random photo albums

i'm just getting around to uploading a bunch of my photos....

here are some albums:

* Grand Canyon, October 2007
Brian and i spent the weekend in Prescott, AZ and this was my first trip to the Grand Canyon.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=fqc0rxj.2xqbvis3&x=0&y=-dyi6xb&localeid=en_US


* Christmas 2007
We headed back to PA for several days and then spend a few days in northeastern Ohio. Got to see some old friends, showed Brian my old haunches, etc.

* Glamis, February 2007
I met Brian and a bunch of his friends at Glamis for the weekend.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=fqc0rxj.1m107xzn&x=0&y=k72sab&localeid=en_US



* My 30th birthday, March 2008
We rented out a house at Lake Arrowhead for my 30th.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=fqc0rxj.2nsyfno3&x=0&y=j6uovx&localeid=en_US



* imedia Agency Summit, Austin, May 2008
I met William Hung. You are jealous.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=fqc0rxj.2jx0z2ab&x=0&y=cq1unv&localeid=en_US


* Renee's 31st (or 13th) birthday, June 2008
i never realized i knew the words to so many bad songs.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=fqc0rxj.41tzvgnn&x=0&y=-l00q74&localeid=en_US


* Ensenada, June 2008.
i heart this photo.


We also went wine tasting at the Valle de Guadalupe near Ensenada... we stopped at (and really liked) the following:

L.A. Cetto
Domecq
Vina de Liceaga

allegedly we can buy L.A. Cetto wine at Trader Joe's and BevMo in San Diego, but I looked at the Trader Joe's in Hillcrest and on Bevmo.com and no dice....

temecula balloon festival, continued

so, i didn't really go into specifics about the balloon ride that brian and i took a few weeks ago. first, i have been wanting to ride on a hot air balloon since i can remember.... when i was in middle school, my parents took brett and i on a family vacation to colorado (driving there from PA, btw), and one of the many things along that trip was a hot air balloon festival in crested butte, CO. it was really awesome, at least for a 13-ish year old. but i'm wondering if my fascination hadn't started then...? not sure. the point is, i've wanted to do this forever.

so when brian and i first met he had mentioned off-handedly that his great uncle ken and aunt ro have a balloon. i of course was not shy in making it known that i wanted to take a ride at some point, but brian seemed a lot less enthusiastic about it. (he's kind of less enthusiastic than me about most things...this is mainly due to the fact that i am overly excited about approximately everything.)

so i finally got my chance--they participate in the temecula balloon & wine festival every year, and brian and i were going to get to ride! the only downer was that we had to be IN temecula at 5 am, and for those non-locals, that's a bit brutal. temecula is 1+ hours away. but it was totally worth it.

we met ken and ro at their hotel and followed them to the balloon site. then we helped set up the balloon, while i snapped a bunch of pictures of neighboring balloons being set up too. the whole thing is actually pretty complicated and takes quite a bit longer than i'd expected. (about one hour to set up and another hour to take down.) but eventually brian, ken and i hopped in the basket and started to take off. it was really amazing. in order for us to go up, ken kind of pulsed the propane torch on and off... so it was very serene when the torch was off, but i was initially a bit freaked by the torch... it was pretty loud and i could feel the heat on my head, since we were standing right below it.

anyway, we floated around for about 1/2 hour or so, and then we were floating toward a lake and ken was afraid we'd get stranded over there, so we came back down. it was a pretty great trip though...

so here are some pics.

temecula wineries + longs tip

so brian and i went up to temecula yesterday for the hot air balloon and wine festival. the best part of the festival was that WE GOT TO RIDE IN A BALLOON! i will write more about that later, once i get some pics uploaded.

anyway, after the balloon and family stuff, brian and i decided to wander around a few wineries on the way home. we stopped at 3. The first was Faulker. I hadn't been there before but felt like it was one of the more famous ones, at least for Temecula. It was fine, but there weren't any wines that we thought were really good and/or worth buying a bottle (seemed overpriced).

The second we went to was Baily. We both really liked this place. We ended up buying a nice Meritage there, and our server (?, bartender? what do we call the wine pourers at the tasting places?) was named Bill. he was really good... gave us a few extra tastes for free and was really cool.

the last place we went to was Hart, which i hadn't heard of at all, but it was along the way. it's right next to Calloway. this place is pretty small and humble. no gift shop and a pretty small and darkish tasting area, but the wine was really good for Temecula wine. i had gone to temecula a few years back and felt like it was all 'eh' whites, and i'm very much a red girl.... but this place had so many good reds as well as a few whites...brian and i couldn't really narrow down what we should buy. the prices were very reasonable as well ($18-$24/bottle). so we bought a few and left happy.

but on the way out we remembered that brian's uncle had told us that he had found some temecula wine at this longs drugs store, and it was even cheaper than the wineries. so we saw the longs and stopped, just for the hell of it. wouldn't you know, most bottles were about $5 less per bottle at longs than they were if you bought direct from the winery. we found all 4 bottles that we'd bought, so that was a bit of a bummer.... but we learned our lesson and hopefully you will too. the only thing is that they didn't carry all wines from all wineries, so you'll still have to buy directly from the wineries in a lot of cases. but we wrote down all of the wineries that they carried for future reference:

* Baily
* Elevation
* Falkner
* Filsinger
* Hart
* La Cereza
* Las Piedras
* Maurice Carrie
* South Coast
* Stuart Cellars
* Thornton
* VR Vineyards
* Wilson Creek

the Longs is HERE (not sure this is applicable at any other Longs).

first post

so, i decided to start this for a few reasons:

1) to help organize my thoughts
2) (and more importantly), to help with staying in touch with my friends and family.

so the good news is that i'm trying!! i have been really bad about staying in touch with people i care a lot about, and my only excuse is that my life is really just too full right now. that's no one's fault but my own and i know that. but things don't happen overnight... so while i'm trying to cut back on work (which is definitely the biggest offender), i also am trying to focus more on several things, including going to the gym more often and keeping in better touch with folks.

anyway, i figured that even if i'm not calling/emailing as often as i should, if i concentrated on posting updates in a central location regarding what's going on with me, at least you'll feel like you're 1/2 in touch with me. :) the other 1/2 is that i still don't know what's going on with you... but it's at least a start.

i welcome comments, photo sharing, etc.!

thanks and i hope you enjoy.

laurel