Barrel Tasting

Jake flew into California yesterday and we planned the weekend to enjoy the Barrel Tasting event in Sonoma county!  The event starts today on Friday and goes through Sunday.  Hundreds of participating wineries open their doors and barrels for us to taste and sample, often times with tasty pairings!

We started off at Stephen & Walker in Healdsburg.  Being Friday, it wasn't too busy which was great.  They had pork sliders for their food pairing and it went very well with their wines.  Then we headed just up the street a bit to our FAVORITE winery; Thumbprint!

They've had a great display up for a while now of "Supermonks" art which is identifiable super heroes sitting with their backs to the viewer.  I'd really like to get the Green Lantern one, but they are very expensive!  For now I'll enjoy them at Thumprint and maybe one day I'll get one!  ^_^  After Thumbprint we went to Roadhouse for tasting there.

From Roadhouse we went down the road a bit to Selby, who had a nice selection out for Friday afternoon!  You can see Jake accepting a tasting as they use the "Theif" to get the wine straight from the barrel!

After Selby, we headed back up the street to Topel.  They guys serving there are students at Sonoma State and it was great hearing from them they think the student registration system (MySSU - which I support) "is great!".

From Topel we went to Williamson wines.  They had some tasty chocolate pairings to go with their wines.  The winemaker and owners were there and they were really friendly.  I like the picture of me and Jake, you can tell we've been to a few wineries!  haha!

We made our way to Portalupi.  I really liked this place, friendly people and a whole spread of sliders and other snacks to enjoy while we tasted the wine.

For our last stop on our Friday barrel tasting in Healdsburg we went to Kobler!  They were a bit further down from the rest, but the walk was great for us!

Since we were eating food and snacks all afternoon the wine didn't hit us as bad as it certainly would have otherwise!  This was certainly the best way to "Start" Barrel tasting weekend!

That evening, Jake and I went to see the new Lego movie and for the first time in my life we were the only people in the whole theater- Nice!!

Tuxedo Time

While I was in town for the Valentine's Day and Tamarack trip weekend, before heading back to California Chuck, Casey and I had to be fitted for our tuxedo's for the Stivison-Bawanan wedding coming in June!!!  Jake and I went to Sweet Heart Manor and met up with my Mom, Emily and Chuck.  It was fun seeing the colors Emily chose and trying on the tuxedos.  We made them look good!

We're all so very excited for the wedding - I can't wait!  ^_^

Then There's Kansas

The attempts to marginalize the GLBT community is just astounding.  It seems like we can't go a week without another attack - and I'm just talking legislative attacks.  Kansas's house of Republicans overwhelmingly passed a bill that would effectively "empower[s] any individual or business to refuse to interact with, do business with, or in any way come into contact with anyone who may have some connection to a gay civil union, or civil marriage or … well any “similar arrangement” (room-mates?)".  Yup.  Overwhelming majority.  The good news is there's no expectation the Kansas Senate will take up the bill and/or pass it.  However, the fact that this is not only proposed but overwhelmingly passes a chamber of the Kansas house, well... I'll just leave that where it is.

Tamarack Vacation

The annual tradition and trip with friends and loved ones to Tamarack, ID is here again!  Once again, Chuck and Emily came along and I was thrilled to have Jake, too, of course!  This year we were also joined by Andrej Roncevic, Tiffany Allred, Michael Adams, Eric Soto, Casey Moyer and Ezra Espinoza.  As usual, the weather was great, we cooked, drank, played games at the cabin and even took a day trip downtown McCall to checkout what was left of the winter festival ice sculptures.

Game night was one of the most enjoyable evenings I've had at Tamarack.  Jake and I did pretty good with the game, as did Chuck and Emily but Michael and Tiffany rocked it!  We only got through one round before it was time to take the drinks to the hot tub and relax.

Such a nice time, as always with great friends and family!  Looking forward to what we plan for the next year.

St. Valentine's Day

The 13th?  Yup.  It's been a busy week - Shirley Temple passed on Monday, February 10th.  Then on Wednesday a sink hole collapsed part of the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky in which eight Corvettes were damaged or destroyed.

