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Mmmmm…hot tea on a cold day. Although it’s not quite as satisfying as the first cup of coffee in the morning, it is soothing especially after lunch.

It is the Monday after Thanksgiving and I have a full week of being a responsible adult (work). It is drizzling outside and it is 54 degrees in SF right now. It’s okay though. I have my desk chair electric blanket turned up and I’m sipping hot tea while looking out the window at all of the chilly schmucks scurrying below. I was one of those schmucks earlier, but now I’m cozy and I can look down on them and laugh..whahahahahaha…….ha.

This weekend was a combination of rushing and relaxing. My mom and Daniel arrived at 7:30 on Wed night and the gluttony began. When dining out, I have a hard time keeping myself from ordering a huge meal. Usually, I scale it back a bit or just snack at home. When mom, Daniel, and I get together, there is this inevitable conversation: well, if you order X then I’ll order Y and we’ll share. Inevitably, we end up getting a lot of food and enjoying all of it, plus dessert. This isn’t a bad thing, but doing this for four days straight is detrimental to my waistline.

Despite our overindulgence, I thoroughly enjoyed myself as well as each and every bite. I think our overindulgence reached it’s peak on Saturday when we were coaxed (tricked, in our inebriated state) to not order another round of margaritas but instead to order a pitcher. We finished it, Danny drove us home (sober DD responsible man that he is) and we passed out on the various sofas twenty minutes later. Danny woke us up and we continued to guzzle water and lament the pitcher idea.

The next morning, we slept in, went and got some breakfast, came home, took some motrin, drank some more water, and napped until it was time to go to the airport.

Besides the drinking and eating, we did get a bit of exercise which was not of the shopping nature. On Friday, Daniel, mom and I loaded up the car and drove up to Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco. It had rained that morning and everything was still dripping wet. It wasn’t muddy though, just damp. We all did an easy hike together and then Daniel and I hiked through the woods for about an hour before reuniting with mom at the car.

Afterwards, we drove up to Mt. Tamalpais for a fantastic view of the city and the shore. I’ve been up there several times but I never get tired of the spectacular scenery.

Next, we grabbed some road snacks, popped in a CD and headed over to Sonoma for a day of wine-tasting. I had booked us a room at the kickass Lodge at Sonoma. I’d stayed there once before with mom and it is truly a nice nice hotel.

We arrived a little late so we didn’t have time to do much wine tasting before the wineries closed at 4:30. After a quick stop at Valley of the Moon winery and a mad dash to get to Moon Mountain on time to pick up our festival gear (more on that later), we went back to our hotel to relax, put our feet up, pick out a restaurant for dinner, and take baths using the hotel’s complimentary spa goodies.

Dinner was so-so, but I got to drink some wine since I was to be the DD the following day. It’s best for me to be the DD anyway. Not only did I buy a case of my favorite wine the weekend before (David Bruce), I’m a self-professed lightweight.

We got up the next morning, ate a hearty breakfast, and cruised up to the first vineyard on our list, Ledson.

Just to clarify, I signed us up for a wine-tasting open house/festival at participating Sonoma wineries. Tickets were $20 per person and mom and daniel got souvenir wine glasses and lots of wine paired with snacks and dessert. I just got the food, but that was fine with me.

Ledson was gorgeous and packed. We ate, visited with the pourers, and decided that it was time to move on. From what I remember, we then went to St. Francis (my favorite for grounds and snacks), Blackstone Winery, Chateau St. Jean, Eric Ross Winery, Kunde, Landmark Vineyards, Loxton Cellars, Mayo and Wellington.

After squeezing in the last winery at 4:15, we got back on the road to head south to SF and then home. We hit bad bad traffic about five miles north of the GG bridge. Daniel put on a comedy CD to help keep our minds off the fact that we weren’t going to make it to a restroom for a while.

After crossing the GG bridge, things picked up a bit and we were back at my apartment in about 45 minutes.

We lugged our wine and luggage upstairs, changed clothes, greeted Danny, and headed over to Fiesta del Mar Too for the aforementioned margarita marathon. Heh, I just made that up. Clever, ain’t it?

of Texas….

Sorry. That was lame, but hey! I do have a friend named Dipu and I did see him last weekend during my visit to Austin.

The trip was a lot a lot of fun. I was exhausted but it was from staying up late visiting with my family and friends. I went swimming often and imbibed many refreshing alcoholic beverages. I saw my friend Ted, his wife, and their beautiful baby girl Hazel. I swam at Barton Springs. I had tacos at Polvo’s and coffee at Mozart’s. I even went to the big new Whole Foods.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. Next summer, I’ll have to come back for at least five days and just play.

Ugh. It is supposed to get up to 92 tomorrow. This sucks because we do not have air conditioning. The good side is that it cools down to the 70s at night and there is little to no humidity. Still, it sucks to be in our home office at night with the computers running and no AC. We might break down and get a window unit soon.