Last night, I saw a band called The In Between perform on the Duke Fightmaster Show. They did a really good interview and their music makes me think of Led Zeppelin.
They’re playing at OC Tavern tonight and The Coach House (at a benefit for Friendship House) tomorrow night. If you’re in the area, you should check them out.
The last time I went to OC Tavern, my friends and I decided to play pool. We enter the pool room, where one table is being used by twelve-year-olds (OC Tavern offers family dining) and the other table by adults. My friend goes and puts our quarters on the twelve-year-olds’ table and when he comes back to me, I say, “What are you doing? Why don’t you put the quarters on the other table?” and he looks at me like I’m the idiot and says, “Because we’ll totally beat those kids.” Rather than accept our challenge, the kids just left the table when their game was up. And now you know: I bully kids out of their pool table.
So if you see me at the show, feel free to buy me a drink. And, I don’t know, maybe later, we can go play some pool.
Husband and I belong to the Justin Wine Society, which offers patrons access to a wine tasting building where we can also peruse the cellar. Here’s me, in Happy Happy Land:
Coincidentally, I am wearing the same T-shirt I wore just a few weeks ago in a different post. It says Rogue, as in Rogue beer (holla holla Tricia and Pete), which essentially means I wore a beer shirt to a winery. I was also the designated driver, so I wasn’t drinking at all, which means I was the rogue non-drinker amongst a herd of winos. I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried.
This was one of the places recommended to us by Jennifer at Tolo Cellars as being family friendly. We knew she hadn’t led us astray when we spotted a sign that said Family Farm. They had chickens and a goat and dogs lounging about, and plenty of yard area for running amok. In addition to being laid back and family friendly, Pipestone is environmentally friendly as well. Co-owner Jeff Pipes was manning the tasting bar and we learned the vineyard is organic and 100 percent solar powered. With a tasty Grenache to boot. Great place that I’ll definitely return to, if at all else because The Boy really liked the self-guided vineyard tour:
A mere 5-6 hour drive, depending on how many times you hear the phrase “I have to go pee!”, we arrived in Paso Robles a group of 5 adults and 4 kids under the age of 6. Our first stop was a restaurant where we scared away all the people sitting around us, knocked over two bottles of root beer, and made the tallest pile ever of trivial pursuit cards. After such an eventful meal, wineries were the clear choice for next stop.
Wild Coyote
Wild Coyote is run by Gianni Manucci and his family. The winery is situated at a high elevation, making for beautiful 360 degree views. The family embraces their Native American heritage with wines named like Black Elk (Merlot) and Dream Catcher (Late Harvest Syrah – tasty!) and they just opened up a sweat lodge for the daring spirit seekers.
The tasting room for Wild Coyote opens up to a beautiful fountain and seating area, where the kids romped around while the adults watched from the comfort of the tasting room. And for anyone wondering how the winery might feel about that, Gianni himself was manning the tasting bar and showed us pictures of his own three kids, and said they loved the fountain too.
Tolo Cellars
Tolo is another small winery, nestled in amongst walnut trees and a haven to deer and lizards. They have a grassy area in front of the tasty room, which is an old house with a red brick wall and an old fashioned white and chrome stove. Again, the kids were able to frolic outside while the adults watched from the comfort of the tasting room and amused themselves with the tasting notes. (From their 2004 Asini tasting notes: “Has the Good Humor man rolled through the ‘hood passing out little tabs of psychedelic flavor? Our minds are blown away. Lush on the palate, the wine has miles to go before it sleeps, with cherry liqueur, cinnamon and dried sage taking our senses on a magic carpet ride.”) The woman manning the tasting bar, Jennifer, was friendly and chatty, telling us about her own two kids and how she took her daughter and her friends to see High School Musical 3, leading me to confess that I enjoyed watching the trials and tribulations of Troy and Gabriella. Jennifer gave us tips on other wineries where kids can play. We hope to get to them today.
This past Saturday, the family participated in a beach clean up:
Prudential California Realty was sponsoring events up and down the California coast and we attended the one at Doheny Beach. It was exciting for the kids to learn about keeping our ocean and our water clean, despite that feeling of despair that can creep in when you realize how much there is to clean up, kind of like the feeling of looking at your dirty house two hours before guests are coming over and thinking I am never going to get this all clean (only instead of just your kitchen, it’s the whole ocean).
The Surfrider Foundation addressed the group and stressed the importance of picking through the seaweed for all the little bits of garbage that get stuck in the seaweed. When the tide comes in and takes the seaweed back into the water, these little bits dislodge and fish mistake it for food.
For example, take this pile of seaweed right here:
This is one handful of what I found in it:
A used Band-Aid, fishing wire, and Styrofoam (you can see more fishing wire tangled up on the ground).
My family spent our clean up time going through these piles of seaweed. It was a way of teaching the kids that everything matters, that something as unnoticeable as a speck of Styrofoam was still worth picking up and disposing of properly. The Boy’s catchphrase of the clean-up was “Can the fish choke on this?” and if the answer was yes, we put it in the bag.
When we returned to the starting point and added our bag of garbage to the pile in the dumpster, people were comparing the crazy pieces of garbage they found:
A suitcase
Fencing? Lobster cage?
