California, Day 6

Here is a picture from the Picchetti winery we visited last week... Pretty area...

Today was "be a freaking bum" day... I slept in till about 8:15, went down, got some breakfast, then came up to my room and knit for a while... I am working on starting another pair of socks with my Lana Grossa yarn that I found at Comunknity the last time I was out here in San Jose... MAN, this yarn is just soft and delicious to work with... After watching some basketball and doing some knitting, I got a little lonely and decided to head out to Comunknity to get some yarn and have a little bit of social knitting time... I picked up the Winter issue of Interweave knits for the cool sock pattern and the short row explanations...
I met Scout's Secret Pal, who was working at Communknity today, she was really a neat person... We hung out and knit and chatted... I think I am going to start a Clapotis, they look so cool. Noelle did hers and it looks like something I can use at work to keep warm at work... I will post some pics next week of the place that has been my "home away from home"...

I also posted a picture of the Mountain Lion Warning sign that was posted at Picchetti Winery... I love this sign, I think it is a hoot ;-) (For all MSTies out there... KITTTTTTY!!!)

If you ever see a mountain lion, you should not let small children wander out of sight... DUH!!!
The sign also tells you to sing, whistle or talk while you hike to alert the lion of your presence... I guess the song "What's New, Pussycat" would not be a good choice... The sign also tells you at the end to fight back if attacked... Now, is that a no-brainer or what??? This is after telling you to keep children close to you and to pick them up without bending down... So, now that I have totally screwed up my back and I can no longer walk or move and I have a child in my arms, I am totally gonna be dinner for the kitty....

The warning sign could save a lot of time by saying "This is a Mountain Lion. Make lots of noise. Don't turn your back on the kitty. If you have children with you, you will make a delicious meal for the lion and they prefer it if you just sprinkle salt over yourself before you are attacked..."

Tomorrow... Wine tasting and Sea Lions... If I get my butt out of bed in time... No, they don't make wine from Sea Lions... I have to take a drive down to Santa Cruz to see the sea lions... Then, up to Sonoma to taste some wine... If all works out well...

California, Day 5

Yesterday was sheer hell at work... So what do we do to relieve the stress??? KNIT!!!

At 5pm, I took off from work and braved rush hour traffic to head out to Communknity... OMG!!! I found my home away from home...

I browsed through the yarn and books for a while... Nothing different in the books, same ones I find at Village Wools... Yarn, now THAT is a different story... There was a brand new hand-painted yarn there.... I picked up a really nice blue and white yarn for sockies... There was another 100% Merino hand paint that I also picked up...

After the shopping, I hung out with a few of the women there... They had a couple of couches and a nice rocking chair that surrounded a fireplace (that was not operational...) We hung out and had our own "social knitting night". We were talking about how knitting really breaks down a lot of barriers between people and you can get a couple of knitters together anywhere who don't know each other and the conversation just ends up flowing. It was REALLY nice... I was having a tough time out here, just going from work to the hotel back to work back to the hotel... Having a couple of hours to just talk with other knitters was sheer HEAVEN!!! I will be heading back out there this weekend and next week to knit and chat with other women... Yup, I have officially found my home away from home...

No big plans for tonight, I will keep knitting on my 2 pairs of socks that are currently on the needles. Tomorrow, I am planning to head up to Sonoma for some wine tasting and a visit to Infinion Raceway... WHEE!!!!!

California, Day 3

Woke up this morning and guess what??? It's raining again... Third day in a row... Hmmm, guess the bright orb of light in the sky has gone into hiding...

Since there are no pictures to update, everyone gets silly cartoon images for the next couple of weeks...

I am about to head off to work for another exciting day of audits... Good stuff... Tonight, I decided to go ahead and grab something to go on my way back to the hotel and spend the night in my room knitting and watching TV... Can you believe that my hotel doesn't have the Weather Channel??? I guess they don't want us to find out that the only thing going on in Northern California is rain for the rest of our natural lifetimes...

I still need to call Communknity to find out when they have their "social knitting night" this week... Today is Tuesday and I usually hang out with my stitch and bitch grrrlzzzz... I am really gonna miss them tonight... I will head down to the bar, get a glass of wine and knit along with them in the comfort of my room tonight... In-and-Out Burger is not the same cuisine as Flying Star, but we can make due... Hmmm, maybe room service is in order tonight...

California, Day 1 and 2

We made it into California...

After the plane landed around noon, went to pick up the rental car, checked into the hotel, then out for a wine tasting adventure...

We started out at Fogarty winery up in the mountains... I just LOVE rental cars with the Neverlost system... Just throw the address in there and voila, you are on your way... Took us about 40 minutes to get up there from the hotel... We were supposed to meet some friends up there, but the friends who have been there before got themselves lost ;-) We had some absolutely WONDERFUL chardonnay, some crackers and snackies and then headed off for the next destination... Any winery that has a kitty cat hanging out is my kind of place...

Next, we went to Picchetti winery... Great place with more great wines... Their port was absolutely to DIE FOR!!! Sampled that along with the chocolate fondue that they had going... Absolute HEAVEN!!! Our last wine there was a 2001 Angelica... they call it "liquid love", it was more like an orgasm in a glass... OMG!!! Words can not due justice to this wine... I had to pick up a bottle... Yummy...

Then, we were off to Yo Yo Sushi for some dinner... Yup, what's a trip to California without having bait for dinner at least one night??? MMMMMM.... Then back to the hotel for some sleep...

Day 2 was a little less exciting... Spent the day in class to get our factory authorization... Whee... Afterwards, came back to the hotel then picked up folks to go out for dinner. We were at YanCan for some yummy chinese food... A couple of the folks with us decided to try Saki for the first time... ROTFLMAO!!!! The food was really, really good... I had never had sweet and sour chicken with mint... MMMMMM....

Time for some sleep... Tomorrow starts the 2nd part of the audit... Realized when I tried to update the blog that the connection for the camera to connect it to the computer is back in Albuquerque... Guess everyone will have to wait a couple of weeks to see the pix...

I finished my socks yesterday... Did a gauge swatch on the Socks that Rock yarn... Will start the new pair tomorrow ;-)