Saturday, February 23

Spring Cleaning Weekend

Cranked up the iTunes, started some laundry, opened the windows - and realized I'm not ready for spring yet! I still have my Carolers out, and no gumption to put them away! So much for Spring Cleaning. I think I subscribe to the "it's 5 o'clock somewhere" Christmas decorating rule: "as long as it's snowing somewhere, you can keep Christmas decor out" - right??
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Sunday, February 17

Yakima Valley Wine Tour (with chocolates!!)

My friends and I had a fantastic time this Saturday on the Wine & Chocolates tour! We rented a limo, brought along munchies for the journey (cheese & crackers, local apples, some fresh strawberries, finger sandwiches, etc.), and had a blast between the nine of us!



My favorite winery building was probably Airfield Estates. It's a beautifully converted World War II airplane hanger. When you walk in they have a wall of glass with their barrells behind it.

My favorite wine and label were a tie at Snoqualmie. They had an amazing port that was a dessert in and of itself. Almost bought the chocolate port sauce; I'm wishing now I would have!



Wish we would have had time to view more! We saw four (4) in total. We're already planning for the Spring Barrell tasting in April. I'm definitely booking my tickets in advance on this one! I'm looking forward to it. :)

Sadly, we forgot our cameras, so I used my grainy blackberry camera to take a few memories:











Upstairs at Bob's...

I've always been curious about what's upstairs at Bob's (our little hole-in-the-wall hangout I described in the last post). His establishment is located in the old City Hall building, which is circa 1885. Well...looks like the building's present owners are remodeling, so I took it upon myself to do a little self-guided tour while my friends were gabbing away in the packed-out pub downstairs... (shhh!)

After walking to the back of the building and doing a Bond-esque manauever around the wide-open kitchen door, I came to the old stairwell. I tip-toed up the creeky stairs, wondering what the old treads would look like if they had a little spit-and-polish applied to them, and hoping I didn't give myself away to the people in the kitchen below me.


At the top, the stairwell suddenly ended at two doors, one being locked...the other not...



Of course I was dying to know what was behind unlocked "Classroom 1"!


After feeling around in the dark, trying to let my eyes adjust to the near-pitch black, I vainly attempted to locate a light-switch. Wouldn't have helped any had I found one: of all the exposed wiring above, I didn't see one lightbulb. Thankfully, after entering the dark room a little further, streetlamps from outside Bob's filtered just enough light in through the dusty old windows for me to somewhat see the floor in front of my feet and some forgotten piles of stuff from time past.


At this point I was starting to get pretty excited, thinking my friends below my feet in Bob's were clueless about the treasure trove of heavily dust-ladden crap I had just found!! I mean, check out this old streetlamp and horn!! And anyone need an archaic fax machine? (forgot to get a picture of that one!)


I wanted to blow on the horn, but thought better about the idea and left it alone (who knows what century old saliva is left lingering on that thing???). At this point I started thinking I should probably head back to my friends: I had been gone for a little while. Tip-toeing makes for slow walking after all.

So I turned around to head back to the door...and almost walked into this!!!


With music and sounds from an Alfred Hitchcock movie playing in my head, I let my imagination run with me as I high-tailed it back to safety... plus my beer was getting warm. Time to get back to the table!

Thursday, February 14

Charming & cozy, as always!

Met some of my dear friends last night at our favorite spot. Had a very nice time! It's amazing how some things never change.
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Happy V-Day!

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Tuesday, February 12

Do you ever wonder..???

Ok, admittingly, sometimes I do...and I found this silly site on the web that gives a glimpse into the "what if....???" I wasted some time tonight exploring the answer to that question, with some funny results. Thought I'd share them with you. :)

Take normal ol' me:


And mix with, let's say, oh.....how about Gollum:


What do you get? Collum!

(frightful - at least I know I'd make a decently scary cartoon character!)

This inspired me to give Brangelina a run for their money:
=

I think he'd better stick with Angelina!


But what if I was Carrie Underwood's sister?
=
(With the exception of the blonde hair, it might pass on a dark night talking with a blind guy...but I'd still have trouble explaining why I don't have an accent...'seperated at birth??')

I know my junk-in-the-trunk isn't quite as sexy as JLo's, but I was wondering what else I might inherit if we were related:
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Or how about the King himself?
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(I think this is scarier than Gollum...)

I must admit, my favorites were either Jude:
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(I'd sure make a pretty boy if I were related to him, huh? Probably get beat up all the time in school.)

Or better yet, Joaquin:
=

Anyway, cheap entertainment for the evening. Thought it was better fun than tonight's American Idol show at least. ;)

Moving......again...

So I'm Home again, trying to get the last bit of my Washington apartment packed up and in a storage unit. Yes, I'm living in two places right now...soon to be three from the sounds of it. Work is likely going to ship me to Somewhere Dallas sometime in the coming months. I'm hoping that by the time they say "go!", I'll have all my boxes packed & ready to be shipped. And here I thought it was sad letting go of Home - I'm going to be letting go of my Home (Away from Home) as well!

A few have asked where exactly Under the Stars I am... other than Home, Washington; Sunny City (aka - Home [Away from Home]), California; and Somewhere Dallas, Texas. As you can guess, these aren't the real city names, but hopefully this map gives you some idea of where I'm at most of the time.



And if anyone knows of a great neighbourhood around Dallas to call home, please let me know! I'm presently considering anything under an hour commute from the eastside towns of Dallas.

I think this move will be one of a slightly more permanent nature (something for the next year or so). So...I might be looking at buying a home! ;) We'll see. I think I'll rent first for a while, get used to the area, and then see about buying. I'm also not totally sure if I want to stay in Dallas; there could be a possibility of Austin or, if I could really have my dreams come true, San Antonio.

And yes, it has not even been three (3) months that I've lived in Sunny City...if you can even call it living there, when you're somewhere else for half the month!! Oh well. I'm soaking up every ray of sunshine while I can. BUT...theoretically, when I move to Texas, I may only be a four (4) hour drive from the beaches of Galveston - maybe that's a commute I should consider...... ;)

Monday, February 11

Happy Meow

Meow has been thoroughly delighted to see Mom & I home again. He's been prancing around at ours heels, kneading everything with his cute little paws while meowing happily, and following us around the house. He even found me Sunday afternoon (napping - caught!!) and curled up next to me on the bed...
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More at the beach with Mom...






Afternoon at the beach with Mom...