decapitated lamp post.

um, so i get a phone call from nick today. {we were having some killer storms}
he tells me we have no power, the house is okay, but our lamp post cracked in half? wha? how does that work? well, silly shan forgot pics. but thinks this is a totally blog worthy topic.
everyone in our neighborhood has a lamp post in their yard. all in the same spot. you know, the ones that dumbledore used the puter outer on in harry potter? well, the lamp part just cracked right off. exposed wires and all. lots of shattered glass in the grass. fun times.
our neighbors had their trampoline take out their uber expensive fence. the storm snapped another neighbor's swing set in half. down the road it looks like some tree took off some gutters and part of a house. crazy. i hope everyone is okay. nick took a walk with guinness before i got home and said most of the houses were fine, just lots of damaged trees and shrubs.
rumor has it there were serious pieces of hall as well.
we were powerless for a few hours which is crazy because this is the first time in the 5+ years that we have lived here that we have lost power.
thankful that it's back on before the heat comes back. no thank you 90 degrees and humid with no heat.
{thinking i'll have that vacation recap finished up this weekend... i hope!}

an excuse

as for why i've been mia.

Red Alert !!!

This is Puzzo Regional head of the FARC NETWORK. I wish to let you
know that i have been paid by a client to assassinate you at
convenience, and i have signed a contract for this yesterday. I have
never met you before, but they gave me the full description of your
identity and contact which my boys have used to trace you.

The reason why they want you Dead was not disclosed to me as i was not
allowed to know, but you are now not better that the dead ok.

My GUYS are now constantly watching you, they are following everywhere
they are waiting for my instruction to terminate you and they will strike at
convenience.

THIS IS MY MESSAGE-
LISTEN VERY WELL !!!, the Police cannot do much to help you and don't
even bother to inform them cos it will only worsen and complicate things
because you are being watched, any such attempt is very risky cause
you will push us to terminate your life without option.

Note****** Your calls are not still safe.

FARC NETWORK!!!

kidding. but don't you just love spam. ;o)
i swear, i've had like 30 birthdays in 30 days not to mention a few weddings and some other random events.
hoping august slows down a bit for us!!

vacation recap. part three.

k. sorry for the delay.
june 8, 2008. sunday. all photos here.
headed to jack in the box for breakfast. planned the day while we ate and enjoyed the sunshine. ended up at lots of wineries! and shockingly, lots were free!
kendall jackson was our number one visit of the day. their gardens were amazing. were almost tempted to go on the garden tour. maybe next time.



might be the favoritest picture i've ever taken...

had some awesome late harvest chardonnay. seriously. yum. the late harvest just means it's sweeter so it almost tastes like a grape juice instead of wine. sooo good. i think you can only buy it through them, which we just may do.
stopped to smell the flowers on the way out... har, har, har.
what's with the roses everywhere? apparently, they get the same fungus as grapes. but the fungus appears on the roses first. so back in the day, they planted roses at the end of each row to keep an eye on the grapes. nowadays, there is no need. they do it for tradition and pretties!
then we stopped at martinelli. not sure if it was suggested or if we just decided to stop in.

if you look closely, you can see nick and i reflected in the door in the picture above. not too impressed with their wines. loved that they harvested on a hill called 'jackass hill.' hilarious. apparently, one of the owner's wives wasn't a big outdoor person and made some comment on how only a jackass would plant on that hill and it stuck. good times.
arista.


had some mark david wine. cab franc, i think. was some small label product. not bad.
were lucky enough to stumble upon a food pairing too. so we got some yummy lamb.

another fun flower picture...

and i still love trees.

tried to go here. no luck. closed.

were told to go to c. donatelli. a newcomer. eh.
can't find a website. could be the wrong name. ha!
hopkiln was a cute little place.

lots of food items.


picked up lunch. yes, it was way healthy and balanced.

then it was off to korbel. trying that bubbly again!

my kind of bottle.

couldn't believe they have a cookbook. ate there when we were in los angeles last time we visited california.

nick found an all crab book. looked for grilling ideas. he makes some stellar grilled crab. so i hear. i don't eat it...

a fun brick wall.

then it's off to the ocean!
we, ahem, i really wanted to have some ocean time. wasn't sure what san fran's beach front area would be like {and it turns out, we didn't see any!}. so i thought it would be fun to head to bodega bay.
not sure if that's really where we ended up. but we had fun nonetheless.
this is the first picture of ocean.

for some strange reason, nick actually thought the water would be warm. ha!

don't mind the exposure. i couldn't really see the pictures in the display after taking them...
and i knew it would be cold. but it seemed way colder! and the darn water got my pants and i had sand everywhere. not fun!

playing with the pretty scenery. one of these might need to be framed. i took a bunch i just love.


tried to get nick to jump off the rocks. he said that boys don't jump 'cute' that this is what i was getting!

nick overlooking a bluff. dude, i thought he was being so adventurous when he was at the ledge. apparently, there's a little cliff there, so it's not just a straight drop off.

another fun scenery one.

me pouting. there was this little part that jutted out that nick walked over to. i was chicken. not climbing a ravine in flips. i have a history of falling off of rocks/cliffs in california. wasn't giving anyone any more fodder for funny shannon stories.

also played around with the tripod when we were at the beach. won't bore you with them. not exactly the greatest but glad to have them!
traveled down pch for some time. the views were awesome. then it was on to san fran.
the golden gate bridge...

took it easy our first night there. weren't really sure what we were going to do. walked around to a few seafood places but they were extremely crowded.
saw some dude walking his cat. yes, cat. tried to be all incognito when taking this!

got some pretty sunset pictures.

found pier 39 and the sea lions. awesome, awesome, awesome. totally my favorite free part of our trip... i think!
we spent some time every day there. even flipped them barking to one another. that's another post. when i figure out how to share that stuff!


froze our asses off. can't believe how chilly it was. i thought my toes were going to crack off! amazing what a temperature difference there is between napa and san fran considering how close they are! darn winds!
finally decided to eat at wipe out. no wait and decent prices sealed the deal!

phew that was a long day!
final days of vacation recap soon...

brain dead.

lots and lots on the plate. things should be slower soon.
just to share our braindeadness...
nick calls me this morning on his way to work. first thing out of his mouth, 'you wanna laugh?' silly boy was driving to work in his convertable with his top down. it started to rain. and what does he do/think... 'crap, i forgot my umbrella!' seriously!?! not let's put the top up? no, the first instinct to to hold an umbrella over his head while driving!
so back to regularly scheduled postings soon... with the rest of the vacation recaps too!