Wednesday night I flew into Boise so Jake and I would have a day to prepare for our annual Tamarack trip (Friday through Sunday) which meant we had our Valentine's Day together today!  Because of delays, I didn't get to Boise until almost midnight, thanks Jake for still picking me up!

On Thursday we exchanged cards and had a nice meal together at Jake's place.  I surprised Jake with bringing up the European version of Ticket to Ride which we've been enjoying.  Jake surprised me with a personalized, homemade running medal plaque!  WOW!

With all the festivities and love in the air, Republicans were not to be outdone!  They introduced the affectionately named "You're not married anymore bill".  Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) co-sponsored the bill.  The bill would effectively prohibit the Federal government from recognizing same sex marriages if they live in a state that doesn't recognize them (like Idaho, right now).  Thank you to the citizens of Utah and Texas, we can always count on you for such stellar representation in Congress!

So much rain!

Today I went to go on a run around Spring lake and through Howarth park, but to no avail!  There was water pooled everywhere, blocking paths and running down trails.  I tried heading up some alternate trail paths but the water was actually coming down them like small creeks.  I even saw deer walking around, probably also wondering what the heck was up with all the water everywhere!  I had to cut my run short and head home, hopefully things will clear up soon.

Ian's Surprise Birthday Party

Tonight I drove down to San Jose to meet up with several other friends and surprise Ian Go for his birthday!  Ian and Shawn were visiting the bay area since they'd moved to Colorado.  Shawn thought he'd get their friends together for a night out.  It was at the BackAYard which had a great menu with extensive options including vegan!  I had braised tofu, plantains, rice and a salad.  It was all very well done and tasted delicious!

It was wonderful seeing Shawn, Ian and several of their friends I haven't seen in years!  Happy Birthday, Ian!

Politics As Usual

This morning I went for a 7 mile run with Amanda in Sonoma.  Then this afternoon I went over to Debbie and Mike's place in Sebastopol to watch Super Bowl XLVIII.  It was a fun watching the game, having drinks and snacks with friends.

Politics has been on my mind again, there's been a lot in the news lately that just doesn't make sense.  That's when I get most frustrated when politicians are not listening to the people or the people are so poorly educated on something that they choose poor political candidates.

One of the big misinformation mills the Republicans and the belt way media have been pressing is that our President is a dictator.  One of the things they point to is his use of the executive order.  Unfortunately, once again, for Republicans they are sadly mistaken in their facts.  Five years into his presidency Obama has signed 168 while his predecessor (George Bush) had signed 173 in his first four years.  As usual, if executive power was actually an issue for Republicans, then I expect them to bring it up when "one of theirs" is in office.  Sadly, that isn't the case.

Then in Idaho, the Republican's have put forth Senate Bill 1254 which would allow individuals to bring weapons onto college campuses in Idaho.  The presidents of the school board met and unanimously voted to oppose the legislation.  They also provided extensive rationale for why this is the best course of action.  Despite the efforts of our highest education administrators throughout the state and significant citizen push back, the Republicans in the statehouse passed the law anyways and it was singed into law.

Continuing on for some time now is the "Add The Words" campaign in Idaho.  After years of trying to get equal protections for the GLBT community, a strong group of politically active citizens have started to escalate the fight for our protections.  In Idaho, it's perfectly legal for an employer to fire an employee just because of their association or identity when it comes to sexual orientation.  This is banned in Boise, but it's not state-wide.  Of course the Republicans aren't going to address this.  But the group is working very hard with rally's and making it clear we want protection just like any other minority class.  Thanks to those brave souls who are working so hard.

So glad to be living in California.  Idaho seems to be in a constant state of one step forward and two steps back!

Upgrade Weekend

This weekend our HR/Student system "MySSU" Oracle/PeopleSoft 9.0 was taken offline Friday evening for a tools upgrade.  We are upgrading from PeopleTools 8.51 to 8.53.02.  One of the benefits of our extensive system support from the CSU Chancellor's office is that they will actually do a significant majority of the technical work.  The database came back for our acceptance on Saturday and all went well!  Now we can use the Oracle delivered Campus Mobile (PT 8.52 or higher was a requirement).  Excited for the new functionality.

After everything cleared technical review for the upgrade, I headed up to Healdsburg to pickup my wine shipment from Thumbprint.  It was a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride!