sailing the bay - day 1

my christmas present from sean last year
was a sailing trip
upon the schooner mary day
it was so much fun
and so relaxing
we started out from camden
a small town along the coast of maine

some friends helped us carry all our luggage

and case of wine
down to the boat

and then we headed out to grab a little dinner
before saying good-bye

and spending the first night
on the ship, in the harbor
getting to know or shipmates

the vacation that wasn't, part ii - the texas hill country

since we weren't headed to st kitts

we found a cute bed and breakfast

that was accepting of duke

in the texas hill country

and we hit the road

and the wineries

we were surprised to find that texas makes some pretty good wines

especially the malbecs

since the climate is so similar to south america that far south in texas

most of the wineries welcomed duke
and if they didn't, we just didn't stay

there were plenty of others that wanted our business

we enjoyed the views while enjoying a bottle or two of wine
and plenty of cheese and crackers

and what trip to the texas hill country would be complete
with stopping off in luckenbach?

selfie september (aka birthday month celebration) - day 11

selfie september (aka birthday month celebration) - day 7

the BIG birthday month celebration - week 3

this birthday month is becoming the most memorable one ever - and not all in a good way!

day 15 - attended a home brew beer tasting to benefit our friend that was injured in an ATV accident

day 16 - took time to blog again!

day 17 - i cannot for the life of me remember what i did - must have been good or relaxing - maybe i just vegged and caught up on trash tv...

day 18 - attended a taping of the local late night talk show - won a new beer glass and a gift card to a local restaurant!  was totally my night!

day 19 - attended a wine tasting and found some new whites i like - who knew i could like white wine?

day 20 - went tent camping with my honey and duke and friends - sat around the campfire, giggling about old days enjoying the crisp fall air and great company

day 21 - went on a 75 mile 4-wheeling trip, enjoying all the fall colors and cool fall temperatures.  the part that was not enjoyable (and i wouldn't recommend as part of a birthday month celebration) was the trip to the er after wrecking the wheeler.  i'm really not sure how i came out of it with nothing broken but i did.  i'm pretty banged up with bruises and whiplash but nothing broken and already on the mend! special thanks to the er nurse that made me feel comfortable while in an area i'm not familiar with and who recognized that our appearance after a day of wheeling isn't what we normally look like!

the BIG birthday month celebration - week 2

the celebration continues
and it just keeps getting better

day 7 - this day was epic!  started out with sean saying my friend wanted to go to breakfast cuz she had to work that afternoon.  we go to the restaurant and there was a whole table of people reading the newspaper.  when they lowered their papers it turned out to be some of my friends from texas.  they had even made up the cutest t-shirts for the occasion!  i was esctatic!!!  after breakfast we headed back to camp for a boat ride.  when we pulled in for a pit stop there were more people reading the newspaper on the dock - that turned out to be some friends from NYC.  we spent more time on the boat and then headed over for a friend's 50th birthday celebration for a couple of minutes.  we headed back to clean up as sean said we were going to buffalo wild wings (it just opened - plus he wanted to see me eat 40 wings) and then out dancing.  our friend showed up in his limo and sean had me put on a blindfold.  i went along with it even though i told him i knew where bww was.  we got out of the limo and i was led to a room where the blindfold was removed to show all my local friends but that wasn't the biggest surprise.  we weren't at bww at all - we were at the lucerne inn for a private wine dinner - of which sean picked the entire menu - complete with a dairy queen ice cream cake for dessert (my fave!!!)!  the meal and the wine were spectacular!  after dinner the limo took us back to camp where a dance party erupted.  there was so much laughing and dancing i didn't want the night to end - and it didn't for quite some time!

day 8 - continued the celebration with all my out of town guests.  the morning was rainy so we slept in, sean made us all breakfast and then went candlepin bowling.  it cleared up that afternoon so we sat on the dock and chatted.  once the sun was behind the trees we took the boat out until the sun was behind too many clouds and we got cold.  we had a lobster boil for supper followed by a bonfire, marshmallow roasting and some star gazing.  the sky cleared up and the stars were just perfect - milky way, shooting stars and all!

day 9 - this is the actual day.  this is the first time in over 10 years i worked on my birthday.  so this is the big birthday month because i've now begun my 4th decade.  this was a recovery day from the weekend festivities!

day 10 - i actually took the time and blogged!

