he said. she said. a married couple's blog.

Wednesday, August 31

Right after breakfast we packed up the car and headed even farther north.

We stopped at a couple of beaches just north of Fort Bragg. At the first, there were plenty of rocky outcroppings for photos, but the dead sea lion on the shore kind of ruined it for me. At the second beach we were able to see a few sea lions playing in the surf and explore some tide pools.

After more and more spectacular coastal views, we headed into redwood country. Instead of simply riding on the freeway, we opted to take the Avenue of the Giants. I am so glad that we did. According to one of our brochures/books, the area is home to 60% of the world's largest trees. We could have stopped for more hokiness, but we filled our quota yesterday. I knew the trees were going to be big, but I never could have imagined how large they really are.

Then we arrived in Eureka. We will be here two nights. Today is all about pampering. Brendan ordered us the "Romance in the Redwoods" package at the hotel. That means we had champagne and roses waiting for us in our room, plus an hour massage at 4:30 and dinner at the 4 star hotel restaurant at 6:45. On top of all that, the hotel has upgraded us to their suite on the third floor. It's enormous. We have a double shower in the bathroom, a sitting area with a gas fireplace, and a separate bedroom area with a Jacuzzi. The windows at the tub look out overtop a few blocks of buildings to the harbor (although you have to sit just so in order to see the boats and I can't anyway when I don't have my glasses on).

The massage is the best. It's our first. We were both just completely relaxed. Then it was down to dinner. The restaurant here is "Eureka's only 4 star restaurant." They are supposed to have a ridiculously good wine selection here, too. We've pre-paid for a five-course "discovery" menu. Along with that we decided to have what they call here a "wine flight" In other words, they've chosen the wine that best compliments each course. The meal is really great. What's a little weird though is that there are an awful lot of scraggly looking people who keep walking by and I start to feel a little bit bad for enjoying my pampering so much.

Tuesday, August 30

Mendocino

It was pretty warm in Sonoma, about 90 degrees, when we left. We took a little side trip to the Petrified Forest and the Old Faithful of California. Talk about old-fashioned hokiness! The Petrified Forest is pretty much in someone's backyard. The geyser is a little more formal attraction. The woman who sold us our tickets said that it went off about every 40 minutes and was going up 60 feet or so and at it's longest, lasting for 6 minutes. After we're there for a couple of minutes, the rock in the middle of the pool starts to steam and we can hear the water bubbling. However, the water that shot up was a weak little stream. It did that a few times (just enough for Brendan to get annoyed and want to leave). We decided to stay for just a little while longer, and I'm glad that we did. It went off like a rocket for about 5 minutes. Put on quite a little show for us.

Then we were off up the coast.

As soon as we reached the coastal highway, the temperature dropped 20 degrees almost instantly. Took me by surprise a little. I had expected it to be cooler, but it happened so fast. The first chance we got we pulled over to get a look at the Pacific. It was quite a sight. There were sheer cliffs, rocks off the shore and sea lions playing in the water and basking on the beach. The scenery kept getting more spectacular as we rolled north.

Our hotel in Mendocino, the Sea Rock, had wonderful views of the coast as well. We had enough time to go into town and have dinner at the Mendocino Hotel where I had ahi cooked very rare for the first time (it was good, actually) and we had a dessert made of special Mendocino county berries which are a cross between blackberries and raspberries. The town itself is also very cute. We made it back to the hotel in time for a spectacular sunset.

The weather was very cooperative. Apparently, it had been foggy for months until today.

Monday, August 29

Sonoma

We stopped at the park before we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. We've been lucky with the weather in San Francisco; it's been sunny every day. Whenever we've looked towards the bridge however, the clouds have been low and rather dense. Today the skies were clear. There wasn't a cloud. We had a couple take our picture at the highest point of the park, but I decided I wanted one of us at the bottom, with flowers and not metal bars, in the foreground. The people we choose at the bottom weren't the best photo takers. Ah well.

As soon as we went over the bridge and down the mountain, the temperature shot up about 10 or 15 degrees. It was practically instantaneous. I had always heard about the Marin effect, but I didn't quite believe it until I actually experienced it.

The drive was relatively easy. We planned the trip well in that we weren't coming to wine country on a weekend. There are still crowds.

We decided to take a tour of a winery, and were told by the nice lady at the Visitor's Center that the Benzinger tour was quite good. They have what is called a biodynamic winery. "A step above organic," is what people say that it means. Not only do they not use pesticides, but they also have a healthy ecosystem within their winery. The tour was good -- worth the $10 they charge a person. Included in that is a tasting of four wines. All pretty good. Of course, I liked the most expensive red reserve the best. But we're on vacation, so what the hell. We bought a bottle.

