drink up!

Last weekend, my three official roommates and my one unofficial roommate (aka Allison) went wine tasting in Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez. We arrived in SB Saturday morning and were greeted by our tour guide Matt (who bore a striking resemblance to Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe ... thus we christened him Dirty Matt) from Cloud Climbers Jeep Tours. Throughout the course of the day, we visited four wineries - Kalyra, Curtis, Carina, Lincourt - and drank more than our fair share of wine, and even did some "off-roading" on our way back to the hotel

To be quite honest with you, most of the day was a blur. I do remember it was cold, the jeep was noisy, and my hair was insanely wind-blown. However, I also remember that California is a stunningly beautiful place to live and I am incredibly luck to call it home ... and that I love Diana, Lydia, Joanna, and Allison and can't even begin to explain in words how lucky I am to have them in my life. No amount of wine could ever make me forget that.

stop, drop, roll

The view from our roof deck ... that's not cloud cover, it's a thick layer of smoke. You can see the clear horizon WAY off in the distance.

And that is the sun, with an eerie orange glow.

smoky the bear

In a nutshell, virtually all of southern California is on fire now, which isn't helping me get rid of the cold-cough I've been battling for over a week now. The Santa Ana winds are so strong they toppled over an entire, full-grown tree on campus last night. So that coupled with the hazy orange glow of the sun makes the campus Quad outside my window look like a scene straight out of Apocalypse Now.

of all the places I have ever lived, chico is the only place I have ever felt at home

Last weekend, I went home to Chico for my sister Molly's birthday. I forced my roommate Diana to come along ... because believe it or not, Chico does have a lot to show off. I can't honestly picture myself ever moving back because a) there aren't a ton of jobs in public-sector PR/marketing b) I like "big-city" life too much. But, it's a great town to grow up in and I always enjoy going home.

My favorites ... Maisie Jane's (the Tamari Almonds are the best), Satava Glass Studio, Plutos, 5th Street Steakhouse, Tacos de Acapulco, Bidwell Park, Chico State, and of course ... Sierra Nevada Brewery. That was the first thing we did when we got into town.

(Molly, Lindsay, Diana)

She even tried the beer sampler!

The next morning we got up and took the dogs to the Tree Farm. If you are an outdoor lover and have dogs, Chico is your town. There are so many places for dogs to walk off-leash, the Tree Park being one of them. Here is Mae, with her stick:

Apparently, Mae doesn't realize she is really a black-lab-runt. She carried that stick, er branch, with her throughout the entire morning.

That night we celebrated Molly's birthday at the Madison Bear Garden (the Bear) and Panamas:

Oh ... and Woodstock's too. Diana was excited to see one because she ate there during her undergrad days at UCSB.

Before we had to hop on a plane the next day, we went for a long hike in Upper Bidwell. It was a perfect fall day - clear views with a light breeze. That's what I like about Chico, it has the parties, drinking, shopping, eating, etc ... but drive two minutes away and you are surrounding by beautiful scenery. The perfect end to a perfect visit.

If you haven't visited Chico, it's worth the trip. I'll even be your tour guide :)

watch out ace of cakes!

Diana and I are both quitting our day jobs and opening a bakery.

We made this cheeseburger cake *from scratch* for Molly's birthday last weekend.

How awesome are we???

thailand revisited

Well, I've been back from Thailand almost a month to the day, and am just getting around to posting my pictures. I tried writing a long-post for each destination, but the pictures take up a lot of space and the formatting is off.

Instead, click on the picture of the three of us in front of a temple in Chiang Rai, and you will directed to our online Picasa album. If you have any questions about what's going on in a certain picture, let me know and I'll fill you in!