the Sonoma Valley to meet up with our cousins Linda and Mike to do some wine tasting at St. Francis winery that they are club members of. St. Francis winery is a lovely mission style winery with wonderful wines. We enjoyed sampling the many varieties and pairing with different foods. Larry and I really loved the "old vine" Zinfandel and Chardonnay We all had brought our gourmet picnic baskets filled with fresh fruits, various cheeses, breads and other nibbles and headed to another fabulous winery to have a picnic. Of course once setting up our picnic next to the beautiful vineyard setting we were asked to buy some of their wine which we did and really enjoyed as well. After all it is Sonoma - how could you go wrong with any wine.

Shamrock 1/2 Marathon

After months of preparation leading up to a 1/2 marathon the excitement begins to build. The event itself is like the big party you have been preparing for and there is a great sense of excitement and relief that the day has finally arrived to push your bodies abilities to the limit.
Megan, Janet and I looked forward to Sunday March 16th to a great venue that started at Raley's Baseball field and finished on the field with the medal being put around your neck and hearing cheers from the crowd. A day or two prior to the race my foot was bothering me and started looking red. I thought it would be fine so on the morning of the race at 6am I crammed my swollen foot into my running shoe and hobbled off to the race. Once at the start line I knew things were not going to be good for me. I just told Janet and Megan to have a great race and I would take it slow and see them at the finish. Four miles into the race, I was in excruciating pain. I hobbled back to the start line and sat out the rest of the race waiting for Janet and Megan to cheer them in. Megan finished in a fantastic time under 2 hours - the woman is amazing! Especially since she had just given birth to Isabelle six months ago. Janet finished with a great time also. Once home I decided to head to the Med Center and was diagnosed with cellulitis. It is a bacterial infection that can be very serious. With a quick injection of antibiotics and directive to see my own physician the next day I was glad I didn't try to run any further. There is the American River Parkway race in May that we will begin working towards and hope no more injuries.

Tea Time with Angie

I feel abundantly blessed to have a wonderful sister-in-law who I consider one of my best friends. Angie is the most amazing woman with the brightest smile, so much love and a very patient listening ear. Where ever Angie goes she exudes love and we were so blessed to have have had here visiting in Sacramento this week. Though she was very busy with her clients, we managed to have a pamper day of pedicures and tea and shopping. The evenings were filled with wonderful talks, wine, dinners out, eating decadent pastries and fighting off robbers! Angie was able to meet her great niece Isabelle and spend time with both Megan and Katie. We treasure our time together and always look forward to our next visit what ever part of the world that takes us to.

Friends Reunion

What a beautiful weekend in Tahoe! Saturday morning, the skies were ominous in Sacramento and the weather report for Tahoe was rain with snow flurries but our good friends Emily and Spence were in town from North Carolina and we miss them so much that nothing was going to stop us from driving to Tahoe to visit with them. The dreary skies soon turned to beautiful blue and the white snow was blinding. the crystal blue of lake Tahoe magnificent and best of all Amy, Larry, Spence and Emily had a wonderful time catching up, tasting wine at the Picchetti's wine bar and then a lovely lunch at the Blue Water Bistro which I now think is the best kept secret in Tahoe. It has wonderful food and the view is breathtaking! Picture perfect day with wonderful friends.

Happy Birthday to Us!

Donna and I were able for the first time to celebrate our birthdays together. We had a wonderful lunch at the Rutherford Grill in Napa and still managed to blow out our candle. Thankgoodness there was just one for each of us otherwise we collectively would have had 119 candles blazing!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Welcome 2008! We celebrated the end of 2007 with Megan, Josh, Isabelle and another couple and their daughter that are friends with Megan and Josh. The evening included Chinese food, games with lotto tickets as prizes. Unfortunately out of all the lotto tickets only $4 was won - I guess we will all have to go back to work next week after all! We ended the evening watching the countdown in Times Square and shooting off a couple of our remaining fireworks left over from the Fourth of July.

I never like to make New Years resolutions but it is definitely time to get serious about getting back to the gym and start pushing myself away from the table.