We had nothing large to show, only a bag of bits and pieces, of the ignored bits of pollution that float in and out of our ocean every day because “such a little thing surely couldn’t matter.” But put a couple hundred little things together, like there were in my garbage bag, and you’ll see how quickly little pollution adds up to big pollution.
Keep this clean, won’t you?
Anyone interested in ocean conservation should check out the Surfrider Foundation.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month which for Artistic Hair in Orange, CA means it’s time for their annual fund raiser. They offer wash-and-cut hair cuts for $15 a pop with ALL the money, even tips, going to breast cancer research. The Boy enjoyed the hair washing and Little No Limit appeared quite smug with her snazzy sea-themed cape:
While I was with the stylist, I asked her why they do the fund raiser and learned that the salon had lost of their employees to breast cancer several years ago. In the middle of my hair cut, an older woman patted my stylist on the shoulder and said good-bye. The woman looked pleased, but tired. She made quick small talk with my stylist, hugged her, and left. When the stylist returned to my hair, she mentioned that the woman was the mother of the aforementioned employee. It struck right then, how it might feel to lose my own daughter, how it would feel to walk into my daughter’s former place of employment, where, years after her death, they continue to celebrate the life that she had, and support the possibilities for other women like her to continue theirs.
Everybody has their cancer story, whether a personal battle or that of a friend or that of a friend’s friend. There is something very communal about the battle with cancer. Everyone gets involved.
I haven’t really done much for breast cancer awareness month. I’d been wanting to write this post all month, with a list of things one could do to foster awareness, support causes for the cure. There is, of course, the obvious option of making a monetary donation. But with the economy as it is, everyone has pretty light wallets right now. There’s the click to give free mammograms site. It must be doing pretty well because the last few times I tried to click on it, the site was too busy for me to get through. There are scads of breast cancer products, like Kitchen Aid’s Cook for the Cure line (if you choose to buy make-up whose proceeds benefit breast cancer, make sure you’re buying safe make-up). There are walking/running fundraisers.
As for me, I made a donation. And when I attended the Artistic Hair fund raiser, I got more than a little hair trim. It was more to the tune of 14 inches.
Locks of Love is not a breast cancer-specific organization, but what it does is provide real hair wigs to children who have lost their hair from a long-term medical issue.
I showed up at Artistic Hair, ready to part with my locks. This probably doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but the truth is, I’m rather fond of my long hair. I’m much more obliging with my money and time, but my hair? Tell me, though, can you really look at these pictures and think to yourself, nah, I’d rather keep my hair? I couldn’t.
That first basket is one of the most interesting gourds I have ever seen. They’re called Autumn Wings, and they are bumpy and swan-shaped and all sorts of entertainment for kids. Tanaka Farms sells them 3 for $4. I wish I’d bought more of them.
A visit to another pumpkin patch, this time at Zoomars petting zoo. They had a hay bale maze and several heirloom varieties, and who can say no to a cat cutout photo op? Certainly not Little No Limit.
Welcome to Pumpkin City at Laguna Hills Mall, where the straw on the ground really does have the effect of making you forget you’re in the parking lot next to Sears.
This place is like a carnival, complete with rides that have little in common with pumpkins:
Pumpkins + Boat Ride = Wha…?
A John Deer track that at least kept with a rural theme:
“I don’t time have to smile. Can’t you see I’m looking cool on my sweet ride?”
And the kid-friendly, Riley-abused bounce house:
“I don’t have time to smile. Can’t you see I’ve reached the top of the ladder and it’s my turn to SLIDE?!”
I left that day with no pumpkin, considerably less money, and blue raspberry sno-cone stains to clean out of child-size T-shirts. But, oh, how happy they were. The things parents do…
I attended my very first NHL game last night, the Anaheim Ducks vs. the San Jose Sharks. We had seats close enough to see the players’ faces get smashed against the plexi-glass (though, sadly, I never caught it on film).
I’m embarrassed to admit I never quite realized how violent hockey truly is. Yes, I’ve heard all the jokes, but really, I can’t believe that the refs just stand around and let the players duke it out. I saw more live fights in this one game than I have seen in the rest of my life combined.
Needless to say, I told Husband we should buy season passes.
There is a wonderful adrenaline rush that accompanies attendance at a hockey game. For those with aggression issues, hockey is a considerable outlet, because this is essentially what it’s like to go to a hockey game:
1. Sit down, make yourself comfy.
2. There’s a face against the glass! Cheer!
3. There’s a fight! Cheer louder!
4. Score! Cheer! (but not as loud as you would for a fight)
5. There’s a fight! Cheer some more!
6. Beer refill!
7. There’s a fight! Throw your own fist in the air!
8. Pee break!
9. There’s a fight! Shout out “This is awesome!”
10. The barely legal girls clean the ice in their revealing outfits! Wonder why this is necessary.
11. There’s another fight! Yeah!
12. More beer!
13. There’s a fight! Cheer until your voice goes hoarse!
Seriously, there’s something wrong with hockey players’ medulla oblongatas.
(The only picture of a fight that I caught on film can be seen in this post.)
