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!!!

Karen, the hair stylist!

Shortly before Christmas, Joey and I took a weekend adventure to San Francisco. When you live in Napa and you say "I'm going to The City" that means you're going to SanFran. When you live in NY and you say "I'm going to The City" you mean, of course, that you're going to Manhattan. So even after a year of being a west-coaster I still think we're going to Manhattan when we're going to The City. You can imagine my shock when we don't end up in Grand Central!! It never gets old.

Even though there haven't been any major earthquakes in a while, you can still find cracks in SanFran...

We stayed with our friends from C'ville (who have also just recently transplanted) in their wonderful apartment in The City. Nicole (her hubby was out of town) was a surpurb host and made sure that we treked over all the hills in her neighborhood so that we could get the entire SanFran experience. We went to Coit Tower (just up the hill from their apartment), a little thai restaurant (there's not good thai food where we live in Napa), and got our eyebrows touched up (well, Joey didn't, but Nicole and I did).

Coit Tower and the view from said tower.

Joey and I stood in front of The pointy building of SanFran. I can't remember what it was called but i think it's famous. To the right of the pointy building is Copolas famous restaurant... it's green.

Here's the pointy building from close up.

Later that evening Nicole went to her dress-up Holiday party (Joey and I went to a dress-down holiday party so there are no photos of us dressed fancy). And a strange thing happened... Nicole and I had girly time and I actually DID her hair up pretty. I've never done anything pretty to my hair, nevermind anyone elses hair so this was kind of a big deal for me!!! So here's Nicole dressed up....

And here's a close up of her hair...(I even clipped in the produce... i mean, foliage)

After our respective holiday parties, we met up at a local brew pub where they had old school sewing machine tables for their pub tables (complete with the manual foot pump). Random, but fun.

Thanksgiving Extravaganza 2007

[Insert Karen's voice here.]

My parents and Joey's brother, Jeremy, came to visit for Thanksgiving this year. It was great to have visitors to our new digs.

This is us at Robert Sinsky Winery. My favorite thing to do is set the timer on my camera and then run really fast to get into the photo in time. This time I put it on a super pretty red car. I'm sure the owners of the car would have been pissed if I scratched it, but ...pheww.. my camera is like a soft cloud upon nice paint jobs!

After Jeremy flew away on the plane, my folks and KaJo visited the petrified forest. That's where some folks dug up some trees that had turned to stone after the eruption of Mt. St. Helena. Something about the ash settling in to where the tree cells used to be... so the cells are replaced with silica and the form is preserved. So the folks dug up these trees and now charge money (six smackers) for people/suckers (like us) to see the tree/rocks. Not a bad way to make a buck (or six).

Below... mom and dad with a tree/rock.

Outside the gift store at the petrified forest, dad and I had a chance to pose/blend in with the wildlife in the Napa Valley.

Next, we headed over to the Old Faithful geyser. This part of California was popular for it's hot springs and mud baths back in the day. The whole area has underground springs which flow over hot magma and then erupt (the water, not the magma) out of holes in the ground. The geyser goes for about a minute (maybe 2) and then rests for about 30 minutes before it erupts again. If the eruptions are not regular, then sometimes that can be a sign of an earthquake in the area over the next few days. (as a note, there are earthquakes here quite frequently, but we usually don't notice because they're so small. But if you spend your days sitting down at a desk, then you have a better chance of feeling them. I haven't felt one yet.) The Old Faithful geyser is privately owned and charges people/suckers (does this sound familiar) $8 ($7 for AAA members) to see the 2 minute eruption.

The eruption.

Mom and Dad like the eruption... see how they smile!!There's a small 'zoo' at the geyser (aka, a fence with some goats in it). Dad got to work on his animal skills (aka, scratching animal bums) and tried to teach a little boy all about animals.

Lastly, we went to the Bale Grist Mill. This is a state operated original mill that still makes flour and polenta on the weekends with two-ton grinding wheels from France. Our tour guide was the miller and he was super cool. The mill proved to be the highlight of our tourist destinations that were not wine related. They charged us $2 for a truly educational and interactive tour that was awesome. Here's a photo of the mill wheel.

As far as wineries go, we visited Clos Pegase (of course) where mom went back for seconds of the port wine that we make (and then I think she drank my taste of it, too!); we stopped at Grigch Hills Estate Winery for our tasting of their biodynamic wines and mom and dad had the chance to learn about biodynamic agriculture; and then we finished at Robert Sinsky Winery where they had tiny nibbles to eat with the wines. The nibbles were a good idea at this point since I think my mom needed some food to soak up the giggles!

Here's mom saddling up to the wine bar at Grigch!

Beer Making, meet Joey.

Karen again.

We're a bit backlogged with photos. Joey really wanted me to post some photos of his beer making adventure. The beer's been ready to drink for the last few weeks and it's actually pretty good. It's a Strong Irish Red Ale. It has creamy bubbles, lovely red color, and tastes yummy.

This is Joey with the entire kit on Christmas day.

So in January we soaked the barley...

We boiled the wort....

And we tucked the carboy of fermenting beer in the closet with the space heater for about 2 months (the instructions said it would only take 2 WEEKS, but I guess it was still cold, even with the space heater..and the blankets).

We don't have any photos of the bottling, but rest assured, it's all in bottles now and it is tasted on the weekends and during basketball games!

Bustin' out with the vineyards!

Karen here.

I'll have to admit that I'm an obsessive blog reader. I check in on my friends daily and get really excited for them. But I spend so much time checking in with my friends that I run out of time to post to my own blog. So here I am. Posting.

The past few weeks in the Napa Valley have been warm and sunny, and the vines are just beginning to bust out of their winter hibernation. I've been going into the vineyards more as a part of my integration into the Viticulture Coordinator (sounds official, huh?). Next year I'll be the full Viti Coordinator, but they're just easing me into it. Below is a photo of budbreak in our Cabernet Sauvignon. It's a super close up shot, so you have to imagine little tiny baby leaves. They're really no bigger than the first joint on my pinkie finger.

So when the new shoots grow a little bigger you can see the itty bitty grape cluster.... they look like tiny green cauliflowers. I've pointed to them in the following photo (it's not my actual hand, but you know what I mean)...

There are also some good looking flowers out right now...