Things I didn't know before tying the knot....

As we approach our three year anniversary, it is becomimg apparent that there are facets of Joey that I didn't know about before we got married. And you may say to yourself " Of course, silly! That's what we tried to tell you!" But until you're actually in a marital relationship, you can never fully understand or comprehend the words of advice from the ones who have gone before you. So after three years, I've discovered a few things about Joey that I will share with you here (don't worry... it's all clean stuff).

1. He really enjoys (emphatically) to watch sports! He follows the college and professional football teams, watches the NBA finals (which are happening now), makes every effort to see the World Cup Qualifiers, and catches the tail end of the World Series. He'll watch any game that is a close match-up or between long-standing rivals-- so that also will include tennis, NASCAR, woman's basketball, and golf [at this point he'd like me to tell you he doesn't watch 'AssCar', nor does he watch girls basketball. And rarely does he watch golf, but I've seen it on the TV before in our house]. The new sport that's been on our TV in the last week is hockey. I've never seen him watch hockey before, but it was a close match-up AND between long-standing rivals... the two qualifications that make a game REALLY exciting for him.

When I met him, he didn't really watch sports (as far as I knew), but somewhere between my move to Australia and our wedding, he became an avid fan. I'm waiting patiently for him to be interested in Australian Footy!

2. He has always wanted to ride a motorcycle. It's been a dream of his for his whole life, but I just learned about it over the last year. So recently he took a motorcycle riding class that focuses on defensive driving. Then he got his license. Then he looked on craigslist and bought a motorcycle! He got the gear, too, (helmet, gloves with hard knuckles, and a jacket with smash-proof padding) and now he's ready to go riding!!

He actually bought the bike from a guy that lives down the street from us. It was serendipitous. After he gets a little more experience on the bike, then I'll go riding with him. In the meantime, I'm going to save up for a helmet, and the such.

He's super jazzed about having a motorcycle!! I haven't seen him so happy in a while!! It's a good thing. I'm sure you're curious, though, as to how I feel about all this (because so far, everyone I know has asked me...)... and I'm ok with it all. Joey is taking motorcycle riding very seriously, with great caution, and great care. And he didn't buy a sports bike! I'm confident that he'll be responsible and safe. So there it is.

Funny things around Clos Pegase

Sometimes when I'm at work, I can be easily entertained by small things. (Ok, maybe that's true most of the time!!)

About a month ago, a Transformer arrived at the winery.

He was carrying some glass bottles, but as soon as I emptied him out, he got up and walked away. I didn't get a chance to snap a shot of him as he transformed, but take my word for it... it was spectacular!!

That was during bottling time at the winery. Also during that time, we got a lot of temp employees coming to work on the bottling line. One day, I looked in the fridge and found this cute little lunch pack that someone had brought in... Notice the El Monterey burritos (pre-packaged burritos that you can buy in our area) and the TacoBell Mild sauce! The funniest part for me is the pack of tiny pills in the zipper lock bag... Can you make out the brand of the pills?? I guess that's what you need to bring along when you have pre-packaged White Castle burgers and burritos for lunch!!!

[Ok... if you can't see the words on the pills, they say "Gas-X"!!! It cracks me up!!]

A sport that Karen likes

Joey's really trying to get me interested in playing sports. He took me on a canoeing trip. He bought us some tennis rackets. He wants to take me on a biking trip (so I can test out the bike thing). And he took me to hit golf balls at the driving range. Once.


But there is a sport that I really like and I'm pretty good at. BOWLING!!! I love it. And last weekend Joey and I went to play with some of his co-workers. I was super excited!!! Typically, when Joey and I bowl, I win the first game by a landslide; then Joey wins the second game by about 10-15 points; and I win the third game, but its really close. This time I won all three games!* Joey pouted for a little bit, but he got over it pretty fast.

*Correction, we tied the second game. I'll get even with her...eventually. -JR

Here are some action pics....

Here I am with my lucky ball, Brett! (notice how well my black eye has healed?)

This is about the time that Joey really started losing the game....

Don't worry... I was the DD. Bowling is a serious sport for me... that means NO DRINKING for Karen. I have to keep up my chops!!

Holding. offence. number 55. third down.

In honor of the beginning of football season, Joey asked for a new haircut. He requested a style that resembles one of his favorite football players. But when he said "football player" I thought he meant "futbol player", so I instantly imagined David Beckham and went to work. Little did I know that he meant Eli Manning!! Joey had a bit of a shock when all was said and done. I'm not sure if he likes it because he won't tell me...

Kitchen Island

In other news, we added a new piece of furniture to our home. It's a (you guessed it!) kitchen island!!!! We love it. Joey picked it out from the sample sale at his work. It has a small imperfection, but it's perfect to us!! It's a solid piece and the ideal height for chopping. Joey chose this partiuclar one because it had some really pretty light-colored spots, and areas that look like knots in wood. Here's what it looked like when we got it home.

Then we decided that it needed to be oiled to protect the wood, and then the color changed completely!! It's still beautiful, but just a little darker! Now it's smooth and soft and ready for more chopping!!

The Second Anniversary

This year for our seccond wedding anniversary we decided to do something fun and exciting!! So we rented a canoe and proceeded on a 10 mile journey down the Russian River. The trip was tri-purposed...1) it was our anniversary; 2) it was BLAZING hot in the valley where we live and the river was over a mountain and near the coast... nearly 15 degrees cooler! and 3) Joey LOVES canoeing. When he was a boy scout, he taught canoeing, sailing and swimming at summer camp. He wants to buy us a canoe of our own, but since I've never used one before, he wanted me to test it out.

