My, what an interesting weekend..

Just got up and met with Henri's friend lowellboyslash for breakfast at Hobees, which was lovely. I enjoy meeting new people who are awesome. While he's in class, I'm tidying here and working on submitting my resume to another few places on my list.

Thursday night went quite well, H's parents came over in the evening and had dinner with us, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The cheese board and fixings I put together vanished, and the salad (mixed greens, crumbled feta, walnuts, raspberries and a light balsamic vinegar-olive oil dressing) and the fresh asparagus, broccoli and leek soup were also devoured with a good will, making me a very happy hostess.

We got up on Friday and after a quick breakfast, we headed out to Sonoma wine country, to go wine tasting for Henri's birthday. We visited two wineries that afternoon, Viansa and Cline cellars, both lovely, and napped briefly at the B&B Henri had found us, The Island In the Vines, before going out to dinner at the Glen Ellen Inn. Full of good food and wine, we headed back to our room and watched Dave Chappelle on satellite.. I thought it was funny, but we don't have cable at home, so when we're around TV, we look for stuff we can't see otherwise.

Woke up on Saturday and went from one winery to another. Matanzas Creek had lovely lavender gardens, and the champagne at Iron Horse was really something, of course Henri and I were completely toasted by this point, since we only rarely drink at home, and his parents were keeping a good pace, wanting to see as much in a day as possible. After that, we went to St. Francis, and Chateau St-Jean, but neither of us remember much about them, being rather drunk. The fountains and statues at St. Francis stand out as commanding my attention while we were there. Mayo family vineyards was next, but there wasn't much to distinguish them, and we headed back to pass out in the room before dinner. The Harvest Moon cafe had a lovely menu, and though more wine was served, Henri and I were a long time in finishing our glasses, still a little out of it from the day's tastings. Hung out a while afterwards in the jacuzzi tub and fell asleep pretty quickly.

Sunday we got up and hit Ravenswood, where a fuzzy Raven hand puppet joined us, and I wandered around cawing and squeaking 'Nevermore' for 15 minutes or so, much to my delight. Bartholomew Park Winery was next, and they were very nice, with generous tasting samples and very good wine. They only sold their wines there at the vineyard, so we got a bottle of their Cabernet Sauvignon to cellar for a few years. Henri's dad's birthday present was to get Henri a case of wine on the trip, so we picked out one or two bottles a time, here and there at the different vineyards as we discovered ones we liked. We then went out to Artesa winery, just to look at its unique architecture, since all the wines there were way out of our price range. The winery was built right into the hillside, and it sort of blends in with the surroundings in an interesting way. Our last stop for the day was at Domaine Chandon, where we had a late lunch. They offered a tasting menu of wines paired with appetizer and entree, which we enjoyed immensely. The vegetarian dishes they created for me were fantastic, but I bit the hell out of my tongue before I could finish, and took the last few bites and sips of champagne very gingerly. The tour of their winery was pretty cool, and then we were off, heading back down to Palo Alto across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Especially at the really upscale wineries, I felt pretty out of place, almost like a weird anarcho-hippie undercover agent, investigating the playgrounds of wealthy drunk people. It was certainly a lovely weekend, but I have a feeling that future excursions to vineyards, at least for Henri and I, will be at a slower pace, so we can drink slowly and absorb the unique features of each winery.

Henri's parents hung out here with us for a while before H started to fade, and before I could get to bed myself, Mom called me late in the evening, sounding weird. I still haven't gotten all the details, but my father was in a car accident last night which totaled the truck but somehow left him unhurt. Apparently, someone swerved into his lane or into him or something, she didn't give me all the details, but at least he's ok. Hopefully they'll be able to get a new truck so dad can work, since the new business sort of counts on his being able to get to job sites. I'll give her a call this afternoon to find out more, but it certainly raised my adrenaline levels enough that it took me a good long while to fall asleep. No more family disasters, please??

Time to get some more work done.

Later.

-Me.