day 11 - went to dinner in chicago with some friends I used to work with - it was great catching up with them!

day 12 - spent the entire afternoon in an airport...not really how i wanted to spend the day so i made it better by hanging in the club room and reading more of the book i'm on now.

day 13 - headed up to norway - that's in maine, btw...to visit some friends and see their new house.  the view is amazing!  we had a nice bbq.  due to the travel issues we were both super tired and didn't stay up very late - plus we wanted to save up some energy for day 14!

day 14 - the friends we were visiting had a pig roast.  we're talking full pig, wrapped in chicken wire, on a pole over an open flame.  it was very tasty and juicy.  turned out to be a very late night but oh so much fun!  this is going to become an annual thing, i'm pretty sure.  depending on how the picture turn out there may be a post with some pictures (there weren't many).

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thank you to everyone that made the surprise birthday weekend such a success.  from our pig roast friends for moving weekends (i told sean it was supposed to be the 7th!) to all the friends that came from out of town (and were able to keep it a secret), to our neighbors for lending us one of their cottages for our guests to the wine store guy for picking great wines and teaching us about them to the lucern inn for such an amazing meal and venue to our friend that has the limo (just for fun) for driving us to all the local friends that came out.  last and definitely not least, to my husband for finally making up for ignoring my birthday the first year we were married.  i can't believe he was able to keep it a secret (even though i was secretly hoping some of my out of town friends would show!) and everything went without a hitch.  he picked a great menu and nudged me in the right direction for picking what i wanted to do for the weekend HA!

anniversary wine dinner

we made it!
4 whole years!
i think that means we're on our way to a lifetime!
we celebrated this year by hosting a second annual wine dinner with our maine friends

i planned (thanks julia for the ideas) and cooked the meal
we had a wine guy pair the wines with the menu

no, those are not tomatoes...

i didn't get a picture of the main course
we wanted to have it on the dock but mother nature didn't cooperate
so thanks to some very kind neighbors we had it in one of their cabins
while i was busy photo bombing

sean was in contemplation
i'm sure it was about trying to figure out how lucky he is to have me  ;)

i'm already ready to plan next years dinner - with a beer option...

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thanks to amy d for taking pictures or allowing someone else to take pictures with her camera

our summah - via iphone

well, it's been awhile since i've shared what's been going on with us
we've been having tons of fun with house full of visitors
here's a sneak peek via iphone pics
once i get around to dealing with the pictures on my real camera i'll show more of the fun!

it's been a...
farm sharing

duke wheelin'

lazy dazing

picnicin'

wine drinkin'

site seein'

jail breakin'

lobstah eatin'

sunset gazing

food stealin'

new thing tryin'

quality time-in'

late night fun-in'

girl time-in'

perfect weather enjoyin'

howlin' good time!

how has your summah been???

birthday month celebration part tres

so my self-absorbed birthday month celebration continues
i guess that's a benefit of not having kids
i can be totally self-absorbed
so here's what i've done in celebration this past week

day 15: read a book - book 2 and 3 of The Hunger Games series
day 16: finished the series and watched TV - total veg
day 17: went to see The Last Gas at the local theatre (don't bother...)
day 18: went apple picking (yea!)
day 19: spent quality time with my honey, just the two of us, talking about anything not work related
day 20: baked some paper bag apple pies which i shared with our neighbor
day 21: had drinks with Survivor Bob

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One day watching Food Network, I saw them bake an apple pie in a brown paper bag - you know, the kind you used to get from the grocery store.  Something about it cooking more evenly and coming out beautifully golden brown.  I'm a sucker for a good cooking trick technique and have been wanting to try it ever since.  Since we had just been apple picking, and I LOVE apple pie, I decided now was as good a time as any to try it out.  I hit the store and got all the ingredients I needed, mixed everything up and assembled the pie.  I got ready to add my pie to the paper bag when something hit me.  Then I proceeded to have a conversation with my honey that went something like this...

Me:  Sean, do you have any issues with me putting a paper bag in the oven?
Sean:  Tonya, let me ask you one question - what do we start the bonfires with?
Me:  newspaper?  *smirk on my face*
Sean:  and???  we have a gas stove...if you sit right here and watch it the whole time with a fire extinguisher next to you....
Me:  It says I can use parchment paper instead but we don't have any.
Sean:  I guess use the bag...on second thought why don't you call Alicia and see if she has some parchment paper - whatever that is.