So off we went. We drove over the mountain on a Saturday

morning. We wore our bathers, our tank tops, shorts, and river shoes. When we got over the range it was COLD and cloudy! Nothing a cup of coffee from Bad Ass Coffee couln't take care of, though. And the weather did warm up. Eventually. We stood in line at Burke's canoe rental for about an hour and finally landed ourselves a sweet silver canoe.

We (read as "Joey") rowed leisurly for the first 7 miles or so...

...with a power-row to get past the "priates" (read as "3 canoes tied together, with rowdy drunk boys") and avoid our boat being tipped by them. It was nice and relaxing and really pretty.

Then the wind picked up and I had to help row

for the last 3 miles. I have to give Joey a lot of credit because I only rowed a little bit and I was TIRED and sore!!! He's a trooper and a fantastic rower!

Since Joey was in charge of this trip he booked us some reservations at a lovely inn called the Jenner Inn in the small (read as "no cell phone coverage") town of, you guessed it, Jenner. It's the spot where the Russian River meets the Pacifiic Ocean. [at this point you may say to yourself "did Karen and Joey row their canoe all the way down the river and into the ocean?" and I would say to you "NO WAY could Karen row that far!! Novice does not equal ocean canoeing!" We drove, sillies!] It was cool and overcast when we arrived, in stark contrast to the ever-sunny, ever-hot Napa Valley. Wonderful.

There was also a hot tub that ROCKED! It overlooked the river and that was great! (view from the hot tub.....)

After a quick dip in the hot tub, Joey took me to the best dinner that we've had in California so far! It rivaled some of the places that we found in NYC (and that's hard to do!). It's called the River's End Restaurant. The restaurant faces the west and is mostly windows, so there are some fantastic views of the sunsets. Here's a photo that I lifted from the website.

Then on Sunday, we drove back home to the heat and the valley... completely refreshed and relaxed!

"Are you looking at my headgear?"

So. I've been sporting my new 'shiner' all over town this weekend. Joey and I went to Napa for dinner and were sitting on the patio of The Bounty Hunter when some stranger said to me "Did he do that to you!?!". I had to say 'no', because if I didn't (even if I were just joking) I think that guy would have hit Joey.

Then the work week started. Everyone saw me on Friday with my swollen face, but today it was just mostly a black eye and I noticed that EVERYONE was staring at it. It's slightly different than 'eye contact'; it's more like 'looking toward the eye area'. It reminded me of the South Park episode when Stan's sister says "Are you looking at my headgear?!?". Very funny.

So I've felt inspired to post some photos of our re-creation of the event (and also to show you my shiner... both a pride-buster and a pride-boosting-war-wound).....

What's wrong with this photo.... (I've given you some hints)...

*** note: This was just a recreation.... no eyes were injured in this particular photo!!

This is how we do things in California!!!

*** note: Ok. That's just a joke. I'm only posing.

Here's a close up of my wound. It's a bit ugly, so shield your children's eyes!

Karen's surprise

So this week Karen received TWO surprises.

The first happened on Wednesday. Joey came home from work before Karen and went for a jog. So when Karen arrived home, Joey said "I have a surprise for you!" and Karen responded with "You went for a run?!?!" Which was obvious due to the sweat on his brow under his baseball cab, and his running shorts. And he said "No!" And she said "You bought a potato?!?!" And he said "NO!!!" so Karen gave up. Then he pulls off his hat and this is what Karen saw!!!!.....

Here's a second photo of him chewing his chips and salsa.... can you see what's different?!?!
Karen felt a little sad and had a few tears in her eyes because she didn't get a chance to say Goodbye to the ponytail-bun. She is still getting used to the change, and has a hard time looking Joey in the eyes.. rather she's looking at his hair!!

The SECOND surprise came on Thursday (two surprises in a row... what a lucky girl!)...

Karen borrowed the Weed-Eater from work. She received a "full" training session from her co-worker, the maintenance man, and felt very confiident that she could show Joey how it operated so that he could weed-eat the lawn. (I should add that Karen has been car-pooling this week with her new co-worker, Margot, and Margot really loves bubbly wine too and Margot gave a bottle of lovely Spanish bubbly to Karen that very afternoon). so Karen gets home with the weed-eater and the bubbly and proceeds to drink the bubbly with the Cesear salad that Joey made (can you hear the ominous music in the backround????). After dinner, karen insists that Joey learns how to use the weed-eater. So she show him..... push the button to 'start', turn the knob to 'choke', and pull the string....

But the string is not as long as a lawn mower string... and APPARENTLY you're supposed to put your foot on the weed-eater as you pull the sting.... the maintenance man didn't tell her that last important detail!!!!

So she pulled the string. HARD. And the fuel tank proceeded to make contact with her face (because the sting is NOT as long as a lawn mower string) and now she has a big SURPRISE on her cheek...

Check out her SURPRISE!!

So, Karen then decided to state the rules of the weed-eater... which are as follows:

1. Slide the button to 'start'

2. choke

3. put your foot on it!

4. pull the string.

and MOST importantly!!!

5. Don't.... (and this is where Joey turns on the Basketball game REALLY loud and drowns out everything Karen says after this point)!

But I'll expand for the viewers at home....

5. Don't drink Spanish bubbly before Weed-eating!!!