San Francisco Days

Looking at the calendar today, I noticed I’d be home something like eleven days in the month of September. So, I thought I’d better throw a couple pictures up on the blog in case you thought we’d disappeared… again.

We have a wine weekend with “the girls” from Chicago (actual biological girls, that is) over Labor Day. Then I’m on a business trip to St. Louis, then to Rockford to visit the family. Then we’re meeting up with “the other girls” (Howard, Ron and Larry) to spend a long weekend at our friend’s (Mark & Keith) beautiful new condo in Palm Springs and then driving to Santa Barbara to do a wine tasting trip in Southern Cali, for once. We rented a Hummer, so fear not; we’ll be traveling in L.A.-approved style while we’re there.

Anyway, on to the pictures. One of the many wine clubs we belong to is at Kendall-Jackson. Our very dear friend Carolyn works there, so no surprise we spend a significant portion of our disposable income at KJ. The annual BBQ for wine club members was this past weekend at their beautiful KJ Wine Center. We drove up with our dear friend, Kiki, the other half of the infamous Faux Dates. She drove, bless her heart, so we could drink until our livers seized up.

We showed up really early, so naturally Carolyn put us to work. Here we are setting up the welcome table to check people in. Connie, who runs the 1-800 line is back there unloading about a million wine glasses. Diane, who runs the wine club, looks super cute in that hat, huh? Their boss, Carolyn, might look innocent with that magic wand, but trust me, be afraid, very afraid (just kidding - we love her).

The theme this year was Mardi Gras, so we had to make sure the statues were appropriately attired.

Kiki made sure she, along with all the guests, were appropriately attired as well.

KJ made sure we were very well fed, naturally. For starters, we had appetizers in the garden. No Cajun-styled event is complete without oysters.

Did I say Cajun? Bring on the gator baby! Our friend Greg was dishing up spicy gator-dippin’ sauce and, surprise, wine! Not sure what’s up with my tongue…

Our friendly KJ crew made sure our wine glasses never went empty. On the left is one of the wine educators, Dale, a very nice and fun person. On the right is Robin, the hospitality events coordinator, another total sweetheart. In the center was the very funny comedienne who was from Mobile, Alabama. Her name is Belle Cadeaux and she was the assistant master of ceremonies (Carolyn, naturally, was the primary MC). Did you know Madi Gras actually originated in Mobile, not New Orleans? These, and other interesting facts, can be found at her website (www.bellecadeaux.com).

Dinner was absolutely great. They have an amazing culinary team at KJ. Jason, the executive chef, is the guy with the microphone.

Roger, who doesn’t appear in any of the pictures from yesterday, did have some fun at the table during dinner. His budding career as a commercial product placement photographer seems to be going well.

Yes, I am in Chicago while I write this blog entry. I have been traveling a lot for work in the last year, and this year I have been trying to schedule my return flights from Ireland thru Chicago with a day or two layover to visit family and friends. This trip was to Chicago for a meeting. I flew out early to supprise dad for his birthday. We celibrated a little late, but we did suprise him. The startled look on his face was priceless. We had a little BBQ party and had a good time.

With the new terror threat flying has been very rough. Because I have been traveling so much, I have become an elete Gold member with American. At San Francisco this allowed me to bypass all of the long lines, and bump up into 1st class. The 1st class bumped helped because I was able to write my presentation on the plane over a bottle of wine. The flight was a lot of fun, I ended up knowing 1/2 of the flight crew because they were old friends from Chicago. They took great care of me which meant wy wine glass was never empty. Scott will be in St. Louis and Chicago the first week of next month, and will be having dinner with Teri (the flight attendant) from my flight.

Well I need to stop typing now because my battery is almost dead. Look for more posts soon. There are up comming vacations and previous ones to write about.

OK! So I’m sitting in ORD on my way home. Having lots of free time to waste, a true rariaty, I decided to do an update to the blog. After Josie’s guilt trip, I felt it was time to start bring everybody into the summer of chaos.

But back to the title of this entry……..Jeanning get it right! The song lyrics to Earache my Eye are as follows, and will be stuck in my head for the whole flight! Thanks!

My momma talkin’ to me tryin’ to tell me how to live
But I don’t listen to her ’cause my head is like a sieve
My daddy, he disowned me ’cause I wear my sister’s clothes
He caught me in the bathroom with a pair of pantyhose

My basketball coach, he done kicked me off the team
For wearin’ high-heel sneakers and actin’ like a queen

—— lead guitar ——

The world’s comin’ to an end, I don’t even care
As long as I can have a limo and my orange hair
And it don’t bother me if people think I’m “funny”
‘Cause I’m a big rock star and I’m makin’ lots of money
money, money, money, money, money, money
Ahhh! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…

I’m so bloody rich! Ha ha ha ha
I own apartment buildings and shopping centers! Ha ha ha ha
And I only know three chords! Ha ha ha ha