BTW...Camp didn't burn down and it made for a very tasty pie (the recipe is linked above)!

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Who is Survivor Bob, you ask?  It's actually a very funny story.  That was not at all the plan when we left the house.  There's a local late night show that airs each Saturday night.  I've never seen it, as we don't get local channels, but I knew when they were taping the show and thought it would be so fun to see them tape.  I had been to see David Letterman before, so this was the next logical step in my late night show watching.  Anyone can go to the taping for a donation.  I was so psyched and finally had convinced Sean to muster up the energy to leave the house and go with me.  So we pulled up, ton of cars everywhere, and walk in.  "We're here for the show."  "Well, it's in the back.  Feel free to go back there but they're just wrapping up."  Yes, you read that right, we showed up when they were done. HA!  Apparently I read the flier wrong and missed the little 6 at the front indicating the start time and read it as starting at 9:00 pm.

In my whiniest voice I exclaimed "What are we going to do now?  I saved up today's birthday month celebration activity for the show.  We HAVE to do SOMETHING."  Being the loving husband he is, and continuing to put up with my celebrating, suggested we go to our wedding reception location and have a glass of wine.  We walked in the door with a group of three other people (who we also saw leaving the late night show taping when we were trying to show up), holding the door for one another, making a funny about who does that anymore.  We settled in at the bar and waited quite some time for the bartender to arrive and take our order.  No one came to take the order for the other group that came in with us so they got restless and moved to the bar next to us.

It was a tall, lean man in a bow tie and another man and woman.  They immediately introduced themselves and we began chatting it up.  Bow tie man was introduced as "Survivor Bob", which meant nothing to Sean or me as we don't watch much TV (Sean HATES reality TV).  Come to find out he was the winner of season 17 and was one of the interviewees on the late night show we tried to go see. He was so charming to talk to and had such great stories about the whole experience.  He even showed us how he started the fire that helped him win - literally.  Come to find out, he also won 'fan favorite' that year and I can definitely see why - SO personable and such a story-teller.  So we sat, exchanging stories until they kicked us out because they were trying to close up shop.

...and that, my friends, is how I came to have drinks with Survivor Bob!

birthday month celebration part II

i think i may have worn out the hubs already on the birthday month thing
he skipped town on me
claimed it was a work thing
so i've been forced to come up with fun and exciting things to do on my own
including the actual day of my birth
how dare he
at least duke still likes celebrating with me
so here's all the fun i had for the 2nd week of the celebration

day 8: wine dinner at lucerne inn with a friend (if you live near or ever visit near lucerne inn you must do so during a wine dinner - ah-mazing!)
day 9: no work!  took duke hiking and for a picnic at the city forest - who knew there was even such a thing???  more to come on that
day 10: pedicure day!
day 11: gardening day - LOVE gardening and haven't taken the time to do any this year with all the visitors and all
day 12: devoted the night to my photography class
day 13: movie night - just laid around and watched movies all night
day 14: blogging night!  been neglecting my blogging lately and devoting the entire night to it

a san francisco treat

There's a great little city that I recently got to visit for work on the opposite side of the country.

From Maine, it takes nearly an entire day to get there, but once you're there, there's so much great stuff to do.  You can wait in the hour long line to take the $5, one way, ride on the trolley.  I so wanted to ride it like the safety sign guy going around the corners!  Wheeeeeee!!!

You HAVE to stop at the Ghiradelli store and get your free - yes FREE - piece of chocolate.  We all wondered how many times we could go through before they caught on.

You can watch a little baseball that lasts until after midnight - PACIFIC - but don't worry, you can always cut out a little early - which you'll need to if your body is used to the eastern time zone!  Be sure to get the garlic fries while you're there though.

You can enjoy a glass of wine with your favorite work peeps.

You can walk up a million stairs to see a lit up tower thingy.  If it's after work, make sure you take one of said favorite work peeps with you to carry your computer bag (thanks Kael!).  Since you'll probably be sucking wind during the hike, take a break and peek at all the great houses tucked back in those stairs.

You can also take a ride in the Mr Toad's Tours old-time car - highly recommend!

However, when it's time to make the long trek back to the east coast do not take the red-eye home unless you get upgraded or want to be out of it for a few days.

What's your favorite thing to do in San Francisco?