Benzinger is at the northern part of the valley, and the farthest away from our hotel. We worked our way back from there. We stopped at two wineries on our way here, and were not treated as well as we should have. At one, the girl working would just pour it for us and say "and this is our 2003 cabernet" and leave it at that. But she would take care in explaining the tasting notes to everyone else there. We didn't buy any wine from her. Of course, it wasn't all that good either. The next winery was a little bit of the same. The gentleman taking care of us did start out explaining the wines to us but he became distracted by some other customers who were apparently getting some wine shipped. We were left at the counter alone and unattended to for quite a while. Another guy came buy to see if we wanted a second tasting. We told him no, we just needed to pay for the one we had. But he couldn't ring us up for whatever reason. Eventually, the other guy came back. He was very apologetic and gave us an additional tasting of two wines that were not supposed to be available to taste. Both were very good and we decided to take a bottle of the Saryah (which we just discovered we like). The last winery, Charles Creek, which has a small tasting shop and gallery in Sonoma was our last stop. The girl there was very attentive. She treated us spectacularly, explaining the wines, telling us the little stories behind them. We also bought a Chardonnay from her. All in all it was a good experience, but I felt like we weren't taken seriously by some people. Lord knows why. Everyone here is a tourist.

Sonoma is very quiet. Especially on a Monday. We did a little shopping in town -- I bought 6 bars of olive oil soap (most of the wineries also have olive trees). We made it back to the inn in time for their daily wine and cheese reception in the main lobby. The wine wasn't anything particularly special -- just your standard red and white -- but still good. I don't think they make really awful wine here. Anyway, this group of older people (in their 60s probably) came down. There were three couples. A few of the women were really complaining about the quality of the wine. Brendan and I are sitting there thinking, it's free people, get over yourselves and enjoy it. One woman in particular is pretty vocal about it, making sure to talk to each of the others to say how the wine isn't bad; it's just not to her taste. Of course, everyone knows that she really means it's bad.

After a dip in the jacuzzi, Brendan and I headed back into town to the Irish pub for dinner. After all the wine we've had today, a pint (of Boddington's) sounded really good. We had just finished talking about how the old people at the hotel were slightly rude when they walked into the pub. The men came first. They were perfectly happy with the choice and were scoping out the room for a place where all of them could sit. Then in came the women. One of them seems pretty easy going. She would have been fine. The other two however, were awful. One asked the owner of the pub what the best restaurant in Sonoma was. The other said she could manage to find something that would do. After a whole lot of hemming and hawing they left. Thank God. I can't wait until we see them again at breakfast!

The landscape here seems strange to me. Except for the grape vines, everything is brown. The grass in the square here is green, but that's it. Mostly it all looks very dry and very, very brown. It should get greener as we go north towards Eureka.

Sunday, August 28

Day 2

We did Alcatraz today. Awesome tour. It may be one of the most cliche things to do in San Francisco, but I think it's a good thing to do. After that we had lunch at Pier 39 and walked around. Nothing too exciting. We stopped at a shop on the pier where you pick an oyster out of a barrel and they get a pearl out of it for you. Jess got one and had it mounted on a ring. It felt like a total scam, but it was fun. The woman even gave us an extra pearl because we told her we are on a trip for our anniversary. Very nice Asian women worked there. I got Steelers underwear for game day at an NFL shop. It sounds weird, I know, but it's actually very exciting for me.

Had dinner at an Italian place where the food was excellent, but the service was horrible. We probably sat for 25 minutes waiting for our plates to be cleared. We had a bottle of wine to get through to pass the time, though.

Sorry, but today just wasn't as exciting.

Except for when Jess blew up the hotel hair dryer, and clogged the toilet. Although the toilet wasn't her fault. It was just a coincidence, but a funny one. A repair guy was here for about 30 minutes trying to fix it. We're fine now.

I believe this negates me being wrong earlier in the trip. The score is now 0-0. Jess loses two points because of destruction of property, etc.

First Full Day

No problems or issues today. Everything went smooth checking out of the first hotel, getting to San Francisco, and checking into the hotel here.

Lots of walking today. Chinatown, shopping, and doing 300 steps to the top of Telegraph Hill, when we could have cut over halfway up it. It was suggested, but shot down. I believe the quote was, "I want to do all of the steps." She was stopping after almost every flight. It was pretty sad. We made it up to the top, to the tower, and the view was awesome. You could see the whole city, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc. from up there. Good stuff.

Went to Haight/Ashbury later in the afternoon to walk around and to get dinner. The absolute center of the counter-culture in the '60s, and now there is a Gap store right at the corner of the famous intersection. Terrible. The whole area is nothing like you would think it would be. It's filled with "vintage" stores and smoke shops and boutiques. Nothing like I would have imagined. You did see the occasional middle-aged hippie strolling the street. There was a pretty cool music store called Amoeba that we spent some time in. We had dinner at a nice little place on Haight and sat in a little courtyard area in the back. We shared a pitcher of sangria. Good thing we were taking the bus there and back. Great dinner, but expensive.

We came back to the hotel, rested for a minute and got our long sleeves on. It's freaking cold here. Then we found an Irish bar down the street a bit.

Now here's the funny part.

A band of middle-aged guys is setting up while we're drinking our first round. The drummer is wearing a black button-down shirt with yellow flames on it. He's got one of the most complete drum sets I've ever seen. He has 5 cymbals set up on the set. Cow bells. Everything. He's the type of drummer that you would think would wear a Zildjian hat or shirt. The guitarist is just about a couple of years away from becoming the Cryptkeeper, and the bass player (who we thought was the roadie at first) wore a black button-down shirt with some blue flames on it, a black t-shirt with a blue pacman ghost on it, along with a blue fret-less bass. It was completely 80s. Jessica said they would be a new wave cover band. I disagreed. I figured with the flames and the type of instruments they had, it had to be 80s hard rock or metal. Jess was right. It was absolutely hilarious. They started out with Counting Blue Cars, then went to I Ran, then to Don't You Forget About Me. Then we had to leave. It was getting late, and we have another full day tomorrow. It's just that these guys were dressed absolutely and completely wrong for the music that they were playing. They shape of the instruments they were playing were priceless as well. Very sharp edges, all 80s-metal-like. Awesome. We didn't stick around to see if they rocked out any more, but figure that the middle-aged rock we saw tonight is the highlight of the trip so far.

Saturday, August 27

one more thing

The shower in this hotel is rediculous. When standing there, the shower head is at nose level. When turning it on, the water hits at the neck -- and that's only when pointing the shower head straight out.

Also, cherry limeade = crack.

Beautiful Beginning

OK, so Jess was going to write about this, but I've beaten her to it. She's in the shower, washing off the stink that is a day of travelling.

The day started off well enough. We both went to work, our bags were packed, and we were going to leave from the office. Fine.

Except that in my rush to leave the office, I happened to forget the laptop. Didn't find out I left it until a coworker called me as we were pulling into the airport. We thought about turning around, but then decided just to leave it. It ended up that another coworker that lives near the airport (which is about 40 minutes away from the office), was willing to come and drop it off. Excellent. We didn't even have to wait that long. By the time we checked our bags and walked to find a snack, she was there.

Awesome. Our trip just had its snag, and it was over before the trip even began.

But that was just the beginning.

The flight was fine. We even got in 30 minutes early. Except that we had to wait another 20 or so for our luggage to come on the belt.

So as we're waiting, we think we see one of our bags coming. Until some old guy, who is completely disheveled, decides that it's his bag. He grabs it, checks the ticket, says, "Yup," and proceeds to high-tail it out of the airport. I think, "Well, he checked the ticket, said, 'Yup,' and walked out, so it must not have been our bag." Jess was insisting that the guy stole our bag. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But it was our bag.

We get our other bag and are waiting and waiting for the big one to come off. No dice. So we finally give up and head into the baggage office. As we're in there waiting in line, I turn around and see the guy. He's now carting another bag, A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT COLORED BAG, out, and there's ours sitting by the baggage belt.

Nice.

But we're still ahead of schedule, so I'm happy.

We have no problems getting the rental car, and head for the hotel. Then the ray of sunshine:

THERE'S A SONIC PRACTICALLY IN THE HOTEL PARKING LOT!!!!

Now, Jess and I LOVE Sonic. More than words can express at this particular moment. I can't tell you what I would do at any given time for a cherry limeade. Perfect.

So we check in. No problems. Literally drop our stuff off in the room and head for the Sonic.

More issues.

All we want is a little snack and some cherry limeades. Shouldn't be a big deal, right? Just a small popcorn chicken and some cheese fries. Evidently this was a big deal for them. It took 15 minutes or so to get our order. Was the order ok? No. We got Cokes instead of cherry limeades, my cheese fries must have been out for an hour before they brought them to us, and they completely left out the dipping sauce for the chicken.

So after we finally got the limeades, we headed back to the room. It's now 2:30 in the morning to us (11:30 out here), and we're completely exhausted from the day. Hopefully we got all the snags in one day. Updates to come if we didn't.

UPDATE: We were awoken at 3:00 AM by what had to be either a prostitute or an actress, because the woman in the room next to us should win an academy award. I've never heard anyone moan and scream like that. We had to turn the TV on to drown it out.

Then the alarm went off at 3:30.

Friday, August 26

relative silence

There will be relative blog silence for the next week while we're on a much needed vacation. There might be a few little things here and there -- we're travelling with the laptop. I'm sure I'll fill up the 1 gig card on the camera and have to upload files anyway, but don't expect much.

_______
Image from Penny Postcards

Wednesday, August 24

preparations

We're just about finished preparing to get ready for our trip. Layering pieces -- light sweaters, tshirts, hiking shoes, camera bag, new luggage...

No international trip this Birthday/Anniversary. We've done New York, then Montreal, and this year California. Hopefully next year we'll be able to go back to Switzerland (where we Honeymooned) for the big 5th anniversary.

We're going, well, I hesitate to call it cliche, but we aren't doing anything ground breaking on our trip to California. We're going to San Francisco, renting a convertible and driving to Napa valley then up the coastal highway. It should be good though. I'm planning on taking a whole lot of photos.

We had thought about going up to Portland to see my brother and his family who just moved there, but there just wasn't enough time. We'll see them soon enough though.

sweet

Daily Candy is coming to Washington DC. Yay! No longer will I be limited to the Everywhere edition (as good as it is). So go ahead, sign yourself up.

Sunday, August 21

zoom

My head is going a million miles a minute today. It's racing around in circles. It's like a small tornado in there. All day. Earlier I felt like running around and around the block -- but it was over 90 and humid so I went shopping instead. That worked for a while, but here I am, restless again at 10 o'clock. Yay.

Thank God we are going on vacation on Friday. Obviously I need it. Hopefully the west coast will be good to me. It'll be my first time.

Tuesday, August 16

DirecTV, Football, and Stereos

As Jess mentioned, there is no hope for DirecTV in the new house.

This upsets me.

Greatly.

Damn trees. This is the type of thing that I should have thought about prior to buying the house. It just never occured to me to look at which way was south or southwest.

So right now we have nothing but over the air TV. It's like living in the stone age. I have all of this beautiful equipment, and nothing to watch. We've been watching a lot of movies. The cable will be installed in a couple of days, so at least I'll be able to see something. Now, I don't have anything against cable, it's just that I've become a loyal DirecTV customer over the last few years. Mainly because of the football package so I can watch the Steelers every week. I couldn't even see them on ESPN last night. We had to go to a bar down the street. Luckily the bar is a member of the Virginia Black and Gold, so there were other Steelers fans there. We left at halftime.

Great game last night, though. The Steelers first team offense was barely on the field because of the defense and special teams play. Even when the Eagles were on their first touchdown drive, most of the Steelers defense were 2nd-stringers. Beautiful.

The season has started, and I'm finally starting to get excited. Without DirecTV, however, I will be missing the preseason game this Saturday (which doesn't even play on NFL Network until Tuesday anyway), as well as the final game against the Panthers on September 1. I'm even going to miss the other nationally televised game because of vacation.

Glen's going to have a buddy to watch games with for most of the season. It works out for all but 5 games when the Cowboys and Steelers games coincide.

On the positive side. I've got a new home theater/stereo on the way. The receiver was delivered yesterday, and the speakers should be here early next week. I'm eager to see these speakers in action, as the company is pretty new and has developed quite a following. Word is you can really crank them. Jess doesn't really like movies too loud, so we'll have to ease her into them.

Sunday, August 14

two things

#1 There is no hope for getting DirecTV in this house. Brendan is heartbroken. He won't be able to watch all the Steelers' games at home. There's always Glen's house in the old 'hood or the bar in the shopping center down the road.

#2 We apparently can't say no to nice Mormon boys. This kid was selling alarm systems door to door, and since we needed one, we got one from him. While he was writing up our order, we made some small talk.

He asks if we're newlyweds. We say no. He's married, too. I think damn, he looks really young (19 maybe) to be married. I ask him how long he's been selling alarms. Just for the summer, he's a college student. Goes to BYU. OK, so he's Mormon, that's why he's so young and married. There are a bunch of them, 15 or so, living in Mannassas. The wife's here too.

The guy who comes to install the system is a college student, too. Not at BYU but someother school in southern Utah. Is this company affiliated, I wonder? (Doesn't seem like it.) Is there some guy going around Utah asking college kids to come to the DC area and sell or install alarm systems. It's weird. But they're both really nice.

Wednesday, August 10

down time

This article is right on the money.

Be it at a desk at the Treasury Department, a spot on the factory floor, or a drab blue cubicle, boredom is a condition that can be more stressful and damaging than overwork, according to those who have studied the issue.

"We know that 55 percent of all U.S. employees are not engaged at work. They are basically in a holding pattern. They feel like their capabilities aren't being tapped into and utilized and therefore, they really don't have a psychological connection to the organization," said Curt W. Coffman, global practice leader at the Gallup Organization, whose large polling group measured employee engagement.

August is notoriously slow in Washington. Congress is on vacation, there are no college kids walking around, and everyone else takes a vacation. Sure, there are interns, but it's so much less crowded. Unless you're a tourist, I suppose.

Monday, August 8

total garbage

WTF?!? Our trash is still at the curb.

[UPDATE]

So apparently, there is no county trash pickup in our new county. Nor is there a homeowners association in the part of the neighborhood in which we live. We've got to arrange our own trash pickup. Capitalism at work kids. Let the market decide! Too bad we had to find it out the hard way when our trash wasn't picked up. I didn't even think to ask at settlement. There was no HOA, and I've never lived anywhere that the county/city didn't take care of it. I suppose it made sense back when it was all farmland around here. But it's not anymore. This subdevelopment has been here since 1969. You'd think that someone would have gotten on that. Given the amount of taxes that we pay, it just seems a little bit silly. I just don't understand.

Tuesday, August 2

they forgot colt 45

The plant that spewed stink into the air my entire childhood is coming down.

The ongoing demolition of the Washington Quality Foods building tower in Halethorpe should culminate sometime in August, when the landmark is scheduled to fall.

Located at 4501 Hollins Ferry Road and the Baltimore Beltway, the highly visible 108-foot tower drew motorists' attention from the 1960s to the late 1990s with a series of beer logos belonging to its tenants.

The Carling brewery, followed by Carling National and eventually Stroh, occupied the property and produced beers such as Carling Black Label, National Premium and National Bohemian, or "Nattie Boh."

Chicago-based First Industrial Realty Trust, which acquired the Hollins Ferry Road property in December, has county permission to raze the tower, according to Mark McConnell, the company's regional director in Hanover.

First Industrial bought the property for $13.9 million, according to state property records.

It announced soon after acquiring the property that it would renovate it as office and warehouse space, removing the landmark tower in the process.

For as long as I can remember, the tower didn't have any Natty Boh trademark on it. It had a big old Colt 45 slapped on the side. For the 20 years I lived in Arbutus, I don't remember it being anything else (Of course, I could be wrong).
I really don't think anyone is going to have a problem with it going. It's sort of a landmark, I suppose. It's how you knew you were almost home. Of course, I would take that smell over swampy DC and the Potomac anyday!

someone should

There should be a blog about slugging. I slugged it home yesterday for the first time. No big deal. But as I was listening to these two geniuses go on about Powerpoint ("When I animate the clouds and make them go upwards, it feels like your falling"), it struck me that if I slugged every day, I'd have to blog about it. Keep track of who I rode with, the radio station (if on) and the conversation (if any).

Monday, August 1

wired (and not)

Internet and network are up and running at the new place. It took a bit since the outside wires weren't ready for DSL. We were both going a little bit insane and feeling very disconnected. Now if we can only get the satellite situation under control. I miss my info button and menu and TiVO. We're missing all kinds of TV.

::sigh::

Honestly, I don't think I miss it all that much. So I missed a few episodes of Entourage. And it is the last season of Six Feet Under, but I just don't care. I don't know if I should be sad that I'm so fickle, or happy that I'm not attached to at least that screen.

I didn't really get "into" television until college. We only had one TV in our house. For the longest time, the remote had a wheel and a cord on it. There was the portable TV we sometimes took on vacation, or outside to watch baseball, but it was black and white. I don't know if mom and dad still have it.

I don't really remember watching a show faithfully until my 2nd roommate in college. Chris was an avid TV watcher and we got free HBO in the dorms. Plus, I could watch MTV (not allowed at home, but I'd sneak in a little). There also seemed to be more time. Law & Order re-runs were popular. We also had a Dawson's Creek night where all the girls would get together in one room and yell and throw popcorn. We added Felicity for a while, but neither habit continued past a few seasons. It got old.

Brendan is definitely a TV addict. He watches a lot. I'm starting to remember what it was like without it around all the time.